SSO'S FORGOTTEN RECORDINGS: LEONG YOON PIN SYMPHONIC WORKS OF SINGAPORE

 

LEONG YOON PIN

Symphonic Works of Singapore

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Lim Yau & Choo Hoey (Conductors)

Designated a “documentation project of the National Arts Council (NAC)”, this 1993 album might just be the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s most important recording of music by a Singaporean composer. Why do so few Singaporean works get recorded by the SSO is not a mystery, as the orchestra and the powers that be never really put their faith in local composers then. Very few local works appeared in concert programmes, and one began to wonder if Singaporean composers even existed. This recording made by Naxos Singapore was only distributed locally, and why it never made into the label’s mainstream recordings for worldwide circulation was also a real pity.

Leong Yoon Pin (1931-2011) was the doyen of Singapore’s composers. As a music lecturer at the Teachers Training College, he received a scholarship by the French government to study composition with Nadia Boulanger in 1966-67. His works combines modern idioms, contrapuntal vigour with Asian aesthetics, writing Nanyang music even before the term was conceived.

The classic example was the overture Dayong Sampan (1980), a symphonic fantasy on the popular Malay song, known as Tian Mi Mi in Chinese. This performance led by Choo Hoey shaves a few seconds off the 1989 recording made on the Philips label. The other works on this album were conducted by SSO Associate Conductor Lim Yau. Another work occasionally heard in concert is Giocoso – Largamente, from Symphony No.2 (1979), possibly Leong’s most often programmed symphonic movement. There is a festive and celebratory air in this music, making it one of his most accessible works. Till this day, neither the symphony nor its predecessor have been recorded by the SSO in their entirety.

The final four works are rarely ever (or never) heard in concert, so rare that they could not even accessed on YouTube. All possess an austerity associated with Leong’s serious work, even if the subject is local in nature. Largo – Vivace for strings (1982) is the sort of work which the Basel Chamber Orchestra (or re:Sound for that matter) would revel in.

Episodes In Journey To The West (1983) is not meant to be programmatic but reflects on the exploits of Sun Wukong, the monkey god, and relations with his pilgrim companions as they seek the holy scriptures from India. The music is structured on a tone row, and there are three connected sections marked Andante moderato, Allegro and Adagio, closing in reverential calm and solemnity as nirvana is finally realised.

The tone poem Temasekian (1990), at 18 minutes, is the longest work on the disc. The music dwells on Singapore’s forefathers and includes elements of Chinese, Indian and Malay music, all the tropes of classic Nanyang music. Far from being populist, the themes are terse and abstract, although dances, ceremonies and festivals may be discerned through the drumming and percussive rhythms. Closing the album is Metamorphosis (1993), composed for the Singapore Youth Orchestra’s concert tour to Japan. Following the Lisztian model, thematic transformation of simple presenting motifs take place, but so discreet that one without a score in hand barely notices. The music alternates between spareness and opulence in textures, stasis and kinesis, which is characteristic in Leong’s output.

Choo Hoey gets first billing although
he conducted only one work, while
Lim Yau conducted five!

Aside from the first two which are more accessible, much of Leong’s orchestral output is more respected that actually loved. Nonetheless, this album is an important document in the history of orchestral music in Singapore. The SSO under Lim Yau (mostly) performs the works with exemplary discipline and precision, which the exacting music demands. What we need now are recordings of his two symphonies and orchestral choral works to complete the picture.

SSO'S FORGOTTEN RECORDINGS: SHOSTAKOVICH SYMPHONY NO.10 on Philips Classics

 

SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No.10

LEONG YOON PIN Dayong Sampan

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Choo Hoey (Conductor)

Philips 426 228-2

This CD recording saw the Singapore Symphony Orchestra come of age. Issued in 1989 to mark the orchestra’s 10th anniversary, it was a once-off on the Dutch Philips label, a gift from the regional director of Philips Electronics, which had a factory operating in Toa Payoh. The disc was produced for local distribution by the Polygram group, but still carried the hallmarks and technology of Philips, the label of Bernard Haitink, Colin Davis et al.

By this time, the SSO under music director Choo Hoey had already developed a good reputation in 20th music. In 1980, SSO performed its first Shostakovich symphony (No.1), just five years after the composer’s death. In 1983, the Tenth Symphony received its Singapore premiere, and this was a work the orchestra returned to with much regularity, together with other contemporary staples like Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (1919) and Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra.

