CONFLUENCE / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

 

CONFLUENCE 

Singapore Chinese Orchestra 

Singapore Conference Hall 

Saturday (6 July 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 8 July 2024 with the title "SCO's China tour programme celebrates Nusantara heritage".

When an orchestra goes on tour, it usually performs the chosen repertoire as a test run before embarking overseas. The Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO) did the opposite by having a homecoming concert instead, recounting its three-city China tour which took place in March and April. Led by conductor emeritus Yeh Tsung, it was a case of better late than never. 

What can an orchestra of Chinese instrumentalists from Singapore perform in China without “carrying coals to Newcastle” or “selling sand to the Saudis”? Very astutely, it was the repertoire that mattered most. By playing contemporary Chinese works and Nanyang music, the SCO could count itself unique among Chinese orchestras in Asia. 

Both the Chinese works were large-scaled concertante pieces involving virtuoso soloists. SCO concertmaster Li Baoshun performed on three huqins (gaohu, erhu and zhonghu) in Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun’s Fire Ritual, a half-hour of what has been described as “orchestral theatre”. Part orchestral showpiece, part religious ceremony, the music also involved vocalisations from the shaman-like Yeh and orchestral members, as well as extra-instrumental sounds like paper rustling. 

Offstage wind players strategically placed around the hall provided antiphonal effects, enveloping the hall with a temple of sonorities. The wails of suonas and guans, usually associated with funerary music, stood out. Adapted from Tan’s film score Nanjing 1937, the full ensemble memorialised victims of war, and did so with stunning and dramatic impact. 

Photo: Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Perhaps even more riveting was Luo Maishuo’s Stairway To Heaven with SCO pipa principal Yu Jia, cladded in silvery tinselled finery, as trenchant soloist. She simply stole the show, opening with an imposing cadenza, then revelling in dance-like moves and a meditative slow movement for contrast. 

The work which included a prelude, five movements and finale was inspired by the Sanxingdui tree of Chinese mythology, adorned with animals including a golden crow and dragon. The link between human and spiritual realms closed kinetically charged, where rhythmic exuberance and violence became all but indistinguishable. 

Nanyang music, works which included Southeast Asian influences, came from two former SCO composers-in-residence who have long been residents here. The concert opened with Eric Watson’s Tapestries – Time Dances, which was awarded the top prize at the First International Competition for Chinese Instrumental Compositions in 2006. 

There were influences from Gustav Mahler and perhaps Ralph Vaughan Williams heard in the orchestration but percussive and gamelan-like textures placed this work right smack in the Indo-Malayan archipelago. Speaking of the Straits of Malacca, Law Wai Lun’s Zheng He – Admiral of the Seven Seas, adapted as a three-movement symphony, was a tour de force of programmatic writing and orchestral textures.

In Wandering Spirits, The Voyage and Sea Destiny, the last movement a heady marriage of Chinese and Nusantaran musical cultures, SCO’s Chinese audiences would have gotten the full sonic experience of Nanyang. The concert closed with an encore, the merry strains of Hua Hao Yue Yuan (Blooming Flowers and Full Moon) with a hearty clap-along.

JOURNEYING TOGETHER: SHAO EN & SCO / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

 

JOURNEYING TOGETHER: 

SHAO EN & SCO 

Singapore Chinese Orchestra 

Singapore Conference Hall 

Saturday (28 April 2024) 

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 April 2024 with the title "SCO reunites with conductor Shao En for a lively evening of classics".

If one needed a reminder of what Chinese orchestral music is all about, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra provided a timely showcase led by veteran Chinese conductor Shao En. Well-respected in both Western classical and Chinese music spheres, his well-curated programme focussed on time-honoured classics and a modern look at age-old traditions. 

The first three works could be classified as light classics, optimistic and cheerful short pieces which extolled virtues of the toiling farming masses. Xu Jingqing’s Flowers Blooming Everywhere was a lively dance, which got faster as it progressed. 

Arranged by Peng Xiuwen were two other similarly joyous works, Shi Wanchun’s very brief Days of Emancipation and Liu Tianhua’s Towards a Bright Future. One might baulk at the claptrap of such socialist-realist titles, but there was no denying the sumptuous orchestrations, vivacity and vigour of the playing that really meant it. 

