STAGE & SCREEN / Singapore Armed Forces Central Band / Review

 

STAGE & SCREEN 

Singapore Armed Forces Central Band 

Esplanade Concert Hall 

Friday (9 May 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 May 2025 with the title "SAF Band gets cinematic in successful soundtrack concert".

Imagine going to the movies and not getting to hear the music. That is simply unworkable as music written for film plays a vital role in generating moods and engendering feelings as the action rolls. The converse, however, is true as well-written music can do the same without visuals or accompanying words. 

All SAF Central Band concerts
open with the National Anthem, Majulah Singapura.

That was the premise of this 130-minute concert by the Singapore Armed Forces Central Band conducted by ME5 Ignatius Wang who also served as the concert’s very engaging and self-deprecating host. Addressing an audience of diverse age-groups, it was interesting to note what music resonated with the different generations of listeners. 

Slightly older members would instantly recognise the score of Howard Shore’s Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001) which followed the journey of hobbits to Middle Earth in search of an all-powerful ring. Film music relies on bold and brassy scores, which was duly delivered with virtuosity, the perfect atmosphere being set up with gold lighting. 

A younger demographic would have enjoyed Jon Powell’s How To Train Your Dragon (2010), an animated movie classic, with music that took on the rhythmic jig of Northern folk music. As this also incorporated a battle piece, the excellent percussion section had a field day. 

It was John Williams’ Harry Potter Symphonic Suite, which used music spanning several movies of the franchise, had perhaps the widest appeal. The mysterious opening celesta solo (played by keyboardist Clarence Lee) was truly iconic. Intricate playing from the woodwinds simulated string textures, while brass fanfares at full blast were mightily impressed. 

Tickets for Joe Hisaishi’s concert conducting the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in July are selling out fast, so many will have to do with enjoying the band playing a Symphonic Suite of his popular tunes. This revealed the Japanese anime composer as a supreme melodist. The excerpts from Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, performed with much tenderness, are not easily forgotten. 

A loud cheer erupted from the audience when the Symphonic Suite from Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (2020) with music from several composers was announced. Besides exciting train effects, the music explored a wide range of emotions with an oboe solo from Leow Rui Qing being the icing on the cake. 

Moving from anime to Broadway musicals, Claude-Michel Schonberg’s Les Miserables (1980), based on Victor Hugo’s novel, has to be one of most memorable of recent decades. Justin Chew’s oboe solo in I Dreamed a Dream was poignancy unspoken, while saxophones blew away the Thenardiers’ Master of the House dance. The suite ended with the rousing call to arms Can You Hear The People Sing. 

The devil often gets the best tunes, thus John Williams’s Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back, imperious portrait of Sith Lord Darth Vader, closed the show with the full-house audience baying for more. The band’s life-affirming encore of the Oscar-winning song Let It Go from Disney’s Frozen by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez did just the trick.

The band acknowledges the audience
seated in the Gallery.

Photography by Nathaniel Lim

& PianoManiac.