NATIONAL DAY CONCERT 2026
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Saturday (15 August 2026)
FROM MY LIFE
Lynnette Seah (Violin) & Friends
Esplanade Recital Studio
Wednesday (19 August 2026)
This review was published by The Straits Times on 20 August 2026 with the title "Home-grown talent command stage at SSO National Day Concert & Lynnette Seah solo".
Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s annual National Day Concert has over the years become a true showcase of Singaporean composing talent. Led by Lien Boon Hua, its latest edition included five world premieres in an exceptionally well-balanced programme of original music
Low Peng Guan’s A Singapore Suite opened the show, a short overture taking listeners on a musical tour of Gardens By The Bay, Chinatown, Little India and Singapore River, skillfully blending orchestral colour and imagery with ethnic musical styles.
Sulwyn Lok’s Three Dancers, a double concerto for guitar and zhongruan, united Kevin Loh and Jonathan Ngeow from different musical traditions in a happy marriage of plucked strings. Both soloists traded solo and accompaniment roles in a virtuosic work that contrasted meditative movements with throes of ecstasy.
Wong Cheow Cai’s The Plains: Echoes, celebrating the Padang’s legacy, struck more serious notes with stirring string-writing, punctuated by percussion and Pan Yun’s plaintive oboe solo. Eruption of tense music, depicting cruel years of Japanese Occupation, eventually gave way to a calm but guarded close, with Singapore’s realisation of independence.
Kelly Tang’s Three Symphonic Movements retold different periods of Singapore history with projected images from the National Archives. A busy freeport established by Stamford Raffles was edgily described in Colony, while an idyllic Legend spun apocryphal stories of Sang Nila Utama and the founding of Temasek. Finally, a vibrant Metropolis closed the suite on an optimistic high.
Cultural Medallion recipient Edwin Thumboo’s poem Renovation was the inspiration for Germaine Goh’s Five Beginnings, its verses sung by singer-songwriter Linying with a vocoder, which augmented lines with added harmonies. This beautifully euphonious mini cantata deserves many listens.
The evening closed with The Republic, melodious finale from Singapore – Symphonic Suite by Tsao Chieh (1953-1996), late composer, engineer, defence scientist and local Internet pioneer. His clever polyphonic working of Xiao Bai Chuan, Rasa Sayang and the appearance of Majulah Singapura at its close still raises goosebumps like its 1986 Singapore Arts Festival premiere.
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| A performance of the National Anthem. |
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| Photographic evidence I was at the concert. |
Speaking of national treasures, Cultural Medallion recipient Lynnette Seah gave her first solo concert since retiring as SSO co-leader seven years ago. In a very demanding programme of classical and jazz works, she showed the chops that defined her illustrious career of four decades.
In Cesar Franck’s Violin Sonata in A major, a sweet but resolute tone held sway, alternating lyricism with passion through its four movements. The finale’s canon has one of classical music’s best melodies, milked for all its worth with pianist Albert Tiu who had the more technically difficult part.
They were joined by SSO principal horn Austin Larson for a second performance of Johannes Brahms’ Horn Trio in E flat major (Op.40) heard in Singapore within eleven days. Larson reprised his virtuoso role with absolute aplomb, and the very busy threesome showed what give-and-take in chamber music was about.
The other classical works, also accompanied by Tiu, included Joachim Raff’s heartrending Cavatina and the premiere of young local composer Ong Lin Wei’s With Love, a melodious outpouring with a gospel vibe about it.
Jazz legend Jeremy Monteiro took over the keyboard for the rest of the show. Jazz singer Alemay Fernandez alternated melodies with Seah in Germaine Goh’s arrangement of Irish tune Londonderry Air (Danny Boy). SSO principal cellist Ng Pei-Sian and drummer Hong Chanutr Techatananan made a foursome for Monteiro’s romantic Soul Mates and virile train piece From Paris to Segré.
That the Who’s Who of Singapore’s classical and jazz spheres all joined hands in tribute to Lynnette Seah speaks volumes of their great esteem for her.
