ZECHARIAH GOH: A CHORAL ODYSSEY / Review

 

ZECHARIAH GOH: A CHORAL ODYSSEY

Victoria Concert Hall

Wednesday (6 August 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 8 August 2025 with the title "Choral concert showcases Zechariah Goh's wide-ranging works".

Singaporean composer Zechariah Goh Toh Chai, recipient of the 2003 Young Artist Award in 2003, was once described as promising. Twenty-two years later, he has established himself as one of Singapore’s most important composers. This two-hour mostly a capella choral concert, the first dedicated to a single composer since the late Leong Yoon Pin’s retrospective in 2008, featured 271 singers and nine choirs from three countries. 16 songs, from 1993 to the present, showcased Goh’s versatility in wide-ranging styles.

Opening the show was the Singapore Symphony Children’s Choir (Conductor: Wong Lai Foon) with Rose of Sharon (2014), ushering in a lush unison and series of echoing voices. More complex was Four Tones (2019), which played on Chinese words ying (阴), yang (阳) and shang (上) as resonating bell sounds, later ornamented with animal and bird calls to maximal effect.

From Anderson Serangoon Junior College Choir (Angela Lee), the folk-influenced In the Bamboo Forest (2004) had percussive drum beats from male voices accompanying lyrical flowing lines from female voices. The 19-women in red kebayas from Crescendo Voices, originally established in Malaysia (Raymond Lee Pei Khoon), sang in Malay for Irama Belia (2003) and Mandarin for Qing Ping Diao (The Beautiful Lady Yang, 2014), the latter’s mellifluous tones based on Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai’s words.

Photos: Tan Zexun

Chinese inspirations continued in Loyalty to the Nation (2015), with the words Jing Zhong Bao Guo (精忠报国) associated with Han dynasty general Yue Fei’s patriotism and martyrdom. The music turned from calm to heroic and finally reflective. Goh’s arrangement of Dayong Sampan (1993) was his first commissioned work, involving counterpoint well-handled by the 20 singers of Novae (Quek Jing).

The combined Eunoia and Hwa Chong Junior College Choirs (Lim Ai Hooi) was the largest contingent, their strength in numbers displaying exuberance for Sounds of Joy (2009), which rang out with bell and drum-like sonorities. Plangent tribal drone effects also coloured Reminiscences of Hainan (1995), a joyous tribute to Goh’s own dialect group and forebears.

The 23 singers of the Taichung Chamber Choir from Taiwan (Yang I-Chen) were the best ensemble, performing four works, a mini-concert within a concert. Whoever thought that the Chinese word for Tea (2024) – cha (茶) - could be subject to so much elaboration and ornamentation. Wonderful solo voices distinguished Hakka Triptych (2025) and The Happiness of Fish (2013) which pondered serenity, contentment and ethereal beauty. By contrast, Assassination (2014) played on the word for kill – sha (杀) - complete with pugilistic poses and martial arts choreography.

Photo: Tan Zexun

Vox Camerata Chamber Singers (Shahril Mohamed Salleh) sang the evening’s only sacred work, Psalm No.1(2023) with its opening line Blessed is the Man a firm reflection of Goh’s Christian faith, while Lullaby (1999), sung in Chinese, was a gentle cradle song.

Closing the evening was Ode (2025), performed by the Voices of Singapore State Choirs (Justin Goh) accompanied on piano by Gabriel Hoe. Sentimental and ear-catching, its aspiring strains about flying away were intruded upon by one of the hall’s alarms. A welcome encore was requested, this time sounding even better. Could this be the song to take over the popular mantle of Dick Lee’s Home?

All lit up for National Day.

GLORIA! / Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Children and Youth Choirs / Review

  

GLORIA

Singapore Symphony Orchestra 

Singapore Symphony 

Children & Youth Choirs 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Friday (29 November 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 December 2024 with the title "Festive vibes with Vivaldi at SSO's choral concert".

Eminent British choral conductor Stephen Layton returned to lead the Singapore Symphony Children’s and Youth Choirs, which have been well-trained by chorusmaster Wong Lai Foon. The 50 children sang completely from memory, first in the processional Hodie In Natus Est from Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols (1942), smartly arriving on stage where accompanying harpist Gulnara Mashurova was waiting. 

Photo: Yoricko Liu

Thus began a most impressive performance where unison passages had a silky evenness and the tricky counterpoint of Wolcum Yole! were mastered with aplomb. Creating a magical feel were the echoing effects in This Little Babe and Deo Gracias while sopranos Ng Yi Poh, Isabelle Ho and Emily Tan, selected from the choir, shone in the movements with solos. 

The Recession saw all the singers, harpist and conductor troop off, leaving the strange sight of an audience enthusiastically applauding an empty stage. 

