THE FLIGHT OF THE JADE BIRD / Singapore Arts Festival 2012 Opening / Review

THE FLIGHT OF THE JADE BIRD

Singapore Arts Festival Opening

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (18 May 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 May 2012 with the title "Stars shine on long flight". 

Some cultures can draw from centuries of folklore for their myths and legends. We in Singapore have to create our own from a fertile imagination. The Russians have their Firebird, expanded by Igor Stravinsky into a stirring 45-minute ballet for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. The Singapore Arts Festival commissioned Hong Kong-based Singaporean Mark Chan to compose the Jade Bird as this year’s opening act, and the result was a distended fictionalised 140-minute Pan-Asian quasi-opera.

The story’s premise was however a promising one, with multiple metaphorical threads taking place which sum up Chan’s ethos of finding and staying true one’s own identity while threatened by external forces and influences.

Jade is the semi-precious stone which Asians hold almost sacred and close to their chests. The bird is a highly mobile creature that flies long distances according to its instincts – either homing or seeking fresher fields. The palace of the birds represents the last bastion of hope, peace and solace, which faces imminent destruction as it is being replaced by a commercial theme park. Stay and fight, or quit and take flight? Here, the old ultimately resists the new, and hallowed tradition overcomes erosive values.

One certainly identifies with these inspirations and aspirations, and the sense of struggle he was hoping to engender. The libretto, sung in English, seemed fussy and over-elaboration often blurred and got in the way of the points Chan was trying to get across. Set to music, the narrative might have taken on epic proportions but only succeeded in becoming convoluted and unwieldy. The First Act seemed to run for an eternity. The far shorter Second Act, buoyed by more thematic interest, at least closed with a ringing apotheosis. 

The music conducted by Belinda Foo was gratifyingly tonal, the Asian feel provided by excellent scoring by pianist Julian Wong for Chinese instruments, cellos, piano and percussion. There were some memorable melodies, plucked out from the usual contemporary clichés and platitudes, which could have been further developed.

The five singers, drawn from the best of the region, were well cast. Pride of place went to soprano Yee Ee Ping’s impassioned Woman of the South’s aria at the beginning of Act Two. She was well supported by baritone Huang Rong Hai, tenor Melvin Tan and countertenor Phua Ee Kia. A rising star is treble Matthew Supramaniam, whom as the Boy who befriended the Bird displayed great confidence and was the epitome of purity. 

Kee Thuan Chye, perhaps better known as a commentator on Malaysian politics, was a dependable Lim Kay Tong-like narrator. The all-black stage was disappointingly staid, with the only visual interest provided by Hong Kong dancer-choreographer Mui Cheuk Yin, who sympathetically portrayed the Bird in movement throughout. She was however placed so peripherally that she either became a diversion or a distraction.   

Despite certain obvious strengths and the standing ovation accorded at its end, the production struck as being less than the sum of its otherwise impressive parts. Big and long does not always mean better. While this was certainly no Ring Cycle, but in terms of being protracted, The Flight of the Jade Bird felt like it.

THE "RITE" EXPERIENCE with the Orchestra of Music Makers

On Sunday evening (13 May 2012), members of the public had a chance to witness up close a rehearsal by the Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM) as they prepared for their performance of Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps) at the 2012 Singapore Arts Festival. About 20 people, mostly students, were present for OMM's "Rite" Experience, which began with a presentation about OMM's history and overall vision given by its young President, the 22-year-old undergraduate Yeo Ying Hao. A brief history of the ground-breaking work was also provided. The audience clearly identified with this young man's zeal and passion for music. 

The rehearsal was conducted by OMM's Music Director Chan Tze Law, who combined a detailed, serious but informal approach in his direction. There was an element of humour that diffused potentially tense situations when the ensemble occasionally struggled with this new and very difficult score. Most of the young musicians were playing Stravinsky for the very first time! Visitors to the "Rite" Experience were designated seats within the orchestra ranks, where they were given a chance to feel what it was like sitting amidst the ongoing action. They were given a chance to clap along to the complex rhythms of the score, and was that difficult! All the better to appreciate the lot of the musicians, who actually had to play their parts in tune and perfect timing!

A panoramic view from where I was sitting initially, at the periphery. As one goes in and sits within the orchestra's ranks, the sense of involvement with the musicians also increases.

The first violins led by concertmaster Seah Huan Yuh at work, and taking a breather.

Two views of the double basses.

From the back of the orchestra

The two timpanists have their work cut out for them. Part of a percussion score (right).

