SYMPHONY BEYOND TIME / TARANTELLA - DANCE IN SYMPHONY / Music For People Festival Orchestra & NTU Symphony Orchestra / Review

SYMPHONY BEYOND TIME

Music For People Festival Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Wednesday (3 June 2026)

TARANTELLA – DANCE IN SYMPHONY

NTU Symphony Orchestra

SOTA Concert Hall

Friday (5 June 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 8 June 2026 with the title "Music For People Festival Orchestra delivers an all-Beethoven spectacle".

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s season is officially over, but large-scale orchestral music continues unabated. Just last week, the Orchestra of the Music Makers performed Mahler’s Seventh Symphony, and this week’s blockbuster was Beethoven’s Choral Symphony, delivered by the not-for-profit Music For People Festival Orchestra led by young Sarawak-born conductor Audrey Chung.

The all-Beethoven evening opened with the Triple Concerto in C major (Op.56), with Elite Artists Trio from Taiwan as soloists, comprising violinist Qin-Yun Du, cellist Limu Ya and pianist Sherry Chen. This unusual work casts the cello in the lead, and Ya’s song-like solos held up, well-balanced by her partners with the trio functioning like a united team all through its three tuneful movements.

The orchestra supported the enterprise well, and it should be no surprise as the majority of its professional players are stalwarts of the Singapore Symphony, re:mix, re:Sound, Concordia Quartet and Red Dot Baroque. Thus, Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 in D minor (Op.125) felt like a breeze in its fairly swift 65 minutes, led from memory by Chung. There were no extremes in tempi in the first two fast movements, while the Adagio unfolded magisterially with much aural beauty.

Who was not waiting for the famous choral finale? Notwithstanding inappropriate applause in between movements, the faux pas inexcusably repeated while the Ode To Joy was well underway, this epic sing out was still a spectacle. The excellent quartet of soloists, well-known for appearances with the Singapore Lyric Opera, comprised soprano Jessica Chen, mezzo-soprano Anna Koor, tenor Lee Jae-wook and bass William Lim.

The 220-member choir (Nicholas Tham, chorusmaster), the largest assembled for such a work in recent years, created the biggest sound possible, ensuring this was a truly memorable event. Proceeds of ticket sales went to palliative care organisations and music education programmes for underprivileged communities.

On Friday, it was the turn of the students from the Nanyang Technological University Symphony Orchestra (NTUSO), directed by Chan Wei Shing, to strut their stuff. Central to the dance-themed programme were Singapore premieres of two 20th century cello concertos performed by Loke Hoe Kit, a specialist in performing unusual repertoire.

Photo: Loke Chee Meng

Frenchman Darius Milhaud’s Cello Concerto No.1 (1934) has its serious and light-hearted sides. A darkly elegiac slow movement was starkly contrasted by the opening’s nonchalant lilt, like an insouciant stroll along the Seine, and the finale’s carnival atmosphere in the form of a tarantella. The fast Italian dance in 12/8 rhythm gave the concert its title.

Virtuosity on the cello continued into Austrian composer Erich Korngold’s single-movement Cello Concerto (1946), reliving the opulence of Hollywood as it was an expansion of music from the movie Deception (1946) starring Bette Davis. Reveling in lyrical gifts and contrapuntal novelties, both soloist and orchestra provided a memorable first outing for this underrated mini-masterpiece.

The concert began with Mexican composer Arturo Marquez’s very popular Danzon No.2, generating a terrific crescendo and momentum from its quietly sedate opening pages. The main work was Bohemian composer Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No.8 in G major, which provided the young musicians with their toughest technical and musical challenges.

Listening beyond the rough edges, it was a performance of much commitment and enthusiasm. Although beginning tentatively, the ensemble grew in confidence with each phrase. With the dance and folk-inspired third and fourth movements finally clicking into motion for a spirited finish, one senses much more will be heard from this outfit in time to come.

EVERYBODY LOVES A SOIREE: SPRING SONATINA @ CHING LEE'S

Our long-time friend Goh Ching Lee has to be the master of all soirees - she has hosted the most soirees of anyone we know. This year's springtime offering on Sunday 3 May was no exception, with new friends, new repertoire and new food offerings. The usual suspects were there, including the resident cellist of Havelock - Hoe Kit - who will be premiering two concertos in June. Also in attendance was long time veteran arts manager Juliana Lim, and arts entrepreneurs Michael and Meena Tay. A new addition is pianist Alan Lim, Hoe Kit's church friend and new accompanist. Here are the photos.

