ZARATHUSTRA AND BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

ZARATHUSTRA AND 

BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (24 July 2026)

This review was published on 25 July with the title "Dynamic SSO steps up to music director Hannu Lintu's unusual pairing of Strauss and Bartok".

The tandem of German composer Richard Strauss with Hungarian modernist Bela Bartok does not seem like obvious bedfellows. However, the two major works programmed in the second concert of Singapore Symphony Orchestra new music director Hannu Lintu’s inaugural series proved uncannily synergistic.

Both Richard Strauss and Bela Bartok
composed these masterpieces in their relative youth.

Strauss was the master of orchestral opulence, and his tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1896) had it all. Is there any classical work with a more recognisable opening two minutes? His famous depiction of Sunrise opened with a low rumble from Koh Jia Hwei’s pipe organ, ushering in the iconic three-note motif (C-G-C) on Jon Paul Dante’s solo trumpet and an orchestral outburst in glorious C major.

Such an arresting opening gambit could have rendered the rest of the 33-minute work superfluous, but Lintu’s clear-headed direction ensured this first of climaxes to be part of a series of coherently connected episodes. While reveling in big moments, many moments of chamber music-like intimacy also stood out.

The journey of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Ubermensch (Superman), pondering his yearnings and celebrating his achievements, also found a pivotal role for SSO’s new concertmaster Andrew Beer, whose ecstatic violin solo in the great waltz of the Tanzlied (Dance Song) was another high point. The orchestra responded with much immediacy, responsive to every dynamic shift in the music’s ebb and flow all through to a retiring but fulfilling close.

Photo: Jack Yam

While Strauss exulted in great aspirations of mankind, Bartok’s only opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, composed in 1911 but premiered in 1918, probed the underbelly and unmentionables of the soul. This highly effective concert-staging was sung in the Hungarian with Bela Balazs’ original libretto, with a spoken prologue voiced by famous Hungarian conductor Gabor Takacs-Nagy.

Photo: Jack Yam

There were sinister undertones to this “Once upon a time” introduction, heralding an hour-long psychological drama plumbing the deepest and darkest recesses of human ambition. Chinese bass-baritone Shenyang portrayed the eponymous villain with a cool and unflappable mien meant to be inscrutable. Opposite him was British mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston as newest bride Judith, displaying a tour de force of contrasted emotions – overbearing love, extreme vulnerability and inquisitiveness with a penchant for self-destruction.

Photo: Jack Yam

The pair of opposites were well-matched, their emotional tug-of-war accompanied by music of intricate detail best appreciated in a live performance rather than in recordings. This was Bartok’s orchestration at his most Romantic, preceding a more recognisable brutalist style of later years. A huge climax was reached at the opening of the fifth door, a revelation of Bluebeard’s immense wealth and territory, with stentorian chords in glorious C major - a most Straussian moment.

Photo: Jack Yam

The unfolding tension was acutely matched by Gabriel Chan’s deft lighting design and the audience engaged by English surtitles (expertly operated by Michael Huang). Most of all, the very positive audience response for sophisticated programming choices such as this bodes well for the concert seasons under Lintu’s helm to come.

HANNU LINTU INAUGURAL SERIES: GIL SHAHAM & MAHLER 5 / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

HANNU LINTU INAUGURAL SERIES:

GIL SHAHAM & MAHLER 5

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Friday (17 July 2026)

Esplanade Concert Hall

This review was first published in Bachtrack.com on 20 July 2026 with the title "Hannu Lintu makes his mark in inaugural concert with the Singapore Symphony".

Until today, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra has had just three music directors in its 47-year history – Choo Hoey, Lan Shui and Hans Graf. Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu was introduced this evening as its the fourth music director. A towering physical presence with a hint of a wizened smile, he made his presence felt immediately.

Lintu’s inaugural concert programme consisted wholly of 20th and 21st century works, opening with the world premiere of Après l'Odyssée by Singaporean composer Tan Chan Boon (born 1965). The École Normale-schooled Tan is Singapore’s most prolific symphonist, and this nearly 20-minute-long commission is the first movement of his yet to be performed Seventh Symphony. 

His models are anachronistically Romantic, with Anton Bruckner and Richard Strauss coming to mind, not least the pastoral opening string melody backed by cascading woodwind chords. The movement’s title After The Odyssey was premised on the feeling of relief and uneasy calm after his Sixth Symphony (L’Odyssey, recounting the Covid-19 pandemic). Its breezy beginning was qualified by a fugal treatment of its second subject. Tension ensued with the introduction of brass and percussion, gradually building to a fulsome climax before receding in a quiet close that portends hope for the future. A performance of the symphony in full is keenly anticipated.

American violinist Gil Shaham made a welcome return to Singapore with the Asian premiere of Nomad Concerto by American composer Mason Bates (born 1977). Conceived in four movements, this deliberately exotic yet gratifyingly tonal work imagines an assemblage had Ravel been requested to expand his rhapsodic Tzigane and throw in some New World jazz for good measure. 

Photo: LG Lim

Shaham’s virtuosity defined its first two movements, Song of the balloon man and Magician at the bazaar, casting a spell as an itinerant entertainer journeying through Eastern Europe to the Middle East. The mystically desolate slow movement Desert vision: oasis quoted a Jewish song before the rocking syncopations of Le jazz manouche, à la Django Reinhardt as Bates’ own programme notes reminds, brought down the house. The ensuing cheers ensured that the Magician movement, with its John Williams’ Harry Potter moments, was encored.

The only familiar music on show was Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, in a gripping performance that was long on drama but short on bombast. Jon Paul Dante’s excellent trumpet solo set the tone for a deliberately paced funeral march, yet there was never a moment where the narrative lagged. In the tumultuous struggle of the second movement, the marking mit größter Vehemenz (with greatest vehemence) was taken most literally, yet the earlier march’s driving impetus remained fresh in the subconscious. The central Scherzo’s French horn solo resounded like an exultant call from the abyss, heralding a celebration of some perverse joy, such was Mahler’s idea of irony.

There were no doubts in the Adagietto’s love message, delivered plain and without neuroses by gilded strings and harpist Gulnara Mashurova. In the attacca finale, an initial French horn fluff did little to dispirit the clever counterpoint Mahler wove into his satirical Wunderhorn song Lob des hohen Verstandes (In Praise of High Intellect), wittily closing the symphony on a blazing high. 

The orchestra responded with the acute awareness of a band guided by a fresh and uncompromising new leader who knows exactly what he wants and how to get it. Hannu Lintu has just ushered in an exciting and enticingly interesting new future for the Singapore Symphony in seasons to come.

Photo: LG Lim

Star Rating: *****

The original review may be found here:

Hannu Lintu makes his mark in inaugural Singapore Symphony concert | Bachtrack

SHOSTAKOVICH WITH LEONIDAS KAVAKOS & HANNU LINTU / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

SHOSTAKOVICH WITH

LEONIDAS KAVAKOS & HANNU LINTU

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Thursday (9 April 2026)

This review was first published in Bachtrack.com on 13 April 2026 with the title "Lintu, Kavakos and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra make the case for Shostakovich".

Has Dmitri Shostakovich become the new Rachmaninov in Singapore? There have never been more performances of Dmitri Shostakovich’s music in Singapore within such a short space in living memory. Two weeks ago, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra scaled his Eleventh Symphony with Eliahu Inbal conducting, and the First Piano Concerto followed with Yeol Eum Son’s brilliant fingers a week later. The Fifth Symphony will be heard from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestral Institute in two days’ time, and under SSO’s Music Director-Designate Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu, two blockbusters attracted audiences the size that would usually flock to Rachmaninov evenings.

Photo: Jack Yam

The Soviet era composer’s blend of 20th century modernism, dissonant but ultimately tonal, with communicative raw emotions identifiable with contemporary living, was what packed them in. Raw and gritty, as opposed to Rachmaninov’s lush and opulent, also found receptive ears. There was no virtuoso more suave than Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos for the First Violin Concerto in A minor (Op.99), composed in 1947. 

The opening Nocturne pitted low strings against the high line seamlessly established by Kavakos, whose clear and incisive tones sang out like a voice in the wilderness. The bitterness expressed, followed by lashings of vitriol in the Scherzo, where violin battled spiky woodwinds in a hammer-and-tongs struggle, would be suppressed until after Stalin’s death in 1953.

The concerto was clearly about a man against an oppressive totalitarian system, which the original dedicatee David Oistrakh fully understood. Kavakos, despite his cool approach, was never at odds with this, and the ensuing Passacaglia reinforced its gravity. There was a long pause for effect before the searing solo cadenza which launched inexorably into the finale’s Burlesque. In its frenetic pages, the baton flew off Lintu’s grasp, landing in front of Kavakos who returned it to the mirth of the audience. That was a brief moment of comic relief amid the flailing Klezmer-influenced mayhem which brought the concerto to a explosive close, greeted by a chorus of cheers. 

Kavakos’ encore of J.S.Bach’s Loure from Partita No.3 in E major (BWV.1006) provided the perfect balm for the frayed nerves that came before.

Shostakovich’s longest symphony, the Seventh or “Leningrad”, composed during the thousand-day Nazi siege of the city where a million souls perished, completed the evening. Should this be regarded as absolute or programme music, or propagandist hubris for a wartime cause? Lintu and his charges let the music speak for itself, with sound production being the primary agenda. To this end, four French horns, three trumpets and three trombones were placed in the gallery behind the orchestra for maximal projection... and it worked. Seldom has there been a more clear-headed performance of the music, with its themes well-delineated and never strained beyond incredulity. The battle depicted resistance not so much against Fascism but against the banalities of vulgarity.

That infamous first movement invasion theme (based on either Lehar or Tchaikovsky, later parodied by Bartok) and its ensuing crescendo was built up organically, and ratcheted to an ear-lacerating climax. Guo Siping’s plaintive bassoon solo provided the desolate denouement. After the exhausting half-hour mark, the central slow movements provided relief despite interludes of upheavals for contrast, and it was the finale which picked up from the opening movement’s exertions. The transition to C major at its conclusion provided the final redemption for the city which “Stalin destroyed and Hitler finished off”. 

Photo: Jack Yam

The 78 minutes was a journey well spent. If this show of passion and commitment cannot stir zeal and interest in Singapore for arguably the 20th century’s greatest composer, nothing else will.

Star Rating: *****

The original review on Bachtrack.com:

Lintu, Kavakos and the SSO make the case for Shostakovich | Bachtrack

SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA'S 2026/27 SEASON LAUNCHED IN THE COMPANY OF MUSIC DIRECTOR-DESIGNATE HANNU LINTU

 

SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

2026/27 SEASON MEDIA LAUNCH

Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s upcoming 2026/27 concert season looks to be its most pivotal and important in years. Now in its 47th year, the SSO is at a new set of crossroads. All was revealed at its season media launch held at Raffles Hotel’s East India Room on Wednesday afternoon. In attendance was SSO’s fourth Music Director, the Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu, who shared with all present his vision and hopes for the orchestra.

In a short interview conducted by SSO’s new Head of Artistic Planning Christopher Cheong, Music Director-Designate Lintu indicated the SSO as a new phase in his own artistic development, having concurrent positions at the Finnish National Opera & Ballet and Gulbenkien Orchestra in Lisbon. Having guest-conducted the SSO in 2017 and 2018, he had many positive feelings that something big was happening in Singapore and East Asia, and wanted to be part of that.

Lintu’s inaugural concerts take place in July, with performances of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra and Bartok’s single-act opera Bluebeard’s Castle. Within weeks of his tenure, he takes the SSO on tour to China, with seven concerts in two weeks. Within all this time, he will get to know the orchestra, musicians and their music-making better. Programming in seasons to come will include repertoire what the orchestra needs, his personal interests as well what the audience wants. All this will be finely balanced, and the results will be heard in the concerts. Lintu hopes the orchestra will help transform Singapore to become an important artistic hub in Asia.

Twenty-five percent of the works heard in 2026-27 will be World and Singapore premieres, including pieces by Singaporean composers Kelly Tang, Tan Chan Boon, Zechariah Goh, Germaine Goh and Sulwyn Lok. Wang Chenwei’s The Sisters’ Islands will be taken on tour to China. 

There will be Singapore debuts for conductors Marin Alsop, Markus Stenz, Pietari Inkinen and Francois Leleux, and returning artists include pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin, cellist Steven Isserlis and violinists Gil Shaham, Augustin Hadelich and James Ehnes. Special collaborations include performances by Two Set Violin, singer-actress Nathania Ong and Apsaras Dance Company, while the Singapore National Youth Orchestra accompanies a viewing of Jurassic Park. There is something for everyone in the season to come.