Another view from the percussion.

A friendly chat with the maestro at the end of the rehearsal session.

The Orchestra of the Music Makers will also perform Holst's Beni Mora (Oriental Suite) and the World Premiere of Ho Chee Kong's Passage, a work for cello and orchestra (with Qin Li-Wei) that has been conceived as a prequel to the Stravinsky. This not to be missed concert take place at Esplanade Concert Hall on 1 and 2 June 2012.

A HERITAGE JOURNEY: ELEGANCE OF NANYIN / Singapore Arts Festival 2011 / Review

A HERITAGE JOURNEY: 

ELEGANCE OF NANYIN
Singapore Arts Festival 2011 

Singapore Chinese Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall 

Saturday (28 May 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 30 May 2011 with the title "Elegant ensemble of sound".

Nanyin, translated as “Southern music”, is an ancient musical tradition from the Southern Chinese province of Fujian. Referred to as a “living fossil”, its legacy of chamber music involves solo voice and a small assortment of instruments, performed by a small ensemble. How such a genre of diminutiveness and intimacy translated into a concert with a large group like the Singapore Chinese Orchestra was a bold experiment and labour of love.

Hong Kong-based composer Law Wai Lun had sympathetically incorporated Nanyin into a larger framework of a six-movement symphony. Lasting almost 80 minutes, the results were revelatory if not totally original.

The first movement, Splendour of Erythrina City, featured the full orchestra with a stirring choral part sung by the Victoria Chorale and Vocal Consort, sounding like an Oriental version of Orff’s Carmina Burana. However, their words were in Mandarin, rather than the authentic Minnanese (Hokkien) dialect, thus detracting from the original premise.

This was more than made up by the appearance of singer Li Bai Yan from the Quanzhou Nanyin Ensemble whose sleight of hand on two sibao (wooden clappers), shaken at two totally different rhythms, was matched by her pristine voice. Heard in the original tongue, the roots, heart and soul of Nanyin came to the fore unequivocally.

In The Magnificent Steeds, a steady gallop rhythm was maintained by the Quanzhou group, dressed in traditional costumes and seated at the highest point on the stage. Wang Da Hao on the dongxiao (a woodwind blown like the recorder) and Zeng Jia Yang on nanpa (a horizontally placed lute) were protagonists for this exquisitely poised and brilliantly paced music.

Through all this and the fourth movement Harmonious Court Music, which conductor Yeh Tsung humorously called “insect music”, the orchestra played sotto voce throughout, exerting an reassuring presence but never overwhelming the delicate balance of instrumental solos. Li’s ethereal voice returned for the fifth movement Celestial Sounds, where the use of echoes and chorus heightened its mystique.

Our nation’s definitive connection with Nanyin was most apparent in the finale Passing on the Ancient Flame, with the Siong Leng Musical Association playing a pivotal role. A song by its late Chairman Teng Mah Seng, Singapore’s foremost Nanyin exponent, was incorporated into the score and Lin Shaoling’s tenor lent a poignant counterpoint to Li’s. The music was decidedly more contemporary with an Indian tabla providing the driving impetus.

There was a grand apotheosis, but the muted ending seemed the more appropriate one. One male speaking voice in Hokkien emerged above a sea of babbling voices, intoning, “I am a Hokkien, so was my father,… and I could never be anybody else,” more or less summed up the sentiment. The journey of music across cultures was now complete.

Academy of Ancient Music / Singapore Arts Festival 2011 / Review

ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC / Singapore Arts Festival 2011
Esplanade Concert Hall / Tuesday (17 May 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 19 May 2011 with the title "Pleasurable rare sounds".

It is no secret that Baroque music hardly gets heard in Singapore. On the rare occasion that Bach, Handel or Vivaldi is performed, it is invariably on modern instruments. The culture of period performance practice simply does not exist here, and we are poorer for it.

Thus it is always a pleasure when imported acts bring its lightness and litheness in sound textures into our concert halls. The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM), formed by Christopher Hogwood in 1973, is founded on the principles of authentic music-making. All its stringed instruments use gut strings instead of metal strings, producing a softer and mellow sound, which has far less vibrato than their modern counterparts.

Ensembles of antiquity also performed in much smaller venues, where the need for sound projection is less crucial. Having said that, the 18-member AAM directed by Richard Egarr from the harpsichord performed a varied programme that was intimate in sonority yet quite comfortably filled the vast expanse of Esplanade Concert Hall.