Hoe Kit and Ching Lee opened with
Schumann's Fantasiestucke Op.73 No.1
followed by Chopin's Largo from Op.65

The it was the 1st movement of
Milhaud's Cello Concerto

Encore: The Swan by Saint-Saens

Delicious grub from Dian Xiao Er

Alan entertains us with
Liszt's Petrarch Sonnet No.104 and
Rachmaninov's Prelude Op.32 No.12

Handel's Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
for piano four hands

Something new: Franz Behr's
Lachtaubchen (Turtle Dove Polka)
and Stephen Hough's transcription
of P.Ramlee's Getaran Jiwa

The Schumann-Liszt Widmung
and Wang Jianzhong's
Glowing Red Morningstar Lilies

Ching Lee and Alan try something
from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite

The Waltz of the Flowers

Ching Lee serenading till late!

CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF SOIREES: CHING LEE'S MID-AUTUMN BASH

It's been a while, but since ex-Singapore Arts Festival director Goh Ching Lee is back in town, there's no reason not to have another musical soiree with the usual suspects. Its past mid-Autumn and there's no longer a full moon and moon cakes are out of circulation, but food and music is still in bountiful supply. 

She and neighbourhood cellist Loke Hoe Kit are still working on the Darius Milhaud Cello Concerto, and a Singapore premiere looks like on the cards in the near future. So we got a sneak preview, but just the first and third movements. Ching Lee has also returned from the Chetham's Piano Summer Festival, and was ready to for some virtuoso action after being tutored by no less than Peter Donohoe!

So here are the photos of an enjoyable evening. What else could it have been? 

You saw it here first, Loke Hoe Kit
to premiere the Milhaud Cello Concerto soon.
Akan datang!

Ching Lee gave a free-wheeling
account of the Kreisler-Rachmaninov Liebesleid.

The food was Eurasian on this occasion.

Still working on the 
Mozart Fantasy in D minor, K.397

Zhang Heyang chipping into to play
Ennio Morricone's Gabriel's Oboe
from The Mission.

Rachel Yee tries some bluegrass fiddling
on Heyang's violin.

Music for four hands,
Handel's Arrival of the Queen of Sheba.

Heyang now joins in to play
the top bar violin part.

It's Rachel's turn to enter the fray, with
excerpts from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite.

Sooner or later, someone had to play
Teresa Teng's The Moon Represents My Heart.

Janet surprises one and all with her
keyboard prowess. John is suitably impressed.

Everyone had fun, we hope!

FIRST SOIREE OF THE YEAR!

It's been a while since the last soiree organised at the Havelock home of Goh Ching Lee. As always, it was a cosy affair, with yummy food, good company and more lovely music. The turn of the Lunar New Year has just concluded, but the penchant for yusheng still lingers, until the year of the snake becomes the year of the horse. 

As before, our in-house cellist Loke Hoe Kit had a new cello concerto to unveil. He performed the final movement of a rarely-heard Cello Concerto in E minor by a Soviet era composer better known for his other cello works and ahem, Peter and the Wolf. (This was, of course, top secret, hush-hush, and classified news.) He was ably partnered by pianist Daphlyn Gao who was visiting from Melbourne. Also new was violinist-in-residence Zhang Heyang trying out a new piece on his pipa.

Needless to say, it was an enchanting evening, and here are the photos to remember the soiree of Sunday (2 February 2025) by. 

A sneak preview of a
Singapore premiere to come.

Daphlyn & Rachel Chen play
Jean Gabriel-Marie's La Cinquantaine.

Can't remember what this was, but
Ching Lee & Pianomaniac probably played
Brahms' Hungarian Dance No.5.

The obligatory Lohei. Huat ah!

The pipa makes a debut 
at the Havelock soiree,
courtesy of Zhang Heyang.

Rachel imagines herself to be Yu Jia.

Ching Lee played the 
Kreisler-Rachmaninov Liebesleid from memory.

This must have been a four-hand version
of Dvorak's Humoresque.

More pipa music.

Mozart's Rondo alla Turca
or something like that.

Something to spook concert hall minions-in-black.

Our customary selfie.