YSTOI X NUSSO / Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestral Institute & National University of Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

YST ORCHESTRAL INSTITUTE X 

NUS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall 

Sunday (24 March 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 26 March 2024 with the title "First collaboration between Yong Siew Toh and NUS orchestras a celebratory success".

When the newly-inaugurated Yong Siew Toh Conservatory mounted its first orchestral concert in 2003, the ensemble conducted by Chan Tze Law was merely the second symphony orchestra on campus. The incumbent was the National University of Singapore Symphony Orchestra (NUSSO), formed in 1979 by the late Paul Abisheganaden. 

Strangely, the two orchestras had never collaborated over the past 21 years, even on occasion holding rivalling concerts in the same day. This joint concert marked a breakthrough, a result of Conservatory vice-dean Chan also holding the directorship of the University Centre for the Arts. 

Uniting soon-to-be-professionals with recreational musicians, the concert programme relived the conservatory orchestra’s maiden voyage with Chan again at its helm. Opening with Ho Chee Kong’s Fanfare, the rousing music centred on C major with brass and string flourishes portending early promise which would come to fruition with the present. 

Photo: Yong Junyi

Equally celebratory was Johannes Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture, composed for the University of Breslau where he received an honorary degree in 1881. Typical of the German’s humour, the work quoted student songs, culminating with the rowdy drinking song Gaudeamus Igitur. The young musicians were well-behaved in ensemble if not totally impeccable, but made a good fist of the music with cymbal clashes and ringing triangle at its close. 

The obligatory concertante work was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major (K.297b), which highlighted four wind soloists. While the 2003 line-up was of faculty members (also Singapore Symphony principals), the four soloists this evening were their students Sho Yong Shuen (oboe), Chen Yan-Rung (clarinet), Shi Jiaao (bassoon) and Yeh Shih-Hsin (French horn). 

Photo: Yong Junyi

This foursome worked very well together, first as a unison unit as they entered, then separately as solo parts took a life of their own. Backed to the hilt by pared-down orchestral forces, here was true chamber music at work. Lyricism ruled in the slow movement while the folksy finale’s tricky theme and variations revealed what virtuosos they really are. 

Photo: Yong Junyi

Arguably best was to come in Antonin Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony in G major (Op.88), a work also associated with higher education. This was the Bohemian composer’s response to his admission to the Prague Academy in 1890 and receiving honours from Cambridge University. Although less famous than his Ninth Symphony (the “New World”), it scored high for its collegial spirit. 

Photo: Yong Junyi

The full-strength ensemble of both orchestras gave a performance of passion and polish. The opening melody on cellos could not have sounded more mellow, its singing tone soon transmitting to the rest. Conductor Chan kept a tight ship, yet allowed the lyrical music to flow. 

Slavonic qualities of the central movements came to the fore, the slow movement’s rusticity contrasted with the third movement’s lilting dance. Excellent brass ruled the cheerful finale, which also delighted in a celebration of counterpoint. 

Photo: Yong Junyi

The very warm audience reception was rewarded with a contemplative encore, the slow movement from Ho’s Of Passion and Passages, reflecting hope for a bright future ahead.

INTO THE NEW WORLD / NUS Symphony Orchestra / Review

INTO THE NEW WORLD

NUS Symphony Orchestra

University Cultural Centre

Sunday (10 March 2013)

This review was published by The Straits Times on 12 March 2013 with the title "Energy flows when East meets West".

The East and West have always had a mutual fascination of each other’s cultures, and this concert drew upon this synergy with popular works of the symphonic repertoire. On casual glance, the pieces performed by the National University of Singapore Symphony Orchestra did not seem to reflect this, but the listening experience soon proved otherwise.

Opening with three movements from Hungarian nationalist Zoltan Kodály’s Háry János Suite, one was immediately struck by how Oriental the music sounded. Jonathan Lee's nicely shaded opening viola solo set the melancholy mood for the nostalgic Song, paving the way for the virtuosity of guest yangqin soloist Qu Jian Qing (Principal in the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, above), whose instrument more than ably replaced the Hungarian cimbalom, played by striking rather than plucking or bowing its strings.

Traditional Chinese instruments, the sheng, dizi and yangqin, also appeared in Chen Gang and He Zhanhao’s Butterfly Lovers Concerto, replacing and complementing the parts of the oboe, flute and harp. Although scored for Western orchestra, these touches lent an air of authenticity and the orchestra supported violinist Foo Say Ming  (left) to the hilt.

To say that Foo plunged into its Romantic excesses with real relish would be to put it mildly. He owned the piece, colouring it with judiciously placed portamenti, or slides, which simulated the erhu’s plaint and vocal inflections of Beijing Opera. He also blended very well with cellist Kenneth Lee and their unison duet together was very memorable.

After the intermission, conductor Lim Soon Lee (right) presided over a tautly paced account of Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony, popularly known as “From The New World”. Whether it contains native-American melodies, Afro-American spirituals, Central European symphonic formalities, or a synthesis of these is one for the musicologists, but this performance had much to recommend.

After a cautious start from the violas and cellos, the young musicians launched themselves fearlessly into the fray. At the energetic tempo adopted by Lim, there was no room for insecurity or doubt, and their response was a robust one. Woodwinds were excellent in the Largo, with Georgina Ng’s cor anglais solo garnering the honours, and the strings had many degrees of subtlety which guaranteed the success of this movement.   

The third movement’s Slavonic dance was equally trenchant, and there was no let-up in the rambunctious finale, with the tension ratcheted to almost unsustainable levels. Sustain they did, and despite strain in the brass when pushed to extremes, the final pages were a testament to how well this ensemble has progressed through the years.

The encore of Brahms’s First Hungarian Dance was an apt and welcome one, a celebratory close to the evening’s fine musical fare.    

  

Photographs courtesy of NUS Centre for the Arts.