All the composers featured were familiar names, but the works were by no means often heard in concert. The Sinfonia from Handel’s opera Saul opened the show, an unusually extended piece in four parts alternating between fast and slow. If parts of it had a sense of déjà vu, it was because the opening theme resembled Lift Up Your Heads from Messiah.

The mainstay of the Baroque was the concerto grosso rather than the symphony, and Arcangelo Corelli’s Concerto Grosso in D major was a good example. The concertino group of soloists, two violinists and cello, provided the virtuoso element over and above the ripieno accompaniment, shining in its six movements.

Lead violinist Pavlo Beznosiuk was joined by oboist Frank de Bruine in J.S.Bach’s Concerto in C minor (BWV.1060), reconstructed from a concerto for two harpsichords. Over pizzicato strings, the pair in delicately interwoven roles sang as one in the Adagio, easily a highlight of the evening.

Further soloistic displays were afforded in a Vivaldi bassoon concerto with Ursula Leveaux, making the usually jocular woodwind sound like the perfect instrument of mourning. Director Egarr himself performed and ornamented two Handel organ concertos. The first in B flat major (Op.4 No.6), more often heard as a harp concerto, had such a soft and muted quality that a hearing aid in the audience was triggered off, providing an inadvertent whistling solo line to the music.

Purcell’s lovely Chaconne was a brief showcase of the art of variations, and the concert closed with Bach’s First Orchestral Suite. Despite being regularly recorded, it is seldom heard compared with its two successors. After the opening French overture, it is a succession of fast dances, all of which were performed with great zest and vitality. Two and a half hours passed ever so pleasurably, and the AAM waved goodbye with Handel’s bustling Arrival of the Queen of Sheba.

Academy of Ancient Music and Sumi Jo / Singapore Arts Festival 2011 / Review

ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC & SUMI JO
Singapore Arts Festival 2011 / Esplanade Concert Hall / Monday (16 May 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 May 2011 with the title "Sumi Jo lights up the stage".

Those who expected superstar soprano Sumi Jo to have sung more in this concert should have a double take on the title. This was to be a concert by the Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) with Jo as its guest artist, rather than the other way around. For the record, she sang just six songs in the main programme, in between three eye-catching changes of evening gowns.

The Korean “Queen of Coloratura” made a significant departure from her usual territory of Romantic showstoppers to delve into Baroque finery. As with great singers past and present, the results were still nothing short of spectacular. If one expected her to tone down her usual fire to fit the quaint and light sound of the period instrument movement, there was to be nothing of that sort.

Singers live for the joy of vibrato, and that was what she delivered without fear. In her opening aria, Vivaldi’s Nulla In Munda Pax, the bright and luminous glow which all have come to expect was immediately apparent. Ever careful with enunciation of words, she crafted every note with pristine clarity, and never in the expense of the seamless flow of the music.

For the faster tempo and higher reaches of Handel’s Tornami a vagheggiar (from Alcina), the figurative gloves came off with dazzling short runs and long held notes, all spiced up with tasteful ornamentations, and never mere display for its own sake. In Vivaldi’s Sposa, son disprezzata (Bajazet), the lament of a forsaken wife, coloured in gloomy tones, was one deeply felt.

William Carter’s theorbo (an ancient plucked instrument) and ensemble director Richard Egarr’s harpsichord was the only accompaniment in Purcell’s Music For The Moment (Oedipus), where the full unadorned glory of Jo’s artistry could be keenly appreciated. Not one to give up on fireworks completely, this was followed by Handel’s celebratory Let The Bright Seraphim (Samson), where her joyous issues were superbly echoed by David Blackadder on the natural valveless trumpet.

People came to admire Jo’s vocal acrobatics, and they were not to be disappointed with her closing number, Vivaldi’s Agitata, da due venti (Griselda). Translated as Shaken By Two Winds, it revelled in the fast and furious. Her athleticism in quick fire repeated notes was matched by animated responses to the orchestral playing with fits of head nodding and wide smiles.

She was having a whale of a time and the expected cheers were rewarded with two substantial encores, including the sublime Laschio lo pianga from Handel’s Rinaldo. In between all that, the ensemble led by Egarr from the harpsichord had also performed two Handel concerti grosso, a Handel sonata and sinfonia (The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba), a Purcell suite and an Albinoni concerto. 150 minutes had passed ever so quickly, but more on the AAM in tomorrow’s review.

Richard Egarr speaks at a post-concert dialogue.

