AFFINITY
Singapore Chinese Orchestra
Singapore Conference Hall
Friday (8 September 2023)
This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 September 2023 with the title "SCO season opens with a bang".
Led by Quek Ling Kiong in his first full term as Principal Conductor of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, the Opening Gala of its 2023/24 season opened and closed with a bang. Wang Yunfei’s Blossoms and Harvests made for an excellent curtain-raiser, a work lauding the virtues of hard work and preparation. It began quietly and evocatively with Zhou Ruoyu’s gaohu solo, its fairytale-like opening rising to a crescendo, then launching into a fast dance. Its rousing percussion-led conclusion was its just desserts, befitting an auspicious occasion.
Then followed three concertante works with SCO’s principals as soloists. Receiving its Singapore premiere was composer-in-residence Wang Chenwei’s Aleppo, a 2017 symphonic poem on the rise and fall of the war-torn ancient Syrian city with Huang Guifang on sanxian. This three-stringed plucked instrument is capable of playing microtones closely approximating timbres and inflexions of plucked Arabian instruments such as the oud.
The work’s narrative unfolded in seven parts, going through a musical arc depicting legends and lore of old, with the mellow but inherently vocal sanxian as vivid story-teller. The city’s sacking and destruction was heartrending, but an inexorable final march procession represented an undimmed spirit of hope for its future.
The three movements of Kuan Nai-Chung’s The Butterfly Dream were essentially variations on a single folk-like theme with Yin Zhiyang’s qudi (a bamboo flute with lower register and darker colour) laying on the colours. The first movement painted an idyllic scene with the titular insect flitting with nary a care, and how this instrument was well-suited for its portrayal. A fugal section was followed by two contrasted movements which turned upbeat and dance-like. The cinematic feel of the music also added to its accessibility.
SCO concertmaster Li Baoxun swapped his gaohu for erhu in Wu Houyuan’s Red Plum Capriccio, a 1980 work which echoed much of the form, architecture and tropes of the much better-known Butterfly Lovers Concerto (1959). All Li was obliged to do was reliving its passion and requisite virtuosity. As a further point of similarity, he even had a short duet with Xu Zhong’s solo cello at its climax. One difference of this work was its celebratory apotheosis, transforming the tragedy of lost love into an unmitigated triumph.
The two-hour concert was completed by Cheng Dazhao’s Yellow River Rhapsody, which had no obvious thematic links with the Xian Xinghai cantata or eponymous piano concerto. Also the most modern-sounding work on show, there was a strong percussion beat for most part, and showcased important solos for xun (ocarina) and suona.
The most memorable section was its tumultous ending which also involved mass audience participation with hand-held pellet drums. Conductor Quek, having well prepped the audience in advance, made sure there was no way this work (and concert) could have ended on a whimper. A quite spectacular concert season with the SCO beckons.
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