Composed in 1953, after the death of Soviet dictator Stalin, Shostakovich was free to express his true feelings about the regime, encapsulated in its four unusual movements. Widely considered his greatest symphony, SSO very much regarded it as such. The long slow first movement unfolded with purpose and received a true Mahlerian catharsis it deserved. The short Scherzo was a portrait of pure Stalinist malevolence, and Choo Hoey drove his charges to a feverish frenzy. This movement was so well performed that it was shortlisted for SSO’s 21st anniversary highlights disc.

Elmira & DSCH

The final two movements were possessed with Shostakovich’s ironic sense of humour, an interplay between a mystery French horn theme (now identified as the Elmira Nazirova motif) and his own DSCH motto. Were the two secretly in love? According to Nazirova many years later, it was all in Mitya’s head. The finale is possessed with a mordant wit that makes light of all the horror that came before. It was Shostakovich’s unique way of saying, “the tyrant is dead, and the independent spirit is now freed”. SSO’s performance showed it clearly identified with Shostakovich’s idiom.

The venerated Leong Yoon Pin,
Singapore's only Nadia Boulanger student.

Leong Yoon Pin’s Dayong Sampan (1980) was the rather apt coupling. For more than thirty years, this was Singapore’s best-loved and most-performed symphonic poem, only displaced by Wang Chenwei’s The Sisters’ Islands - another maritime-themed work - during the 21st century. The Malay melody (known to the Chinese as Tian Mi Mi) emerges from an introduction of dense orchestration and counterpoint to become its main subject. The work is a sober take on the Chinese diaspora who ventured across the South China Sea to seek new lives in Malaya, a quintessential piece of Nanyang music even before the term came into being.

Wan Soon Kam's water colour painting

The orchestra plays both works with passion and conviction. SSO has Dayong Sampan pretty much to itself, and even if the Shostakovich is not quite in the same exalted level as classic Kondrashin or Mravinsky, there is still much to be proud of. There are biographical and programme notes (by Bernard Tan) in English, German and French. The cover design of Victoria Concert Hall is from a water colour painting by Wan Soon Kam. A piece of musical nostalgia well-worth owning.

This recording was one of two CDs issued by SSO in the year 1989. The other was its only Beethoven recording, of his Fourth and Fifth Piano Concertos (with John Bingham) on the Meridien label. That was reviewed here: pianomania: CD Reviews (The Straits Times, March 2014)

FIREBIRD: 25TH ANNIVERSARY GALA CONCERT / Philharmonic Wind Orchestra / Review

FIREBIRD:
25TH ANNIVERSARY GALA CONCERT

Philharmonic Wind Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday (9 November 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 11 November 2025 with the title "Landmark works of Philharmonic Wind Orchestra's 25th anniversary".

The Philharmonic Wind Orchestra (PWO), formerly known as The Philharmonic Winds, celebrated its 25th anniversary as the nation’s leading wind band with a concert of landmark works performed during the course of its illustrious history. Conducted by Leonard Tan, who also served as an engaging host, the concert was a showcase of the orchestra’s prowess in a variety of virtuoso repertoire.

Opening the evening was late Singaporean composer Leong Yoon Pin’s own wind arrangement of Giocoso Largamente from his Second Symphony (1979). Influenced by Tang dynasty poet Li Bai’s words on the duality of life, its alternating fast and slow sections reflected conflicting emotions of happiness and sorrow. Its distinctly Chinese musical idiom and use of percussion felt close to home, also matched by the warm sonority coaxed from the players.

PWO’s biggest coup was its 2015 premiere of Spanish composer-conductor Luis Serrano Alarcon’s epic triptych Marco Polo. An ambitious programme symphony, its three parts followed the Venetian’s journey from West to East, and back. Its first part, The Silk Road, began with him as a jailbird, recounting travels through exotic lands with perils ahead to be faced. The scoring for massive forces included traditional instruments such as the oud (Middle Eastern lute), hulusi (gourd flute), Tibetan singing bowls and a host of Eastern reeds.

Concertmaster Ralph Emmanuel Lim
performed on the duduki while guest performer
Boo Chin Kiah played a hulusi.

