THE VIOLIN AND THE ERHU / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

THE VIOLIN AND THE ERHU 

Singapore Symphony Orchestra 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Friday (16 August 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 19 August 2024 with the title "SSO's inspiring pairing of violin and erhu concertos".

"East meets West” was a tagline marketed by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra during the early years of conductor laureate Shui Lan’s tenure during the late nineties and early noughties. This idea of juxtaposing best of Eastern and Western music cultures was relived by eminent Chinese conductor Yu Long in this concert that cannily paired concertos for the violin and erhu. 

A score that brings both violin and erhu in a same work has yet to be programmed, so the audience got to hear American composer Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto first. One of the 20th century’s most popular and often-played violin concertos, this suited Japan-born violinist Karen Gomyo to a tee. 

Her rich and generous tone provided unalloyed pleasure in the first and second movements, essentially slow movements (despite the directions of Allegro and Andante respectively) filled with lush melody and seamless lyricism. The latter had the added luxury of Rachel Walker’s sumptuous oboe solo, with obvious echoes of Brahms’ immortal Violin Concerto, just heard a fortnight ago.

Gomyo pulled out the stops in the brief but mercurial Presto in Moto Perpetuo finale, where acid wit and slick acrobatics prevailed over a hotbed of dissonance and spikiness. The concerto was preceded by Barber’s singular greatest hit, his Adagio for Strings, showcasing SSO strings at its warmest. Far from dragging, it reached an impassioned climax without too much fuss or lacrimation. 

The erhu component came in Chinese composer Chen Qigang’s La Joie de la Souffrance (The Joy of Suffering), originally conceived as a violin concerto in 2017. Chinese erhu virtuoso Lu Yiwen was the first artist to perform its edition for the erhu, which does not suffer by comparison. 

If anything, its sounds even more authentic as it is a fantasy on the ancient guqin melody Yangguan Sandie, inspired by words by Tang dynasty poet Wang Wei. The original poem recounted the parting of friends at China’s far western frontier, an occasion for sorrow, contemplation and hope, all of these well captured by the instrument. 

Lu’s masterful showing on two huqins in the 25-minute modern masterpiece, with soulful soliloquys and tricky quasi-improvisatory passages, strongly suggests this might just be the 21st century’s answer to the Butterfly Lovers Concerto. May this be more often performed, and the start of a new musical trend. 

Both soloists were afforded time for an encore each, with further impressive displays of their stupendous techniques. Gomyo in Astor Piazzolla’s Tango-Etude No.3 was nigh impossible to dance to, while Lu in Liu Tianhua’s Kong Shan Niao Yu (Birds Singing In A Tranquil Valley) was a veritable mimicry of birdsong. 

The concert closed with a bang, amply provided by Alexander Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances from his opera Prince Igor in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s colourful orchestration. Wind solos predominated, including Walker’s oboe, Elaine Yeo’s cor anglais, Ma Yue’s clarinet and a bunch of flutes, before the six-man percussion crew took over to complete the romp. Nostalgic ears will fondly remember the melody in this lollipop as Stranger In Paradise from the musical Kismet.

A preview of this concert was published 

on www.bachtrack.com:

Waves of emotion: Yiwen Lu and the erhu | Bachtrack

A MUSIC VOYAGE AROUND THE ISLAND / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

A MUSIC VOYAGE AROUND THE ISLAND

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (14 January 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 January 2017 with the title "Playful take on Singapore-inspired music".

Nanyang music featured prominently in this Singapore Chinese Orchestra concert held for the first time in Victoria Concert Hall since its post-renovation opening, reason being that SCO's Singapore Conference Hall home is undergoing its own refurbishment. The sound of Chinese instruments resonated strongly in this reverberant space, opening with Zhang Xiao Feng's Singapura Overture conducted by SCO Assistant Conductor Moses Gay.

Its opening was Western before becoming distinctly Malay with its play of drumming. Then various motifs of a deconstructed familiar local tune appeared in whiffs and wafts. It took more than a few seconds to identify Di Tanjong Katong, which was never heard in its full glory with the music galloping like The Magnificent Seven theme to a raucous close.

More original in conception was Simon Kong's Izpirazione II, its three varied movements inspired by local fruits – Durian, Rambutan and Tarap – and taking the form of a prelude, scherzo and finale. Winds and percussion coloured the music's pungent aroma, joined by the musicians' synchronised clapping and stamping of feet as the suite drew to a colourful end.

There were two concertante works that offered very different aspects of solo string prowess. The first was Wang Dan Hong's Amannisha, named after the 15^th century Uyghur singer-dancer who defined the muqam musical tradition of Central Asia. Conducted by SCO Resident Conductor Quek Ling Kiong, Chinese erhu soloist Lu Yiwen's spectacular showing began with gentle musings in the upper registers before getting earthy in a vigourous and rhapsodic dance that rocked the hall to its rafters.

Lu's immaculate deportment contrasted with the free-and-easy improvisations of former Singapore Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Alexander Souptel in Phoon Yew Tien's Gypsy Rhapsody. This medley included Monti's Csardas, Enesco's First Romanian Rhapsody and variations on the Russian song Ochi Chornye (Dark Eyes) in a riotous mash-up. Souptel was his usual irrepressible self, cavorting on stage with the connivance of conductor Yeh Tsung, including a cheeky send-up to Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto for good measure.

Not to be outdone, the three conductors did their own solos in the world premiere of Journey Around Singapore by SCO Composer-in-Residence Eric Watson. Hoping to catch Yeh on piano, Quek tackling percussion and Gay playing the erhu, while taking turns to conduct? Here was the piece, destined to be a National Day Parade hit.

A musical travelogue in all but name, the work employed popular tunes representing four compass points: Sentosa Isle (South), Di Tanjong Katong (East), Voices From The Heart (West), the Chinese classic Horse-Racing and Rossini's William Tell Overture (North, specifically the Turf Club at Kranji) before closing with the calypso rhythm of Singapore Town.

That the concert was not to be taken too seriously was also underlined by the works that ended each half. Jiang Ying's Hot Melody from Southeast Asia was an Asian pastiche of all those Leroy Anderson “jazz” pieces, while Zhao Ji Ping's Celebration Overture was a spin-off from Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture with Chinese tunes. If you can't beat them, join them.