The best moments in the concert’s first half were two nocturnes with descriptive titles which went to the heart and spirit of Chinese music. The ancient tune Moonlit Night on a Spring River, as orchestrated by Qin Pengzhang, Luo Zhongrong and Liu Bin, was quiet and atmospheric, distinguished by refined textures and exquisite solos from Yu Jia (pipa) and Yin Zhiyang (dizi). 

Just as beautiful was Autumn Moon over the Han Palace, another ancient tune, in Jian Fengzhi and Huang Xiaofei’s orchestration. Despite an imposing orchestral opening, the show was stolen by SCO concertmaster Li Baoshun, swapping his gaohu for the rich mellowness of a diyin erhu. His highly sonorous solo was lightly accompanied, further enhancing the artistry involved. 

The concert’s second half was built upon visions of antique musical traditions as viewed through lenses of modern musical techniques. Nobody knows exactly what court music during the Tang dynasty and earlier sounded like, thus Night Banquet at the Shu Palace, a 1980s project as reimagined by three composers Zhu Zhou, Yu Shi and Gao Weijie, attempted to address the issue. 

The bamboo flute of Zeng Zhi featured prominently in a sequence of ceremonials and dances, which got progressively pacier with each section before closing quietly. Given the pre-existence of the Silk Road, one might even sense Indian, Central Asian and Middle Eastern influences in the mix. 

Arguably the more memorable work was Guo Wenjing’s Dianxi Folk Tunes, three highly rhythmic movements inspired by Yunnan folk and tribal culture. Throbbing percussion and strident winds dominated A Va Mountain, occupied by peoples who practised animistic religions. Tuned percussion dictated the pace and beat of Jino Dance, the variations of which resembled at times the improvisational freedom of jazz. 

Dissonance and primitivism ruled in the final Sacrifices.Fire.Spirit, a movement of suspense and violence, common to many such scores from the 20th century. It could only have had one grand-forebear: Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. 

Photo: Singapore Chinese Orchestra

The very well-received concert closed as it began, a cheery encore of Huang Yijun’s Hua Hao Yue Yuan (Blooming Flowers, Full Moon).

REUNION: HARMONIES OF SPRING / HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR CONCERT 2024 / Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra & Ding Yi Music Company / Review

 

REUNION – HARMONIES OF SPRING 

Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Saturday (17 February 2024)

HAPPY CHINESE 

NEW YEAR CONCERT 2024 

Ding Yi Music Company 

China Cultural Centre Theatre 

Sunday (18 February 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 February 2024 with the title "Liu Lingling, Boon Hui Lu shine in festive concerts".

Chinese New Year celebrations do not usually end until after the fifteenth day, so this pair of concerts conducted by a very busy Dedric Wong De Li was par for the course. Both festive events opened with works by Young Artist Award recipient Wang Chenwei. 

The Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra (ACSO) relived popular melodies in his Gong.He.Ying.Chun (Medley of Chinese New Year Songs). Although orchestral scoring and harmonies were decidedly Western, the tunes were unmistakable, with each word of its title representing a seasonal song. 

There was also a huge helping of nostalgia in the brassy Mediacorp Channel 8 Medley arranged by Yap Sin Yee. Familiar were themes from The Awakening and Kopi-O (The Coffee Shop), both popular 1980s television series during the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) era, but how many of the young musicians on stage would have sung or hummed to these? 

One also suspects that the medleys of Wakin Chau and Frankie Kao songs held greater resonance with the middle-aged demographic which dominated the audience. The inclusion of Asian instruments like Chen Ning’s erhu, Ansari Abd Razak’s oud (Middle Eastern lute) and Raghavendran Rajasekaran’s bansuri (Indian flute) added to the colour of the music performed. 

Star quality came in the concert’s guest performers, Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s concertmaster Li Baoshun and “Goddess of Getai” Liu Lingling. In Love from Zhao Jiping’s Qiao’s Grand Courtyard Suite, the sole serious work on show, Li’s erhu waxed lyrical from elegiac to virtuosic. 

