CONSECRATION OF A TREE: THE TAN KAH TEE MEMORIAL EUCALYPTUS @ ESPLANADE

It threatened to rain heavily on this Wednesday afternoon (17 June 2026), but it turned out to be a light drizzle. Such that a small group of friends were present to witness the consecration of a tree in Esplanade's garden by the bridges. A eucalyptus tree had been named in memory of one of Singapore's most generous musical philanthropists, Mr Tan Kah Tee, who left this world in late December last year.

His widow, Mrs Catherine Tan, thanked all present for braving the weather to come out in friendship and camaraderie to see a plaque attached to one of Esplanade garden's graceful eucalyptus trees. She praised the tree for its strength and resilience, and ability to put up with the harshest environments known to man, also likened to Mr Tan's tenacious struggle against his terminal illness. He fought a good fight, and the tree will carry on the battle. 

Weihe des Baum
(Consecration of the Tree)
after Beethoven.
Mr Tan would have appreciated that.

Several trees are still available to be dedicated and consecrated, and enquiries can be made with Esplanade's development team. After a short and informal ceremony, all present adjourned for dinner in Esplanade's Straits Chinese Restaurant, photos of which will be posted later.

 

SUKA MAKAN: HOUSE OF WHITE BEE HOON @ PUNGGOL SETTLEMENT

It's a long distance to travel from Bukit Timah to Punggol, and if it has to be about food, it had better be good! Fortunately, one of the few restaurants open on a Sunday lunchtime at a rather sedate Punggol Settlement overlooking the Straits of Johore was House of White Bee Hoon. 

What's the big deal about white bee hoon anyway? The secret is in the stock which is usually cooked with scrambled egg, spiced with seafood, usually prawns and clams. The bee hoon (rice vermicelli) is white but the stock is yellow and that is what makes it flavoursome.

White in yellow eggy goodness.

This restaurant also has zichar and seafood to add to the noodles, and that made this meal with the Gouws all the more memorable. By 1 pm, almost all the tables were filled which is a testament to the restaurant's popularity. All of us agreed that the dishes were tasty, and a return to this outlet was something to look forward to.

Steamed prawns

Sauteed vegetables - string beans,
brinjal, lady's fingers and petai.

Stir-fried beef

Prawn paste chicken
(har cheong gai)

Steamed sea bass in soy sauce

An icy dessert to wash it all down.

Post-meal ice popsicles - for free.
Let the lick sabre battle begin!

HOUSE OF WHITE BEE HOON

The Punggol Settlement

500 New Punggol Road, #01-10

Singapore 828617

Tel: 6746-9000

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SSO'S FORGOTTEN RECORDINGS: RICHARD STRAUSS AN ALPINE SYMPHONY (1993)

 

Despite not having authorised it,
Choo Hoey still signed my copy anyway. Mensch.

RICHARD STRAUSS An Alpine Symphony

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Choo Hoey (Conductor)

DW Labs DW-1003

Singapore Symphony Orchestra under music director Choo Hoey gave the Singapore premiere of Richard Strauss’ Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony) in late 1993. It was by most accounts a successful concert, which had Liszt’s First Piano Concerto (with Jean-Philippe Collard as soloist) as coupling. Then sometime in 1994, this CD recording appeared on the DW Labs label and sold in local record shops.

The countenance of this album is somewhat mysterious. DW Labs is ostensibly the label of prominent local audiophile-entrepreneur Donald Wong of Ultralinear International Pte Ltd, a distributor of high-end audio equipment located at Adelphi Shopping Centre. Apparently, he had recording equipment in Victoria Concert Hall where this recording was made.

By this time, SSO had discontinued its relationship with Hong Kong’s Marco Polo Records which had produced all of its early recordings. Its last commercial recording had been the Shostakovich Tenth Symphony, a once-off with the Philips label in 1989. Thus, this album of very ambitious orchestral repertoire (the orchestra had recently also premiered Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Mahler’s Ninth Symphony) was a welcome sign that SSO was making recordings again. Or so I thought.

Imagine the shock when I approached Choo Hoey to autograph his latest CD, to find out that he had never sanctioned or permitted its release! Even he wondered how this recording was made under the orchestra’s collective noses. Listening to it after all these years, I can understand his chagrin. This was a live recording with neither recourse for retakes nor editing of any sort, at least not under his supervision.

A publicity poster,
presumably by the record label,
since SSO's logo is not on it.

“A high definition phase-coherent digital recording” was a selling point, clearly aimed at the audiophile. This recording has a very wide dynamic range, requiring one to dial up the volume several notches in order to catch the orchestra’s evocation of night and sunrise, and when Helios is up and the mountaineers begin their climb, the sound is almost deafening. 

The orchestra’s limitations, in instrumental solos and ensemble work, are also exposed for all to hear. Although the players put in a good shift, especially the overworked brass, the overall outcome was not the most flattering. The transitions between quieter episodes leading to full-blown climaxes (and there are several) were particularly vulnerable, not helped by the relative lack of reverberation. Some of the fluffs are also hard to ignore. Best not to be heard through headphones.

Nevertheless, this was still an interesting record and benchmark of what standards the SSO had achieved within its short fourteen years. Ironically, this was to be Choo Hoey’s last recording with the SSO, with his impending retirement only two years in the future. His position would go the Lan Shui in 1997, with his BIS label contract that would later redefine SSO’s recorded legacy.

