COMPOSITIONS EXCHANGE 2025: SOLO & CHORAL / Association of Composers (Singapore) / Review

 

COMPOSITIONS EXCHANGE 2025: 

SOLO & CHORAL 

Association of Composers (Singapore) 

Esplanade Recital Studio 

Wednesday (23 April 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 25 April 2025 with the title "Home-grown composers in the spotlight at Association of Composers concert" (online edition) and "Good music from home-grown composers bringing people together" (print edition).

There are probably more musical composers in Singapore than one suspects. Many do not get commissions from major national arts organisations or get performed by high profile musicians, but they persevere nonetheless. 

Association of Composers (Singapore) is one of several composer collectives that exist here, and regularly showcases its members’ works in annual concerts. This evening’s concert was a showcase of music for choir and solo keyboard, with twelve works being heard. 

The first segment saw 17 singers of EVOKX Choir conducted by Keane Ong in a variety of choral music. Xiao Chunyuan’s Shiva, based on the mantra Om Nama Shivaya with words by local poet Edwin Thumboo, had an a cappella refrain on a D minor bass imbued with a spirit of contemplation. 

Soh Kay Cheng and Mary Soh’s Welcoming Autumn accompanied by pianist Dale Huang offered recitatives in Chinese, and evoked serenity with New Age harmonies. 

Quite different was Daniel Kom’s Burning Flames, a salute to the heroism following the September 11 catastrophe. Part inspired by the drama of Mozart’s Requiem, the narrative of saving lives turned tragedy into something positive. Wang Xin’s I Sing For You, Singapore was an ode to the nation turning 60, and had the feel-good vibes of National Day Parade songs. 

The keyboard solo segment was helmed by organist Emma Jiang Wan and pianist Clarence Lee, exhibiting no little virtuosity. Refreshingly left of field was Jiang playing her original composition Fast Track on a Yamaha Electone. This was a most exuberant and entertaining work with jazzy riffs and ostinatos riding over pre-programmed beats. 

Lee’s first two piano solos relived the violence in contemporary idioms. Cao Ying’s Conspiracy was built up to Sergei Prokofiev levels of dissonance and percussiveness. Zhao Lingyan’s The Loulan City in the Wind, while more descriptive in nature, was an excellent tone poem more aligned with the aggressiveness of Dmitri Shostakovich despite its Debussyan Impressionist title. 

By contrast, Ng Eng Thong’s Awake was lyrical and dreamlike. Calmness was maintained on high registers, its gradual crescendo concluding abruptly with repeated high Cs. 

The 90-minute concert closed with the 25-member One Chamber Choir conducted by Dawn Yin performing four works. Compared with the earlier choral segment, this one had an overall more cheerful feel. 

Quek Yong Siu’s Dandelion and the Tree was clothed with beautiful harmonies, reflecting the love between mother and child. Chiew Keng Hoon’s Moon had wider dynamics while exhibiting the same degree of a cappella warmth. 

Accompanied by Huang’s piano, Liu Bin’s Tao was sung by eleven men, a surprisingly light-hearted look at Laozi’s Tao Te Ching with an emphasis on the words “dao” (the way) and “ming” (clarity and brightness). 

Finally Lee Yuk Chuan’s Star, Friends for mixed choir was both congenial and affable in spirit, a loving tribute directed at the 92-year-old composer-conductor who was seated behind the audience. Good music brings people together, and this concert was a testimony to that indefatigable credo.

Lee Yuk Chuan acknowledges
One Chamber Choir's splendid work.

Pioneering composer and choral conductor
Lee Yuk Chuan, a star meets with his friends.

BRUCKNER AND "THE GREAT" / PROGRESSION III / Braddell Heights Symphony & MacPherson Symphony Orchestras / Review

 

BRUCKNER AND “THE GREAT” 

Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra 

School of The Arts Concert Hall 

Saturday (28 September 2024)

PROGRESSION III 

MacPherson Philharmonic Orchestra 

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall 

Sunday (29 September 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 1 October 2024 with the title "Community orchestras prove mettle with ambitious programmes".

