CLASSIQUES! CHOEUR / Philharmonic Youth Winds / Review

CLASSIQUES! CHOEUR

Philharmonic Youth Winds

Esplanade Concert Hall

Tuesday (23 December 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 25 December 2014 with the title "Youth Winds show mettle".

Just two short days after The Philharmonic Winds gave its concert of light songs from the musicals, its junior counterpart Philharmonic Youth Winds performed a programme of serious classics. This was not a case of friendly rivalry, but rather a show of ambition, that the young ones could very well stand on its own.

The longer first half led by guest conductor Chan Tze Law opened with Donald Hunsberger’s transcription of J.S.Bach’s Toccata & Fugue in D minor. Its arresting beginning was spot on cue and intonation, and there was to be no timidity in the winds’ and brass’ blazing entries. Despite the reverberant acoustics and long-held pedal points, the playing was clear and articulate, best typified in the complex fugue taken at a blistering pace.

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s principal tuba player Hidehiro Fujita was soloist in the fiendishly tricky Bass Tuba Concerto of Vaughan Williams. How the lowest pitched and bulkiest of all blown instruments was made to sound this agile and nimble was testament to Fujita’s virtuosity. In the central Romance, he made the instrument sing and in the folkdance inspired finale, acrobatics were again on show in the cadenza before an emphatic but quick flourish to end.

His encores included a comedy-filled set of variations on The Blue Bells Of Scotland, which traversed the complete range of the tuba and a solo improvisation on the Christmas song which begins I Saw Mummy Kissing Santa Claus.

The Vocal Associates Festival Chorus joined in for Masato Sato’s arrangement of Ravel’s Daphnis And Chloe Ballet Suite No.2. Anyone who doubts that a wind band could engage its quiet, rustling evocation of dawn, filled with bird songs, will be pleasantly surprised here. The flute solos were excellent, and the playing of the ensemble sensitive to various nuances and shades building up to the orgiastic Danse Generale.

One would have hoped for an even larger choir to fill up the entire gallery section. Good as the voices were, they were no match in volume generated by the instrumentalists. This was also apparent in the Triumphal March from Verdi’s Aida, which was boosted by children’s voices. Here the trumpet section held sway in the victorious procession of General Radames. 

The second half was conducted by Music Director Adrian Chiang, climaxing in Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture arranged by Yoshihiro Kimura. The chorus trained by Khor Ai Ming had more than a fighting chance in its a cappella opening God Preserve Thy People sung in Russian. They did so with requisite gusto and in the folksong At The Gate, as the battle of Borodino escalated.

Tautly knit together, this was an impressive performance that raised the roof when the French La Marseillaise and Russian anthem God Save The Tsar clashed amid the din of cannon shots and tolling bells. Ending the concert on a festive note was an audience sing-along in Leroy Anderson’s A Christmas Festival, with hymns like Joy To The World, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and O Come All Ye Faithful filling the air. Two nights before Christmas, this made for a most appropriate and cheerful send-off.   

 

CLASSIQUES! EXTREME by Philharmonic Youth Winds / Review

CLASSIQUES! EXTREME
Philharmonic Youth Winds
Victoria Concert Hall
Wednesday (23 December 2009)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 25 December 2009.

The Philharmonic Youth Winds is the junior arm of The Philharmonic Winds, peopled by talented wind and brass players under the age of 25. Inspired by their more experienced colleagues, this group is also capable of making a big noise. Led by resident conductor Adrian Chiang, who is the Singapore Symphony’s acting Orchestral Manager, its concert curiously began light and closed heavy.

Tchaikovsky’s popular Marche Slav in an all-wind transcription served as rousing opener, the perfect foil for Johan de Meij’s Extreme Make-Over. The latter is a surreal metamorphosis of Tchaikovsky’s Andante Cantabile, beginning with a saxophone quartet playing the melancholic melody straight and then subjected to a panoply of 20th century devices.

Almost too clever by half, it was an entertaining jaunt that included players blowing into fluid-filled bottles, Minimalist rhythmic chugging, moments out of The Rite of Spring, gamelan effects, the good old-fashioned oompah band routine before closing like a demented version of the 1812 Overture.

Chiang (left) kept a tight lid on the affair, ensuring that this laugh-a-minute spiel actually worked. In between was Mendelssohn’s affable Concert Piece No.2 (Op.114), which showcased duo clarinetists Desmond Chow and Liang Jiayi in fine form accompanied by a pared down ensemble.

James Barnes’ Third Symphony “The Tragic” was the final work, a substantial piece that channeled personal tragedy into a totally valid musical statement. Over timpani rhythms, a tuba solo reached out from the depths of despair, its heaving groan weighing on the anguished mind. The deft use of solo cor anglais and flute also ensured that the mood had the heft of a Shostakovich symphony.

The scherzo was built upon belligerent ostinatos, and despite its myriad variations, deliberately remained on a single plane throughout. Then the heavenly harp and tuned percussion ushered in the transformation from depression to hope, and with it a Lloyd Webberesque big tune and joyous finale. If truth be told, the first two movements of the symphony were of greater interest than its latter half.

However with concerts like these, downers are a no-no. So the youths followed its happy ending with two Christmas favourites by way of Leroy Anderson, and balloons rained on the screaming throng. Merry Christmas and goodwill to all.