EVERYBODY LOVES A SOIREE: THE FRENCH EDITION

EVERYBODY LOVES A SOIREE: 

THE FRENCH EDITION

Sometimes it isn't easy to organise a soiree, simply because its difficult to find a date in which everyone is free to attend. However it helps with the main people who perform reside in the same condo, and can have regular musical rehearsals. Such was the case of our superb host Goh Ching Lee, once of the Singapore Arts Festival (when it was still relevant for music lovers) and cellist Loke Hoe Kit, who are the Havelock soiree's mainstays and sine qua non. 

Attendees were sworn to secrecy
about the French concerto performed.

The theme this time on Sunday (28 April 2024) was French - the music that is, which included a rare airing of a rare French cello concerto, the mandatory Cesar Franck sonata (or Frank Sinatra) and other Gallic delights. The company was always a delight, with arts administrators dominating the healthcare people, and there were also new musical partnerships being forged. We don't know when the next soiree will be, but this one was a blast.  

The first movement of a French cello concerto
whose composer is shrouded in secrecy,
in case people misappropriated the rights
 of performing it in Singapore first. 

Ching Lee played the first two
of Poulenc's Novelettes.

A first ever collaboration between
NTU professor of humanities / social sciences
Rachel Chen and the Pianomaniac.

The final movement of the Frank Sinatra.

Here's the grub from Canton Paradise,
and no need to be French here.

SSO CEO Kenneth Kwok
baked a seriously delicious cake.

Rachel and Hoe Kit discover they both played
in the Singapore National Youth Orchestra,
while Ching Lee plays Liszt's Un sospiro.

Here are some Chopin Nocturnes
where the violin takes the melodic lines.

Some movements from
J.S.Bach's Suite No.3

A wefie to go home with after a
memorable soiree with great company.

About the "secret" French concerto, it's by a member of Les Six who was not Poulenc, Honegger, Auric, Durey or Tailleferre.