BIRDSONG / Musicians' Initiative / Review

 

BIRDSONG

Musicians’ Initiative

Victoria Concert Hall

Wednesday (25 October 2023)

 

Orchestral programming is an important part of musical presentation, and Musicians’ Initiative (formerly known as The Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra) got it spot on with this concert built around the avian theme of birds and flying critters. All credit goes to London-based Singaporean conductor Alvin Arumugam for creating this innovative, interesting yet approachable programme that truly opened ears.

 

The evening began with late Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara’s most popular orchestral work, Cantus Arcticus (1972). Also titled Concerto for birds and orchestra, it uses recorded sounds of arctic swamp birds from Northern Finland in its lush three-movement canvas. A pair of flutes, ably helmed by Carolin Ralser and Paul Huang in sinuous song, opened proceedings in The Bog, ushering in clearly audible birds on tape. A sense of awe and mystery pervaded the music, with birds being the stars while humans provided support.

 

A fine eco-acoustic balance was struck in the middle movement Melancholy with fine muted strings. It got even better in Swans Migrating where birds and instruments achieved parity. With a return of flutes and woodwinds, the music rose to a sonorous climax, with a suitably big melody to match. There has not been a performance of this glorious work since the 1990s (by Singapore Symphony Orchestra in a bird-themed concert under Lim Yau), and this served a timely reminder that good music should never be neglected.

 

The concert’s selling point had to be the ubiquitous Butterfly Lovers Concerto by Chan Gang and He Zhanhao, performed by young violinist Jocelyn Ng. Ng will be remembered as the confident soloist in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at those gimmicky Candlelight Concerts She furthered her resume with an enthralling reading that lacked nothing of passion and poetry. Playing completely from memory, she exuded a bright, lustrous tone, and exercised good intonation throughout.

 

It is probably best to ignore the work’s melodramatic story and wallow in the music making, which had top notch support from Musicians’ Initiative principals, which reads like a young Who’s Who in Singapore classical music. Opposite Ng was cellist Tang Jia, their duets portraying the romance of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai being particularly intimate. Tang, percussionist Benjamin Boo (on drum and clappers) and harpist Fontane Liang, all of whom Singapore Chinese Orchestra musicians and principals, were joined by pianist Aya Sakou. The orchestra generated a big sound, and this performance received the loudest plaudits of the evening.

 

The second half saw the Singapore premiere of young London-based Chilean composer Anibal Vidal’s Gliding Murmuration, a 10-minute symphonic poem inspired by starlings sighted at the Channel resort of Brighton. Its still Takemitsu-like opening with brass, piano and vibraphone could easily be called murmurs, but the sound palette soon expanded with lapping waves, rumbles of thunder and a shift from grey clouds to blinding sunshine.

 

Its range of shades and colours, from murky to iridescent, was very well brought out by the orchestra, then closing with gentle woodwind squawks, a reminder of feathered friends within the landscape. This very interesting work was not just about birds, but rather a portrait of nature, the sea and elemental forces of geography. The best part: at no moment was one reminded of the now much-imitated and hackneyed music of Olivier Messiaen.

 

The evening closed with Stravinsky’s not often programmed Firebird Suite (1945), which at 30 minutes is lengthier than the better-known suite from 1919. Its orchestral forces are smaller but nowhere were familiar tropes from the well-loved classic compromised. The dark subterranean grind of its opening was brooding, leading to the Firebird’s magical dance, sounding more coquettish than one previously imagined. Then came a sequence of pantomimes not heard in the 1919 suite, which distended the narrative somewhat without adding so much except for the Dance of the Princesses (Scherzo) with its playful prancing about.   

 

The Khorovod (Round Dance) was sensitively handled and the Danse Infernale, always the suite’s rousing highlight, resounded with deserved trenchancy. It was not the most accurate reading, but a committed one with every player extended to the limits of their abilities. In short, it was exciting. The most beautiful moments came in the Lullaby with Kee Ruihan’s excellent bassoon solo, and the radiant beginning of the Final Hymn, lit by a gilded edge which the orchestra mustered with conductor Arumugam’s Midas touch. The crescendo generated in its final rally concluded a memorable concert on a high, likely the Musicians’ Initiative’s best in recent years. More of the same is hoped and eagerly anticipated.