METAMORPHOSIS / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

 

METAMORPHOSIS

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (19 July 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 July 2025 with the title "SCO's Metamorphosis a celebration of SG60".

The Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s opening concert for the 2025/2026 season, led by principal conductor Quek Ling Kiong was a celebration of SG60. Sixty years of Singapore’s nation-building were premised on a multicultural identity and social harmony, all represented in this concert.

The evening opened with SCO composer-in-residence Wang Chenwei’s Lion City Rhapsody, a modern look at the baroque concerto grosso. Its concertino group of soloists played 14 different instruments covered the five Chinese dialect groups in Singapore, each with its own distinct colour. Its infectious and kinetic energy founded upon the Nanyin classic Trotting Horses culminated with a greeting for National Day in Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka and Hainanese.

Of a more descriptive nature was Chen Si’ang’s The Grand Canal, which began quietly with serene scenes of quaint river towns on the 2500-year-old water system. Working itself into a big climax as it empties into the great Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the quasi-cinematic work was symbolic of longevity and endurance.

Former SCO composer-in-residence Law Wai Lun’s The Stories of Singapore highlighted landmarks in the nation’s history as viewed in the pages and photographs of local Chinese newspapers. The accompanying images to the music’s optimistic and self-congratulatory tone have been updated to include defeating the Covid-19 pandemic and ascensions of Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and President Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

Photo: Singapore Chinese Orchestra

There were two concertante pieces, both featuring Young Artist Award-winning percussionists. India-born tabla player Nawaz Mirajkar was soloist in his Soul of Damaru, a raga-based work where he performed on six tablas. The hypnotic spell generated was most magical when heard in counterpoint with Benjamin Boo’s xylophone.

Photo: Singapore Chinese Orchestra

A quite different atmosphere came with Riduan Zalani helming no less than eight frame drums (including tambourines) in Taiwanese composer Chang Yungchin’s Within and Beyond. In its sequence of increasingly exuberant dances, there were spots for ad libbing and even audience interaction, which kept the episodic work edgy and absorbing.

Photo: SCO / SPH Media

Then came the world premiere of Wang Chenwei’s Converging Resonances, which commemorated 60 years of the Singapore Conference Hall’s history. Its metamorphosis from National Trade Union Congress headquarters to SCO performing home unfolded in the form of a passacaglia, an inventive series of short variations on a ground bass. While its inspiration came from Johannes Brahms’ Fourth Symphony, the immaculate execution with numerous instrumental solos was wholly Chinese in character and feel.

Closing the concert was Felix Phang’s Pasat Merdu, translated as “melodious marketplace”, another concerto grosso-like work where diverse cultures and ideas are welcome. This adaptation by Germaine Goh for Chinese orchestra placed centrestage four members of The Straits Ensemble – Govin Tan (tabla), Nizarfauzi (rebana), Azrin Abdullah (oud) and Phang (double-bass) – in a raucous and colourful melange. 

Photo: Singapore Chinese Orchestra

This and the encore of Tamil song Iyarkaiyin Kaatchi, which included President Tharman in a clap-along, were enjoyable reminders that multiculturalism in harmony is what makes Singapore tick.

EARTH SONGS / Singapore Wind Symphony / Review

EARTH SONGS

Singapore Wind Symphony

School of the Arts Concert Hall

Sunday (31 March 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 April 2013 with the title "Rousing overtures for Mother Earth".

The Singapore Wind Symphony (SWS) is not a new outfit. It was formerly known as the National Theatre Symphonic Band (NTSB), and having undergone several personnel changes over the years, it was good to welcome back an old friend to vigourous concert life, now led by the dynamic young conductor Adrian Tan.

This concert, endorsed by the National Environment Agency, had a message of promoting conservation, and warning about climate change, global warming and mankind’s troubled relationship with planet Earth. Conductor Tan also doubled as master of ceremonies, doing his part by reminding the audience to save electricity, reduce, reuse and recycle.

Two Singaporean works were premiered, beginning with Wong Kah Chun’s Vox Stellarum Overture, a rousing work that rehashed the big sound found in those Star Trek and Star Wars movie soundtracks. The playing was impressive in its immediacy, as was its majestic portrayal of the view of our planet from outer space.

Philip Tan’s Landscapes Gradation was more down to earth, pitting two percussionists alongside the might of wind and brass. Ng Sok Wah, playing the marimba and vibraphone, was the more conventional, while Riduan Zalani manned a series of traditional Malay drums. Both had ample opportunity for solo display, and each were spectacular in their own way.

Their individual textures however became submerged when the orchestra joined in, having to contend with the ensemble’s own eight percussionists. There was a poignant little duet between tambourine and vibraphone (above) towards the end, symbolising that nature and man could co-exist harmoniously after all.

The largest work was Masamicz Amano’s Ohnai, a 30-minute long programme symphony written in remembrance of victims in the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji earthquake. It went through the predictable course of depicting carefree life before the disaster, the violence and upheaval that followed, and a new dawn – introduced by Ow Leong San’s oboe plaint – with the triumph of the human spirit as the music is elevated to a loftier plane.

Also making an impact was Franco Cesarini’s Blue Horizons, a paean to the great oceans in three movements. The very personable score sounded familiar as it recycled ideas from Benjamin Britten’s sea-inspired opera Peter Grimes for the battle between the Leviathan and Krakken, before closing with a Mahlerian adagio, accompanied by recorded blue whale songs.

The concert also included music by John Mackey (Sheltering Sky, which quoted the popular hymn Shenandoah), David Maslanka (the short but energising fanfare Mother Earth), and Satoshi Yanagawa (the feel-good Hymn to the Sun), before closing with a jazzy arrangement of the John Lennon song Imagine. The audience was reminded of its lyrics again by the very enthusiastic conductor. Imagine all the people / Sharing all the world / And the world will live as one. Those are thoughts worth pondering about.