RHAPSODIES OF SPRING 2019 / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

RHAPSODIES OF SPRING 2019

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (19 January 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 January 2019 with the title "High jinks and nostalgia to usher in new year".

Like Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s annual Christmas Concerts, Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s Lunar New Year concerts, entitled Rhapsodies Of Spring, are must-attend events for those who enjoy seasonal favourites delivered with healthy doses of light-heartedness. Conducted by Yeh Tsung, this year’s offerings were high on humour and nostalgia.

The concert opened with Li Huan Zhi’s familiar Spring Festival Overture, an old-fashioned rouser which sounded oh-so traditional before SCO Composer-on-Residence Law Wai Lun’s Celebrating New Year. There was a deliberate schlockiness to this medley which reeked of gaudy Geylang a-go-go bars of the 1960s.

More power to a smart parody of styles which saw Cai Shen Dao (God Of Fortune Arrives) and Ying Chun Hua (Spring Blossoms) dressed up as a rumba and cha cha respectively. And one has not really lived without experiencing that ear-worm Gong Xi Gong Xi taking the form of a ridiculously camp tango.   

What truly distinguished the evening were four World Premieres of Chinese evergreens re-orchestrated as popular culture-influenced concertante works by four local composers. Simon Kong’s Flight Of Bossa Nova saw Chang Le and Meng Jie in a duel of suonas updating the woodwind classic Bai Niao Chao Feng (Hundreds Of Birds Paying Respect To The Phoenix).

There were many jazzy turns to erhu classic Erquan Yingyue (Moon’s Reflection On Erquan) in Phang Kok Jun’s Erquan In Swing. Tan Man Man’s hip-gyrating solo was the perfect foil to Ling Hock Siang’s reliving of the legendary blind erhu exponent Abing’s soulful plaint.

In Wang Chenwei’s Interstellar Ambush, the pipa showpiece Shi Mian Mai Fu (Ambush From All Sides) took on the ominous strides of Darth Vader’s Imperial March. The always spectacular Yu Jia in a multi-sequined gown did the honours, but something was lost by not being dressed like a stormtrooper.

For Hard Rock Fight, Eric Watson pitted two percussionists, Xu Fan on Chinese drums (dagu and paigu) against Ngoh Keng Seng on timpanis in a pitched battle where Long Hu Dou (Dragon Tiger Feud) was transformed into a rock fantasy. Art or kitsch? The side-splitting in-jokes in these four new works meant they were not to be taken too seriously.

After the first half’s high jinks, the second half was more retrospective and sedate. Heady Shanghai of the 1930s was relived with Fang Qiong in a selection of songs popularised by singer-actress Zhou Xuan in Law Wai Lun’s The Wandering Songstress Symphonic Suite. She certainly had the full measure these numbers which included Song Of Four Seasons, Waiting For A Beloved, May Breezes and Soaring Phoenix.

Conductor Yeh was in his element too, reciting poetry in both Mandarin and antique Shanghainese, performing dance steps and even downing a glass of red wine. Had the audience been similarly stimulated, there would have been a more raucous response to Sim Boon Yew’s Spring Suite 2019, which closed the concert with the customary glad tidings. Gong xi gong xi...

RHAPSODIES OF SPRING 2014 / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

RHAPSODIES OF SPRING 2014

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Friday (10 January 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 13 January 2014 with the title "Festive start to spring".

Chinese New Year is a dual celebration of the turn of the lunar calendar and the heralding of spring. Thus the Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s annual New Year Concerts conducted by its Music Director Yeh Tsung shares a similar festive spirit as the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s Christmas Concerts, with the added flavour of a television variety show.

Li Huan Zhi’s Spring Festival Overture rowdily opened the concert, and before anyone could applaud, went directly into Huang Hai Huai’s Horse Racing. The familiar melody served to greet the Chinese zodiacal “Year of The Horse”, its stampeding hoof-beats and chorus of synchronised neighing providing marked contrasts with the gentle trot and amble of Leroy Anderson’s Horse and Buggy.

Then the show belonged to the disc jockeys of Capital 95.8, the popular Chinese language radio station, who acted out a skit The Swordsman Saga which brought legendary heroes and villains of wuxia or Chinese sword-fighting escapades into the mix. By some quirk of magic, the denizens of folklore arrived in modern-day Singapore and went on air with comical consequences. The accompanying music was arranged by Tan Kah Yong, with a segment quoting Prokofiev’s Montagues and Capulets from the ballet Romeo and Juliet.

The DJs also had a rap of their own, but the second half was distinguished by three soloists. Han Lei (above) demonstrated his versatility on the guanzi, the short reed instrument which revelled in folk-like slides in the Hebei melody Grazing The Burro and a saxophone’s revelry in the infectious Caribbean rhythm of Kong Hong Wei’s Summer Palace.

Vocalist Fan Qiong oozed sultriness and sensuality in the Mongolian folksong Swan Goose and Huang Yi Jun’s Misty Rain. In the latter, she was joined by violinist Qian Zhou whose lyrical obbligato part was equally alluring. There was a folksy lilt in Tang Ni’s The Story of Small Town and dazzling coloratura in the waltz-song Hai Yan (Swallow) by Chen Ge Xin, probably China’s answer to Johann Strauss’s Voices of Spring.

Unlike last month’s mass participation Messiah, this audience is not one for singing, so there was a clap-along instead for Sim Boon Yew’s Spring Festival Suite II, which contains the four most popular and overplayed Chinese New Year anthems of all. The DJs provided a makeshift unison choir, their contribution made all the apparent when soloist Fan finally joined the fray.

With the arrival of a costumed God of Wealth, an Oriental Santa Claus of sorts, their communal message was “Make Prosperous”. There could not be a more propitious Chinese greeting than that. 

 

Concert photographs by the kind courtesy of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra.