HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT: ROXY DISC HOUSE @ THE ADELPHI

The CD Alladin's Cave awaits.

As soon as I had decried the dearth of CD shops in Singapore, this one pops up. Roxy Disc House has been hiding in plain sight for the longest time, until I visited The Adelphi for the first time in years. It was by the recommendation of serial concert-goer Mr Lim that I made my way to the third floor of this audiophone paradise, and voila! here this CD shop was. So was Mr Lim! 

The vinyl side is more well organised.

There are two shop-spaces, one for compact discs (the more rough-and-tumble half) and one for vinyl (the neater and more organised half). As I feel vinyl to be over-priced and a hipster fad, I naturally gravitated to the CD side of the shop. Like many CD shops in Hong Kong, the impression of Alladin's Cave is what strikes you. There is simply no order to the placement of discs, nor a differentiation between new and used items. Classical music is in the minority, as most items from sale were of pop, rock, jazz, light music, Asian pop and New Age music. There were a few classical CDs, but one needs patience to sift through piles of merchandise, and maybe one can find a gem.

The vinyl section.
I can wait for the prices to come down.

Thanks to Mr Lim, I found some first-hand classical CDs, and they were reasonably priced too. The proprietor Mr Richard Wan is personable and does not drive a hard bargain. If the price is right, then go for it, which was what I did!

I spy Hilary Hahn, Arthur Rubinstein
and Decca Phase Four among the throng. 

And here's my loot...

The Testament discs were $20 apiece.
All first-hand and in mint condition.
They cost $18.50 on Presto Music but
you'll need to factor in postage and waiting time.

The old London Decca 6-CD box-set at $50
with Vladimir Ashkenazy performing the 
Rachmaninov piano concertos (with Previn)
and selected solo / two-piano music.
I got the last box and its
no longer available at Presto Music.

ROXY DISC HOUSE

1 Coleman Street #03-41/42

The Adelphi

Tel: 9844-6775

BRODSKY QUARTET IN RECITAL / Review

 

BRODSKY QUARTET

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Tuesday (3 March 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 March 2026 with the title "Brodsky Quartet delivered taut ensemble work in Singapore debut".

Established in 1972, the UK-based Brodsky Quartet is likely the world’s longest-lived string quartet with some of its founding members still performing. Second violinist Ian Belton and cellist Jacqueline Thomas were there from the very beginning, later joined by violist Paul Cassidy in 1982 and first violinist Krysia Osostowicz in 2021 to form the present group.

Photo: Michael Huang

The Brodsky’s Singapore debut opened with J.S.Bach’s Sonata No.3 in C major (BWV.1005), originally conceived for unaccompanied solo violin, and arranged for quartet by Cassidy. With every note of the original retained, the polyphonic quality of its four movements was now amplified.

Despite the division of labour between four players, tautness of ensemble was key in reining in the extra voices. There was much pleasure in hearing the viola and cello singing the main themes for a change, added lines of counterpoint, and rustic drones in the fugue (which seemed to quote the London Bridge ditty) and the vigourous dance-like finale.

All three works performed was the third work of the genre by each composer. Heard next was English composer Benjamin Britten’s String Quartet No.3 in G major (Op.94), his final completed work from 1975. The acerbic and dissonant idiom lent an extra edge to the work’s autumnal quality.

The opening focused on instruments playing as couples, the next worked on repeated and insistent rhythms, while the central movement highlighted first violinist Osostowicz’s solo as leading voice in a birdsong of sorts. The Burlesque’s demented little waltz that followed uncannily foreshadowed the second half’s quartet by Dmitri Shostakovich, who had died earlier in the year.

First violinist Krysia Osostowicz
was once the violinist of Domus (piano quartet).

The finale, Recitative and Passacaglia, quoted from Britten’s final opera Death in Venice, and included a gently rocking dirge-like theme that was passed from one instrument to another before closing with a whispering finality. One could not have hoped for a more persuasive or sublime reading.

Photo: Michael Huang

Completing the evening was Soviet-era Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.3 in F major (Op.73). Composed in 1946, after the end of the Second World War, the grimness of preceding events was masked by the risus sardonicus of its seemingly jolly opening. The quartet soon exposed the ruse with the music getting more convoluted and being waylaid into a fugal cul-de-sac.

Shostakovich's wry smile.

Founding cellist Jacqueline Thomas
spoke about Shostakovich's art of coded music.

