RIVER OF LIFE / NP Collective / Review

 

RIVER OF LIFE: 

AN INTERCULTURAL ODYSSEY 

NP Collective 

Esplanade Recital Studio 

Thursday (12 September 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 14 September 2024 with the title" NP Collective finds unity in diversity".

Rivers are the bringers of life and civilisation, with the lands and nations of the Asian continent being chief beneficiaries of their perpetual sustenance. This was the basis of the hour-long concert by NP Collective, an ensemble under the umbrella of Brahmastra Arts House. 

Photo: Brahmastra Arts House

Its nine musicians performing a host of different instruments, conducted by Huang Ming Xiang, come from diverse musical backgrounds. Crossover and fusion might have been convenient labels for the works performed, but reality was more nuanced than that expedient pigeon-holing of musical genres. 

By placing guest sarangi player Sarfaraaz Khan as main soloist, the obvious start point was that of South Asian music. The haunting tone he coaxed from the vertically-held bowed three-stringed instrument was memorable, with a range and timbre wavering somewhere between Western violin and viola. Coloured with distinct vocal qualities, it is once heard, never forgotten. 

Further melodic interest came from creative director Niranjan Pandian on bansuri (Indian bamboo flute, above) and Bryan de Rozario on tenor saxophone, backed by cello, electronic bass and keyboard, and percussion (mridangam, traditional and modern drums, small cymbals, singing bowls and rainsticks). The possibilities seemed endless, however the five works on show were constrained by the need to utilise all the instruments such that they came across as somewhat interchangeable. 

Photo: Brahmastra Arts House

Eric Watson’s Between Two Rivers opened the show, followed by John Sharpley’s River of Light. Both composers have very different compositional idioms and styles, but it was nigh impossible to tell them apart here. Both had provided in their scores forms and themes for the musicians to work with, but much latitude was left for improvisation and ornamentation. 

Thus as each work progressed, Indian music with its sine qua non ruminative qualities (as in most ragas) soon morphed into jazzy inventions, with infectious beats provided by the battery of percussion. This was no bad thing as every work was kept light and lively, and ultimately enjoyable. 

Sharpley’s work also had the added element of movement with percussionist NJ Pravin leaving his perch to pursue drumming as an animated dance. Had this been scripted or was it all spontaneous? Jazz exponent Chok Kerong’s Rapids juxtaposed sarangi with sax - an alluring combo - and later bansuri with drums, providing an edgy feel throughout. 

Avik Chari’s Zanskar Milan dwelled on the confluence of the Indus and Zanskar rivers in the Himalayas, its leisurely pace and meditative nature enhanced with most of the illuminations turned off. Gu Wei’s To The Southern Seas, which closed the concert, expressed hopes and aspirations provided by the Yangtze River but had no distinctive Chinese themes involved. 

That would have been just too cliched, but it was the unison playing (heterophony, commonly encountered in Chinese music) of all involved which impressed most. Diversity thus became unity in this instance, as well as the concert on a whole, and was none the worse for it.

Photo: Brahmastra Arts House

LIFE / Nanyang Collective / Review

LIFE

Nanyang Collective

Esplanade Recital Studio

Friday (10 February 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 13 February 2023 with the title "Life is a multi-faceted musical installation".

 

Nanyang Collective was formed last year by players of Western and traditional Asian instruments,  with the vision of presenting new works by local composers which united aesthetes of diverse cultures. Fusion and crossover are much-bandied terms, but this ensemble appears much more than that.

 

Life, its latest production, was a multi-faceted musical installation rather than mere composition. The instrumental set-up, with three separate layers - grand/toy piano in front, strings, flutes, gamelan and pipa just behind, and suona, euphonium and percussion on risers – gave the myriad sonorities ample space and scope to resonate. Led by young conductor Dedric Wong De Li, the just over 40-minute concert comprising three works merged as one was both an eye and ear-opener.  

 

When does life begin, and where does it go? Is it a cycle of renewal and regeneration, or a constant series of limited terms? The reverberance of a vibrating tam tam (gong) in near total darkness, raw and raucous, from percussionist Eugene Toh seemed symbolic for the birth of time. That was how Creation by John Sharpley, Texas-born but long-time resident in Singapore, began.

 

An eruption of sound from all nine instrumentalists, including Abigail Sin striking the piano’s innards with a mallet, greeted the procession of one hunched in pain and agony. Enter the cloaked figure of actor Ora, ambling across the players before collapsing in a heap. Was this the passage of infirmity and old age, or a prelude to rebirth? After a flash of light (and short silence), there emerged a newborn’s cries, and the simple melody of a Bartok rondo played on toy piano.

