GALA: A BOWED AFFINITY / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

GALA: A BOWED AFFINITY

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Friday (25 July 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 July 2014 with the title "Emotional tribute to erhu virtuoso".

This pair of concerts was supposed to have been legendary Chinese erhu virtuoso Min Hui Fen’s final orchestral engagement. Unfortunately she died from a cerebral haemorrhage on 12 May in Shanghai at the age of 69 years. What would have been a celebration of her artistry instead became a requiem and memorial.

Replacing her was one of her finest pupils Liu Guang Yu. Alongside Singapore Chinese Orchestra erhu principal Zhao Jian Hua, also a student of hers, and her son the conductor Liu Ju on the podium, this was to be more than a fitting tribute. Naturally concertante erhu works championed by Min were the order of the day, but there were lots more to be served.

Liu performed three erhu works, beginning with Hua Yan Jun’s well-known Reflections of the Moon on Erquan. His was the instrumental personification of the human voice, heaving a breath, whispering and then singing in this elegiac number that was the blind composer’s meditation on a moonlit landscape. The orchestration was light, sometimes just accompanied by a pipa, allowing the erhu’s plaint to shine through.

Min’s own arrangement of Aspiration of the Honghu People was a patriotic work, full of martial fervour but tinged with a sense of melancholy, before the inevitable rallying to arms against the bogeymen Japanese. By the end of both works, the emotional Liu who swayed and sashayed through the scores, was flushed with tears and perspiration. His ingenious little scherzo entitled Ants did much to relieve the angst. 

Zhao was assigned Yang Li Qing’s Song Of Sadness, another sob story based on The Wailing River, a melody used by Buddhist to square with the philosophy of “living as suffering”. Overwrought emotions ruled, but it was Zhao’s flowing cantabile that truly moved. As a pedagogue, the late-lamented Min truly left a legacy.

The balance of the concert was just as substantial, filled with mostly programmatic works. Opening the evening was the ancient tune The Moon High Above, originally for erhu solo, orchestrated by Peng Xiu Wen. The music was ruminative, evocative of nocturnal scenes before breaking into a quick dance and capped with a rousing ending.

Wang Chen Wei with veteran composer and
Cultural Medallion recipient Phoon Yew Tien.

Young Singaporean Wang Chen Wei’s Sisters’ Islands in its original guise for Chinese orchestra stood out of the pack as it used the Indonesian pelog scale in its melodies, which gave it a distinctive Nanyang flavour. Sumptuously orchestrated, the work also employed marimba, wind machine and a blown conch shell to depict the legend of the Singapore Straits.

Closing the evening was Xin Hu Guang’s Gada Meilin, an established battle classic originally scored for Western orchestra. The Chinese orchestration by Liu Wen Jin is no less evocative, especially the serene opening with xiao and dizi solos and the section of stampeding steeds down the Mongolian steppes. Slightly longer than Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, the work nonetheless delivered with desired impact. An encore, the cheerful Hua Hao Yue Yuan (Beautiful Flowers, Round Moon) dispelled all gloom and lifted the spirits.

All photographs with the kind permission of Singapore Chinese Orchestra.

STRING CLASSICS BY MIN HUI FEN / Ding Yi Music Company / Review

STRING CLASSICS BY MIN HUI FEN

Ding Yi Music Company /School of the Arts Auditorium / Friday (13 May 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 May 2011 with the title "Erhu tour de force".

Ding Yi Music Company is a young Chinese instrumental ensemble just into its fifth year, and one beginning to make waves as an exciting and dynamic chamber group. A distinction of its prowess is the ability to attract top soloists in collaboration, and on this occasion their guest was Min Hui Fen, doyenne of erhu players and a legend in Chinese music circles.

The concert in the newly inaugurated auditorium at the School of the Arts began with the ensemble performing on its own, conducted by Quek Ling Kiong (left), who also acted as bilingual presenter. Liu Yuan’s Three Passages Of Jiang Xi was a suite in three movements, each displaying different aspects of instrumental colour. Two yangqins (box zither) were the focus in Spring, while strings dominated Nanci and Parting, the latter uniting three huqins of varying registers in conversation.

A somewhat confused audience was still settling into their unmarked seats when the show became Min’s one woman tour de force on the erhu. Her first piece was the sorrowful River Waters, accompanied by Yick Jue Ru’s yangqin. The erhu’s inimitable quality is to simulate the high human voice, with all its inflections and slurs.

Min produced a crystal-clear and intimate tone which resounded through the deep shoebox of the hall. It was not loud yet one that penetrated like a laser through fog. The distinctive portamenti were clearly articulated, like a Beijing opera singer in all her full-throated glory. Unpitched percussion then lent rhythm and cadence to the playful Jackdaws Frolicking In The Water, a Teochew song.

Folk melodies play a central role in Chinese music. For the Huang Mei tune Flower Guessing Song, Min’s former student Zhao Jian Hua (principal erhu in the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, left) and six ensemble erhus in unison were her able partners. Min and Zhao had their own duo together in the Jiangnan melody Three Six. Playing almost an octave apart, Zhao provided intimate counterpoint to Min’s plaintive song.

Zhao Jun Goes Out Of The Frontier and Grasshopper Teasing The Rooster, from Canton and Taiwan respectively, provided further display for Min’s instrumental virtuosity, accompanied by combinations of different timbres. The latter also afforded the erhu astonishing mimicry of a cockerel’s clarion call, a special effect later echoed in the neighing and whinnying of the popular encore, Horse Racing, which brought the house down.