pianomania: A CELLO LIFE / Voice of the Cello 10th Anniversary Concert / Review

A CELLO LIFE

Voice of the Cello

10th Anniversary Concert

Chijmes Hall

Thursday (28 November 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 30 November 2024 with the title "Voice of the Cello's 10th anniversary concert a celebration of budding young talent".

Voice of the Cello (VOTC) is a collective for cellists founded by cellist and cello teacher Natasha Liu which made its debut at the Singapore Raffles International Music Festival in 2014. What appeared then like an encouraging prospect has now burgeoned into a full-blown movement merging musical excellence with an unadulterated sense of fun.

There were 32 cello cases. Count them all.

Popper Eight.

No less than 32 young cellists played at VOTC’s 10th anniversary concert, in a wide-ranging programme from solos to massed performances. The opening act had The Popper Eight, an octet of eight to eleven-year-old girls, playing Bohemian composer David Popper’s Polonaise de Concert (Op.14). Coordination and intonation was an initial concern but they soon warmed up, giving the lively dance music its shine.

Next came a series of duos and solos accompanied by pianist Michelle Seah. Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Pezzo Capriccioso (Op.62) paired 13-year-old Alyssa Teo with 12-year-old Ji Yuanjun, who were very well matched. Together, they brought out the work’s melodic allure and Slavic melancholy, with a short virtuosic flourish to close.

In the fiery first movement of Camille Saint-Saens’ First Cello Concerto, Amelie See (12) played keen mentor to Lexi Eugenie (8), with a cohesiveness palpable despite their age-gap. A similar tandem saw Jacqueline Low (10) with Wang Yaxi (13) in Nicolo Paganini’s Mose-Fantasia, based on music by Gioachino Rossini, with the result being just as astonishing.

In the solos, Grace Joy Chee (10) navigated Frederic Chopin’s Polonaise Brillante (Op.3) with utter confidence, its lyrical cantabile opening soon progressing to impressive fireworks. After that, Lucas Liow (13) ably brought out the dramatics of the opening movement of Antonin Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor.

Arguably the most arresting performance of all came from Natalie Yong (15) in Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, scaling its peaks and troughs with an authority and ease that seemed uncanny. Here is a natural talent who could walk into any music conservatory of her choice.

The concert’s shorter second half was devoted to cello playing involving larger groups. William Squire’s Danse Rustique saw the six members of Cello Buds (all under 9) playing in an even unison voice. For Saint-Saens’ The Swan, the six players of Cello Cygnets divided their labour between bowing melodies and plucking pizzicatos.

One of the youngest cellists
demonstrating her ballet moves in Le Cygne.

The Cello Oppas at work.

The mixed group of Alpha Origins, six girls and two boys, generated a pleasant blend of sound in Tomaso Albinoni Adagio in G minor. A half-dozen of older teenaged boys called the Cello Oppas brought out the angst and pathos of John Williams’ Main Theme from Schindler’s List. The unaccompanied quartet of Jazz Belles played it cool in Duke Ellington’s It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).

14 cellists and 4 tambourine players.

The stage got ever more congested with an increasing number of players, the peak being reached with 14 cellists in Astor Piazzolla’s rocking Libertango before the closing Hymn a l’Amour by Edith Piaf with ten performers. The sheer passion and enthusiasm shared by all who performed can only bode well for the future of the instrument in Singapore.