Getting the colours right was key, and so was the musical story-telling with Marco Polo represented by a leitmotif first heard on Kartik Alan Jairamin’s French horn. By the time he arrived at the gates of Cambaluc (Beijing today), one had gone through a journey of musical discovery. This is what symphonies such as this were meant to do.

After the intermission, French composer Florent Schmitt’s Dionysiaques, composed in 1913 but premiered in 1925, was heard to brilliant effect. Considered the first true modern classic written for wind orchestra, its opening was redolent of Debussy’s Impressionism, and the Bacchanalian dance that followed rivalled the orgiastic writhings of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

Albert Oliver Davis’ arrangement of Richard Strauss’ song Allerseelen (All Souls’ Day) was significant for being the first work PWO performed on its first overseas concert. Its lyrical lines, building to a passionate climax, was accompanied by old photographs and footage from the orchestra’s early years. Nostalgia indeed.

The evening closed with Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (1919) in a virtuoso orchestration by Randy Earles. Following the exact same storyline of the original, winds and brass took the place of ethereal string effects – not an easy task – but by dint of sheer grit, succeeded. Even the jump scare provided by King Kashchei’s Infernal Dance following the Khorovod (Round Dance) was there, all thanks to an alert bass drummer.

Emerald Tan’s lovely bassoon provided the soothing balm to the Berceuse (Lullaby) before the magnificent crescendo that is the grand Finale. With the evil spell broken and the captives released, the resounding close was symbolic of PWO’s past quarter-century. With hard graft comes just reward.

FLYING HIGH - BEYOND OUR ISLANDS' SHORES / Philharmonic Wind Orchestra / Review

 

FLYING HIGH – 

BEYOND OUR ISLANDS’ SHORES 

Philharmonic Wind Orchestra 

Esplanade Concert Hall 

Sunday (23 June 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 25 June 2024 with the title "Philharmonic Wind Orchestra plays wide repertoire with aplomb".

The Philharmonic Wind Orchestra (PWO), formerly known as The Philharmonic Winds, will travel next month to South Korea for the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) conference. Its pre-tour concert led by music director Leonard Tan was a showcase what an excellent local ensemble can achieve in a variety of repertoire. 

The concert opened with American composer John Mackey’s Asphalt Cocktail, an exhilarating showpiece that was literally a short ride in a fast machine. Its big brassy sonorities, accompanied by a relentless percussion beat and effects, suggested this was not a subway train but a runaway taxicab carrying the warning, “fasten your seatbelts!” 

More serious was American Kent Kennan’s Sonata for trumpet and wind ensemble in three movements with PWO alumnus Chong Loo Kit in the demanding solo role. Described as neoclassical, the music recalled ceremonial brass of olden times, but viewed through a tonal modern idiom of German modernist Paul Hindemith. Its acerbic quality however yielded unusual lyricism in the central movement’s aria-like melody, lovingly voiced, before closing with dance movements and busy counterpoint for its lively finale. 

The legendary 86-year-old British wind orchestra maestro Timothy Reynish, PWO’s principal guest conductor, made a cameo appearance directing Spanish composer Luis Serrano Alarcon’s attractive Spanish Dances. This local premiere delighted in complex rhythms which the orchestra mastered with aplomb, including a Moorish-flavoured central movement with offstage piccolo and drum-beat, and a finale lit up by solo trumpet and the ring of castanets and tambourine. 

Photo: Pianomaniac

Photo: Pianomaniac

The concert’s second half comprised wholly works by Singaporean composers, beginning with Leong Yoon Pin’s only wind band piece, Day-break And Sunrise (1992). Typical of the late doyen of local composers, his melodic intent is not revealed immediately. Instead, motivic shards and fragments emerge like nascent beams through the morning mist. Full illumination was achieved, albeit briefly as the music soon swiftly dissipated into fine ether. 

Conductor Leonard Tan holds aloft
Leong Yoon Pin's orchestral score.

Photo: Pianomaniac

Baltimore-based young composer Lee Jia Yi’s newly commissioned betwixt and between received its world premiere. Written in four short connected movements, the music shifted imperceptibly between Noise, seemingly random squeaks, slashes, swooshes and slides, and Harmony, represented by more stable long-held notes, which wavered into quarter-tones and overtones. Bewildering as this might sound, there was a strangely calming quality when the ears began to adapt to each of the different alternating sonic milieus. 