Community orchestras in Singapore have progressed so much over the years that they now comfortably perform repertoire that was once the reserve of Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Two concerts over the weekend eloquently proved that point. 

Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Tan commemorated the birth bicentenary of Austrian composer Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) by giving the Singapore premiere of his early Overture in G minor (1863). 

Just 10 minutes in duration, its debt of influence to Richard Wagner and Ludwig van Beethoven was evident. Despite a hesitant opening, the orchestra made the most of its fussy string figurations, busy counterpoint and brassy climaxes. 

More impressive was its take on Franz Schubert’s Ninth Symphony in C major, nicknamed “The Great” because of its “heavenly length”. Conductor Tan’s vision took some 49 minutes to complete, with tautness and cogency as qualities. The music benefited from his attention to detail and a propensity for good-natured humour. Nobody would have missed the finale’s heroics and its playful quote of Ode To Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. 

The evening’s piece de resistance was young double bassist Julian Li’s fearlessly virtuosic solo in living Argentinian composer Andres Martin’s Double Bass Concerto No.1 (2012). Its accessible idiom encompassed tango and film music but necessitated playing in high registers approximating the cello’s. 

Li’s tonal projection, accurate intonation and utter confidence all through its three movements were an inspiration to behold. His encore of Giovanni Bottesini’s Elegy No.1, accompanied by his sister Gemma on piano, was simply touching. 

Equally impressive was the showing of pianist Clarence Lee in Sergei Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor with the MacPherson Philharmonic Orchestra led by Lester Kong. His was an expansive view, with big-boned barnstorming tempered by sensitivity and subtlety such to be able to smell the flowers. 

The slow movement’s full-on lyricism and the finale’s big melody could have been laid on with a shovel, but in Lee’s hands, poeticism ruled instead. Nobody could have expected an excerpt from Nobuo Uematsu’s Final Fantasy X as an encore, but it was lovely. 

Clarence presenting flowers to his mother,
bringing tears to her eyes.

The orchestra supported him to the hilt and was just as alert to the nuances of Gioachino Rossini’s Overture to The Barber of Seville. Its tricky dotted rhythms, decorative running note passages were well-negotiated, with wit and good humour being the end result. 

Its biggest test was Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5 in E minor, a concert warhorse so often heard as to be tainted with over-familiarity. Conductor Kong took the well-filled hall to be mostly concert newbies by addressing them and playing examples before each movement. 

The ostensible aim was to demonstrate the symphony’s “Fate” theme being transformed over four movements. That was laudable but the music’s natural flow was disrupted by these stops and starts, with audience applause between movements being encouraged. 

The performance itself was very good, with tightly-knit ensemble and a palpable pulse propelling the music along. The string sound had a nice sheen, and the brass was excellent, with the solo French hornist acquitting himself generally well in the slow movement. 

Breathless excitement ruled the finale and the inevitable happened, with an over-eager audience prematurely applauding at the climactic pause just before the coda. That would have been embarrassing at an SSO concert, but this was a family-friendly event, thus easily forgivable. 

As long as our community orchestras purposefully continue to engage the public and make new friends for the classics, that cannot be a bad thing.

Watch the Rachmaninov concerto performance here:

COMPOSITIONS EXCHANGE 2024 / Association of Composers (Singapore) / Review

 

COMPOSITIONS EXCHANGE 2024 

Association of Composers (Singapore) 

Esplanade Recital Studio 

Wednesday (19 June 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 June 2024 with the title "Singapore composers showcase works".

For a composer in Singapore, the most important thing is to have your work performed. First impressions matter, so having best possible performers for the premiere is a priority. The annual concert of the Association of Composers (Singapore), which showcased 12 works by 12 composers, was fortunate in having some of most accomplished locally-based professional musicians involved. 

Subtitled “Capriccio In The Style Of Folk Melodies”, most of the works were based on earlier music and crafted in the form of variations, fantasies and rhapsodies. The Chinese artsongs and instrumental works were sensitively accompanied by pianists Clarence Lee and Andren Koh respectively. 

Soprano He Miya sang two songs, opening the concert with Lee Yuk Chuan’s Yinghua Village Scenery Is Wonderful, extolling the land’s pristine beauty. Her expressive quality and ability to reach high notes effortlessly also touched in Quek Yong Siu’s Mother’s Smile, a song possessed with tenderness and nostalgia. 

Tenor Zhuang Jie had three songs, exhibiting exemplary vocal control in Liu Bin’s Homesickness, another mother-centred work more than tinged with melancholy. Quite different was Xiao Chunyuan’s An Auspicious Place, its rhythmic accompaniment supporting a more emphatic stance, further contrasted with a feel-good, pop-inspired sentimentality of Gan Yun Zhuo’s Everlasting Love. 

Of the instrumental works, Red Peach Blossom & White Apricot Blossom as arranged by Cao Ying was dressed with French impressionist colours. Sin Jin How’s flute ably provided virtuosic turns and nuances, transforming this Shanxi folksong into an almost improvisatory fantasy. 

Violinist Siew Yi Li was the busiest instrumentalist after pianist Koh, having performed no less than five showpieces. Chiew Keng Hoon’s arrangement of Xinjiang folksong Swallow Capriccio had a typically Central Asian flavour, and closed in soulful repose. Daniel Kom’s Variations On The More We Get Together, after the Austrian children’s song O Du Lieber Augustin, included a waltz, rhumba, romance in minor key and a variation a la Johann Pachelbel for good measure. 

Lee Ngoh Wah’s Galloping Horses was a variation of the popular erhu melody Sai Ma (Horse-racing). Its familiarity was topped by Lian Sek Lin’s Kaka Dan Mama, which merged the Indonesian folksongs Burung Kakak Tua and Aiyo Mama into a melange which the audience simply loved. 

Just as recognisable was the melody of Di Tanjung Katong Rhapsody, as crafted by Frederick Ng Eng Thong. The music played with polytonality and obliged the violinist to jump through several Paganinian hoops of string calisthenics before its grandstanding close. 

Pride of place, however, went to Lisa Zhao Lingyan’s Variations Of Yi Folk Dance, which transformed Wang Huiran’s simple Yunnan theme into something truly special. Its reimagination as a riveting rhapsody from Roarin’ Twenties Paris saw cellist Olivia Chuang and pianist Koh playing like people possessed. Its fanciful flight of ostinatos chanelled the spirits of Darius Milhaud, Bohuslav Martinu, Igor Stravinsky and hot jazz without imitating them. Hearing this work was alone worth the price of entry.

Here are the composers and performers:
He Miya, Lisa Zhao Lingyan, Clarence Lee,
Zhuang Jie, Quek Yong Siu, Xiao Chunyuan,
Lee Yuk Chuan, Chiew Keng Hoon, Lian Sek Lin,
Cao Ying, Frederick Ng Eng Thong, Daniel Kom,
Liu Bin, Andren Koh & MC (from L)

RHAPSODIC STORIES / Samuel Phua (Saxophone) & Friends / Review

RHAPSODIC STORIES

Samuel Phua & Friends

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (22 October 2022)

 

When it comes to the classical saxophone in Singapore, one name stands out: Samuel Phua. The young saxophonist made history in 2014 by being the first non-pianist and non-string instrumentalist to be invited to perform at the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s President’s Young Performers Concert Series. He has also been the go-to guy for the saxophone solos in Kelly Tang’s jazz piano concerto Montage, playing alongside local jazz legend Jeremy Monteiro.

 

Rhapsodic Stories was the fruition of a Covid pandemic project bringing together newly composed or arranged saxophone works by no less than nine Singaporean composers. Its gripping two hours could not have passed more easily or interestingly, simply because of the sheer variety of music presented and virtuosity on display. And one never knew the existence of so many excellent local saxophone works.

