BAROQUE AND BEYOND / SSO Organ Series / Review

 

BAROQUE AND BEYOND

SSO Organ Series

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (18 January 2026)

Fact: I have not been a regular to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s organ series, often preferring to take long snoozes on Sunday afternoons. That is a grievous loss, as I realised this afternoon, having dragged myself out of bed to a very crowded Victoria Concert Hall. The offering was unusual as it featured re:Sound, Singapore only professional chamber orchestra, and Koh Jia Hwei, a pianist who had transitioned to become an organist. (Now she can say she has a bigger organ than her hubby, virtuoso pianist Lim Yan.)

Koh opened the 75-minute concert with a solo, J.S.Bach’s Passacaglia & Fugue in C minor (BWV.582) on VCH's Klais organ. Having heard this numerous times on CD recordings, one can only conclude that a live performance is an infinitely better experience. The opening bass notes are performed on the pedals, and when she hit the low C, one could actually feel the hall vibrate. The ensuing short variations on the ground bass theme were built incrementally with manuals, and when pedals joined in, the sonorities expanded to envelop the entire hall. At its climax, with all four limbs in hectic action, one could only marvel at what organists achieve which mere pianists only dream of. In a word, breathtaking.

Photo: Resound Collective

The string players of re:Sound then trooped in for Arcangelo Corelli’s most performed concerto grosso, the one in G minor (Op.6 No.8), popularly known as the Christmas Concerto. This featured Isaac Lee on chamber organ which functioned more like a continuo. Led by Yang Shuxiang, the strings played with cohesion and tautness, generating a vibrato and volume that was unafraid to tread on period instrument practice fingers and toes. Still not sure why the music is related to Christmas, but there was a pastorale filled with the sound of drones in its finale to close on a warm and happy high.

Photo: Resound Collective

The concert’s big work was Liechtensteinian composer Josef Rheinberger’s Organ Concerto No.2 in G minor (Op.177) with a return of Koh and an augmented re:Sound with brass (French horns and trumpet) and timpani. Rheinberger (1839-1901), like Karg-Elert, Gigout, Lemare, Widor and Buxtehude, is a name familiar only to organists, I suspect. Never previously heard this three-movement work, I was prepared to be surprised. Shock and awe were more the actual response, being caught unaware by both organ and ensemble in full throttle. The late-Romantic idiom with mild dissonance was familiar enough, its grand gestures Elgarian, and one of its themes even seemed to head in the direction of Nimrod before stopping short and pulling away. This movement garnered much applause, and that seemed almost appropriate given the buzz.

Photo: Resound Collective

The central slow movement in C major alternated organ solo with muted strings, but that soon built up a head of steam for a loud and stormy climax before receding to a quiet close. The finale replicated the opening’s busyness and raucousness, with punched out chords alternating between G minor and major keys. There should have been a big melody a la Saint-Saens, but there was still sufficient melodic interest to propel the movement to a glorious G major close.

Greeted with tumultuous applause from a full-house, the encore, although somewhat predictable (given the general tonality of the concert) but still highly enjoyable, was Bach’s Air on G string (from Orchestral Suite No.3), which is actually in D major. Strings alternated with organ solo, before coming together for a peaceable and sublime close. Looks like Sunday afternoons would never be the same again.