OUR VOICES, OUR SONGS / Singapore Choral Artists / Review

 

OUR VOICES, OUR SONGS 

Singapore Choral Artists 

School of the Arts Concert Hall 

Sunday (14 April 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 April 2024 with the title "Choral delights from all over the world by Singapore Choral Artists". 

Singapore Choral Artists (SCA), established in 2021, joins a rich tradition of local a cappella groups performing at a professional level, including the Singapore Youth Choir Ensemble Singers, Philharmonic Chamber Choir and another recent addition, Resonance of Singapore. SCA’s latest concert, led by veteran choral conductor Nelson Kwei, provided nearly two hours of aural delights from the world over. 

Its first half comprised Western compositions, dominated by sacred and liturgical music. The 21-member choir (11 women and 10 men) opened with Lithuanian Vytautas Miskinis’ Pater Noster (The Lord’s Prayer) and Hungarian Gyorgy Orban’s Nunc Dimittis (Now Lettest Thou Depart), both in Latin, establishing the chorus’ strengths at the outset. 

The ensemble sounded larger than the actual number of singers, and control of voices largely excellent. Contemporary choral music is far more diverse and dynamic than the traditional SATB (soprano/alto/tenor/bass) configuration of old strophic hymns, essentially evolving into vibrant vehicles of multiple constantly moving parts. 

This was no better illustrated in American Eric Whitacre’s Sainte-Chapelle which opened with men’s unison voices, a throw-back to Gregorian plainchant, then branching into the myriad riches of polyphony. The 13th century Parisian edifice of awe-inspiring stained-glassed splendour could not have had a more glorious musical representation. Delivered with passion, the music rose to a high in Hosanna in Excelsis before closing with the calm of Gloria Tua. 

That chapel was supposed to have held Jesus’ crown of thorns, the subject of Tchaikovsky’s The Crown of Roses, a more traditional Slavic song of bittersweet sacrifice sung in English. Also in English were Ivo Antognini’s Come To Me, Edward Elgar’s Serenade and McKay Crockett’s arrangement of Marta Keen’s Homeward Bound, sung with innocence and heartfelt conviction. 

People who message / text during concerts
are better at home watching Korean drama.
Really sia suay.

The second half was devoted to songs and arrangements by Singaporean composers. The choir changed to Southeast Asian costumes and men performed on bare feet. Sung in Mandarin, arrangements by Ethan Mark Chua and Phoon Yew Tien of Qing Ping Diao (after Tang dynasty poet Li Bai) and Azaleas respectively were lovely muses on the beauty of women. 

Arranged by conductor Kwei was Indonesian song Potong Padi (Harvesting Rice) in Malay and Luo Da You’s The Golden Age in Mandarin, the latter luxuriating in the dulcet tones of men’s voices. Women’s voices had their spotlight in Xiao Xiao Yang Er Yao Hui Jia (The Lambs Return Home), innocence expressed in Americ Goh’s arrangement. 

Kenneth Tay’s luminous Ave Regina Caelorum (Hail Queen of Heaven) in Latin, which could have belonged in the first half, stood like the odd person out. The evening concluded with the Singapore premiere of Zechariah Goh’s Da Feng Ge (Song of the Great Wind), comprising three songs inspired by characters in Chinese history, with the the titular song, a paean of victory and regret, accompanied by a vigourous drum-beat. 

If there were to be a lingering memory, the encore of Latvian Eriks Esenvalds’ Only In Sleep, with a soprano voice wafting above the throng like an angel ascending to heaven above, was just that.