CHLOE CHUA & HANNU LINTU:
JEWEL AND TITAN
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
University Cultural Centra Auditorium
Thursday (8 October 2026)
An edited version of this review was first published on Bachtrack.com on 9 October 2026 with the title "Impressive Wang, Mendelssoh and Mahler from the Singapore Symphony".
Although the Singapore Symphony Orchestra is multicultural in its composition of players, it remains the only predominantly ethnic Chinese Western professional symphony orchestra outside of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Just like the nation and its population, Singapore presents an interesting curiosity to people from the mainland. Its seven-city concert tour to the People’s Republic of China from 13 to 25 October led by music director Hannu Lintu is the first since 2011.
The first of two pre-tour concerts opened with the most performed 21st century work by a Singapore composer, Wang Chenwei’s The Sisters’ Islands (2006). This programmatic symphonic poem is based on a legend from the Indo-Malayan Riau archipelago (which Singapore is part of), and uses the pelog scale for its thematic material. Malayan musical idioms and dances present an idyllic soundscape, before the intrusion of dissonance, a pirate attack when the eponymous sisters Linah and Minah are assaulted and shanghaied.
The merciful gods turn them into a pair of islands, the call of a conch shell and ocarina signaling a return to harmony in the high seas. This work, originally written for Chinese instruments and transcribed for Western orchestra, is now considered representative of Nanyang music, literally music from the south seas (Southeast Asia).
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| Photo: Aloysius Lim |
Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor (Op.64) was the showcase for Singapore’s best-selling violinist Chloe Chua, who is presently pursuing undergraduate musical studies in Berlin. Her presence alone would account for sold-out houses here and in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Finding celebrity at the age of eleven after sharing first prize at the Yehudi Menuhin competition in 2018, she has continued to mature musically, and this performance was a sign of this progress.
Her tone is warm and generous, exhibiting excellent intonation, and coupled with a winsome stage demeanour completely free of artifice. Early Romantic music prides itself on singing bel canto lines, which were brought to the fore in the opening and central movements. When the stops were pulled for the mercurial finale, Chua delivered without reservation, drawing loud cheers and prolonged applause from the audience. The result should be no different in China, one predicts.
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| Photo: Aloysius Lim |
The orchestra’s touring warhorse was Mahler’s First Symphony in D major, also known as the Titan. Because of the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix, neither Esplanade nor Victoria Concert Hall were available, necessitating a shift westwards to National University of Singapore’s Cultural Centre and its cavernous 1700-seat auditorium. Not designed as a dedicated concert hall, its dry acoustics were not ideal, especially for unaccompanied winds and brass. Thus the first movement’s evocation of dawn lacked mystery and atmosphere, despite the players best efforts, but once the strings sang out Ging heut Morgen übers Feld theme from Lieder eines Fahrenden gesellen (Songs of the Wayfarer), the ensemble began to settle.
The vigourous Ländler that followed was taken at a good whip, with the boisterous pastoral setting already well established. The droll canon with Frère Jacques in the minor key for the funeral procession was just as trenchant, but one only wished that the Klezmer episodes that followed had more swing. Perhaps that sense of reservation might scale down in subsequent performances.
When Mahler proclaimed the “symphony must have everything”, he also meant vulgarity being among the attributes. It was no holds barred, however, for the finale’s “cry from the wounded heart” opening the tumultuous movement, and culminating with the eight French horns rising on their feet towards the end being a particularly stirring moment. China, be prepared to be impressed!
Star Rating: ****
The original Bachtrack.com review can be read here:
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