BEGINNINGS AND BRILLIANCE / ANNA GENIUSHENE Piano Recital / Review

 

BEGINNINGS AND BRILLIANCE

ANNA GENIUSHENE Piano Recital

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday 14 June 2026

An edited version of this review was first published in Bachtrack.com on 15 June 2026 with the title "Anna Geniushene impresses Singapore audience with early Chopin and Brahms"

In 2022, Russian pianist Anna Geniushene was awarded the Silver Medal at the 16th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, second only to the prodigious 18-year-old Korean Yunchan Lim who attained overnight viral fame. Geniushene was 31 at the time and already a mature artist. Having heard both pianists in concert, one senses that Lim is still finding himself in the inevitable slew of concert and recording engagements, while Geniushene - with a steady career and family life - already knows exactly what she is all about.

Her second piano recital in Singapore (the previous in October 2023) was centred on early opuses and less-programmed pieces by Chopin and Brahms. Opening with Chopin’s Rondo in C minor (Op.1), a work of a 14-year-old, all the musical influences were on display – Mozart’s humour, Weber’s filigree and a love for bel canto. Its second subject in E major was where Geniushene stood out, with her phrasing and singing lines, amid the requisite prestidigitation and calisthenics. This was not some exercise to be whipped off in a showy display, but something far deeper.

Moving to mature Chopin, the three Mazurkas of Op.50 showed keen identification with the Polish dance idiom, with generous helpings of rubato along the way. The three Waltzes from Op.34 carry the adjective brillante, but this applied to the first and third dances, delivered with ebullience and vertiginous flourish. That left the central A minor, taken at a glacial pace as to induce somnolence and strain credulity. These extremes in dynamics carried into Ballade No.2 in F major (Op.38), where gentle sicilienne-rhythm meets headlong with violence. These stark contrasts made the tumultuous coda all the more exciting. The Tarantella in A flat major (Op.43) closed the first half with rumbling athleticism, without the twinkle-toe lightness or inner voices of Arrau or Cherkassky.

Geniushene was even more convincing in the music of Brahms. Jokes and punchlines of the early Scherzo in E flat minor (Op.4) were delivered with much immediacy, manifested in abrupt and clipped phrases, answered by hectoring octaves of authority. Those familiar with Hong Kong movies will recognise this as music that accompanied the Classification III (Adults only) comedy Vulgaria from 2012. Don’t ask. To assuage the final deluge of notes to come, Alfred Cortot’s tender transcription of the familiar Wiegenlied (Lullaby, Op.49 No.4) was most lovingly delivered, as only a mother (or father) of two could.

Brahms’ Sonata No.1 in C major (Op.1) was the ambitious outpourings of a 20-year-old. Its opening salvoes of big chords recalled Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata and Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy. Geniushene has the physical heft, mental endurance and innate musicality to do justice to this overwrought music, and scarcely missing a note while at it. The slow song-like second movement, most sensitively voiced, provided much-needed respite before the unrelenting onslaught of the final two movements. The tempo was upped to terminal velocity and volume, a wonder how an instrument could withstand such pummelling. Victoria Concert Hall’s Steinway D more than did so, and it was in its direction that Geniushene gave her first bow, before acknowledging audience applause.

Her encore of Leonid Desyatnikov’s silky Waltz in Honour of Charles Dickens was class and sophistication, while Shostakovich’s Polka from The Age of Gold, pure farce. She referenced an ongoing football tournament, held in a crooked capitalist state with corrupt and cowardly politicians. Sounds familiar, anybody?

Star Rating: ****

Anna Geniushene was presented by Altenburg Arts.

Professional photography by Ung Ruey Loon

Some concert-goers
always come prepared!

The edited review on Bachtrack.com 

can be found here:

Anna Geniushene impresses Singapore in early Chopin and Brahms | Bachtrack

POST-CONCERT EATS: HONG KONG DIM SUM SHOP @ FORTUNE CENTRE (NEAR OBJECTIFS & NAFA)

I've attended a concert at Objectifs on Middle Road and am peckish for dinner or supper. So where do I go? The lower floors of Fortune Centre are packed with eateries, but not all of them open till late. Then I spy a dim sum place, with the name Hong Kong sounding tantalising, especially of fond memories having late meals at the SAR's cha chaan tengs. Why not give this outlet a try, since it opens late till 11.30pm?

Its small and a little cramped, but there is space for an actual booth, the sort you regularly encounter in Hong Kong coffee shops. For a moment, I'm imagining myself in Yau Ma Tei or Jordan after a Joy of Music Festival concert. 

I've got a booth of my own,
with a view of Hong Kong (sort of)!

I order from a menu by ticking off the dim sum items, and I've opted for a porridge, a small tray of dumplings and an iced lemon tea - very typically Hong Kong fare. I'm hungry, so I don't mind if it's a little more expensive than on Nathan Road, or Five Star HK Dim Sum for that matter. 

Classic HK iced lemon tea,
with three lemon slices and very sweet!

This chook has century egg,
mushroom and chicken, all my favourites.

Crystal dumplings, not bad!

The taste is more than acceptable and the service quite good. At least the server does not cuss in Cantonese but speaks Mandarin instead, and is even quite pleasant. The crowd gradually clears, and only two tables are occupied. I go home quite satisfied. 

Friendly visitors from Philippines.
At least, they looked happy.

Later, I found out that I've just eaten at Singapore's lowest-rated dim sum place! The internet reviews were downright awful. Was it that bad? In a word, no. It's nowhere near the very good ones, and I've gotten far worse in Hong Kong. Will I come back? Perhaps, but there are a lot of other places to try out.  

HONG KONG DIM SUM SHOP

190 Middle Road, #01-06

Fortune Centre

Singapore 188979