 

Life then took on a more theatrical turn with protagonist Ora acting out growing pangs of a child. Where Sharpley’s Life segued into Jon Lin Chua Sisyphus’s Dilemma, the second work, was not clearly demarcated but that did not matter given the performance’s seamless flow. When does infancy end and childhood begin, or when does adulthood follow adolescence? Does anybody really care?    

 

The soundscapes had thus far been mostly atonal, but Life also afforded stretches of melody and harmony, such as jazzy riffs of ostinatos led by piano and percussion or the sheer aural beauty of Niranjan Pandian’s bansuri (Indian flute) partnered with Brian Lim’s suling (Balinese flute). These alternating episodes seemed to represent cycles of frenetic activity and temporary respite, as if one’s existence looped in endless and ever-repetitive cycles.

 

A third element of Life was the inclusion of San Zi Jing (Three Character Classic), recited ad nauseam by children in Chinese medium primary schools, as well as Ora herself. Malaysian composer Chong Kee Yong’s Destiny, the trilogy’s final part, played on that almost inescapable fact of life. One is born innocent, but eventually corrupted by merely existing.    

 

Overall, this was a thought-provoking experiment in sound and drama, with the very versatile ensemble supported by a team including stage director Lim Chin Huat, dramaturg Neo Hai Bin, lighting designer Dorothy Png and others. One can only hope for more equally challenging projects to come from Nanyang Collective.

Photographs by 

Lim Shao Yong / Nanyang Collective.

SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA NATIONAL DAY CONCERT / Review

SSO NATIONAL DAY CONCERT:

A NATION IN HARMONY

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Streamed online via SISTIC Live

Saturday (15 August 2020)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 August 2020  with the title "Joyous showcase of local music canon".

 

Over the last three years, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s National Day Concerts have become proud showcases of works by Singaporean and locally-based composers. This year’s offerings, conducted by Darrell Ang, included four new works. Three were by young composers who by their ages would be known as millennials. Never in Singapore’s 55-year history has there been such a glut of composing talent.

 

The concert began with New Beginnings by Sandra Lim  (born 1991), a slickly orchestrated fantasy on two popular songs, Di Tanjong Katong and Singapura. Resembling the scores of Hollywood epics à la John Williams, motifs of both songs were wittily bandied about but never heard in full. As per social distancing requirements, the orchestra was chamber-sized, with musicians widely separated on the Esplanade Concert Hall stage, and all masked-up (wind players excepted) which is for now standard concert attire.  

 

More modern and ominous in feel was Metro by Tan Yuting (born 1993), a portrayal of urban hyperactivity, perhaps not of Singapore’s pristine streets, but somewhere far less secure or savoury. Over an ostinato beat established by Jonathan Fox on hi-hat cymbals, a quasi-minimalist scenario unfolded with Stravinskyan economy but always poised on a razor’s edge. As if violence might erupt at any moment, this seemed a portent of the uncertain times we live in.

 

Exuberant would aptly describe City Arising by Jonathan Shin (born 1992), a bustling morning scene as the nation awakes to another fraught and frenetic day. Even the ear-piercing call of the koel is quoted, heard on Ma Yue’s solo clarinet, and the ensuing hubbub is a good-natured and comically optimistic one, recalling socialist-realist overtures of Shostakovich and Kabalevsky.  

 

The Texan John Sharpley (born 1955), resident here since the mid-1980s, is the sole boomer among  young upstarts. His chamber opera Kannagi (2009), based on the Tamil saga Silapathikaram (The Anklet) has now become part of the Singapore opera canon.

 

Brahman: Kannagi’s Realization, the penultimate section of the opera, is a sequence building up to a grand climax. Anticipation and expectancy is driven to seemingly insurmountable levels, heightened by Shane Thio’s runs on the celesta. This intoxicating music accompanied Bharatanayam dancer Kshirja Govind’s entrancing movements playing the eponymous heroine-turned-goddess.  

 

After the serious stuff, Dick Lee’s Home (orchestrated by Kelly Tang) provided some levity in a video from the 2018 National Day Concert featuring the Singapore Symphony Choruses. National Day Parade favourite Count On Me, Singapore by the Canadian Hugh Harrison (whose other hit song was Stand Up For Singapore) was sung jazz-styled by Benjamin Kheng in a super slick commercially produced video that also recounted landmarks in SSO’s history.

 

Finally, it was left to Zubir Said’s national anthem Majulah Singapura (in Tang’s 2020 reorchestration for chamber forces) to do the honours. So what is Singapore music? A fuller picture emerges with each and every National Day concert, so long may this continue. 

HOMECOMING II / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

HOMECOMING II

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (4 June 2016)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 6 June 2016 with the title "Happy stirring of East and West".

There were four World Premieres at this concert that also featured the debuts of T'ang Quartet and pianist Melvyn Tan with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra. Conducted by Music Director Yeh Tsung, there was a theme of nature and musical impressionism running through its programme.

The concert began with Phang Kok Jun's arrangement of Ho Chee Kong's Garden Veils, a serene evocation of Singapore's self-professed reputation as the “Garden City”. The mellow song of cellos opened, soon replaced by erhus accompanied by the gentlest of pizzicatos. The voice of nature soon bloomed, showing that Chinese huqins and Western strings could happily co-exist in a musical ecosphere. A short and retiring guanzi solo at its close was also a nice atmospheric touch.

The T'ang Quartet, comprising violinists Ng Yu Ying and Ang Chek Meng, violist Lionel Tan and cellist Leslie Tan, performed in two concertante works. Zhu Lin's Pastorale in Five Episodes scored for string quartet, winds and percussion was a fantasy built upon Jimbo's Lullaby from Debussy's Children's Corner Suite. Why not, since that pentatonic melody was laden with myriad possibilities.

The quartet presented the theme and its fragments, colourfully traversing a farmyard scene, festive dance and funeral procession before closing quietly with dizi and marimba in support. Here was a toy elephant's cradle song transformed into a gentle reverie for suckling piglets.

Totally contrasting in timbral sonorities was Gao Wei Jie's Fantastic Landscape of Rainforest for string quartet, plucked strings and percussion. More austere and dissonant, the idiom was pointillist and modernistic, with Bartokian ostinatos providing the driving impetus. There were moments for repose when Leslie Tan's cello sang unabated, before an abrupt and animated end.  

Also heard for the first time was John Sharpley's Stirrings: Scenes from a Rainforest, a suite of six short and varied movements. His exploitation of tonal colour was a treat, whether the subject was a tropical squall, the awakening of dawn or raging fire. In Song of the Rainforest, Li Baoshun's gaohu was the soulful protagonist while Huang Gui Fang's sanxian delightfully lit up the somewhat tipsy Dance of Oneness including Some Rice Wine. In the final Canopy Dreams, birdsong from winds and percussion provided a mysterious close that recalled Messiaen's spirituality.

Melvyn Tan rounded up the concert as soloist in Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major. His nimble fingers served the trickily syncopated piano part well, fluid and limpid in turn, and crisp and percussive when needed. This version with Chinese instruments however proved problematic as the very specific sound which the Frenchman had sought was subverted at every turn. And it did not help when the opening crack of the whip (by snapping two pieces of wood together) arrived fractionally late.

Rubato was served up in spades for the Mozartian slow movement, a liberty which could pass in a live concert, but the sheng as surrogate for cor anglais was straining credibility a little too far. The Presto finale proved a mess for a number of solo winds who found hard to keep up, an uncharacteristic blip in an otherwise technically impressive concert. Tan performed two solo encores, Chopin's Fantasie-Impromptu and Liszt's Un Sospiro, which garnered the most enthusiastic applause.  

SAYANG SINGAPURA! ORIGINS / Asian Contemporary Ensemble / Review

SAYANG SINGAPURA! ORIGINS

Asian Contemporary Ensemble

The Chamber, The Arts House

Saturday (14 November 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 November 2015 with the title "Fun way to discover Singapore".

The Asian Contemporary Ensemble, founded by Singaporean conductor-composer Wong Kah Chun, seeks to preserve Asian musical aesthetics while forging new paths in expression. Its 75-minute-long concert incorporated story-telling, dance and pantomime with eight works (including three world premieres) woven into its fabric.

Aimed at young people, the story of Indian King Rajasuran and how his grandson Sang Nila Utama discovered Temasek was directed by Peggy Ferroa, narrated by Rosemarie Somaiah, choreographed and danced by members of Paragraph. The 11 members of ACE conducted by Wong performed on stage, making for a colourful affair of sound and movement.