2026/27 Season Brochure | Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Photos from media launch:

SSO CEO Kenneth Kwok opens the media launch

The striking new season booklet

Hannu Lintu meets members of the media
and clarinettist Li Xin

Lintu autographs (guess who's CDs?)

Lintu's Sibelius cycle on DVD
is well-worth viewing

Lintu with Lianhe Zaobao's Zhang Heyang

The Three Zhangs
(Zhang, Chang & Cheong)

Just in case you missed this:

2026/27 Season Brochure | Singapore Symphony Orchestra

A stellar SSO 2026/27 season beckons!

HANNU LINTU CONDUCTS NELSON MASS + MAHLER 4 / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

HANNU LINTU CONDUCTS

NELSON MASS + MAHLER 4

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (14 November 2025)

This review was first published in Bachtrack.com on 17 November 2025 with the title "Hannu Lintu shows Singapore great things to come with Mahler and Haydn".

In March this year, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) named Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu as its fourth music director, succeeding Hans Graf in the 2026/2027 season. This was Lintu’s first concert as music director designate, confirming all the good notices garnered as a guest conductor in 2017 and 2018, besides providing an indication of the things to come.

Opening the evening was Joseph Haydn’s Missa in angustiis (Hob.XXII/11, or Mass for Troubled Times) in D minor, better known as his Nelson Mass. Its relationship with Britain’s greatest naval commander is tenuous other than it was composed in 1798 when Europe was in Napoleonic turmoil. The gloom had however lifted somewhat at its Eisenstadt premiere, with the news of Admiral Horatio Nelson vanquishing the French in the Battle of the Nile. Two years later, Nelson and Lady Hamilton personally met with Haydn at Esterhazy, and might have heard the mass performed then.

In the true spirit of Sturm und Drang, Lintu and his charges made no concessions for polite classical tradition and went for broke. Kyrie was an embattled cry for mercy, with the Singapore Symphony Chorus and Youth Choir (choral director: Eudenice Palaruan) in full voice and soprano Hera Hyesun Park leading the plaints. Of the soloists, she had the choicest parts, for which she never held back. Bass-baritone Edward Grint in Qui tollis peccata mundi of Gloria lent a lyrical contrast. 

The quartet of soloists was completed by mezzosoprano Virgine Verrez and tenor Elgan Llŷr Thomas, who had less significant roles but contributed well to the ensemble. The near 140-strong chorus sang in all movements, making big impacts in the fugal section of Gloria and later at the close of Credo. Entries were precise and consonants well enunciated, while the calmer Sanctus and Benedictus provided much needed contrast. Agnus Dei, led by mezzosoprano, transitioned to a joyous choral Dona nobis pacem in D major which closed the mass in a celebratory high. Desperate times called for an appropriate response, and Haydn duly delivered.

It was astute for Lintu to showcase Gustav Mahler’s most retiring symphony, the Fourth, as his calling card. Away from the earth-shaking exploits of the first three symphonies, the Fourth oozed congeniality, almost angst free in countenence. Its gentle, bucolic opening movement radiated sunshine, the sheer lack of ostentation gave cause for Lintu’s ability to craft much nuance from the playing. Strings were smooth as silk, and later as the music darkened in intensity, the woodwinds and brass crept into action, culminating in the solo trumpet’s forewarning of the Fifth Symphony’s funeral march to come.

The second movement was distinguished by concertmaster Kevin Lin playing a second violin tuned to a tone higher, representing Brother Death fiddling with another typical touch of Mahlerian macabre. The slow movement (Ruhevoll) was a portrait of respite and restraint, building to a climax before ushering the finale’s Wunderhorn song Das himmlische Leben (The Heavenly Life). 

Soprano soprano Park returned but now childlike and guileless, extolling an idyllic afterlife of scenic beauty, happy feelings and gustatory delights which stopped short of vegetarianism. There was to be no noisy or triumphant close, but music director designate Lintu had made his mark in the most musical way possible. There is a popular phrase in Malay, Singapore’s national language, “Akan datang” which means “more to come”, so watch this space.

Star Rating: *****

You can read the original version 

of this review at:

Hannu Lintu shows Singapore great things to come with Mahler and Haydn | Bachtrack