BAROQUE AND BEYOND / SSO Organ Series / Review

 

BAROQUE AND BEYOND

SSO Organ Series

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (18 January 2026)

Fact: I have not been a regular to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s organ series, often preferring to take long snoozes on Sunday afternoons. That is a grievous loss, as I realised this afternoon, having dragged myself out of bed to a very crowded Victoria Concert Hall. The offering was unusual as it featured re:Sound, Singapore only professional chamber orchestra, and Koh Jia Hwei, a pianist who had transitioned to become an organist. (Now she can say she has a bigger organ than her hubby, virtuoso pianist Lim Yan.)

Koh opened the 75-minute concert with a solo, J.S.Bach’s Passacaglia & Fugue in C minor (BWV.582) on VCH's Klais organ. Having heard this numerous times on CD recordings, one can only conclude that a live performance is an infinitely better experience. The opening bass notes are performed on the pedals, and when she hit the low C, one could actually feel the hall vibrate. The ensuing short variations on the ground bass theme were built incrementally with manuals, and when pedals joined in, the sonorities expanded to envelop the entire hall. At its climax, with all four limbs in hectic action, one could only marvel at what organists achieve which mere pianists only dream of. In a word, breathtaking.

Photo: Resound Collective

The string players of re:Sound then trooped in for Arcangelo Corelli’s most performed concerto grosso, the one in G minor (Op.6 No.8), popularly known as the Christmas Concerto. This featured Isaac Koh on chamber organ which functioned more like a continuo. Led by Yang Shuxiang, the strings played with cohesion and tautness, generating a vibrato and volume that was unafraid to tread on period instrument practice fingers and toes. Still not sure why the music is related to Christmas, but there was a pastorale filled with the sound of drones in its finale to close on a warm and happy high.

Photo: Resound Collective

The concert’s big work was Liechtensteinian composer Josef Rheinberger’s Organ Concerto No.2 in G minor (Op.177) with a return of Koh and an augmented re:Sound with brass (French horns and trumpet) and timpani. Rheinberger (1839-1901), like Karg-Elert, Gigout, Lemare, Widor, Bonnet and Buxtehude, is a name familiar only to organists, I suspect. Never previously heard this three-movement work, I was prepared to be surprised. Shock and awe were more the actual response, being caught unaware by both organ and ensemble in full throttle. The late-Romantic idiom with mild dissonance was familiar enough, its grand gestures Elgarian, and one of its themes even seemed to head in the direction of Nimrod before stopping short and pulling away. This movement garnered much applause, and that seemed almost appropriate given the buzz.

Photo: Resound Collective

The central slow movement in C major alternated organ solo with muted strings, but that soon built up a head of steam for a loud and stormy climax before receding to a quiet close. The finale replicated the opening’s busyness and raucousness, with punched out chords alternating between G minor and major keys. There should have been a big melody a la Saint-Saens, but there was still sufficient melodic interest to propel the movement to a glorious G major close.

Greeted with tumultuous applause from a full-house, the encore, although somewhat predictable (given the general tonality of the concert) but still highly enjoyable, was Bach’s Air on G string (from Orchestral Suite No.3), which is actually in D major. Strings alternated with organ solo, before coming together for a peaceable and sublime close. Looks like Sunday afternoons would never be the same again.

MUSICAL SOUVENIRS / Koh Jia Hwei & re:mix / Review

 

MUSICAL SOUVENIRS 

Koh Jia Hwei (Organ) 

& re:mix 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Sunday (21 July 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 23 July 2024 with the title "Koh Jia Hwei and re:mix give Victoria Concert Hall's Klais organ a workout".

Part of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s innovative Organ Series, local pianist-turned-organist Koh Jia Hwei pulled out the stops for an unusual recital which combined Anglo-French repertoire with music for organ and strings. For about 55 minutes without intermission, the Victoria Concert Hall’s Klais organ was given a workout to a receptive Sunday afternoon audience demonstrating that interest in the “king of instruments” is far from dead. 

20th century English composer Herbert Howells is better known for his choral music, but his take on Psalm 34 Verse 6 (The Poor Man Cried, And The Lord Heard Him) is worth hearing. Its quiet opening and slightly chromatic language soon give way to the organ’s full voice. This was best heard in Victoria Concert Hall’s circle seats, now with an unobstructed view of the organ’s glorious pipes. 

The blind French organist-composer Louis Vierne is perhaps best remembered for having collapsed and died while playing on the organ of Notre Dame Cathedral. Koh chose two short items from his 24 Pieces in Free Style, which fittingly included the Epitaphe and Postlude. The subdued chordal voices in the former and the free-wheeling flourishes of the latter were starkly contasted, amply illustrating what the instrument was capable of. 

For the concert’s second part, Koh was joined by 25 string players of re:mix, led by SSO first violinist Foo Say Ming. This crack string outfit specialises in playing modern arrangements of old standards and film music. Right up its alley was Georges Delerue’s Concerto de l’adieu, adapted from his music for the 1992 feature film Dien Bien Phu. 

This neo-baroque elegy for the loss of French Indochina to the Vietnamese in 1954, as arranged by Chen Zhangyi, resembled in spirit the famous Albinoni-Giazotto Adagio in G minor heard in the movie Gallipoli. Typical of such heart-wrenching and emotional scores, Foo’s violin played prime protagonist, his digital calisthenics and sumptuous tone overcoming all odds to emerge like a cantor in a moving confessional. 

The unequal balance of forces between mighty organ and puny strings were surprisingly not a big issue given the skilled writing. Organ bluster was mostly reserved for big chords and febrile climaxes, with muted figurations filling in the textures alongside the strings. 

Koh took a well-earned break in Xiong Meiling’s Crying For Love (Ku Sha, or Crying Sand), a 1990 Mandarin lovesong famously covered by Tracy Huang and A-Mei, also in Chen’s arrangement. Foo and his charges positively wallowed in nostalgia, with the most poignant moments coming with his solo accompanied by pizzicato strings. 

The concert closed with the familiar Chaconne in G minor attributed to Tomaso Antonio Vitali as arranged by Ottorino Respighi with the organ returning to the fray. Its series of short variations on a ground bass unfolded majestically, with each change in key adding to the music’s inevitable sense of destiny. Here, violin solo, string ensemble and pipe organ shared the spotlight, and deservedly became first among equals.

VARIATIONS: RE:SOUND WITH PAVLO BEZNOSIUK / Review

VARIATIONS:

RE:SOUND WITH PAVLO BEZNOSIUK

Victoria Concert Hall

Thursday (6 October 2022)

 

The chamber orchestra re:Sound has been known for innovative programming, but little did one expect this peach of a concert, built around the theme of variations. Included was one world premiere, two Singapore premieres and a rarely performed (in Singapore) string masterpiece led by British violinist-conductor Pavlo Beznosiuk.    

 

The world premiere was Singapore composer Tan Chan Boon’s arrangement of the second movement from Brahms’ String Sextet No.1 (Op.18). String lovers know this as a tightly-knit set of variations on a sombre theme, and so do pianists who play Brahms’ own piano transrciption. Tan’s treatment was more like Rudolf Barshai’s highly idiomatic work on selected Shostakovich String Quartets (called Chamber Symphonies) rather than Schoenberg’s over-the-top conflation of Brahms’ First Piano Quartet. The music and architecture of the work was retained but the sound palette expanded, the six parts of the original sometimes stretched out to nine. A lovely rich sonority was achieved, and Tan was also afforded the liberty of a coda of his own after the final variation.   

 

Also in the same key was C.P.E.Bach’s Piano Concerto in D minor (Wq.23), receiving its local premiere with pianist Koh Jia Hwei, now better known as an organist, as soloist. Composed in 1748, the original probably involved a harpsichord or fortepiano, which explained why Koh began the work as part of the ensemble (or continuo) before coming into her own as a soloist. The sturm und drang of the opening movement was exciting in itself, the result of the baroque transitioning into classical sensibilities.

 

The confident if not blindingly brilliant Koh made true music of the sedate slow movement before going for broke for the finale, another stormed tossed affair, which had a short cadenza to close. The strings led by Beznosiuk kept up the cut and thrust all through its twenty or so minutes. It is a wonder why this is nowhere as well-known as Papa Bach’s or Papa Haydn’s keyboard concertos. One is better off having made its acquaintance.

