A MAHLER CONCERT NOT TO MISS: OMM PLAYS MAHLER 7 / QIN LI-WEI PLAYS SHOSTAKOVICH on 29 May 2026

There's still time. A rare opportunity to hear Gustav Mahler's Seventh Symphony. Even the SSO does not play it often. The Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM) led by French conductor Alexander Bloch lifts the roof off Esplanade with the orchestra's first performance of Mahler 7, widely regarded as his most problematic symphony. Why? It has five movements, two long outer movements sandwiching two nocturnes (Nachtmusik) and a demonic scherzo, a strange juxtaposition. It is sometimes called Song of the Night, not Mahler's description.

I had a rare opportunity to attend the dress rehearsal, and if anything is an indication, it's going to be a superb and memorable evening. Not just for the serious music, but to feel the passion of all the performers on stage. 

The concert opens with Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto with Qin Li-Wei as soloist, who will give a truly sizzling performance. The Mahler, although complex and convoluted, gets a performance that is clear-headed, vigorous in spirit yet filled with many moments of aural sensuousness. "The symphony is like a world. It must have everything," so said Mahler himself. Here are the photos. 

The Bells, not by Rachmaninoff but Mahler!

QIN LI-WEI PLAYS 

SHOSTAKOVICH. MAHLER 7

Friday 29 May 2026

Esplanade Concert Hall, 7.30 pm

Get your tickets ($18-48) here:

Qin Li-Wei Plays Shostakovich • Mahler 7

SG Culture Pass credits accepted!

WHAT IS TASTE by WU MALI @ Esplanade's Jendela Gallery

Here is another art exhibit and installation about food. What is Taste is a memory project by Taiwanese artist Wu Mali which deals with what food means to us, and the memories - good and bad (mostly good) - which are associated with it. What were our comfort foods when we were growing up? What do memories of these culinary items engender in our sensibilities, or say about us as consumers?

Her project includes short films about life, food and cooking on Cijin island, off the coast of port city Kaohsiung in the south of Taiwan. Accompanying it are written and visual responses by people from all around the world, mostly children. It was interesting to see their responses, and the various reactions they bring about. There were touching ones, as well as a silly one. As they say, it takes all kinds.

This exhibit runs till 10 August 2026.

What is Taste - Esplanade

FROM NAPLES TO PARIS: A BAROQUE JOURNEY / Hyunkun Cho & Gerald Lim / Review

 

FROM NAPLES TO PARIS:

A BAROQUE JOURNEY

Hyunkun Cho, Cello

Gerald Lim, Harpsichord

Chamber @ The Arts House

Wednesday (27 May 2026)

Authentic concerts of baroque music in Singapore are rare enough (we have to thank Red Dot Baroque for the precious few) but a baroque cello recital is unprecedented. Almost every single serious professional cellist in Singapore was present at the recital by Korean-Spanish cellist Hyunkun Cho and Singaporean harpsichordist Gerald Lim. For almost 90 minutes, they sat transfixed by the sheer artistry on display.

The matinee opened on solo harpsichord with Corrienta Italiana by Valencia-native Juan Cabanilles (1644-1712), a short series of variations on a dance theme. The title shares the same root word as the fast courante baroque dance (corrente), which opened in moderate tempo and later upped in speed, before long Cho moved almost imperceptibly to his cello.

The Sonata in G minor by Domenico Gabrielli (1651-1690) came attacca, and the singing began. Not to be mistaken for the much older Venetian composer Giovanni Gabrieli, Gabrielli from Bologna is credited for raising the cello from that of an accompanying (basso continuo) instrument to one of a leading virtuoso role. His sonatas were thus the first proper cello sonatas, vehicles of musical expression which Cho exploited to the full.

The four movements heard, were in the sonata da chiesa form, alternating between slow and fast. Cho’s gut strings were mellow yet resonant, allied by impeccable intonation, pure pleasure to listen to. The slow movements were contemplative, preludes leading to the allegros that came, the last being a very jolly jig (gigue) marked Prestissimo.

Giovanni Baptista Pergolesi (1710-1736) was all too short-lived, but his Stabat Mater from his final year was a classic. Several themes would be heard in his Sinfonia in F major, another four-movement sonata da chiesa masterwork. If the Presto finale sounded familiar, this was because Stravinsky gave it new life for trombone and double bass in the comedic Duetto from his ballet Pulcinella.

Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Barriere (1707-1747) was another of the cello greats, at the period of time when viola da gambas were predominant. His Sonata No.6 (from Book Two) in C minor opens with much sombreness and gravity, perfectly captured by Cho, contrasted with the virtuosic swiftness and repeated notes of the consequent Allegro. A touching Larghetto was completed by another jig (Giga), another jolly one at that.

A keyboard interlude was provided by the excellent Lim in the form of La Morangis ou La Plissay by Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Forqueray (1699-1782), its unusual title not being a designated form but named after a patron he was courting. The actual form was a chaconne with a series of virtuoso variations that were perfectly whipped off.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), of Four Seasons infamy, was the only known name for most (excepting the baroquists and specialists) in the audience, yet his Sonata in A minor (RV 44) would still be unfamiliar. One might already be accustomed to the four-movement sonata da chiesa form that is the recurrent feature of this concert, but why stop there? Especially when the music is so inviting? The contrasts between moods were also palpable here, from sadness to exhilaration.

Giacomo Facco (1676-1753), born in Italy but later moved to Spain, is likely the most unknown composer on show. Yet his Sinfonia No.9 in A minor deserves to be aired, its four movements encompassing a warmth and richness of both Mediterranean lands. Cho and Lim are a well-balanced and sensitive duo partnership, bringing this work and the entire programme of not too well-known vistas of baroque music in the best possible light.

Their encore was also a cunning one, a reworking of the slow movement from Schubert’s Piano Trio in E flat major (D.929) for cello and harpsichord in the style of Barriere. Naughty but nice!

It is ironic to think that this wonderful concert was held in The Arts House, the home of the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA), yet was not part of the nation’s supposed premier arts festival. This is the sort of musical programme the festival needs, but music has been woefully neglected. That is why SIFA means little to nothing for lovers of good music.

One cannot help but admire the gilded chinoiserie
in this Andrew Garlick harpsichord.

OUR MEMORIES, OUR SONGS / Resonance of Singapore Singers / Review

 

OUR MEMORIES, OUR SONGS

Resonance of Singapore Singers

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday (24 May 2026), 7.30 pm

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 May 2026 with the title "Resonance of Singapore singers deftly mix nostalgic songs with new works".

Has there been a better-named vocal consort in Singapore than Resonance of Singapore (ROS) Singers? The 8-member professional and non-profit a capella group founded as recently as 2002 by Young Artist Award recipient Toh Ban Sheng has aspirations of making Singapore society better besides bringing out slickly-presented concerts.

Its latest offering, mixing well-known with the new, was another step in the right direction. Nostalgia is a strong emotion, and its first song When We Find A Child, arranged by Toh, had lots of that. The Shaker hymn Simple Gifts opened, and grafted upon it were Are You Sleeping (Frere Jacques), Ke Ren Lai (A Guest Comes) and Two Tigers, Running Fast, combining English and Chinese in busy counterpoint. All familiar, all beloved.

Toh’s creations are sophisticated, challenging to sing yet gratifyingly harmonious. In the Taiwanese Hakka song Lok Sui Tien (Rainy Day), its air of lamentation was crafted to sound like an Afro-American spiritual. Once heard, it cannot be unheard.

In Sounds of Nanyang, two popular songs, Molihua (sung in Chinese) and Dayong Sampan (Malay), merged in matrimony. This could not have taken place anywhere but Singapore. In the Anhui folksong Feng Yang Hua Gu (Flower Drum Song), the use of percussion lent it's ironic words a distinctly ethnic flavour. In both songs, the octet was joined by nine members of the ROS Youth Singers.

Western songs also found a place, with the descending note sequence of Elizabethan composer John Bennet’s Weep, O Mine Eyes being a classic study of word painting. Without knowing the lyrics, one instinctively knew this was a tragic lament. Similarly, Sergei Rachmaninov’s Bogoroditse Devo from All Night Vigil in its highest registers evoked reverence, as it is a Russian Hail Mary prayer.

In Hubert Parry’s There Is An Old Belief from Songs of Farewell, it was the promise of meeting in the next life that sustained hope for the bereaved. This belief was also reinforced in Jake Runestad’s Let My Love Be Heard, where rising voices as if lifted on the wings of angels generated the evening’s most thrilling and radiant moment.

Aaron Lee & John Lee
talk about their world premiere.

Very significant was the world premiere of bass-baritone John Lee’s Night Journeys, based on three poems by Singaporean poet Aaron Lee. The inspirations were diverse, but common to all was the quest for transcendence. Just Some Found Words dwelled on Truth, Love and Beauty, a journey leading to the idea of God and ultimate solace.

Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy was humourous, cheekily quoting from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet. The final song, Moe’uhane, a Hawaiian word meaning “soul sleep”, was also the most comforting, its warmth derived from the trust and faith that one places when crossing oceans.

Photo: Ryan Cheung

It was back to beloved Malay folksongs of our childhood to close, more of Toh’s nifty arrangements - Ikan Kekek and Geylang Si Paku – which despite their carefree vibes carried cautionary words of wisdom. Chan Mali Chan as encore seemed like the most natural choice, and that too, was rendered with much joy.

Photo: Zhang Jin Tiao