A GOTHIC HALLOWEEN / Singapore Symphony Chorus & Eudenice Palaruan / Review

 

A GOTHIC HALLOWEEN 

Singapore Symphony Chorus 

Eudenice Palaruan 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Sunday (27 October 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 October 2024 with the title "Spine-tingling music at Halloween concert".

What makes certain works of classical music scary? The human imagination is so susceptible that powers of suggestion can often hold sway. The annual Halloween Concert, part of Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s organ series, had the ideal setting in Victoria Concert Hall. 

Victoria Concert Hall was
aptly decorated for Halloween.

Its Klais pipe organ was the star, with the Introduction from French composer Leon Boellmann’s Suite Gothique performed by the Singapore Symphony Chorus’ director Eudenice Palaruan opening accounts. Loud stentorian chords and long-held resonances conveyed vibes of haunted houses and things that go bump in the dark. 

Then enter the men from Singapore Symphony Chorus, all 17 with grim expressions as those awaiting execution. Singing a brief movement from Francis Poulenc’s Four Little Prayers of Saint Francis of Assisi, led by assistant conductor Ellissa Sayampanathan, did not assuage their collective guilt. 

Johann Sebastian Bach’s infamous Toccata and Fugue in D Minor did not make an appearance, but his “Little” Fugue in G minor (BWV.578) did. This was, however, almost cheerful by comparison. More serious was De Profundis Clamavi (Out of the Depths, I Cry to You) with 18 women’s voices joining in. Its alternation of chant-like unison lines and polyphony in Latin, a dead language, sent chills down the spine. 

Low Jinhong’s celesta with its tinkling timbre accounted for the chromatic Notturno (Nocturne) by the Hungarian Bela Bartok, renowned for his creepy skin-crawling music. Interestingly, this had the same opening notes and E minor key as Robert Schumann’s Im Rhein (In The Rhine) which followed. This was a salute to Cologne’s gothic cathedral, with mixed chorus accompanied by celesta, piano (Shane Thio) and organ (Boey Jir Shin). 

The most ambitious and colourful work on show was Palaruan’s Cana, based on a Spanish term referring to a wide range of reed and pipe instruments. Here, staggered chants in unison (Veni Creator Spiritus and Santo Espiritu) were accompanied by handbells, glass harmonicas, bird whistles, khaen (bamboo pipes, played by the composer) and keyboards instruments to great effect. 

Eudenice plays the khaen (panpipes).

Back to the pipe organ, Palaruan completed Boellmann’s Suite Gothique with its soaringly sonorous Toccata. Does anybody else besides this reviewer think that the Malay words of Di Tanjung Katong could be sung to its main melody? Uncanny and bizarre. Edward Elgar’s well-known Nimrod from Enigma Variations, heard on piano and organ, was noble and imposing, but positively non-threatening. So why was it even included? 

On the other hand, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana can claim its fair share of casualties. The plain chant of Fortune Plango Vulnera (I Mourn the Wounds of Fortune) had a brutal edge to it. The exultant penultimate song Ave Formosissima (Hail, Most Beautiful One) led directly to the iconic O Fortuna, which was sung with the vehemence and bloodlust it deserved. 

Given the parlous state of world affairs today, security and good fortune are not a given. A Donald Trump re-election next week? That is the most frightening thought for this Halloween.