PROGRESSION V / MacPherson Philharmonic Orchestra / Review

 

PROGRESSION V

MacPherson Philharmonic Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (4 October 2026)

At last count, there are two community symphony orchestras in Singapore. The first one was Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra (BHSO) which recently marked its 40th anniversary, and the other is MacPherson Philharmonic Orchestra (MPPO, to distinguish it from the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra), which was formed just nine years ago.

Led by young conductor Lester Kong, the orchestra has shown marked progress in the past years, thus this concert’s title Progression V was wholly fitting. It opened with Franz von Suppé’s Light Cavalry Overture, once a very popular concert showpiece but now relegated to the realm of lollipops. Rousing brass fanfares led to excellent strings in melodramatic Italianate passages before the familiar refrain by a pair of galloping trumpets. This made for a fun-filled starter.

Photo: MPPO

Next came the world premiere of Germaine Goh’s The Colour of Gravity, a 27-minute saxophone concerto in four movements. The soloist was Samuel Phua, displaying prowess with a different saxophone for each movement. Piano and tubular bells established fast ostinatos over which Phua’s soaring alto sax held sway in the opening movement titled Worlds Becoming, a cosmic event equating the Big Bang. 

Photo: MPPO

Portrait saw baritone sax playing the tradition buffoonish role usually reserved for bassoons, in a syncopated jazzy dance. Muted strings conjured an Ivesian haze, as Phua alternated between lyrical and jocular comedic moments before with a sweeping upward glissando to close. It was hard not to applaud this scherzo-like escapade, but the audience had been forewarned.

Pale Blue Dot was the slow movement which had soprano sax entwined in a love duet with solo oboe. This brought out the work’s most poignant moments, and the eponymous finale for tenor sax pulled out the stops for a fast, flashy and virtuosic close. Composer Germaine Goh sees the colour of gravity as the colour of love, and this is without doubt the most significant saxophone concerto ever composed by a Singaporean. Samuel Phua, our local solution to Jess Gilliam, is actually closer in spirit to the great John Harle. His ardent advocacy will spur more Singaporean composers to write more works for the saxophone.

The encore, After Love by Jonathan Shin, involved audience participation. Solo passages played by Samuel were to be recorded on handphones, and later replayed en mass as accompaniment or counterpoint to the work’s closing passages. It made for some surreal Ligeti-like moments that was enjoyed by all present.

The major work was Johannes Brahms’ First Symphony in C minor (Op.68), a very ambitious ask for such a young orchestra. Under Kong’s direction, the opening movement portrayed a grim face of gravitas, its pulse held together by an excellent and resolute timpanist. The surges and ebbs of tension was well marshalled and there was little doubt that the ensemble presented a united front throughout. The second and third movements saw more challenges, as the slow movement came across as ponderous, and the ensemble struggling to hold it together. However, it was concertmaster Lim Shue Churn’s violin solo that shone as the light at the end of the tunnel.

The third movement was more relaxed but there were some hesitations and ensemble issues, however those were rendered moot in the finale. The build-up was portentously hewn out of solid granite, and Kong knew exactly how to pace and bring out the big hymn-like tune that made early listeners describe this to be Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony. No matter, the finale was a combination of grim determination and no little joy achieved through gritted teeth for a blazing conclusion to one of the greatest Romantic symphonies ever conceived. 

There must have been a small handful in the audience who attended the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s first performance of the same symphony in the same venue way back in 1981. That performance brought out unadulterated feelings of elation for both players and listeners, and this outing by MPPO may be viewed in the same light. For both orchestras, it represented a sure sign of progress.

PINNACLES OF ROMANTICISM / Take 5 Piano Quintet / Review

PINNACLES OF ROMANTICISM
Take 5 Piano Quintet
Esplanade Recital Studio
Sunday (29 September 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 1 October 2019 with the title "Take 5's take on Romanticism may be this year's top chamber concert".

Take 5, Singapore’s premier piano quintet, has now completed fifteen concerts in its exploration of the piano quintet (piano with string quartet) repertoire. After exhausting the popular and familiar favourites, the group has turned to the arcane territories of Philipp Scharwenka and Sergei Taneyev.

Both composers operated at the tail end of musical Romanticism, with their piano quintets arriving in 1910-11, just a couple of years before Stravinsky’s The Rite Of Spring was unleashed to the unsuspecting world. Both were academics who stoutly clung to past traditions, tenaciously defending their ground as modernism took over and irrevocably transformed the musical landscape.

The Pole Philipp Scharwenka (1847-1917) was the elder brother of pianist-composer Xaver Scharwenka, best remembered for his Polish Dances and piano concertos. His half-hour long Quintet in B minor, while maintaining a front of Teutonic objectivity and density, smouldered with Slavic passion and darkness. This was apparent in the unison voices of its opening, oozing pathos in the minor key before becoming slightly more optimistic in its second subject.

The lovely slow movement could be described a “Romance” with pianist Lim Yan’s calming opening answered by Chan Wei Shing’s cello plaint. With the other string players joining in, this love letter soon took off, fraught with tenderness and angst in equal measure. After a slow introduction, the finale became an exciting romp, with no let up in tension and energy.

