PRE-CONCERT EATS: YGF MALATANG @ ESPLANADE XCHANGE

It looks like I'm determined to try all the Malatang eateries near Esplanade. Malatang and its variants are a quick and easy meal, and as long as you do not dally with the hot soups, you can still attend a concert with time to spare. The next malatang place I visited is apparent the biggest chain globally - YGF Malatang or Yangguofu for its full name in Chinese - at its Esplanade Xchange outlet which is located directly above Esplanade MRT.

The modus operandi is simple - stack all your ingredients into the big plastic bowl, choose your soup stock, and the cashier will weigh the contents and charge you accordingly. Most bowls require a minimum of 300 grams and prices range upwards from $10. My haul this time - mostly of vegetable, mushrooms and other varieties of fungi - came up to $12. The soup I picked was minimally spicy and enjoyed about 4 to 5 bowls of high sodium content goodness. 

What you need to do afterwards is to load up on water. After that, you are ready to go.

YGF MALATANG

Esplanade Xchange #B1-27

Above Esplanade MRT

JONATHAN YEO IN RECITAL / Review

 

JONATHAN YEO IN RECITAL

Esplanade Recital Studio

Wednesday (28 October 2026)

And the piano music continues. As if an entire weekend of piano performances were not enough, here was another excellent recital to add to the fray. Singaporean pianist Jonathan Yeo originally graduated in mechanical engineering, then completed post-graduate studies in piano in Scotland and is now an adjunct lecturer at Singapore Raffles Music College. His highly demanding solo recital was a refreshing mix of the arcane and the familiar.

The first half showcased two Romantic composers who deserve to be better known. How much of Frenchman Gabriel Fauré’s piano music do we actually get to hear? Other than his popular Dolly Suite (for four hands), not much. Yeo’s choice to programme three contrasting Barcarolles (there are 13 in total, not a single one is populist repertoire) was an excellent one.

Opening with No.2 in G major (Op.41), he brought out the music’s lyricism, backed by the gentle lilt typical of gondolier boat songs. Rising to series of climaxes was the work’s ultimate pay off. No.4 in A flat major (Op.44) is a shorter work, technically easier but no less sublime. No.6 in E flat major (Op.70) is much in the same vein and just as lovely. Yeo’s sympathetic view and fine technique are always in service of the music, and there is nothing to dislike in these revelatory readings. Fauré’s harmonic language is an embarrassment of riches and variety, often begging the question: why don’t we hear more of this?

The American Edward MacDowell is known here for only two works – the miniature To a Wild Rose from Woodland Sketches and his Second Piano Concerto. Forget about the four sonatas, of which the Third Sonata in D minor (Op.57) or “Norse”, was likely given its Singapore premiere by Yeo. The music is dark and smouldering, chordal in most part, and armed with an epic severity associated with legends and sagas of the north (hence its nickname), and there are similarities with Rachmaninov’s First Sonata (in the same key) and Sibelius / Arnold Bax tone poems. 

Yeo’s vision was not to shy from its vast and broad vistas but to embrace them whole-heartedly. The intellectual and technical vigour invested in its three heroic movements, admirably played from memory (of course), was rewarded with a performance that was worthy of its conception. Do not expect to hear it again any time soon.

Claude Debussy is so popular in Singapore that his Preludes Book 1 (the more familiar of two volumes) might seem like old hat. However, Yeo’s traversal of the full set, with emphasis on colour, light and shade, achieved with judicious pedaling, thus providing maximal contrasts. The opening Danseuses de delphes (Dances of Delphi) immediately set the mood, its chords coloured with excellent sostenuto pedalling, then contrasted by the airy lightness of Voiles (Sails) and Le vent dans la plaine (The Wind on the Plain).

It took a feat of concentration to master these, yet be completely unfazed by the audience applauding inappropriately between preludes, a total of 10 times. The only one they missed was after Pas sur la neige (Footsteps in the Snow) probably because they did not know it had ended, and so Yeo merrily went on to gulp down Ce q’ua vu le vent d’Ouest (What the West Wind Saw) with its violent flailings, without interruption. One could go down the rabbit hole with each and every prelude, but suffice to say, Yeo’s performance was an invigorating one. Care and love were lavished on all the pieces, all through to the final dances of Puck and the black-and-white Minstrels.

His encore of Scorpion Fire or Sasoribi (Anti-Ares) by Jun Wakita (whose presudonym is Virkato Wakhmaninov) comes from anime / videogame music. This is popular with young people these days, and who could not blame them after it is filled with all the tropes and cliches from the Romantic era piano music which oldies love, like Rachmaninov. Wakhmaninov? Go figure.

