LEGENDS / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

LEGENDS

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (25 February 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 February 2023 with the title "Quek Ling Kiong leads SCO into bright new era".

 

Last month, homegrown conductor Quek Ling Kiong was appointed Principal Conductor of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, succeeding Yeh Tsung (now Conductor Emeritus) who was for twenty years its Music Director. This first subscription concert for Quek at its helm, a taut 80-minute programme without intermission, showed exactly what he was about.

 

It is no secret that most Chinese orchestral music is programmatic in nature, about historical figures, ancient myths and exotic locales, or legends in general. The busy evening opened with Xu Changjun’s Sword Dance III, a rhapsodic work based on an earlier work for liuqin solo. Beginning with stillness, a melody on gaohus soon goes about on a stately procession, first gracefully then ratcheting up both mood and spirit into a vigorous and highly rhythmic dance. Closing with a big bang, this set the stage for something even more spectacular.  

 

Kong Zixuan’s Ode To Qilin, receiving its Singapore premiere, was a virtuoso suona concerto all but in name. SCO zhongyin suona player Meng Jie performed on three instruments of differing registers, exploiting an incredible range of sonorities. Usually heard in ceremonial or ritualistic music, the suona was now the embodiment of the mercurial and mischievous unicorn-like mythological creature in full flight. Sometimes waltzing and wallowing in song-like pastoral moments, it was its gravity-defying leaps and spectacular prestidigitations that were truly breathtaking.     

 

Adapted from the pipa favourite Shi Mian Mai Fu or Ambush From All Sides, the symphonic poem orchestrated version by Liu Wenjin and Zhao Yongshan was a classic battle piece. From its martial opening fanfare through a lyrical first subject and graceful dance, one instinctively knew what was coming. This calm before the storm would still scarcely prepare one for the cavalry onslaught, portrayed by stunning percussion playing and swirling strings. The victorious Han dynasty march at its end made this the Chinese equivalent of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.

 

The concert’s final work, Zhang Zhao’s Gan Jiang Mo Ye Fantasia, another local premiere, may be considered a programme symphony in four movements. Its story centres on a renowned Suzhou sword-maker Gan Jiang whose murder in the hands of a tyrant is avenged by his family. The spirit of Mahler and Shostakovich loomed over the modern-sounding work, which portrayed defiance and struggle, also including another astounding battle scene.

SCO's percussion was
worked overtime.

 

There were lovely moments from Zeng Zhi’s vertically-played dizi and Xu Zhong’s cello but it was the third movement, titled Inferno, which stole the show. The mimicry of furiously neighing horses and raw unaccompanied percussion reenacted revenge at its most brutal before the attainment of Nirvana, the harmonically-pleasing final movement representing redemption and salvation. But how does violence beget enlightenment?

 

Standing up to totalitarianism, blatantly trumpeted in this patriotic work, seems to be its ill-disguised coded message. Garnering a standing ovation, loud and prolonged applause was the best augery that a bright new era for the Singapore Chinese Orchestra under Quek Ling Kiong has just begun.