The Russian Sergei Taneyev (1856-1915) was one of Tchaikovsky’s most famous students. His Quintet in G minor – in four movements and lasting some 45 minutes – could at least be called ambitious. Pianist Lim, also playing a curatorial role within the quintet, gave a short preamble to this sprawling work. Furnishing short examples and providing contexts, he struck a good balance between being theoretical and intellectual.

Taneyev was no dyed-in-the-wool nationalist, but the Russianess of his music still soaked through. The first movement’s opening theme, mournful and lugubrious, was worn heart-on-sleeve but tinged with Wagnerian harmonic ambiguities. A contrasting second theme, essentially a modified inversion of the first, radiated more light. The tense interplay between these two, for best part of the movement’s 20 minutes, was a catharsis of sorts.

As a change of tack, the scintillating Scherzo spun off sparks and tinsels ever so effortlessly, while the slow movement’s passacaglia was a plodding procession over a bass rhythm established by the cello. Despite the longueurs, the quintet showed little sign of toil or weariness.

The finale was skittish and filled with fantasy, and themes from the opening movement returned at a fast and furious pace. There was a moment of respite when Foo Say Ming’s violin soared to stratospheric heights, before a glorious reprise of the work’s most memorable melody. With violinist Lim Shue Churn and violist Chan Yoong-Han completing this “mighty handful”, Take 5’s take might just be this year’s top chamber concert. 

A FRENCH CONNECTION / Take 5 Piano Quintet / Review

A FRENCH CONNECTION

Take 5 Piano Quintet

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday (27 March 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 March 2016 with the title "Piano quintet has fun with diabolical diversion".

There was more than one French connection in this latest concert by Singapore's foremost piano quintet, Take 5. Firstly, all three French composers featured were much better-known as organists than pianists. Secondly, Camille Saint-Saëns was a teacher of Charles-Marie Widor, who in turn taught Olivier Messiaen. Thirdly, all the three works performed were receiving local premieres.

Saint-Saëns' Piano Quintet in A minor (1855), a conscientious work of a youngster, is virtually unknown for good reason: it is an awfully boring piece. More academic exercise than something truly inspired, its four movements seemed to tick off the boxes of technical accomplishments which all composition students strive for.

Piano chords and filigree from Lim Yan dominated the 1st movement, while a prayer-like slow movement presented Chan Yoong Han's viola and Chan Wei Shing's cello with some melodic interest. The Presto 3^rd movement gave the pianist frantic runs up and down the keyboard while the finale had the obligatory fugue, as inevitable as some tiresome graduation speech.

The quintet completed by violinists Foo Say Ming and Lim Shue Churn, were as expected, good servants to this pleasant and innocuous music, making the best case as they possibly could. The first half concluded with a little sting in its tale: Messiaen's unpretentiously titled Piece for Piano & String Quartet (1991).

Its pungent 4 minutes said far more than what Saint-Saëns accomplished in an entire half-hour. Four incisively-driven notes on strings were ear-catching, ushering in the purposeful dissonance of Lim's piano mimicry of birdsong, in this case the garden warbler (fauvette des jardins). Even before the ears could come to grips with its rarefied idiom, the same four notes emphatically ended the piece.

For those imagining Widor's Second Piano Quintet in D major (1894) to be much like his organ music, notably that Toccata of countless wedding services, they would be pleasantly surprised. His idiom is decidedly darker here, more aligned to the Cesar Franck and Richard Wagner axis.

The chromatic language in the opening movement occasionally lapsed into moments of lyricism and levity which were refreshing. There was even a short final flourish at the movement's end for violinist Foo to relive his re:mix ringmaster act as leading showman. Bare piano octaves heralded the 2^nd movement's passacaglia, which for all its austerity led to a heartwarming climax of rare beauty.

Short and exciting, the scherzo-like 3^rd movement swept past like something out of The Flying Dutchman, filled with searing dissonances and malevolent intent. One suspects the players had the most fun with this diabolical diversion, somewhat reluctantly reverting to a more casual and lighter stance for the finale.

Themes from the 1^st movement were rehashed, but this time a salon-like charm took precedence, with some rhapsodic musing before a grandstanding close. Having clearly appreciated the experience, the audience applauded long after the quintet had taken its last bows, packed up and gone home.

NORTHERN LIGHTS / Take 5 / Review

Review: Concert

NORTHERN LIGHTS

Take 5 Piano Quintet

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday (24 May 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 26 May 2015 with the title "Northern lights shine".

Northern Lights is the twelfth concert of piano quintets by the crack local chamber group Take 5. Given that as few as four piano quintets – by Schumann, Brahms, Dvorak and Franck – are regularly performed in concert, this is an astonishing feat of curatorship. The focus this evening was on  Nordic music, with what were most likely Singaporean premieres of quintets by Christian Sinding (1856-1941) and Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). 

The Norwegian Sinding was one of those unfortunate “one-work wonders”, known only for his piano miniature Rustle Of Spring, beloved of amateur pianists because it sounds more difficult than it actually is. His Piano Quintet in E minor (1884) is a massive work, with four movements playing over 40 minutes. No amateur could possibly survey this, given its pretentions as a virtuoso piano concerto with multitudes of notes. 

Lim Yan is no ordinary pianist, and as de facto leader of Take 5, took charge from start to end. His sombre opening solo was replied by his string partners violinists Foo Say Ming and Lim Shue Churn, violist Chan Yoong Han and cellist Chan Wei Shing in rapt attention. Their keen sense of chemistry, borne of years of playing together, soon told as the work gained in tempo and volume.

One reason why this work is hardly ever heard is its sheer density of Romantic excesses. Too many notes was what Lim had to contend with in all its four movements, which included florid chords, scintillating runs and cascading octaves, all well supported by the strings. There were some folksy moments in the scherzo-like Intermezzo, and even an Oriental-sounding second subject in the Finale, but the overall idiom was strongly Germanic, including throwing in a fugue for good measure.

Lim in his programme notes revealed that the great Italian pianist Ferruccio Busoni was involved in the premieres of both piano quintets. That would certainly explain the preponderance of the piano, but that was less obvious in Sibelius' Piano Quintet in G minor (1890). An early work, it predated his landmark symphonies and tone poems but contained glimpses of future greatness, especially in his development of motifs and themes.

Sobriety dominated the first of five movements, while two lighter salon-like movements sandwiched an Andante which was the true heart of the sprawling 40-minute work. Here there was a lovely viola melody, accompanied by pizzicatos from violin and cello and harp-like runs from the piano. Later in Scherzo, the flow came to a shuddering halt when a tuning peg on Chan Yoong Han's viola came loose. Being true professionals, the movement was re-started and completed beautifully without further incident or fuss.

The vivacious finale brought out folk-like elements that were previously sublimated, and like the Sinding had all five musicians stretching themselves for a triumphant and breathless close. So what further piano quintets can the public expect from Take 5? From this humble (and humbled) listener, the quintets by Medtner, Zarebski, Bacewicz and Schnittke all sound like fascinating future prospects. Are you all game?

 

PIANO QUINTET SERIES CONCERT IX / Take 5 / Review

PIANO QUINTET SERIES CONCERT IX

Take 5

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday (31 March 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 April 2013 with the title "5 take on Russian piano quintets".

There are about six piano quintets that are heard with any regularity in concert halls around the world today. So kudos go to local chamber group Take 5 for reaching its ninth concert without repeating a single work. But that also meant scouring the fringes of the repertoire, and the ensemble came up trumps with the Singapore premieres of two rarely-heard Russian piano quintets.

Anton Arensky (1861-1906) was a student of Rimsky-Korsakov and in turn was the teacher of Rachmaninov. His quintet in D major (1900) was the epitome of Romanticism and traditionalism, opening with a Tchaikovskyan melody in the usual sonata form. Not the most original or inspired of works, it nevertheless has a high charm factor, not least when the violin solos fall upon Foo Say Ming’s reliably steady and unfailingly sweet tone.

The slow movement’s theme and variations were not unlike those in Schubert’s Death And The Maiden, showcasing Chan Wei Shing’s cello in full bloom. The light-hearted scherzo, full of Mendelssohnian ebullience, was a playground for piano acrobatics which Lim Yan lapped up most gratefully. The finale, predictably for a schoolmaster, was textbook example of how to conjure up a fugue from earlier themes. Its apparent seriously was soon exhausted as the quintet ably wound up for a heady close.

Made of far sterner stuff was the Piano Quintet in F minor (1944) by Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996), also known as Moisei Vainberg, the Polish-born Jewish composer who fled the Nazis by escaping into the Soviet Union. A close friend of Shostakovich, it was inevitable that his music would share the same introspection and dark mordant humour as the more famous Russian.

Curiously, the quintet opened with the piano playing a plainchant-like melody an octave apart, with the melancholy redolent of another Russian, Rachmaninov. How Weinberg used simple, even unremarkable motifs and built them into powerful statements was classic Shostakovich. The level of angst invested into its pages soon piled up, along with discords and dissonances, relieved time and again by attempts at satire and wit.

The central Presto revolved around a psychotic little waltz, but the starkest of Largos, built upon sustained and repressed rage revealed a bare-knuckled anger waiting to burst free. Its denouement was however a most peculiar of finales, with strings playing repeated notes a tone apart – like a demented version of Chopsticks – with the piano commenting in the background, before launching into the mock-gaiety of a highland jig.

Like the deliberately ambiguous finale of Shostakovich’s piano quintet composed four years earlier, Weinberg had found his own release. The members of Take 5, which also included second violinist Lim Shue Churn and violist Chan Yoong Han, delivered with a convincing aplomb and the straightest of faces. A standing ovation accorded by segments of the audience was rewarded with a welcome reprise of the Scherzo from Arensky’s Quintet, something far less intimidating.