FRENCH CINEMATIC ICONS: BOLLING AND BEYOND / Roberto Alvarez & Friends / Review

 

FRENCH CINEMATIC ICONS: 

BOLLING AND BEYOND 

Roberto Alvarez & Friends 

Alliance Francaise 

Sunday (10 November 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 November 2024 with the title "Music from movies showcases magical power of sound".

Music in movies have the capacity to touch and move, and very often the melodies are better remembered than the films themselves. As a prelude to the French Film Festival, Singapore Symphony Orchestra flautist Roberto Alvarez and his friends crafted a very attractive programme as a reminder of the magical power of sound. 

Does anybody remember the star-studded California Suite, for which the late Maggie Smith won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress? Arguably more memorable was French jazz composer and pianist Claude Bolling’s score, with its highly syncopated and catchy Main Title, with pianist Kseniia Vokhmianina obliged to jump through many hoops accompanying Alvarez’s silvery lines. 

Together with bassist Julian Li and percussionist Ramu Thiruyanam, this cosmopolitan quartet followed up with movements from Bolling’s Suite for Flute and Jazz Trio, his most often-heard work. The formally-trained Bolling was so adept in merging jazz and classical idioms that his fusion pieces are equally beloved by artists across the stylistic divide. 

Sentimentale is already an established classic, the flute’s legato passages well contrasted with the movement’s groovily rhythmic central section. The jig-like bantering of Fugace was in the form of a fugue, the tricky counterpoint of which J.S.Bach would have been proud. The easy swing of Irlandaise (Irish) would soon give way to frenetic pulse of Veloce, which closed the concert’s first half with stunning aplomb. 

While this music sounds easy to the ear, it is very difficult to pull off convincingly. The quartet was not just on top of their game, but also having great fun. 

The oldest piece on show was Camille Saint-Saens’s shimmering Aquarium from Carnival of the Animals, which made an appearance in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. 

Far more recent was the music of Yann Tiersen, whose La valse d’Amelie and Comptine dun autre ete, l’apres-midi in The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain had little to do with Ravel or Debussy, but more the drolleries of Erik Satie married with minimalism. 

Roberto played the piccolo in this piece.

From Ludovic Bource, George Valentin and Waltz for Peppy from The Artist had ragtime and dancehall influences, sounding as elegant and insouciant as French music could possibly be. Ramu tapping on wood blocks was a sight to behold. The ubiquitous Michel Legrand had to feature sometime, his bittersweet minor key melodies of Windmills of Your Mind (The Thomas Crown Affair) and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg being greeted with knowing approval. 

Photo: Chris P. Lim

A suite of movie melodies were thus paraded, from Alexandre Desplat’s Elisa’s Theme from The Shape of Water (a waltz of touching simplicity), Francis Lai’s A Man and A Woman (a swinger known only to people of a certain vintage) to Carlos D’Alessio’s End Credits to Delicatessen (appropriately cheerful for a black humour horror pic about cannibalism). 

Photo: Chris P. Lim

It was, however, back to Bolling that the fab four returned for an encore, the Love Theme from California Suite. That was simply charming.

Kseniia's daughter Aurelia joins
the quartet on stage for the final bows.

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:

GOH SOON TIOE @ 110 / AWARD WINNERS IN CONCERT / Review

GOH SOON TIOE @ 110

AWARD WINNERS IN CONCERT

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday (18 April 2021)

 

Goh Soon Tioe is 110 years old this year! For those not old enough to remember the name, Goh Soon Tioe (1911-1982) was Singapore’s Western classical music pioneer, one who combined illustrious careers in violin performance, conducting, musical education and impresario work like nobody else had and nobody ever will. In our age of specialisation, his kind will never come again. His legacy lives on in his students, who have included the likes of Choo Hoey, Seow Yit Kin, Lynnette Seah, Lim Soon Lee, Kam Kee Yong and his three daughters (Vivien, Sylvia and Patricia), and the annual Centenary Award bestowed to deserving young string players that bears his name.

 

Since 2012, nine deserving young musicians have been awarded monetary grants (administered by the Community Foundation of Singapore) to further their musical studies and careers. Their names read like a young Who’s Who of music in Singapore today. This concert brought together six award winners in an enjoyable chamber concert,  reassuring one and all that the future of classical music in Singapore is in good hands.  

 

Kevin Loh (2018 winner) is the brightest guitarist to emerge from Singapore in many decades. Presently a Cambridge undergraduate, he helpfully reminded the audience that Goh Soon Tioe himself began his musical career as a guitarist. His studies had been sponsored by no less than Andres Segovia, who also served as mentor and guiding light. Kevin’s varied programme of transcriptions opened with J.S.Bach’s Prelude from Cello Suite No.6, characterised by rhythmic vigour and clarity of articulation. The Latino pieces were also well-contrasted, the vivacity of Albeniz’s popular Sevilla (originally a piano piece) alongside Astor Piazzolla’s slow tango Oblivion, a heart-felt portrayal of melancholy and untold tragedy.

 

Next came Italian opera composer Rossini’s Duet in D major for double bass and cello, composed for the great Domenico Dragonetti, who was hailed as “Paganini of the bass”. Bassist Julian Li (2013), who has served as principal in China’s Hangzhou Philharmonic and Guiyang Symphony, and Theophilus Tan (2015), cellist of the newly-formed Concordia Quartet, did the honours.

 

As with works by bass virtuosos, the orchestra’s largest instrument is no longer content with just providing mere accompaniment but having significant melodic lines of its own. Li showed himself to be very nimble in running passages, crowned by a melodic gift with bel canto qualities. The cello  also had melodic moments in the slow Andante molto movement, accompanied by bass pizzicatos, and the duet was completed with an enjoyable romp of the finale.

 

A much more familiar work was the Handel-Halvorsen Passacaglia, usually heard as a showpiece for violin and cello. In this instance, violinist Joey Lau (2017) and violist Joelle Hsu (2019) worked very well together, exhibiting good communication and the requisite “give and take” of chamber music performance while relishing in their virtuosic roles.  

 

Receiving a rare performance was Rachmaninov’s Trio Elegiaque No.1 in G minor, a teenaged work heavily influenced by Tchaikovsky, with violinist Helena Dawn Yah (2012, the inaugural awardee), cellist Theophilus Tan and guest pianist Jonathan Shin. In a short preamble, Shin explained that the trio’s main theme was in fact an inversion of the opening motif from Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. The work’s typically Slavic melancholy and dolour was very well brought out, oozing pathos from every pore.

 

The final work was by Austrian bassist and composer Johannes Matthias Sperger (1750-1812), whose highly congenial Quartet in D major in three movements had one guessing its various influences. Did it sound like Haydn, Mozart, or even the young Schubert? Sperger’s milestone dates indicate that he would have been familiar with the first two composers, while the instrumentation (with the violin replacing the original flute) suggests this was an example of hausmusik (household music) to be played by a group of musical-loving friends over schnapps.

 

As expected, bassist Julian Li had a lion’s share of melodic interest besides also having the most difficult part of all. He was excellent throughout, and well-supported by violinist Joey Lau, violist Joelle Hsu and a most busy cellist Theophilus Tan. Why don’t we ever get to hear this music with any regularity (instead of countless performances of the Trout Quintet)? At least one can trust and hope that the Goh Soon Tioe laureates, who are now a family of a kind, to revive the hausmusik movement sometime. Such an initiative led by these extremely talented young professionals will be most appreciated.   

Vivien Goh, daughter of Goh Soon Tioe

addresses the audience and

thanks the award winners.