The similarity of the second movement’s tipsy waltz to the earlier Britten Burlesque and ensuing tip-toeing of marionettes on strings revealed both composers shared a musical and spiritual camaraderie that transcended distance and ideology. Cellist Thomas shared with the audience Shostakovich’s unofficial titles for the movements and hidden messages. The third movement’s message was “war unleashed”, and the quartet duly delivered the bunker-buster bombs.

What could only follow was a funeral march in a form of a passacaglia, a grieving that was genuine and heartrending which the surface Klezmer-influenced gaiety of the finale barely disguised. The finale denouement was an uneasy calm yielded by quiet resignation. The gloom was lifted with two delightful encores, Thomas’ arrangements of short Shostakovich pieces, an Elegy and Polka, which brought down the house.

HANS SUH Piano Recital / Bechstein Music World / Review

 

HANS SUH Piano Recital

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (8 March 2026), 7.30 pm

Bechstein Music World’s piano recital series for 2026 opened with the recital by young South Korean pianist Hans Suh. Winner of the International Telekom Beethoven Competition Bonn in 2021, he brought to the table a wide palette of pianistic contrasts in an interested and varied programme.

Beginning with Brahms’ Three Intermezzi (Op.117), his measured tempo in the hymn-like E flat major first piece yielded a gorgeous sonority from the Bechstein grand. The paced quickened for the darker edged B flat minor number, which treaded with a smouldering unease. The unison voices in the final intermezzo provided a release of sorts, seeing the light of day in these “lullabies of grief”. The autumnal quality of Brahms’ last years was vividly captured in Suh’s hands.

Some might quibble at the relatively fast opening which Suh took for Beethoven’s Sonata in C sharp minor (Op.27 No.2), the so-called Moonlight Sonata. Adagio sostenuto sounded more like Allegretto here, but this was not to be some faux profound or sentimental wallow which some pianists maintain. Just the right amount of pedal ensured there was no swimminess, and the ensuing Allegretto was exactly that, a country dance with requisite drones. All this was swept away by the tempestuous and suitably violent finale, where Suh maintained a single-minded doggedness all the way to the brilliant end.

Of particular interest was Suh’s original composition, a four-movement suite Der Fliegende Koreaner (The Flying Korean), its title a wordplay on Richard Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman). Four very different cities featured in this travelogue, which a composer like Samuel Barber might have called Excursions. 

The first was New York: Broadway, a quasi-minimalist rhythmic dance which took on a Ginastera-like intensity and percussiveness but its inspiration was America from Bernstein’s West Side Story, revealed with a quote at its end. Helsinki: Töölönlahti Bay was more abstract and impressionist, suggestive of an icy landscape. Köln / Bonn: Kölner Dom was a tribute to the Germany of Brahms and Bach, almost becoming a full-blown Chaconne in D minor but stopping short. Finally, Seoul: Squid Game channeled the energetic vibes of movie and videogame music. Never saw the Netflix series, but one just about got the idea.

Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition occupied the second half of the recital. No pianist has taken the opening Promenade as vehemently driven as this, bringing to mind the young Lan Shui’s blistering debut with the Singapore Symphony with Ravel’s orchestration way back in 1993. This was going to be very personal account, and Suh gave notice with every ensuing movement bring sharply characterised. He did not need to add to its many notes, instead highlighted the numerous opportunities for heightening contours.

Gnomus had a malevolent edge, while The Old Castle’s troubadour sang forlornly, and Tuileries came alive with the bickering of children and nannies. Bydlo opened very loudly in its rumbling journey, while emphasis to the bass notes gave Schmuyle (the second of Two Polish Jews) an added layer of pathos. 

The Ballet of Unhatched Chicks and Marketplace in Limoges were brilliantly delivered. Even Catacombs and In the Language of the Dead, which usually sound routine or bored had the glow of sinister which elude many others. Finally Baba Yaga’s Hut and The Great Gate of Kiev, with the clangour of carillons, brought this museum guide to a truly thunderous close.

Suh elected to play a simple encore, a delectably tender reading of Debussy’s Clair de lune, then followed with the finale from Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata (Op.57). That almost careened off the tracks for a moment, but Suh steered it like a grand prix driver victoriously past the checkered flag.

All photographs courtesy of 

Bechstein Music World.

