SINFONICA: VOCE / Ventus Wind Orchestra / Review

 

SINFONICA: VOCE

Ventus Wind Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (21 December 2025)

I never thought that the last pre-Christmas concert this year would be spent with winds. Thanks to happenstance, I had the pleasure of being in the company of Ventus, a wind orchestra formed three years ago by alumni of school wind ensembles led by young Singaporean conductor Adrian Chiang. This was not exactly a Christmas concert but had all the ingredients of a celebratory event.

Just its second ever concert, Ventus gave a very impressive show. German composer Engelbert Humperdinck’s Overture to Hansel and Gretel (arranged by Makoto Onodera) opened the evening with a rich sonority that grew exponentially as the work progressed. Its main theme is the Evening Prayer which radiated with such a glow at its climax that I can fully imagine this group playing the music of Richard Wagner next.

Leroy Anderson Bugler’s Holiday never fails as a hit single, and it was the trio of trumpeters – Bryan Tan, Sean Ng and Quek Yu Chern – to do the honours. They were confident, committed and knew their tricky parts inside out. The syncopations which added to the work’s dynamic flair were mastered with aplomb and the performance was simply a blast.

There were many seniors in the audience, part of the community’s active ageing groups, who were invited to grace the concert. Not sure what their reaction would be to the concert’s longest and most dissonant work, Ottorino Respighi’s Feste Romane (Roman Festivals) of 1928. This is without doubt the rowdiest and noisiest of the Italian master orchestrator’s Roman Trilogy, and Yoshihiro Kimura’s arrangement would be no less forgiving.

The decibel limit was breached in the opening Circenses (Games at Circus Maximus), scenes of maximum carnage with gladiators and Christians thrown into the pit with lions. The ensemble launched itself into the fray and never left off for a single moment. This was contrasted with the quieter Il Giubileo (Jubilee), a show of religiosity with the chiming of distant church bells, while L’Ottobrata (October Harvest) had an amplified mandolin solo sounding more intrusive than an actual serenade. It was left for Le Befana (Epiphany) to sweep the deck with its orgy of inebriation and debauchery.

Love it or hate it, it was the licence to make merry with all caution thrown into the wind (literally). Never mind the trumpet raspberry at its climax, the player had given himself fully in the spirit of things. I had enjoyed the SSO performing this in the past, but this Ventus reading felt just more special because it came from the hard work of part-time musicians and enthusiasts. For holding this behemoth together, conductor Adrian Chiang is also the real thing. He ought to get invited to conduct the SSO National Day Concert in the near future.

For the concert’s second half, Ventus was joined by Schola Cantorum Singapore (Albert Tay, Chorusmaster), opening with the raucous Polovtsian Dances from Alexander Borodin’s Prince Igor, (arranged by Keiichi Kurokawa) a continuation of the earlier celebrations. Another guilty pleasure of mine, this included that Stranger In Paradise song, famously reused in the Broadway musical Kismet. Not sure whether the choir was singing in Russian or some other language, but what was certain was the sheer virtuosity of the woodwinds – clarinets in particular – for overcoming the furiously spun sinuous dance melodies.

Well-known operatic tenor Reuben Lai
was spotted in the choir.
Clue: the most senior-looking looking guy!

Choral conductor and composer Albert Tay conducted the world premiere of his Song On The Winds, which had the charm and saccharine-sweet seasonal flavour of the best of John Rutter’s offerings. This was sung in English, to be certain.

The final big work was choral composer and conductor Eric Whitacre’s psychedelic Godzilla Eats Las Vegas!, which was musical mayhem writ large. Unashamed to rip off from the likes of John Williams, Leonard Bernstein and other composers for celluloid, its deliberate schlockfest of popular culture references has to be heard to be believed. 

The choir did its part, shrieking like damsels in distress as Tokyo’s favourite dinosaur ripped through town and destroyed anything and everything. It was hugely enjoyable because of its irreverence of ultimate irrelevance, and both ensembles delivered with nothing to fear or favour.

A malnourished Godzilla makes an appearance,
little wonder he had to eat Las Vegas!

The concert had to end sometime, and it was with John Wasson’s In The Christmas Mood – a medley singalong with all the popular commercial hits – and Leroy Anderson’s ubiquitous Sleigh Ride to send the fully-filled Victoria Concert Hall audience home to deck the halls, figgy pudding and mulled wine. I had a funtastic great time, and cannot wait for the YouTube videos to come.