ANCIENT MOON, PRESENT LIGHT / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

 

ANCIENT MOON, PRESENT LIGHT

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (4 October 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 7 October 2025 with the title "Mid-autumn celebration with family friendly show".

The Singapore Chinese Orchestra led by associate conductor Moses Gay celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival with an hour-long family concert filled mostly with short pieces, well-suited for children and those with limited attention spans. As to be expected, works which extolled the moon and with lunar-related titles were trotted out for an airing.

Photo: James Ng

Very brief was the Axi Moon Dance, arranged by Peng Xiuwen, based on courtship rituals of the Yi people. Its infectious rhythm and ear-worm of a tune spun over multiple short variations made for an invigorating start. Just as popular was Ren Guang’s Rousing Clouds Chasing the Moon, arranged by Law Wai Lun, with its unforgettable melody couched in a rustic setting.

A little more serious was SCO composer-in-residence Wang Chenwei’s Aspirations, a 2008 work commissioned by the Ministry of Education and written for young musicians to perform in an orchestral camp.

Its main melody had that exuberant National Day Parade vibe, and midway through the work, an obligatory fugato involving sheng, dizi, plucked strings, with bowed strings and yangqins later joining the fray. As music teachers always say, EGBDF, or “every good boy deserves fugues”.

Also imbued with the feel good factor was Vincent Liang’s May Life Be Eternal, as arranged by Sim Boon Yew. This was a happy recollection of festive family reunions, its feelings of warmth rolled out in a leisurely ambling pace.

Photo: James Ng

The concert’s only concertante work was Zhang Zhao’s Moon Song, the first movement from The Song of the Sun and Moon. Jonathan Ngeow, attired like some member of a boy band, was the zhongruan soloist.

Photo: James Ng

Impressionist hues filled its hushed and atmospheric opening pages, with Ngeow’s plucked strings singing a serenade. Building to an impassioned climax before receding into silence, the waxing and waning of the moon has seldom been better portrayed.

The evening’s longest work at some 20 minutes was Kuan Nai-Chung’s Instrumental Guide to the Chinese Orchestra, modelled after Benjamin Britten’s A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. The theme was the Jiangsu folksong Jasmine Flower, subjected to an extraordinarily well-written set of variations with solos for every instrument in the orchestra.

Radio disc jockey and host for the evening Karin Lim narrated in Mandarin, but there were English transliterations helpfully projected on a giant screen behind the orchestra. The variations began with the winds – distinguished with an implausibly long-held note by suona principal Jin Shiyi achieved by circular breathing – before moving to plucked strings, percussion, bowed strings and finally a grand tutti to close.

The very enjoyable concert had to come to an end, and the built-in encore was Huang Yijun’s Hua Hao Yue Yuan (Blossoms Under The Full Moon) as arranged by Peng Xiuwen. This rambunctious conclusion certainly had one in the right mood for mooncakes and tea.

Photo: James Ng