It was the gaudily-attired Liu, however, who stole the show with her chatty and outsized personality, singing in Hokkien and Mandarin. Memorable was the glittery 881 Medley from the iconic 2007 getai feature-film directed by Royston Tan, which she starred in, and her encore Jit Lang Jit Bua (一人一半,Yi Ren Yi Pan) which had the audience singing along. 

Even before echoes of “Huat ah!” (Get rich!) had died down, it was Ding Yi Music Company’s turn to celebrate. Also led by conductor Wong, this was a more intimate and decorous affair with Wang Chenwei’s Minnan Medley, featuring three popular Taiwanese songs, opening the concert. 

Following that was Luk Wei Chung’s Tan-tiao Rock which highlighted the plucked string sonority of two ruans and one pipa, which might have sounded just as vivid on three guitars. 

This concert also saw a collaboration with two visiting virtuosos from Hong Kong’s Windpipe Chinese Music Ensemble. In Medley of Guangdong Classics arranged by William Wu, Ding Yi’s Chen Ning and Windpipe’s Chan Kai Him were paired on two erhus for immortal Cantonese melodies like Han Tian Lei (旱天雷), Ping Hu Qiu Yue (平湖秋月) and Bu Bu Gao (步步高). 

The best work on show was Germaine Goh’s Odyssey – A Rock Fantasia for double ruans, receiving its world premiere, with Ding Yi’s Wong Wai Kit and Windpipe’s Chan Sze Tung as dual soloists. This sojourn on the Silk Road wafted with exotic scents and aromas of the Middle East and Central Asia, the strummed timbres of both instruments leaving an indelible impression. 

The concert’s obligatory vocalist was singer-songwriter Boon Hui Lu, who projected a wholesome girl-next-door image, in contrast to the worldly-wise getai auntie from the evening before. Her songs, including Hang Around (theme from television series Jalan Jalan), Reset and Till The End, may someday become instantly recognisable. 

The concert closed with Sim Boon Yew’s Chinese New Year Medley (Gong Xi, Gong Xi and more) and as an encore, Boon in a song heard in both concerts, the Tsai Chin classic Chun Feng Wen Shang Wo De Lian (春风吻上我的脸, Spring Wind Kisses My Face). Just delightful.

AFFINITY / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

AFFINITY

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Friday (8 September 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 September 2023 with the title "SCO season opens with a bang".

 

Led by Quek Ling Kiong in his first full term as Principal Conductor of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, the Opening Gala of its 2023/24 season opened and closed with a bang. Wang Yunfei’s Blossoms and Harvests made for an excellent curtain-raiser, a work lauding the virtues of hard work and preparation. It began quietly and evocatively with Zhou Ruoyu’s gaohu solo, its fairytale-like opening rising to a crescendo, then launching into a fast dance. Its rousing percussion-led conclusion was its just desserts, befitting an auspicious occasion.

 

Then followed three concertante works with SCO’s principals as soloists. Receiving its Singapore premiere was composer-in-residence Wang Chenwei’s Aleppo, a 2017 symphonic poem on the rise and fall of the war-torn ancient Syrian city with Huang Guifang on sanxian. This three-stringed plucked instrument is capable of playing microtones closely approximating timbres and inflexions of plucked Arabian instruments such as the oud.

The work’s narrative unfolded in seven parts, going through a musical arc depicting legends and lore of old, with the mellow but inherently vocal sanxian as vivid story-teller. The city’s sacking and destruction was heartrending, but an inexorable final march procession represented an undimmed spirit of hope for its future.    

 

The three movements of Kuan Nai-Chung’s The Butterfly Dream were essentially variations on a single folk-like theme with Yin Zhiyang’s qudi (a bamboo flute with lower register and darker colour) laying on the colours. The first movement painted an idyllic scene with the titular insect flitting with nary a care, and how this instrument was well-suited for its portrayal. A fugal section was followed by two contrasted movements which turned upbeat and dance-like. The cinematic feel of the music also added to its accessibility.

 

SCO concertmaster Li Baoxun swapped his gaohu for erhu in Wu Houyuan’s Red Plum Capriccio, a 1980 work which echoed much of the form, architecture and tropes of the much better-known Butterfly Lovers Concerto (1959). All Li was obliged to do was reliving its passion and requisite virtuosity. As a further point of similarity, he even had a short duet with Xu Zhong’s solo cello at its climax. One difference of this work was its celebratory apotheosis, transforming the tragedy of lost love into an unmitigated triumph.  

