pianomania: A PHILHARMONIC NEW YEAR'S EVE 2025 GALA CONCERT / The Philharmonic Orchestra / Review

A PHILHARMONIC

NEW YEAR’S EVE 2025 GALA CONCERT

The Philharmonic Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Tuesday (31 December 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 January 2025 with the title "Philharmonic Orchestra's spirited New Year's Eve concert of dance favourites".

Since 2011, the last concert of the calendar year is the reserve of The Philharmonic Orchestra (TPO), which just performed its thirteenth edition of the New Year’s Eve Gala Concert. Conducted by Lin Juan, this year’s dance-themed programme of popular lollipops harks back to Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s Familiar Favourites concerts of old conducted by his father Lim Yau.

Lim Junior is very much is own man, and so was Johann Strauss the Younger, whose Overture to the operetta Die Fledermaus opened the evening. Its new year’s eve ball setting of sly pranks and champagne was wholly apt, but it took the brass some time to warm up. Before long, the band was up and running, filled with the high spirits to uncork the bubbly.

Photo: Andrew Bi Photography

Next came another ballroom hit, the Polonaise from Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin. The opening unison brass fanfare was spot on, and the regal rhythm of Polish nobility very well judged as to make this the most polished performance (pun intended) of the evening.

Everybody thinks they know Jacques Offenbach’s Overture to Orpheus in the Underworld, but that is limited to just the last two minutes, the ubiquitous high-kicking Cancan. But what about all the music before that?

A wealth of detail was revealed, including sumptuous solos from concertmaster Wilford Goh’s violin and clarinettist Benjamin Wong. And has anyone noticed that a repeated oboe motif shares the same notes as the introduction of Zubir Said’s Majulah Singapura? A pure coincidence, of course.

After an intermission in which the audience had a boost of alcohol, Johannes Brahms’ rambunctious Hungarian Dance No.6 got the feet tapping once more. The slow opening section had some hesitant playing but the fast bits were tautly driven and exciting in delivery.

And who was not waiting for that sine qua non of Viennese waltz classics, Strauss’ On The Beautiful Blue Danube? The most difficult part, its slow introduction, was atmospheric with a quartet of French horns acquitting themselves well, before the delicious lilt of three-quarter time taking over. When one imagines being transported to Stadt Park, Prater or Schonbrunn, the musicians are doing something right.

Photo: Andrew Bi Photography

Closing the concert was Soviet-era Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian’s five-movement Masquerade Suite, popular for its circus-like feel and gorgeous melodies. It does not come more populist than the rousing Waltz, with its oom-pah-pah rhythm nailed down with authority.

Far more subtle was the Nocturne, with Goh’s violin solo alternating between sinuous and sensuous. A light-hearted Mazurka, sublime Romance (with Muhd Raimi’s lovely trumpet solo) and uproarious Galop brought out the cheers.

Conductor Lin Juan gets the
audience to clap and to stop.

As per Vienna Philhamonic tradition, Johann Strauss the Elder’s Radetzky March, with synchronised clapping from the audience, had to be performed. The obligatory balloon drop - to bid the old year farewell and greet the new - has now become de rigeuer in TPO concerts. That, we can proudly claim to be Singaporean.