PASCAL ROGE & ELENA FONT WITH RE:SOUND / Review

 

PASCAL ROGE & ELENA FONT

WITH RE:SOUND

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (23 October 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 25 October 2026 with the title "Chamber orchestra re:Sound in fine spirited form with pianist duo Pascal Rogé and Elena Font".

Forty years ago to the month, French pianist Pascal Rogé made his first appearance in Singapore playing Camille Saint-Saens’ Fifth Piano Concerto with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. He has since graced our stages on multiple occasions through the years. Celebrating his 75th birthday this year, he and his Spanish pianist wife Elena Font made their debut with re:Sound on two pianos.

Opening the concert was an old favourite, Saint-Saens’ The Carnival of the Animals, backed by an ensemble of just ten players. This zoological fantasy in fourteen movements included witty rhyming verses by Ogden Nash narrated by Natalie Ng, who had also supplied the very well-written programme notes.

It was perhaps nerves which affected the piano duo as some of the earlier movements, such as Royal March of the Lion and Wild Donkeys, were not immaculately synchronised, but it soon got much better. In the infamous case of the movement titled Pianists, the uncoordination was deliberate, an in-joke that would-be virtuosos practising scales badly should be locked up.

This performance also gave orchestral players solo opportunities to shine, including double-bassist Julian Li in The Elephant, violinists Wilford Goh and Kim Kyu Ri in Personages with Long Ears (more donkeys, actually music critics), offstage clarinettist Lee Wai Teng in Cuckoo in the Woods, and cellist Lin Juan in the most famous movement of all, The Swan.

The Singapore premiere of Concerto for Piano Duet and Strings (Op.32) the British composer Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006) was completely left-of-field and a brilliant choice. Rogé and Font were now cramped onto a single keyboard and backed by a larger body of strings, but the excellent overall balance allowed them to stand out.

This unusual work combined mild dissonances including passages of polytonality with outright lyricism that was hard to dislike. The highly syncopated Vivace finale was extremely tricky but all on deck navigated its swelling waves with great aplomb for an uproarious close.

Its inclusion was was strategic, as this was an opportunity for virtuoso strings expertly led by Yang Shuxiang to work with piano virtuosos. The Rogés completed the coup with a lovely encore, The Fairy Garden from Maurice Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite.

The evening concluded with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No.31 in D major (K.297), also known as his “Paris Symphony”. In this short-winded symphony of three compact movements, the ensemble produced a sound much bigger than its size suggested. Ten woodwind and brass players (pairs of flutes, oboes, bassoons, French horns and trumpets) did the job by creating a spirited and celebratory air.

Its grandeur was meant to impress its 1778 listeners, yet it was the graceful dance in its central slow movement which had an equally big impact. The finale’s prestidigitation and fugal passages, so skilfully and passionately negotiated, were sufficient evidence that the clearly enthused audience was witnessing yet another prime performance from Singapore’s finest chamber orchestra.

All photographs by Jack Yam.

PRE-CONCERT EATS: HARRY'S BAR @ ESPLANADE MALL

Before attending a concert at Esplanade, sometimes you need to eat. Makan Sutra is the best bet for a quick bite, but with the haze still ongoing, a good indoor choice is Harry's Bar. Besides being a popular watering hole and sports bar, it also has a very decent kitchen for Western dishes.

On this occasion, I had a quick weekday lunch instead of a pre-concert dinner. There are some budget choices to satisfy the stomach starting from $9.90. For $5 more, you get a soup and drink as well. Here's what I got for Wednesday's lunch.

Soup of the day: Clam chowder

Creamy shroom baked rice,
the vegetarian choice.

The weekday lunch specials

HARRY'S ESPLANADE

8 Raffles Avenue #01-05/07

Esplanade Mall 

Singapore 039802

Harry's Esplanade | Restaurant & Bar

SUKA MAKAN: BRONZO PASTA BAR @ BUKIT TIMAH FOOD CENTRE

An Italian kitchen with sub-restaurant prices. That's what Bronzo Pasta Bar at Bukit Timah Food Centre was all about. We walked around it for a while, looking on curiously and finally decided to give it a chance. And it tastes like the real thing.

The menu is very small, only five choices of pasta dishes, and three side dishes at one time. Everything is under $20, no service charge, no GST added. Here are the pics, and a repeat visit to try the other dishes is imperative.

Carbonara pasta with guanciale (bacon)

Fried Calamari with
smoky roasted pepper sauce. 