SINGAPORE ARTS FESTIVAL: Joshua Bell and Academy of St Martin in the Fields

Singapore Arts Festival

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields

JOSHUA BELL, Violin & Director

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (12 June 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 14 June 2010.

The programme offered by the celebrated Academy of St. Martin in the Fields at this year’s Singapore Arts Festival was safe, predictable and ultimately boring. Fortunately, the playing by the much-recorded orchestra and its director-on-tour, the American violinist Joshua Bell, was none of the above.

In the opening Coriolan Overture by Beethoven, the chamber-sized ensemble produced a buoyant and transparent sound, such that much of the details were not submerged by the force of delivery. Never lacking in intensity, its tragic vistas were well realised in this vivid reading led by Bell sitting in the concertmaster’s chair.

Taking the spotlight, Bell’s urgent yet sensitive solo reading in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor (Op.64) showed he knew the true meaning of appassionato. A bright, sugary tone served its lyrical pages like a dream, and when push came to shove, his ardent manner and unmannered virtuosity lit up the stage.

Never showy for its own sake, the music benefited from his commitment. The minor exception was Bell’s own dazzling cadenza for the first movement – spotlessly delivered – which sounded a tad overdone for Mendelssohn’s more intimate style. The slow movement was loveliness itself and the ebullient finale sparkled like champagne.

Bell’s stunning solo encore – a cunning set of variations on Yankee Doodle (after the example by Vieuxtemps) - cued enormous cheers from the audience.

Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony in A major (Op.92) continued where the overture left off, another fleet-footed performance that did not come across as lightweight. The music was a sure winner in itself, its four movements bounding with pulse and kinetic energy. Superbly judged by Bell and his charges, the performance flowed unimpeded and shone from start to finish. The standing ovation accorded was well deserved.

The slow movement, in particular, was a showcase of sublimity. Gently pulsing like a vital heartbeat, it unfolded with a glorious sense of inevitability. The seamless clarinet solos from Matthew Hunt lingered long in the mind after the music had ceased. Heaven-storming climaxes aside, surely this is a sign of musical greatness.

CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS / PETER AND THE WOLF / Kamchatka Theatre Company and Singapore Festival Orchestra / Review

CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS
PETER & THE WOLF
Kamchatka Theatre Company
Singapore Festival Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Friday (21 May 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 24 May 2010.

(The "sacking" of Esplanade Concert Hall, as reported earlier, was part of this act... just in case you were wondering.)

It looked like a scene from Bangkok today. Graffiti on the walls, litter strewn on every inch, and concertgoers were cordoned off, barred from entering the hall. A minivan then gatecrashed the foyer. Instead of riot police, it was 16 members of Spain’s Kamchatka Theatre Company, an outfit more in league with the Keystone Cops.

Music was on the plate, but not before a prolonged foreplay of acrobatics, juggling and visual comedy to set the mood. This reviewer was literally carried away, fireman-lifted by one of the troupe and unceremoniously dumped onto the stage (some say a fate befitting all critics).

Director Adrian Schvarzstein, perfect for the part with his brow-beaten demeanor, engaged and teased. When former Deputy Prime Minister Dr Tony Tan left his seat with grandchild in tow, probably to use the conveniences, he quipped, “You are going to do pee pee now?” Prostate problem or otherwise, the concert resumed after the duo returned.

The first part was a choreographed Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens, with the twin sister act of pianists Low Shao Ying and Shao Suan, both of whom were royally carried to their stools. But first, a conductor had to be found. The chubby boy in the second row tried his luck and was ejected. Then a pretty senorita emerged from the audience, “I’ve got conducting lessons!” she pleaded. The orchestra seemed to like her looks, and so maestra Virginia Martinez raised her baton.

SFO cellist Elizabeth Tan does her best Jackie du Pré impression.

Placards with big bold titles were flashed in each of the 14 movements. The street actors did their spiels, which included Mister Bean and Monty Pythonesque routines, culminating with The Swan, a gravity-defying ballet on drapes slung high above the stage.

“The second part is the part after the first part,” drolly declared Schvarzstein. Without an intermission, the Singapore Festival Orchestra accompanied Suzie Templeton’s 2006 animated film Peter & the Wolf. Radically different from previous incarnations, there was a gritty edge to the production, which swung between genuine tension and humour, and an eco-conscious twist at the end. There was no need for narration, as the story told itself with split second synchronisation from the musicians playing Prokofiev’s familiar score.

