CHAMBER MUSIC RESIDENCY CONCERTS / Chamber Music & Arts Singapore / Review

 

CHAMBER MUSIC 

RESIDENCY CONCERTS

Chamber Music & Arts Singapore

Objectifs Chapel, 

155 Middle Road

Saturday (13 June 2026)

Friday (19 June 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 June 2026 with the title "Two evenings of resonant programmes by Chamber Music and Arts at Objectifs chapel".

Befitting a premier arts organisation, Chamber Music & Arts Singapore (CMAS) founded by local violinist Tang Tee Khoon aims to promote chamber music performance at highest possible levels. To this end, its Chamber Music Residency programme saw young Singaporean musicians mentored by leading international classical artists, and performing alongside them.

Two showcase concerts of French music were fruits of their labour. On Saturday (13 June), Gabriel Faure’s Piano Quartet No.2 in G minor (Op.45) was given a rare airing. Violinist Yang Shuxiang, who is concertmaster of re:Sound, was partnered with violist Joelle Hsu, pianist Tay Shu Wen and British cellist Jamie Walton.

The historic chapel of Objectifs, formerly the Middle Road Church in the 1890s, has reverberant acoustics well-suited for chamber music. From the outset, all four instruments could be distinctly heard on their own and in ensemble. This made for a rich unified sound in the music’s passionate opening pages, sustained as the tempo was further upped in the breathless Scherzo.

The true heart laid in the elegiac slow movement, where Hsu’s viola sang its plaint, backed by Tay’s bell-like chords. This oasis of respite was the calm before the finale’s storm of rapidly surging triplets, which made for an exciting end.

Maurice Ravel’s masterly Piano Trio in A minor followed without an intermission, performed by the musical mentors themselves, violinist Tang, cellist Walton and Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson. Despite adopting a somewhat deliberate opening tempo, the ensemble very rapidly ratcheted up the tension and volume, rising to the venue’s highest reaches.

All four movements were united by a common theme, so well-disguised as to be almost imperceptible. The second movement’s Pantoum was influenced by the metre found in the Malay pantun, its syncopations contrasted by the varied slow chants of the ensuing Passacaille (passacaglia), a set of variations on a bass theme. As in the Faure, the finale went for broke, where all caution was thrown to the wind for a rapturous close.

Friday (19 June) evening’s concert began with Faure’s La Bonne Chanson, an exquisite nine-movement song cycle with texts by French symbolist poet Paul Verlaine. Locally-based British soprano Kezia Robson was accompanied by string quartet (violinist Yang and Isabelle Ong, violist Hsu and cellist Cho Hang-oh), pianist Tay and double-bassist Kuek Jia Xin.

Over muted strings, Robson cast a spell of mystique over the opening song Une sainte en son aureole (A Saint In Her Halo), her spirits later soaring with the piano’s entry in Puisque l’aube grandit (Since Dawn Is Rising). The verses take a darker turn with fear and anxiety expressed, well captured by all aboard, before closing with the hope of love in L’hiver a cesse (Winter Has Ended).

Very different was Ernest Chausson’s Concert for violin, piano and string quartet (Op.21), a four-movement masterpiece conceived like a symphony but with the intimacy of chamber music. Violinist Tang and pianist Beatson were backed the same string foursome, but gloves were off for the most dramatic of first movements, built on an ominous three-note motif. 

A full gamut of emotions was run through a clothes wringer, the insouciant elegance of sicilienne-based second movement sharply contrasted with the moody yet intensely passionate dirge of the third movement aptly marked Grave.

The breathless and ecstatically charged finale saw the most acute of responses, with all six musicians playing as if their lives depended on it. The packed chapel erupted with vociferous praise. That is what truly moving chamber music in closed spaces elicits, and nothing less.

MUSIC RESIDENCY SHARING CONCERT / Chamber Music & Arts Singapore / Review

 

MUSIC RESIDENCY 

SHARING CONCERTS

Chamber Music & Arts 

Homegrown Artists

Objectifs Chapel, Middle Road

Sunday (21 June 2026)

The final day of Chamber Music & Arts’ (CMAS) Chamber Music Residency programme yielded one last concert by four of its Homegrown Artists, whom over a two-week course were mentored by three established international artists. Their Sharing Concert, just like the formal evening concerts, focused on all-French repertoire.

Titled The Conclusion of the War, it opened with Claude Debussy’s late Violin Sonata in G minor (1917) with violinist Isabelle Ong and pianist Tian KeXin. This was the terminally-ill composer’s attempt to relive Gallic characteristics and sensibilities in music, moving away from the German model that had influenced composers like Franck and Chausson. 

Penchant for melody and lightness in textures were key, which informed Ong’s perceptive playing and Tian’s fluid accompaniment. This was a performance strong in flavour and sensitive to nuance, not least in the middle movement’s subtle humour and the finale’s scintillating caprices.

