RE:SOUND 10TH ANNIVERSARY / BRADDELL HEIGHTS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 40TH ANNIVERSARY GALA CONCERTS / Review

 

10TH ANNIVERSARY GALA CONCERT

re:Sound

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Saturday (29 August 2026)

40TH ANNIVERSARY GALA CONCERT

Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (30 August 2026)

This review was published by The Straits Times on 1 September 2026 with the title "re:Sound and Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra's anniversary galas prove diversity of classical scene".

Over last weekend, three local musical ensembles marked their respective anniversaries with a gala concert each. These were Red Dot Baroque (8th), re:Sound Collective (10th) and Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra (40th). By actively programming local composers, the latter two groups have helped shape the concert repertoire enjoyed in Singapore today.

Photo: @Joelcaptures

Singapore’s first professional chamber orchestra re:Sound opened accounts with J.S.Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor (BWV.1041), showcasing 13-year-old Chua Suen Ern in an exacting solo role. With spotless intonation and technique as natural as breathing, she blended seamlessly with players double to quadruple her age. A very bright future beckons.

Photo: @Joelcaptures

Warmth and lushness of re:Sound’s strings were caught in full bloom with harpist Charmaine Teo for the Adagietto from Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. Led by violinist Yang Shuxiang, this love letter to Mahler’s wife Alma felt right at 10 minutes, its passionate climax coming at just the perfect moment.

Receiving its world premiere was Germaine Goh’s Sleepless In Singapore, a re:Sound commission. A suite for chamber orchestra, it played like a 21st century concerto grosso in four movements. Between Concrete and Sky evoked dawn in Little India with use of raga scales. Through Windows recounted a frenetic pace of traffic (and life) with the added impetus of pelting rain.

Highly effective scoring included solos for clarinet and soprano saxophone (Ralph Lim), French horn (Alan Kartik) and bassoon (Lim Tee Heong), the latter starring in its slow movement Sleepless, mimicking the call of a nightjar. The finale Tomorrow, Again combined Malay percussive beats with John Adams-styled minimalism for an excitingly manic conclusion.

Photo: @Joelcaptures

The concert’s main work was Ludwig van Beethoven Fifth Symphony in C minor (Op.67) guest-led by Ohio-based Jonathan Ong, first violinist of the Verona Quartet. Although not performing on period instruments, the ensemble adopted the spirit of early 19th century’s “age of enlightenment”.

Photo: @Joelcaptures

Lithe textures and swift tempos did not translate into thin wispy sounds, instead gained an edginess that kept listeners engaged on the edge of their seats. The use of natural horns (without valves) and calfskin timpani heads were added points of authenticity. For an old familiar favourite to sound this refreshing and revitalised is exactly why re:Sound exists.

Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra (BHSO), Singapore’s oldest community orchestra, was led by Leonard Tan in an unusually creative programme. It opened with the winner of a call-for-scores, Seem Jia Ang’s The Journey Ahead. Within a single minute, a flute solo expanded into something with cinematic aspirations but ended as soon as it began, leaving one guessing myriad possibilities for development.

Tan Chan Boon’s In Memory of Franz Schubert (1997) was built on two motifs from the slow movement of the Austrian composer’s “Unfinished” Eighth Symphony. First heard as fragments, these coalesced into actual quotations before launching into an inevitable fugue. The orchestra’s masterful handling of its scholarly discourse was admirable.

Even more impressive was its partnership with Cheong Kah Yiong, founding member of Morse Percussion, in Chinese-American composer Chen Yi’s Percussion Concerto (1998). A solo tour-de-force premiered here by renowned Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie and the Singapore Symphony in 1999, Cheong headily relived all its dynamic moments on gongs, drums and xylophones.

In the central movement Prelude To Water Tune, vocal recitation of Beijing Opera was where Cheong had the advantage of language and fine auditory nuances. The rapid-fire Speedy Wind finale drew the longest and loudest ovation of all soloists who have played with the orchestra.

BHSO literally pulled all the stops for Camille Saint-Saens’ Third Symphony in C minor, popularly known as the “Organ” Symphony, in a performance that lacked nothing in full-blooded passion and visual spectacle. On Victoria Concert Hall’s Klais organ, Loraine Muthiah did the honours, in the hymn-like slow movement and the grandstanding finale which unleashed voice and vibration to spine-chilling effect.

Professional or volunteer, long may communal music-making in Singapore thrive.

Jeremy Monteiro's very detailed personal account of the re:Sound concert:

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A PIANO DIALOGUE OF NEW GENERATION / RUAN YANGYANG Piano Recital / Review

 

A PIANO DIALOGUE 

OF NEW GENERATION

RUAN YANGYANG Piano Recital

Victoria Concert Hall

20 Jun 2025

This review was published in The Straits Times on 23 June 2025 with the title "Bridging classical music, pop culture with easy listening pieces".

Young Chinese pianist Ruan Yangyang, recent graduate from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and winner of multiple piano competitions, purports to be a “Pianist of a New Generation”. What does that even mean? His piano recital came some way to answer that poser, with an attempt to bridge the gap between serious classical music and popular culture by appealing to younger listeners.

Addressing the audience in both English and Mandarin, his recital comprised separate chapters with titles like “Love, Longing and Dreams”, “Innocence and Remembrance” et cetera. These juxtaposed classics with arrangements of music written for Japanese Anime movies. The recital opened with Frederic Chopin’s Nocturne in B flat minor (Op.9 No.1), displaying a true feel for cantabile, the art of singing.

This went directly to Your Lie In April (2016), partnered by a trio formed by violinist Christina Zhou, cellist Xu Xuena and percussionist Cheong Kah Yiong which performed in all the Anime pieces. This was very pleasant mood music, lovingly played, which incorporated Mozart’s Turkish Rondo midway through.

A participant in the 2021 Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, his credentials were again on display for the Pole’s Nocturne in C minor (Op.48 No.1), which was passionate and full-blooded. Butter-Fly from Digimon Adventure (1999), that followed, continued on that thread by including the big chords from Rachmaninov’s Prelude in C sharp minor (Op.3 No.2).

Ruan’s biggest test came in Chopin’s demanding Ballade No.4 in F minor (Op.52), with pathos aplenty leading up to a thrilling climax, before a memory lapse almost derailed the proceedings. After a spot of premature applause, its coda was nailed on for a perfect close. Joe Hisaishi’s Merry-Go-Round of Life from Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) was a merry little waltz, which had Chopin’s Waltz in C sharp minor (Op.64 No.2) tacked on, but transposed to G minor.

Hisaishi’s Spirited Away (2001) was perhaps the most familiar music for youngsters, with Ruan introducing even younger guests - violinist Rebecca Oh and cellist Annie Dan. They played with confidence and acquitted themselves well, before Ruan polished off Johann Sebastian Bach’s Prelude & Fugue in E flat major (BWV.876) with utmost clarity of articulation.

For Call of Silence from Attack On Titan (2017) to include Chopin’s Funeral March (from Sonata No.2) was an astute choice, and even smarter was to follow its stormy pages with Debussy’s Prelude No.7 or Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest (What The West Wind Saw). Arguably the Frenchman’s most violent music, Ruan delivered idiomatically and with aplomb.

Young pianist Tiffany Huang then joined him in DJ Okawari’s pretty Flower Dance, making stark contrasts with Zhang Zhao’s Pi Huang (1995), which closed the classical segment for good on a virtuosic note.

There was more light music with Big Fish & Begonia, Senbonzakura and two encores. Variations on Molihua was enjoyable, and so was a mini-ensemble of seven young string players joining Ruan and his trio for a final feel-good piece, the Chinese song Xuan Cao Hua (Daylilies).

Ruan Yangyang's Piano Recital was 

presented by Future Music.

Photography by Yong Junyi.