TUTTI – AN SG60
SYMPHONIC CELEBRATION
Ventus & Band Academy Singapore
School of the Arts Concert Hall
Friday (30 May 2025)
SONGS WITHOUT WORDS
Orchestra of the Music Makers
School of the Arts Concert Hall
Saturday (31 May 2025)
This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 June 2025 with the title "Young musicians flex in weekend concerts".
If one needed another reminder of what young musicians in Singapore can achieve, just look to last weekend’s pair of concerts featuring Ventus / Band Academy Singapore and Orchestra of the Music Makers performing at The School of the Arts.
Friday evening’s concert featured wind orchestra Ventus (58 players) and Band Academy Singapore (32 students) in a tribute to all things Singaporean, with 9 works by 7 local composers. It opened rousingly, with the world premiere of Germaine Goh’s Winds of Tomorrow, a striding march filled with optimism and hope.
The concert had a maritime theme, with two tone poems by Benjamin Yeo exploring that aspect of local history and folklore. Voyage to the End of the Earth recounted the pioneering spirit of sailors while Redhill used the pelog scale to evoke Malay music before the legendary battle scene between swordfish and humans.
Both scores were cinematic in narrative and colour. Much in the same spirit was Wang Chenwei’s well-travelled The Sisters’ Islands, also founded upon a Malay saga, which posed challenging solos in this excellent scoring for wind band.
Terrence Wong yielded two contrasting works, The Legacy of Teresa Hsu - touching portrait of the social worker who lived till 113 - and Battle of Houses, which had strong John Williams vibes without actually imitating the American film composer. Dax Wilson Liang’s Plateau de Valensole cast his net further afield to encompass impressions of French Provence landscapes.
Lee Jin Jun’s inventive Variations on Chan Mali Chan showcased the solo prowess of Erica Goh on euphonium (instrument resembling a tuba except being smaller) while Mohamad Rasull’s May You Achieve Happiness was a fantasy on Zubir Said’s children’s day song Semoga Bahagia, with Malay words sung by both orchestra members and audience. This concert was shared by three conductors, Clive Choo, Joseph Teo and Adrian Chiang.
The Orchestra of the Music Makers conducted by Joshua Tan the following evening on the same stage presented an all-20th century programme. No need to recoil in fear, as all three composers were Romantic in heart.
It did not take much to enjoy American composer Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto (1939), with its two lyrical slow movements and quicksilver finale.
American violinist Stella Chen, 1st prize winner of the 2019 Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition (Belgium), exhibited a gorgeous tone that truly melted hearts.
The second movement’s poignant oboe solo by Seow Yibin leading into Chen’s impassioned entry was one of many moments to cherish.
The velocity and virtuosity conjured by soloist and orchestra in the finale’s near-impossible machinations had to be seen and heard to be believed. Chen’s duet with concertmaster Chan Yoong Han in Carlos Gardel’s tango Por una cabeza for two violins made for the sassiest of encores.
The concert opened with Kurt Weill’s Symphonic Nocturne from Lady in the Dark as orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett oozed musical sex appeal. Using the song My Ship as its idee fixe (fixed idea or recurring theme), lush strings, seductive woodwinds and slick silvery brass all shined in this suite of songs without words.
Sergei Prokofiev’s wartime Fifth Symphony (1944) completed the demanding programme, led completely from memory by conductor Tan. Despite his avowed modernism, the Soviet composer kept its idiom accessible in tribute to “the unquenchable spirit of man”.
The music’s overall pacing was well-marshalled, with angular melodies and thorny dissonances smoothed over by the orchestra’s very polished performance. The acerbic Scherzo and finale’s furiously driven juggernaut were also breathlessly impressive.
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