BRONZO PASTA BAR

2a Seh Chuan Road #01-071

Singapore 599213

Bukit Timah Food Centre (Interim)

Bronzo Pasta Bar (@bronzo_pasta) • Instagram photos and videos

AN EVENING WITH TCHAIKOVSKY + CONTINUUM / Noah Zhou with Last Minute Artist Orchestra + Nicholas Ho / Review

 

AN EVENING WITH TCHAIKOVSKY

NOAH ZHOU with

Last Minute Artist Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (24 October 2026)

CONTINUUM

NICHOLAS HO Piano Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (24 October 2026)

Last weekend has been a bonanza for lovers of piano music. Attending performances of Lou Harrison’s Piano Concerto (Albert Tiu, 22 October), Malcolm Arnold’s Concerto for Piano Duet and Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals (Pascal Roge & Elena Font, 23 Oct), Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 (Noah Zhou, 24 Oct) and solo recitals by Nicholas Ho (24 Oct), Vincent Ong and Hayato Sumino (both 25 Oct) would have been keyboard overkill, but did anybody care?

When you have two enticing piano concerts on the same evening, what do you do? My solution was to attend both. It was fortuitous that one began at 7 pm at Victoria Concert Hall and the other at 8 pm at Esplanade Recital Studio. So it was a case of attending the first half of the first, and then taking a short stroll across Elizabeth Walk for the second half of the second.

Photo: LMAO

The all-Tchaikovsky evening (presented by Bespoke Arts) by the Last Minute Artist Orchestra (LMAO) led by young conductor Amanda Kye Tan opened ambitiously with the 1812 Overture (Op.49). The quartet of cellos and violas acquitted themselves very well for the opening hymn, and very soon it was battle stations. The voltage built up was expertly harnessed, with La Marseillaise and the Tsar’s Hymn in direct confrontation and it became genuinely exciting. 

Photos: LMAO

A pity that the cannons (operated by a little boy with a lap-top) at its climax was underwhelming by being too soft, but the chimes of tubular bells were excellent for the final victorious showdown. A very bright start for the concert.

Photos: LMAO

It got even better when British-Chinese pianist Noah Zhou, laureate of the 2019 Rachmaninov International Piano Competition (Moscow) took on the evergreen First Piano Concerto in B flat minor (Op.23). This warhorse has been eclipsed by Rachmaninov’s Third and Prokofiev’s Second in recent years, but still packs a powerful punch when delivered by the right hands. Zhou brought out its big chords with an outsized sonority, and even if the opening cadenza was slapdash with the ascending arpeggios, he was completely in his element and soon fully in control. If there were an adjective to describe the performance, it would be Horowitzian, the many octave fusillades conquered with brilliant and volcanic aplomb.

Photo: LMAO

The orchestra supported him to the hilt and was often playing catch-up. It wasn’t the cleanest but it was helluva exciting from start to end. Zhou kept one completely engaged. The big cadenza at the end of the first movement was gripping and the audience applauded. Who could blame them? 

Photo: LMAO

Lightness was a premium in the central slow movement, but somehow the ensemble breezed through to the finale’s wild cossack dance, which Zhou commanded like Marshall Kutuzov in a breathless sweep which brought out cheers at its tumultuous close. His encores of Tchaikovsky’s Chant Elegiaque (Op.72 No.14) and Horowitz’s rewriting of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No.15 or Rakoczy March were no less epic. The C.Bechstein grand specially wheeled out for this concert more than survived the onslaught.  Noah Zhou is a major talent who fully deserves the accolades he gets.

Photo: LMAO

Singaporean pianist Nicholas Ho’s recital included original works, Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C minor and Scriabin’s Sonate-Fantasy No.2 in G sharp minor (Op.19), but I only got to catch the second half of his programme. He certainly has the fingers for Chopin’s Scherzo No.3 in C sharp minor (Op.39) but much of its impact was lost by over-pedaling, not helped by Esplanade Recital Studio’s over-reverberant acoustics. It was much better for the Nocturne in E flat major (Op.55 No.2) where the “wetness” was more appropriate.

The recital’s piece de resistance had to be Prokofiev’s Sonata No.6 in A major (Op.82), the most violent of his War Trilogy. Ho had its full measure, the pummeling violence of the opening movement’s chords and those clusters delivered col pugno (with the fist). The implicit humour of the “scherzo” second movement and droll slow waltz of the third were well judged, and then came the “death” tarantella of the finale, where he drew all his reserves for an imperious finish. There was over-pedaling again, and while one wished for a more detached view of the notes, there was no denying the final impact delivered. Bravo!

Ho’s encores were also excellent, a transcription of Rachmaninov’s Z’des Khorosho (How Fair This Spot or Where Beauty Dwells), likely by Earl Wild, and the coruscating doom of Prokofiev’s Suggestion Diabolique (Op.4 No.4), glissandi and all. His own Rachmaninov-influenced Serenade played for his wife when he popped the question was the icing on the cake. Two gripping concerts with the piano were not too much to ask for!