 

The two-hour concert was completed by Cheng Dazhao’s Yellow River Rhapsody, which had no obvious thematic links with the Xian Xinghai cantata or eponymous piano concerto. Also the most modern-sounding work on show, there was a strong percussion beat for most part, and showcased important solos for xun (ocarina) and suona.

 

The most memorable section was its tumultous ending which also involved mass audience participation with hand-held pellet drums. Conductor Quek, having well prepped the audience in advance, made sure there was no way this work (and concert) could have ended on a whimper. A quite spectacular concert season with the SCO beckons.  

 

Landmark: This is my 2500th article for The Straits Times, having started writing for the national daily since 1997.

PROJECT RE-IMAGINING / Yong Siew Toh Orchestral Institute / Review

PROJECT RE-IMAGINING

Yong Siew Toh Orchestral Institute

Conservatory Concert Hall

Saturday (8 October 2022)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 October 2022 with the title "Overdue showcase of major works by home-grown composer Ho Chee Kong".

 

Ho Chee Kong was the founding Head of Composition at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory from 2003 to 2017. No less than four of his composition students have received the National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award, including Chen Zhangyi, Kahchun Wong, Emily Koh and Diana Soh. This concert was a long overdue showcase of three major orchestral works written over the last fifteen years by one of Singapore’s most notable composers.

 

Performed by the Yong Siew Toh Orchestral Institute helmed by founding conductor Chan Tze Law, all three works were heard in a 70-minute span without intermission. The retrospective sequence from most recent to earliest work was an intriguing one, united by newly-scripted verses by Ho himself. The premise was of an individual undergoing an existential crisis, having to search deep into the past in order to secure the future.      

 

A rehearsal of There and Back
with both soloists and conductor.
Note that Li Baoshun uses two huqins.
Photo: Yong Siew Toh Conservatory

The latest piece was There And Back (2019), a double concerto for gaohu / erhu and cello, originally premiered in its original version by violinist Siow Lee-Chin, cellist Qin Li-Wei and the Singapore Chinese Orchestra led by Yeh Tsung. For this new edition, the plaintive voice from huqin soloist Li Baoshun (Concertmaster of SCO) and the more throaty offerings from Qin’s cello were well matched in a gripping tug-of-war between slow and fast episodes.

 

The music evoked vast scenic landscapes and a vibrant dance of the earth, unfolding like some cinematic epic. The Sisyphean struggles, intimated by the orchestra’s toils, may be summated by Ho’s verse, “trudging forward but yet always returning”. The most moving part was its peaceable close, with house lights dimmed and orchestra silent, hearing both instruments retire together harmoniously as one voice.

 

What followed was Passage – Fantasy for cello and orchestra (2012), arguably the greatest cello concerto by a Singaporean composer to date. It was composed for the 2012 Singapore Arts Festival as a prequel to Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring, premiered by cellist Qin and the Orchestra of the Music Makers conducted by Chan. This performance united both soloist and conductor, reliving its primeval outlook as dark and intensely inward-looking.

 

Bitter and dissonant, this was a study of recurring nightmares and the wasteland of the soul. Qin’s exacting solo bristled with unremitting levels of tension, countered by the orchestra’s attempts to de-stress, sounding neoclassical or jazzy at times. All this culminated with a massive cadenza, worthy of the best of Shostakovich, before the solo being left hanging in the air (and awaiting Stravinsky’s solo  bassoon to take over).  

 

Closing the trilogy was Of Passion And Passages (2008), a traditional three-movement symphony written for the 40^th anniversary of Keppel Corporation and premiered by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under Lim Yau. This was the most optimistic sounding of the three, with a celebratory purpose in mind. Pomp and ceremony were the order of the day, but distinguished with a more reflective theme that memorably returns at the end.

 

Soothing strings coloured the slow movement while percussion dominated the finale’s perpetual motion, but it was a solo trumpet’s flourish and grandstanding close which completed the romp. That was a musical way of saying, “no matter what life throws at you, there will always be hope”.  

Professor Ho Chee Kong
takes a bow and receives the plaudits.