More anarchic than Babies Proms and more riotous than a Taiwanese parliamentary session, the 2010 Singapore Arts Festival has midwifed a winning act of uncommon pedigree.

Everybody loves the Singapore Festival Orchestra!

Take a bow, Kamchatka!

ESPLANADE CONCERT HALL SACKED BY VANDALS. Pink Shirts Top On List Of Suspects

In the worst case of civil unrest in Singapore since 1969, Esplanade Concert Hall - Singapore's icon of cultural superiority - was sacked and pillaged. Concertgoers to the Singapore Festival Orchestra concert on 21 May were greeted with scenes of mayhem and disorder. These photos illustrate the extent of the damage, thought to be in the millions of dollars. More severely hit is Singapore's prestige as the cultural capital of Southeast Asia and the paradigm of cleanliness and sterility.

Graffiti covering windows of Esplanade Concert Hall.

Barricades at the foyer,
a scene resembling downtown Bangkok.

More litter about. How could people do this?

Grand staircase no longer.

More carnage at the concert hall seats.

A blow to Steinway,

as even the stage was not spared the damage.

Said Benson Puah, CEO of Esplanade and the National Arts Council (NAC), "This is a total disgrace. How dare these people desecrate Singapore's greatest cultural icon? And on the wake of Dr Goh Keng Swee's funeral too. This is a triple blow to everything our great nation has stood for. What have we done to deserve this? There will be a full-scale investigation and inquiry, I assure you." 

Meanwhile, it is thought that the perpetrators behind this orgy of destruction are the Pink Shirts, a militant group protesting NAC's $20,000 cut of the annual budget of the radical theatre group Wild Rice. Fortunately, there have been no casualties. 

Several Esplanade front-of-house staff have been treated for hyperventilation and syncope, having previously only been accustomed to ticking off patrons for taking photos in the hall. Cleaning staff have also gone on strike.

Two World Premieres by Two Singaporean Composers

TAN CHAN BOON Cherish
HO CHEE KONG Shades of Oil Lamps
Singapore Festival Orchestra 

(14 June 2008)
London Sinfonietta (21 June 2008)
Esplanade Concert Hall

Two Singaporean composers received world premieres of their commissioned orchestral works at this year’s Singapore Arts Festival.

Tan Chan Boon, 43, who teaches musical theory and composition privately, already has four full-length symphonies under his belt. None of these have been performed in their entirety in Singapore. Cherish, an 8-minute “prelude for orchestra” with an ecological message, gave a short glimpse of the enormity of his symphonic visions and cathedral-like sonorities.

Moved by mankind’s desecration of Gaia, the music opened quietly with a low heaving Wagnerian groan accompanied by eerie string glissandi. A trombone chorale perforating the calm suggested the spiritual and quasi-Oriental sound world of Armenian-American composer Alan Hovhaness. The conflict of man and Nature brought up the decibel factor briefly but resolution was to be found in a broad lingering melody which dominated the work’s latter half, reminding this listener of the Afro-American spiritual Deep River.

Tan’s Cherish isn’t just a symphonic slow movement, but a microcosm of a possible fifth symphony. The Singapore Festival Orchestra, led by Chan Tze Law, was ever sensitive to the music’s nuances and dynamics, delivering a very satisfying reading that makes one want to hear much more of Tan’s music.

Shades of Oil Lamps by Ho Chee Kong, 45, composition professor at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, was scored for just nine musicians. Its subject is a 1960s and 70s itinerant roadside story-teller who keeps his audience entranced with his spun yarns. Ho’s music is similarly captivating with its transparency of scoring, piquant instrumental colour and sheer dynamism. Beginning with the “tick-tock” of the temple block and a sinuous flute solo that begins the tale, familiar and well-loved aromas begin to fill the senses.

Members of the London Sinfonietta conducted by veteran avant-gardist Diego Masson, all virtuoso soloists in their own right, performed one to a part. Their mastery of individual lines and as an ensemble was impeccable, delivering a performance that could scarcely be bettered. An unmistakable Oriental feel, with its scales and modes, permeated the work, which took flight into a land of fantasy and imaginary personages before its abrupt ending. Like the afore-mentioned story-teller (and Scheherazade, folklore’s most famous) who leaves his listeners dangling at the climax, one is left yearning for more.

Credit goes to National Arts Council for commissioning these memorable works, which amply demonstrate the fertile imagination of Singapore composers, mastery of their art and a burning desire to communicate. Bravissimo!