 

The evening opened with Terrence Wong’s Out-Do You Do?, a duet and duel with fellow saxophonist Michellina Chan, who shared much of the programme with Samuel. Its thematic motifs were relatively simple but nimble, like those of Paganini’s Caprices, but soon one was occupied by the tricky interplay of both instrumental parts. Melodic interest and accompaniment regularly  exchanged places, with each player reacting to the other’s moves and antics, culminating with a single long-held note from Samuel at the end.    

 

Jonathan Shin and Christopher Clarke’s Aria from Music About The Downtown Line was a short, slow and reflective number oozing with nice harmonies, accompanied by Abigail Sin on piano. Derek Oh was a constant companion to Samuel when they both studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Oh’s The Grey Birch was a reflection of a desolate Finnish winter coloured with Chinese sensibilities. The stasis and starkness consuming the music ensured that one could feel the chill. After a loud and declamatory cadenza, the work just dissipated and evaporated into the cold mist.

 

Tan Yuting’s But I Am The Lallang was inspired by a poem by Lim Thean Soo (1924-1991) exulting the resilience of the local weed, known for its hardiness and ubiquity.  The unaccompanied solo incorporated various noteless sound effects, including passages of wind blown through the tubes and pauses of silence. The lallang is portrayed as unchanging, a silent witness to history and timeless voice of eternity.  

 

Zechariah Goh Toh Chai is the veteran among the group of Singaporean composers, besides being a saxophone exponent himself. His Suite was also the oldest local work on the programme, comprising two vastly contrasting movements. Alone and Distant had slow, long-breathed lines with an Oriental feel evoking emptiness and homesickness. Flowing was fast, syncopated and jazzy, utilising extended piano techniques with Abigail stroking the strings and Samuel blowing into the piano’s insides. Further beats were provided by very audible tapping on the saxophone’s keys. Sandra Lim’s Morning Memories, originally for violin and piano, was arguably the lightest work on show, with a pop melody that could have come from the pens of Michel Legrand or Dick Lee.

 

Gershwin’s immortal Rhapsody in Blue as arranged by Jun Nagao has both saxophone and piano parts as equal protagonists. This called for the outsized virtuosity of Clarence Lee in the piano role, which perfectly complemented Samuel performing on three saxophones. Part of the nervy act was to witness him adroitly swapping instruments without missing a cue (or dropping any of them on the floor). Much of the full score was retained, with the orchestral parts (alternated between sax and piano) sounding more demanding than possibly imagined. This was an entertaining show that delighted and thrilled.

 

Joseph Lim’s Epic Poem of Malaya was inspired by local artist Chua Mia Tee’s famous 1955 painting of the same title now on display at the National Gallery. Epic indeed was the sheer size and sonority of the baritone saxophone played by Michellina, its deep stentorian voice mimicking the painting’s orator with his rhetoric and gestures. Using Chinese idioms and Malay dance rhythms, this is not just a soliloquy but a reflection of local history and its vicissitudes. Convincingly conveyed by Michellina, it was a minor miracle that she managed to maintain her balance without keeling over.   

 

Closing the recital was London-based composition student Elliott Teo's Dirge and Dance for two saxophones and piano, which has the makings of an epic tragedy. Big piano chords (back with Abigail Sin) accompanied the dirge which exuded a Slavic lugubriousness but coloured by Klezmer vibes. Making for very effective film music, this segued into the lively and animated dance, where the combo between high and low register voices really shone. The result was a very impressive end to the concert.

 

As an encore, Kousuke Yamashita’s Eternal Story saw all four musicians in a sentimental number that demonstrated that with saxophones, one could be both entertaining and also taken seriously. Long may Samuel Phua, the one-man sax maniac, continue to champion the saxophone, inspiring new works and further enriching Singapore’s burgeoning musical scene.