Photo: Pianomaniac

French horn player Alan Kartik
demonstrates playing the conch.
Photo: Pianomaniac

The 21st century Singaporean work that has received the most performances has to be Young Artist Award recipient Wang Chenwei’s symphonic poem The Sisters’ Islands (2006). Eighty as of this evening, to be exact. Originally scored for Chinese orchestra, the world premiere of its wind orchestra version was no less vivid. Using the Indo-Malay pelog scale, Wang crafted motifs representing the eponymous sisters, the sea and its legends in this programmatic work. 

The use of qudi and rebana lent
The Sisters' Islands an exotic Nanyang flavour.
Photo: Pianomaniac

Its lush scoring was well-realised on wind and brass, with the blare of the conch shell and ocarina’s diminutive voice being pivotal extras. Closing with a grand apotheosis of sisterly love, one can foresee the world band conference in Korea getting an unadulterated taste of true Singaporeana.

Photo: Pianomaniac

Photo: Pianomaniac

Photo: Pianomaniac

All photographs by Kwang 

unless otherwise stated.

RHAPSODIC STORIES: EXHIBITION / Samuel Phua Saxophone Recital / Review

RHAPSODIC STORIES: EXHIBITION

SAMUEL PHUA, Saxophone

with MERVYN LEE, Piano

Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre

Wednesday (29 November 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 December 2023 with the title "Saxophonist Samuel Phua showcases technical prowess".

 

When it comes to classical saxophone in Singapore, one name invariably comes to mind: Samuel Phua. The young graduate from Finland’s famed Sibelius Academy was the first and only saxophonist invited to perform at the President’s Young Performers Concert in 2014, and has been a regular fixture in works requiring sax solos in Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s concerts ever since.

 

His recital partnered by pianist Mervyn Lee was an impressive showcase of technical prowess and repertoire he has inspired. No less than five Singaporean composers were represented, opening with London-based composition student Elliot Teo, whose three-movement Mixed Recital received its Singapore premiere.

 

Opening with alto sax alone, its atonal content was characterised by declamatory and seemingly improvised passages that sometimes hinted of jazz. The second movement was for piano left hand alone despite its many notes, while the third, Pas de deux, was for combined forces with the dance element being apparent later on.

 

The late Leong Yoon Pin’s Sketches (1984) was originally scored for oboe and piano. Its movements, recalling scenes in New Zealand, was heard on soprano sax, which relived the oboe’s plangency, well-suited for musical dissonance and dance-like moves. In the world premiere of pianist Mervyn Lee’s Sketches in Movements, contrasts between lyricism and playfulness were well brought out on alto sax.

 

Two rather more approachable works closed the concert’s first half. New York-based Koh Cheng Jin’s A Fleeting Perennity was inspired by a poem about Suntec City’s Fountain of Wealth. Alto sax was rewarded with lyrical moments accompanied by gentle piano ostinatos. Volume and tempos would rise, like sprayed water jets, but the work closed quietly.

 

The world premiere of Germaine Goh’s Portrait saw the first appearance of the large and unwieldy baritone saxophone. Described as a “charming” character study of Phua himself, it was good-humoured and whimsical, radiating warmth and sensitivity besides having surprises up the sleeve. That it closed theatrically with an ascending glissando wail and a loud fart also spoke volumes.

 

Starring saxophones:
Baritone, soprano, tenor & alto
(from right to left)

The concert’s second hald was devoted to one work, Jun Nagao’s arrangement of Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Originally a piano solo, this version saw Phua playing four different saxophones. Although some of the work’s original mystique was lost, this was made up by many fiendishly difficult maneuvers demanded of a soloist.

 

Alto sax appeared most frequently, including the opening Promenade and The Old Castle, a tribute to Maurice Ravel’s famous orchestration employing the saxophone as the troubadour’s voice. Baritone sax was used for the lumbering oxcart Bydlo and imperious Polish Jew Samuel Goldenberg, while soprano sax accounted for the shrieky Schmuyle and the Ballet of The Unhatched Chicks. 

The alto saxophone’s full gamut of tricks and devices was reserved for Baba Yaga’s Hut and The Great Gate of Kiev, where Promenade would gloriously return and the evening brought to a rousing close.