This was followed by Gabriel Faure’s Cello Sonata No.1 in D minor (Op.109, 1917) performed by Singapore-based Korean cellist Cho Hang-oh with Tian again on piano. This underrated gem should be as popular and often played as Debussy’s late Cello Sonata, which remains a mystery. An elusiveness in melodiousness may be a reason, the lyrical glories of the Belle Epoque being well left behind by the horrors of war. 

Still, the duo mastered the opening movement’s rhythmic quirkiness and the finale’s emotional vagaries. However, the tender beauty of the slow movement’s plaint remains the abiding memory of this reading. Cho’s tone is simply gorgeous, and the outpouring of emotion by both players totally palpable. Bravo!

The matinee concluded tumultuously with Maurice Ravel’s La Valse (1919-20), in the version for piano four hands by Lucien Garban. Here, young pianist Tay Shu Wen was partnered by mentoring Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson. The duo could not completely escape the Yamaha’s tendency for percussiveness, but Beatson’s ever-steady waltz rhythm in the secondo part was met with alacrity by Tay’s flashily swooning primo role. 

Before long, both musicians were waltzing on their seats, while busily avoiding collisions of bodily parts. A sense of danger was ever present, and one was almost half-expecting the piano to collapse in the heap. The reality was that both pianists were on top of their game, and the message of societal decadence and collapse was well and truly received.

This Sharing Concert was more than a show-and-tell session after two weeks of music professionals working today. It was a clear indication that thanks to CMAS, chamber music performance in Singapore is heading in the right direction.

AN 1825 HOPSCOTCH / Tang Tee Khoon & Alasdair Beatson / Review

 

AN 1825 HOPSCOTCH 

Tang Tee Khoon, Violin 

Alasdair Beatson, Piano 

Esplanade Recital Studio 

Saturday (10 May 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 13 May 2025 with the title "Virtuoso playing by Tang Tee Khoon and Alasdair Beatson".

Two hundred years ago, in 1825, the world of classical music moved well into the Romantic era. With Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony premiered the year before, musical history would never be the same again. This was the premise of a very demanding recital of German Romantic violin sonatas by local violinist Tang Tee Khoon, founder and artistic director of Chamber Music and Arts Singapore (CMAS), and excellent Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson. 

Beethoven, Mendelssohn & Schumann.

Photo: Clarence Aw

That the duo focussed on repertoire that is not often heard in concert, a decision that would have adversely affected the box-office, was also telling. Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No.10 in G major (Op.96 from 1812), which opened the concert, is far less often performed than his Kreutzer Sonata (Op.47) and that is our loss. 

Photo: Clarence Aw

It began with a whisper from the violin, echoed by the piano, its congeniality being a far cry from the blood and guts passion of earlier sonatas. This music is for sensitive souls performing for sensitive listeners, and the chemistry between Tang and Beatson showed from the outset. When both musicians listen to each other intently, the results are immediately palpable. 

Photo: Clarence Aw

The hymn-like slow movement oozed lyricism, later seguing into a brief Scherzo with crisply delivered chords. It was the finale’s theme and variations on a jolly subject that surprised the most. Seldom has Beethoven sounded this disarming and non-belligerent, and it was with this good humour that the duo scored the highest marks. 

Photo: Clarence Aw

By comparison, Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Sonata No.3 in F major (1838) was a showcase for virtuoso chops. The first movement’s main theme was resolute and heroic, a showy prelude heralding the musical sorcery to come. While the prayer-like central movement was a typical “song without words”, the finale flew on fairy wings, its feathery lightness being a hallmark of the technical prowess demanded. The twosome’s charming reading could scarcely be bettered. 

Photo: Clarence Aw

The concert’s second half was occupied by Robert Schumann’s very substantial Violin Sonata No.2 in D minor (Op.121) from 1851, more than a good half-hour of overflowing passion. A late work written at a time of psychiatric crisis, the embattled composer literally poured out his heart, and received the performance it deserved. 

Photo: Clarence Aw

From the series of slashing opening chords, both Tang and Beatson showed they clearly meant business. An overwhelming sense of agitation and urgency obsessed the music, with the Sturm und Drang (storm and stress) generated never flagging for a single moment. This tension continued into the second movement with flashy piano chords accompanying the violin’s plaints. 

Photo: Clarence Aw

Gentle violin pizzicatos opened the lyrical slow movement, its apparent quietude and simplicity later interjected with reminders from the preceding movement. Beneath the surface calm, not all is well was the intended message. The perpetual motion of the finale was a return to the maelstrom, as both performers rallied to an impressively resounding finish. It was a pity that such artistry was not witnessed by a larger audience.