Phoon Yew Tien's Variations On A Transfigured Theme Rasa Sayang performed on piano by Jonathan Shin opened the concert, revealing a metamorphosis of a simple song that went through a whole panoply of tonalities and modes. John Sharpley's Glissando On The Black Keys was a pentatonic fantasy that saw Shin's instrument channelling the sound world of a Chinese guzheng.

The three world premieres began with Christopher Clarke's Teeth, a concertino for saxophone accompanied by Indian percussion inspired by the merlion's dentition. Samuel Phua's dusky tone on sax was a revelation, as was Joyce Poh's dizi in Bernard Tan's Keroncong, a cheerful dance that combined Chinese and Malay influences with the Western rondo form. Poh's arrangement of the popular Jiangnan Hao saw the familiar Chinese tune on dizi accompanied by Edward Tan's violin and Dylan Lee's cello.

The musicians then congregated around a collection of gongs and metallophones for the gamelan-inspired Suite of the Thieving Sea by Anne Choo, with solo parts for bamboo flute and bowed rebab. This Javanese-styled music accompanied the dance of Sang Nila Utama surrending his crown to appease buffeting waves, before the premiere of Shin's Sang Nila Utama Meets The Mercat, which saw Li Lingzhi's clarinet, sax and dizi backed by tinkling toy piano.

The mercat is the official mascot of ACE, created by violinist Ayane Sato, and supposedly some descendant of the merlion, Pokemon and Hello Kitty. Even she has a theme of her own, composed by Wong, which combines a march, sea shanty and Anime music.

This final piece of merrymaking saw the appearance of the fluffy blue mascot, also named Ace, in the flesh, who went on to pose for photographs with National Arts Council CEO Kathy Lai and all the children in attendance. Needless to say, everyone present had a good laugh. 

Photographs by the kind permission of Asian Contemporary Ensemble.

JOHN SHARPLEY & ROBERT YEO'S KANNAGI / Review

KANNAGI

John Sharpley & The Arts House

Play Den @ The Arts House

Sunday (5 October 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 7 October 2014 with the title "Stirring opera based on Indian legend".

Kannagi – The Jeweled Anklet is John Sharpley’s second opera with libretto by Robert Yeo, but was first presented in 2009, before their much-acclaimed collaboration Fences which had a much longer gestation. Its first performance took place at the Wedding Hall of the Sri Mariammam Temple, which was totally apt given its ancient Tamil settings.

The story is based on the 1500 year-old legend of Sillappadikaram by Prince Illango Adigal. Kannagi, whose unfaithful husband Kovalan is unjustly executed for theft after selling off one of her jewelled anklets, reaps a harvest of death and destruction on the city of Madurai. Her deification unites all facets of womanhood, restoring peace and balance in the universe.

This new production of the 6-part chamber opera directed by Christopher Jacobs may be said to be a reincarnation of the original. By performing at The Arts House Play Den in near-complete darkness, all traces of its Indian origins were removed. Kannagi was no longer constrained by time or place, becoming instead an Everywoman for whom history, geography and ethnicity becomes irrelevant.  

While Kannagi was previously played by a single soprano, her complex personality is now represented by three women, soprano Akiko Otao, dancer Susan Yeung and pianist Bronwyn Gibson. The Overture, The Burning of Madurai on the piano was atmospheric and stirring, befitting the epic that unfolded. Gibson’s handling of the accompanying music and interludes was excellent, and very often one veered towards Sharpley’s always tonal and coherent music when the visual senses went on overload.

Otao’s singing captured the nuances of Kannagi’s long-suffering personality, drifting between song and oration, with the full gamut of expressive and narrative devices. Her anguished face for much of the melodrama remains firmly etched in the memory, while her alternating fluid and contorted movements had a shadow and mirror in the athletic Yeung.

Unfortunately not all the words were caught with clarity, and the absence of a libretto or synopsis was a stumbling block for first-timers. One would have to find the complete libretto in the collection The Best of Robert Yeo, published by Epigram Books.

The lack of a male presence, either Kovalan or the King of Madurai, was no longer an issue in this three women tour-de-force. The hour-long opera closed with Restored, Returned, Regained, as Otao’s voice was overdubbed manifold, and the final apotheosis of Shantih, Shantih, Shantih which provided a big bang of an ending with cosmic forces in alignment.

Sharpley promises more operas to come. Given his proven track record and penchant for lyricism, he is likely to be the most important opera composer operating from Singapore. 

Photographs by the kind permission of John Sharpley.