A PIANO CONCERTO EVENING NOT TO MISS: LEGACY - THE NEXT PIANO GENERATION on 17 March 2026

Here is an evening of piano concertos not to miss. The pianists are DAVID CHEN and ROMAN BLAGOJEVIC, both grandsons of the great pianist Martha Argerich, who will be performing piano concertos with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dario Ntaca.

DAVID CHEN is the son of Argerich's eldest daughter Lida Chen-Argerich. His father is Vladimir Sverdlov-Ashkenazy, the nephew of Vladimir Ashkenazy. He will be performing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1.

ROMAN BLAGOJEVIC is the son of Argerich's third daughter Stephanie, director of the documentary movie Bloody Daughter. Her maternal grandfather is the American pianist Stephen Kovacevich. He will be performing J.S.Bach's Piano Concerto in F minor, BWV.1056.

Both pianists are partnered with the excellent Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, making its Singapore debut, conducted by the Argentine Dario Ntaca. Besides the concertos, TPO will also be performing Brahms' Academic Festival Overture and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Overture.

Music runs in families.

Full programme:

BRAHMS Academic Festival Overture

TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet Overture

J.S.BACH Piano Concerto in F minor, BWV.1056

TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No.1 

   in B flat minor, Op.23

Victoria Concert Hall

Tuesday 17 March 2026 at 8 pm

Get your tickets here:

Legacy: The Next Piano Generation • Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra

This concert is presented by Altenburg Arts

A YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE - TRADITIONS IN BLOOM / Singapore Youth Philharmonic Orchestra / Review

 

A YOUNG PERSONS GUIDE – 

TRADITIONS IN BLOOM

Singapore Youth Philharmonic Orchestra

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Sunday (8 March 2026), 4 pm

Singapore is literally growing orchestras by the year, and in this concert, one got to witness what happens in the nursery. The children of the Singapore Youth Philharmonic Orchestra (SYPO) were joined by Year 3 orchestral pedagogy students of Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in an hour-long concert that served as a harmonious classroom lesson for both students and their parents.

SYPO players stand up to be counted.

The SYPO students dressed in hong bao red t-shirts formed the bulk of the strings, while YST students in black occupied the principal seats and almost all the woodwind, brass and percussion sections. Together they made a joyous noise, conducted by YST alumnus Luo Wei.

The concert begin with familiar strains of the Chinese New Year favourite, Mao Yuan’s Joy of Spring (Xin Chun Le), with just the strings of SYPO. There was a rawness to the sound, but that was overshadowed by the sheer enthusiasm invested in the playing. It just got better with the older students joining in for the two popular works influenced by folk music.

Liu Tie Shan and Mao Yuan’s Dance of the Yao People needs little introduction, as it was performed in SYPO’s last concert as well as the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s inaugural concerts in 1979. Beginning slow, it soon gathers in pace. The main theme recurs as in a rondo, but gets faster and more voluminous with each run. Woodwind solos shine as the dance is ornamented, and very soon the merry-making erupts through all the ranks. It was a joyous reading, and one can say that the sound generated has already surpassed that of the SSO during its early years.

Photo: Singapore Youth Philharmonic Orchestra

Roughly the same formula was repeated in Georges Enesco’s Romanian Rhapsody No.1. The slow opening involved solo clarinet and oboe in a call and response routine, and very soon the strings join the fray. If the Chinese dance was vigorous, this one was energy multiplied manifold, and there is always a thrill hearing cascading strings move through the orchestra, with rising strings emerging at the other end. The final dance was an exciting hora, bringing the enjoyable piece to a virile close.

The major work in the concert was Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, also known as Variations on a Theme by Henry Purcell, the subject being the Rondeau from Abdelazer. The showpiece involved all the sections of the orchestra, as well as impressive solos from each of the instruments. Narration was provided by engaging host Lai Chong, and cartoon visuals were projected on the large screen above. For the many parents in the audience, there was now no excuse for mistaking one instrument from another, besides learning how an orchestra functions.

The students created a big sound for the tuttis, while the many tricky solos were handled with ease by the conservatory students. The closing fugue was a tour de force of virtuosity, and there was no shortage of spirit and verve as the work wound to a suitably rousing and rowdy conclusion. 

It has been a pleasure to witness these young musicians at work under the uniting baton of Luo Wei. While only a fraction of them will become professional musicians in the long run, there is little doubt that all of them will become lovers of music for life.

Photo: Singapore Youth Philharmonic Orchestra

Photo: Singapore Youth Philharmonic Orchestra