pianomania: MUSICAL MOSAICS / Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra / Review

MUSICAL MOSAICS

Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (4 August 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 6 August 2024 with the title "Celebrating Singapore towns with catchy melodies".

Subtitled “A symphonic portrait of Singapore’s towns”, the Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra (ACSO) conducted by Adrian Chiang provided an excellent lead-up to Singapore’s 59th National Day. Eight works by eight local composers showed what contemporary Singaporean music, albeit on the lighter side, was all about.

Wang Chenwei’s Thaipusam was an orchestration of a solo violin piece, opening with Guan Qi’s viola solo then joined by guest concertmaster Lynnette Seah’s violin on a raga-based theme. No skin was flayed or blood spilled in this infectiously rhythmic number once described as “John Adams goes to Serangoon Road”.

Five Singaporean composers was commissioned to write 10-minute-long works inspired by the nation’s satellite towns, some of which where they had personally resided. Although such a project would have sounded very different forty years ago, the results were illuminating.

Toa Payoh

Our ethnic groups have become so well distributed within these towns that ghettos no longer exist. Thus, it was difficult to differentiate the individual characteristics of Germaine Goh’s Roots To Skies: The Hopes and Dreams of Toa Payoh from Terrence Wong’s Transient Paths – An Exploration of Tiong Bahru or Felix Phang’s Queenstown: The Estate of Change.

Tiong Bahru

All were very well written, slickly orchestrated, possessing the feel good NDP (National Day Parade) vibe, which equated with nice catchy melodies and the minimum of dissonances. Lack of harmonic tension makes for harmonious listening (and living), for which one is to be grateful.

Queenstown

Goh’s score had Americanisms galore (Toa Payoh was once hailed the Chicago of Singapore), Wong gave viola and cello the voice of gentrification, while Phang’s trumpet melody soared like the new HDB blocks overlooking Commonwealth Avenue. All of these were reflections on the dynamic changes taking place within our communities today.

Azrin Abdullah’s gambus (a lute-like plucked instrument), Nizarfauzi’s Malay percussion, Jacky Ng’s suona, Tan Jie Qing’s yangqin and Germaine Goh’s piano all made for a colourful melange of sound textures, reflecting Singapore’s true and tested diversity and multiculturalism.

Geylang Serai

Interestingly, it was the more ethnic neighbourhoods which inspired the most distinctive sounds. Syafiqah ‘Adha Sallehin’s Reminiscing Geylang Serai was a veritable bazaar of spices and aromas, including dances, merrymaking, bicycle bells and a loud-hailer announcing that “the sale is on!”. The composer herself performed solos on an accordion.

Bedok

Sulwyn Lok’s Bedok: Legacy By The Sea was a memoir of a long-gone Malay fishing village, with Malay melodies heard on yangqin and rebana (Malay drum), yielding a mystical and evocative sound. All this was accompanied by a video of an amble on the seemingly endless Bedok Jetty.

Taking a break from the constituencies, Ong Lin Wei’s Romance in B minor provided his former violin teacher Seah a major solo part, which may be described as an elegiac love child of Schindler’s List and Butterfly Lovers. As encore, Seah played the outer movements of Vivaldi’s La Primavera (Spring) from the Four Seasons.

Which location does Vivaldi belong to?
Orchard Boulevard (Four Seasons Hotel)!

Cultural Medallion recipient Eric Watson’s A River of Music, a grand salute to the Singapore River, and NDP song One United People orchestrated by Johnson Lee with vocals by Chloe Ong brought the 150-minute concert to a rousing close.