 

The second half began with Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov’s minimalist Epitaph for piano and strings (1999), written in memory of his wife who died three years before. An unusually hypnotic work, it comprised a procession of piano octaves and chords (with Koh Jia Hwei again) answered by muted strings, and one is kept guessing what the next chord would be through its 9 minutes. By some quirk of listening, one is regularly reminded of the funeral march from Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. This very timely and haunting performance might very well also be in memory of innocent victims lost in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

 

The concert closed with one of the great 20^th century works for strings, Benjamin Britten’s splendid Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge. First Pavlo Beznosiuk demonstrated on the violin Bridge’s somewhat retiring theme (the second of Three Idylls for strings), explaining these were not strict variations in the traditional sense, but rather freely crafted short movements based on certain motifs derived from the said theme. The fantastical variations that followed were such that the original theme would be so well hidden as to be unrecognisable.

 

An extremely tricky work, the ensemble did very well to cope with the myriad changes of dynamics and textures all through movements which included amongst other things a March, Aria Italiana, Bourree Classique, Wiener Walzer, Funeral March and an outrageously skittish Fugue to close. The camp wit and sometimes frivolous asides know little bounds, especially in the Aria, with strings strummed like guitar while accompanying melodramatic violins. This masterpiece was written in 1937 for the virtuoso Boyd Neel String Orchestra performing at the Salzburg Festival. After witnessing this fine and truly infectious performance, one fancies re:Sound to be Singapore’s Boyd Neel as well. As an encore, the still-energised ensemble reprised the off-kilter and half-drunk Wiener Walzer, sounding even more delicious this time around. 

All photographs courtesy 

of re:Sound / Yong Junyi.

A MUSICAL REUNION / Lim Family Musicians / Review

A MUSICAL REUNION
Lim Family Musicians
Esplanade Recital Studio
Saturday (20 August 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 August 2011 with the title "It runs in the Lim family".

It is well known that music runs in the genes. The Bachs, Mozarts, Tcherepnins and von Trapps have their Singaporean equivalents over the years – the daughters of Goh Soon Tioe, the string-playing Chan brothers, and now the Lim cousins. In their mid-20s to early 30s, the seven Lims include the children, nephews and nieces of conductor Lim Yau.

With a harpsichordist, violinist, violist, cellist, oboist and two pianists, an intriguing number of combinations threw up a well-programmed and pleasing two-hour long concert exploring the byways and rarities of chamber repertoire.

For example, how often does one hear Beethoven’s “Eyeglass” Duet for viola and cello (below left)? The unusual title came about because its first performers wore glasses, except that the sight of bespectacled violist Lim Chun and cellist Lin Juan did not quite raise eyebrows in myopia-prevalent Singapore. Its implicit humour gave way to more serious vibes for Mahler’s early Piano Quartet in A minor (below right), when both were joined by Chun’s sister, violinist Lim Hui and pianist Lim Yan.

Thick Brahmsian chords and Wagnerian chromaticisms made for a heavy meal, considerably lightened by Jeffrey Agrell’s Blues for D.D. that followed, where Veda Lim Wei’s oboe morphed from a hazy Debussyan opening to flighty jazzy riffs, accompanied by Lim Jia’s harpsichord and Juan’s cello. The diminutive oboist was arguably the star of the evening, her bright and sonorous tone, gorgeously contoured, was hard to forget.

The sibs: Veda Lin Wei (oboe) 

and Lin Juan (cello)

The other sibs: Lim Hui (violin) 

and Lim Chun (viola)

She and brother Juan combined splendidly for Lennox Berkeley’s Petite Suite, a neo-Baroque set of dances with both lift and life. The other siblings (above) also shined, Hui in Bach’s Violin Sonata in E major, and Chun in Alan Shulman’s virtuosic Theme and Variations.

The husband and wife pairing of Yan and Koh Jia Hwei were a delight in Poulenc’s Sonata for piano four hands (above). Choreographing a scene comique of marital rivalry and bliss amidst busy crossing of hands, they drew ripples of mirth from the audience.

All seven musicians were united for the 6-Part Ricercar from J.S.Bach’s A Musical Offering(above). There was no place for period-performance authenticity or political correctness here, with both piano (both pianists contributing a hand each) and harpsichord included in the mix for an enjoyable close. As they say, a family that plays together stays together.

This concert will be repeated on Sunday 28 August at the same venue. Be sure to come.

All photos by Lim Khan, 

yet another cousin in the 

prodigious Lim family.