RHAPSODIES OF SPRING 2025 / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

 

RHAPSODIES OF SPRING 2025 

Singapore Chinese Orchestra 

Singapore Conference Hall 

Friday (17 January 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 January 2024 with the title "Welcoming the new year with feel-good concert".

As to be expected, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s annual Chinese New Year concert – Rhapsodies of Spring – was a festive and celebratory affair. Conducted by Quek Ling Kiong, it opened with Tang Jianping’s Overture for the New Century Concert. An apt greeting for the “Year of the Snake”, this was a richly orchestrated fantasy on Nie Er’s well-known Dance of the Golden Snake. 

Vibrant and vigourously percussive, that was followed by Peng Xiuwen’s The First Lunar Month, from a cycle of 12 pieces that represented a Chinese calendar year, which was equally raucous and rousing. 

There were two concertante works on the subject of spring which highlighted impressive soloists, both members of the orchestra. The first had graceful kebaya-clad Zhang Li on the liuqin in Wang Huiran’s Spring on Yi River. This high-pitched plucked instrument waxed lyrical in a slow introduction before breaking out into a lively and dazzling dance. 

This little Nonya's more than talented.

Not to be outdone was Xu Hui on guzheng, who had an elaborate solo in Ning Baosheng’s Spring on Xiang River. The music was suitably picturesque and atmospheric, before the orchestra joined in for a luxuriant finish. 

The orchestra was on its own for Lo Leung Fai’s very engaging symphonic poem Spring, which had three connected movements. Quiet string tremolos opened Dawn in Spring where Zeng Zhi’s dizi solo evoked birdsong before the emergence of a big melody resembling Molihua. 

The scherzo-like Wandering in Spring showcased Benjamin Boo on xylophone in a fast dance, while a glorious reprise of the big melody closed with the final movement Ode to Spring. 

Not just faces made for radio.

After the intermission, the familiar element of Chinese variety shows of yonder years returned in Reunion by Sulwyn Lok, a drama skit scripted by Situ Bi and directed by Judy Ngo. Acted by a host of deejays from Mediacorp’s Capital 958 radio station, this was a sympathetic look at family, filial piety and good age-old values. 

Family: then and now.

A daughter returns from overseas for a reunion to find her family restaurant business in disarray. All’s well that ends well, as it transpires that she had secretly quit college to become a chef and thus saves the day. 

She cooks the reunion dinner and also gets engaged. The music was pleasant and unobtrusive, but frankly nobody was going to hear the details over the dialogue. 

Two world premieres completed the feel-good concert. Phang Kok Jun’s Spring in the Lion City was a set of variations on an original theme, with each variation named after a flower or fruit associated with Chinese New Year. These were so well strung together that it was hard to tell when one variation ended and the next began. 

Finally, Liong Kit Yeng’s Chinese New Year Medley built around four popular seasonal songs saw the participation from children of the Purple Symphony Choir (Chorus Master: Khor Ai Ming). The singing was underpowered, and the clap-along tepid, but nobody was going to deny that new year to come is going to be a very eventful one.