RHAPSODIES OF SPRING 2016 / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

RHAPSODIES OF SPRING 2016

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

The Star Theatre

Saturday (30 January 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 1 February 2016

Rhapsodies Of Spring is the Singapore Chinese Orchestra's way of celebrating the Lunar New Year in concert, and for the first time it performed in the massive arena that is The Star Theatre. As with previous editions, the concert took on the form of a variety show, and who better to host it than well-known local television personality Marcus Chin (Chen Jian Bin), emcee of the popular Golden Age Talentime?

He and conductor Yeh Tsung displayed good chemistry in their playful banter in Mandarin, peppered with a few English phrases, which most centred around how busy they were and how young each other looked. There were no skits from radio personalities this year but more music, which began with Li Huan Zhi's Spring Festival Overture.

This familiar work was accompanied by visuals of the orchestra projected on a giant screen behind the stage, which focused on groups of soloists. This was soon overtaken by the entrance of the 9-member ZingO Festival Drum Group which raised a racket that was wholly appropriate for the occasion. Its synchronised drumming in Soar and Xu Chang Jun's Dragon Dance was an impressive show of precision and togetherness.

The first half was otherwise the Marcus Chin show, who had no less than four costume changes and enthralled the aunties with his crooning in the Nostalgic Song Medley (arranged by Tan Kah Yong) and Mix Match Song Medley (Phang Kok Jun). He does not have an operatic voice for songs like Man Chang Fei, Azaleas Bloom, Yue Qin and The Traveller With A Bamboo Pole, but his tenor comfortably scaled the heights with oodles of personality and some epileptic dancing.

The Chinese Folksong Medley curiously included a Russian song, Under The Shimmering Moonlight (but sung in Mandarin) and concluded with Radiant With Joy, rendered in an authentic Sichuan accent. Then the concert took on the feel of a typical episode from Saturday Night Live. With the lights dimmed, the main orchestra dispersed leaving behind the 16-strong SCO Pop Ensemble, which resembled and played like a jazz combo.

TV Golden Medley (arranged by Law Wai Lun) revived melodies like Striving (from the early local serial The Awakening), Good Morning, Sir! and  Kopi O. Suona Principal Jin Shi Yi had a field day with his assorted reeds in the Taiwanese song Tian Hei Hei, alternating between jazzy riffs and Donald Duck imitations. Not to be outdone was Han Lei on guanzi in Beijing jazz pianist Kong Hong Wei's Summer Palace, with a stirring display that brought on loud cheers.

The 2-hour concert concluded with bidding farewell to the Year of the Goat and ushering the Year of the Monkey. Wang Li Ping's Shepherd Song gave way to Xu Jing Qing's Gan Wen Lu Zai He Fang from Journey To The West, which saw Chin imitating the moves of Sun Wu Kong (Monkey God). Joined by four ladies in gaudy red, a motley Chinese version of Solid Gold Dancers, the glittery ensemble got the audience singing and clapping along to Sim Boon Yew's Spring Suite VI.

Has there been that many Chinese New Year songs in circulation? The Singapore Chinese Orchestra under Yeh Tsung has played them all. 

RHAPSODIES OF SPRING 2015 / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

RHAPSODIES OF SPRING 2015

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (31 January 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 February 2015 with the title "All things Chinese to welcome spring".

The Singapore Chinese Orchestra's annual Lunar New Year concerts, entitled Rhapsodies of Spring, have become as much an institution as the Singapore Symphony Orchestra's Christmas Concerts. Besides being celebratory in nature and content, it also has an ethnocentric element to remind the audience what it means to be Chinese. This aspect was more palpably felt in this year's edition.

Cast in the central role was popular radio and television personality Marcus Chin (Chen Jian Bin) serving as host with his constant bantering with conductor Yeh Tsung, who gamely played along. After the rousing Spring Festival Overture by Li Huan Zhi, Chin stole the show in a varied selection of songs that amply displayed his skills in orating, rhyming and crooning.

Recalling the itinerant street entertainers of China, New Street Vendor and The Shoe Cleaner had the rustic quality of folksongs which Chin delivered with natural flair and humour. This was contrasted with the Russian song Under The Silvery Moon and Sichuan folksong Radiant With Joy, the latter sung in original dialect with its quite exotic inflexions. Taiwanese composer Liu Jia Chang's The Clown provided moments of sober reflection, the sort encountered in Leoncavallo's verismo classic I Pagliacci.

Sheng player Zhong Zhiyue, attired in Miao costume, performed Xu Chao Ming and Lu Zai Yi's Blowing The Lusheng, Singing The Harvest on the lusheng, the ethnic Hmong variant of the mouth organ. This was a rhapsodic work with a slow introduction and cadenza before breaking out in a fast tribal dance with nifty footwork to match. Improvisation on a modern sheng defined Zhong's stylish take on Bob Gaudio's infectious Can't Take My Eyes Off You, the Frankie Valli hit song heard in Jersey Boys.

No Chinese New Year concert would be complete without some skit or other. Filial Piety, scripted and directed by Chin with music arranged by Tan Kah Yong, revolved around a dysfunctional family where old granny is ill-treated by the mistress of the house until the latter gets a comeuppance of her own. With appearances by Lin Ru Ping, Xu Qiong Fang, Chew Wen, Zhang Xiong and Chin in a cross-dressing role, it was quite funny but somewhat preachy in tone.

Far more subtle was award-winning film director Anthony Chen's 2011 short film Family Reunion with music by Law Wai Lun. The idea of family and bonding through the generations came across strongly in its brief 11 minutes, which captured fast disappearing scenes from Singapore through the decades in the eyes of a dialect-speaking heartlands family.

Sim Boon Yew's Spring Suite III was a lively medley of seasonal songs including In Spring and Winds Across The Land, which the irrepressible Chin led the audience in a sing-along and clap-along. More familiar were He Xin Nian (New Year Greetings) and Da Di Hui Chun (Spring Returns) which ushered in two gods of wealth, who dished out chocolates in the shape of gold coins and ingots.

Par for the course for a festive concert where family values and all things Chinese become as important as or even supercede the music itself. Attended by an over-subscribed house over two evenings, a surfeit of goodwill and good wishes cannot be a bad thing. 

May the gods of wealth
bringeth thee great fortune!

All photographs by the kind permission of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra.