ONE MELODY: CELEBRATING 50 HARMONIOUS YEARS OF SINGAPORE-REPUBLIC OF KOREA RELATIONS / Orchestra of the Music Makers / Review

 

ONE MELODY: CELEBRATING

50 HARMONIOUS YEARS OF SINGAPORE-

REPUBLIC OF KOREA RELATIONS

Orchestra of the Music Makers

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (31 October 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 November 2025 with the title "Pianist Kun-woo Paik's immaculate playing anchors OMM's celebration of South-Korea-Singapore ties".

“Celebrating 50 Harmonious Years of Singapore-Republic of Korea Relations” was the other title of this concert by the Orchestra of the Music Makers conducted by Chan Tze Law. Inspired by Korea was the opening work, Singaporean composer Jonathan Shin’s what the sea was whispering which took its title from a verse from Gyeongpo Beach by local writer Gwee Li Sui.

The very accessible 9-minute work quoted three Korean melodies about different aspects of love: Island Baby, Longing and Beautiful Country. Over lush strings which relived the English pastoral tradition, a solo oboe evoked tender feelings, and the music’s quiet close suggested that love did not need be overpowering or demonstrative to be personally felt.

Photo: Yong Junyi

Veteran 79-year-old Korean pianist Kun-woo Paik was the soloist in Frederic Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto in F minor (Op.21). Music-lovers who have been following the fortunes of young virtuosos in the recently-concluded Chopin International Piano Competition will be amazed by the youthfulness and vitality of Paik’s playing.

Photo: Yong Junyi

This was music of a 19-year-old about to leave his native Poland and never to return, the sense of loss and longing being well brought out by Paik. He was not just note-perfect but also wholly attuned to the bittersweet drama imbued in its pages. The nocturne-like central Larghetto movement was luminous in its utter clarity, supported by sensitively-weighted strings which whispered rather than spoke.

Photo: Yong Junyi

The finale’s dance rhythms were alluring, with Paik’s fingerwork immaculate, and together with the orchestra’s vigorous entreaties, drove the work to a stirring conclusion. Those hoping for an encore from this patrician of Korean pianists will do well to attend his all-Mozart solo recital at Victoria Concert Hall on Tuesday evening.

The evening concluded with Arnold Schoenberg’s Technicolor orchestral transcription of Johannes Brahms’ Piano Quartet No.1 in G minor (Op.26). A million miles from his astringent atonal scores, this opulent 45-minute piece of cholesterol-laden Viennese confection has playfully been nicknamed as “Brahms’ Fifth Symphony”.

Its guilty pleasures lie in its rich and beefy harmonies, liberally voiced extras with oozing sauces like a well-seasoned steak. Conductor Chan was the master chef in this musical kitchen, guiding the opening movement with urgency and tautness. Anything less would come out flabby and shapeless.

Oops, wrong photo!

The faster Intermezzo featured excellent solo woodwind playing while the slow movement looked forward to the big tune of Brahms’ First Symphony, which was still in gestation. Through the distorting lenses of Schoenberg, the absent piano part was no longer missed, in its place a panoply of roving and raving new ideas.

And who was not waiting for the finale’s rip-roaring Rondo Alla Zingarese? This gypsy dance to end all gypsy dances was distinguished by a battery of percussion, with xylophone and vibraphone in a starring role, and a cascading clarinet solo as the rapturous showstopper. Whoever thought that crusty old Schoenberg, the Father of Duodecaphony, could garner such loud and enthusiastic cheers?