pianomania: STRAITS MELODIES: DUOS VS TRIOS / Society of Composers (Singapore) / Review

STRAITS MELODIES: DUOS VS TRIOS

Association of Composers (Singapore)

Esplanade Recital Studio

Wednesday (17 September 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 September 2025 with the title "Association of Composers spotlights Singapore and Malaysia works in programme of art songs and piano trios".

The latest concert by the Association of Composers (Singapore) was held in collaboration with its counterpart from across the Causeway, Chin Yong Music Society Malaysia. Showcasing 17 works by eleven Singapore-based and six Malaysian composers, its theme was the genre of art songs (solos and duets) and piano trios.

Stella Zhou and Lim Soon Gui

Even the art songs, all sung in Mandarin, had a specific pastoral theme inspired by nature and the countryside. All the vocal duets were by Malaysian composers, opening with Tee Xiao Xi’s Traveler which saw soprano Stella Zhou partnered by baritone Lim Soon Gui, followed by Sebastian Ooi’s Little Sailboat, with Zhou and tenor Timothy Huang.

Stella Zhou and Timothy Huang

These songs were Romantic in character, melodious, and possessing the amiable quality of folksongs. The well-matched singers blended well. Jellal Koay’s atmospheric Forget was as beautiful as harmonies could get while Wong Chee Wei’s Lingering in the Song of That Night was a portrait of serenity and contentment. Zhou was joined by baritone Ralph Ong for Lim Yu Yao’s Fossil at Port Dickson Beach and Chow Jun Yan’s The Birth of Morning, both were short but filled with reassuring tones.

Stella Zhou and Ralph Ong

The solo songs were mastered by soprano He Miya, whose sense of theatricality and diva-like big gestures were well suited to Quek Yong Siu’s Flow, Brook! and Lee Yuk Chuan’s Rainbow. She also emoted and projected to the max for Liu Bin’s The Shepherd’s Sad Story and Wu Jie’s Odes of Qin: No Garments.

He Miya and Soh Wei Qi

All singers were partnered by excellent pianist Soh Wei Qi, no mere accompanist but one ever-sensitive to myriad nuances presented in the songs. The intimate nature of the evening, attended by a small audience of relatives, friends and associates, resembled a Schubertiade, those homely Viennese soirees where Franz Schubert’s Lieder were famously premiered.

Exhibiting even further range and variety were the piano trios performed by Kuala Lumpur-based musicians Chang Yi Li (violin), Tay Yi How (cello) and Iau Jo Yee (piano). Ng Eng Thong’s Joyous Gathering began seriously but gradually transitioned to happiness. Daniel Kom’s Variations of When We Get Together, based on the Austrian children’s tune O Du Lieber Augustin, was enjoyable as it was inventive, contrasted with a scherzo-like movement from Gan Yunzhuo’s Exploration In The Dark, barbed with Bartok-like spiky dissonances, a study of anxiety in extremis.

From Xiao Chunyuan’s Piano Trio No.1, its first movement titled Of Sharps and Flats started with plain vanilla C major but ventured into distant keys and pitches, creating a sense of disorientation. Zhao Lingyan’s Capriccio mirrored Koay’s earlier duet with lush Impressionist sonorities, taking the form of a dreamy and wistful elegy.

The well-conceived concert closed with two trios displaying emotions abashedly worn on the sleeve. Chiew Keng Hoon’s Love was tinged with melancholy and filled with tension, suggesting this was a grandfather’s tough love for his grandson. Cao Ying’s Regret was similarly doleful, its cello solo brooding giving way to an angst-ridden finale. In reciprocation, a repeat of this concert takes place in Kuala Lumpur in late October.