pianomania: A PHILHARMONIC NEW YEAR'S EVE 2024 GALA CONCERT

A PHILHARMONIC NEW YEAR’S EVE

2024 GALA CONCERT

The Philharmonic Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (31 December 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 January 2024 with the title "New Year's Eve Philharmonic show a spirited annual fixture".

Tradition. That is exactly what The Philharmonic Orchestra had in mind when it ran the twelfth edition of its well-subscribed New Year’s Eve Concert, an annual fixture much in the spirit of the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Day Concert. Barring two years disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the concert conducted by Lin Juan was attended by a very well-dressed audience intent on some serious partying.

Photo: Andrew Bi

Very appropriately, it opened with the sparkling Overture to The Merry Wives of Windsor by Otto Nicolai, one of the founders of that august Viennese orchestra. In its first bars, the lovely sonority crafted by low strings (cellos and basses) set the mood for the champagne to pop and flow in this comedic number.

Following that was the unusual choice of Edvard Grieg’s Norwegian Dance No.4, which is less well-known than Dance No.2. It, however had the advantage of being a far more vibrant and energetic piece.

Photo: Andrew Bi

The evening’s highlight was George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with young pianist Jonathan Shin doing the honours. Although many were pretty tickled by the solo clarinettist’s opening glissando and the muted trumpet’s wah-wah effects, it was Shin’s no-holds-barred reading that impressed most.

He took all kinds of risks by altering the piano part as he pleased, culminating in an extended improvisation just before the famous Blues segment. Eschewing the flashy upward arpeggio sweep and downward octave cascade, he opted instead to slyly quote Auld Lang Syne, which was a nice touch besides whetting up the audience for their complimentary glasses of Moscato.

It was back to Vienna in the concert’s second half when Johann Strauss Junior’s Hungarian-flavoured Overture to Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron) held sway. The music’s rough-hewn rusticity was well-contrasted by the pristine stateliness of Maurice Ravel’s Pavane For The Dead Princess.

Photo: Andrew Bi

For once, the orchestra broke from tradition by not trotting out a memorial of notable names lost to the world in 2023. Instead the audience was in peace left to reflect on a turbulent year. While some may remember Tina Turner, Matthew Parry, Sinead O’Connor or Ryuichi Sakamoto, this reviewer chose to include people who have significantly contributed to Singapore’s musical scene: guitarist Alex Abisheganaden, pianist Dennis Lee, violist Jiri Heger and Singapore Symphony Chorus founding-leader Susan Ashton.

Photo: Andrew Bi

It was close to midnight when Rimsky-Korsakov’s festive Capriccio Espagnol ended the concert on a rousing high. Perhaps the intermission for drinks seemed extended or the concluding work not played fast enough, there was a stream of concertgoers who rushed out of the hall to catch the pyrotechnics by the bay even before the concert’s obligatory balloon drop. “Where’s the fire?”, one wondered.