Just as enjoyable was the Singapore premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Lapsimessu (A Children’s Mass, 1973), where its a cappella Kyrie, Gloria and Agnus Dei movements were followed by chromatic string interludes. The soprano voice of Melina Leong lit up the busy Gloria while the starkly beautiful final Alleluja united both choir and strings for the first time. 

Between these accessible 20th century choral works was Tomaso Albinoni’s popular Adagio in G minor for organ and strings, now known to be a 1950s creation by Remo Giazotto using retrieved old manuscripts. Eudenice Palaruan on Victoria Concert Hall’s Klais organ and concertmaster Kevin Lin’s violin solos provided the fancy trimmings. 

While the 36-strong Singapore Symphony Youth Choir did not sing from memory, its appearance in the concert’s second half was no less vital. There cannot be movements more sublime than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Laudate Dominum from Vesperae Solennes de Confessore (K.339), where soprano Carine Tan’s lovely aria was backed by lilting strings, and the choir entering with Gloria Patri. Johann Sebastian Bach’s Jesu, Joy Of Man’s Desiring, his most famous cantata movement, was taken rather briskly, somewhat diminishing its fabled appeal. 

The main draw was Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria in D major (RV.589), celebratory for its exultant joy, amply displayed by all on stage. Balanced by a sense of mystery, notably in the B minor key movements such as the fugal In Terra Pax, this work revealed the true meaning of the season. 

The opening Gloria In Excelsis Deo and later Quoniam Tu Solus Sanctus were radiant, and sopranos Giselle Lim and Janelle Tan displayed much clarity in the lively Laudamus Te. In Domine Deus, Rex Coelestis, soprano Jasmine Towndrow and Rachel Walker’s oboe made for some memorable moments. 

It was counter-tenor Zachary Lim who stole the show, a portrait of confidence in Domine Deus, Agnus Dei and Qui Sedes. While this very impressive choral showcase was not marketed as a Christmas concert, it certainly felt like one.

Chorusmaster extraordinaire Wong Lai Foon.

A review of this concert as published 

on Bachtrack.com:

Stephen Layton makes Christmas come early in Singapore

FANTASIA, FAREWELLS AND FAURE / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

FANTASIA, FAREWELLS & FAURE

Singapore Symphony Orchestra 

Victoria Concert Hall, Singapore

Friday (16 September 2022)

 

This review was first published in Bachtrack on 20 September 2022 with the title "A Requiem of repose: Stephen Layton conducts Fauré in Singapore"

 

British choral conductor Stephen Layton was to have led the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and its choruses in Fauré’s Requiem in March 2020. The Covid pandemic put an end to that. Two and a half years later, with the virus now endemic, Layton finally arrived and never has there been a more appropriate time for this masterpiece to be heard. The passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September had cast a pall around the world, but this concert held in a historic hall memorialising Queen Victoria in the former Straits Settlements colony of Singapore seemed like the most timely response.

 

Thomas Tallis’s Why fumeth in fight sung by an offstage chorus opened the evening’s music, those being the very strains quoted by Ralph Vaughan Williams in his Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis which followed without a break. Despite having just 28 string players onstage (21 in the main body and 7 standing behind), Layton coaxed from the ensemble a cathedral of sonority. Having former SSO Concertmaster Igor Yuzefovich (now with the BBC Symphony) as leader certainly helped with crafting textures of evenness and homogeneity. His own quartet of soloists, including violinist Michael Loh, violist Zhang Manchin and cellist Yu Jing, also stood out above the harmonious throng. Seldom has three choirs of strings sung with such moving intensity.

 

Still with string music, two short pieces from William Walton’s film music for Henry V lent further relevance and significance with their inclusion. In Passacaglia – Death of Falstaff, a slow throbbing pulse held sway, later giving way to the more richly harmonised Touch her soft lips and part in gentle sicilienne rhythm. There was no pretence to lugubriousness, just the regret of parting and bidding farewell.    

 

The Singapore Symphony Youth Choir (Choirmaster: Wong Lai Foon) with woodwinds, French horn and harp joined the string orchestra for Gabriel Fauré’s lilting Pavane. Has anyone actually paid attention to Robert de Montesquiou’s words, which include Les reines de nos coeurs (Queens of our hearts) and Adieu donc et bons jours aux tyrans de nos coeurs (Farewell and good days to the tyrants of our hearts)? A soothing benediction followed in Cantique de Jean Racine, with the splendid choir’s reassuring mellowness approximating voices of angels.

Photograph: Jack Yam / Singapore Symphony Orchestra

 

The concert’s centrepiece was Fauré’s Requiem, in John Rutter and Stephen Layton’s edition for soprano and alto voices, performed by the boys, girls and ladies from both the Singapore Symphony Children’s and Youth Choirs (Choirmaster: Wong Lai Foon). Sung completely from memory, this was a show of perfect deportment and discipline. Yet there was a depth of feeling from the opening Requiem aeternam, allied by vocal clarity and excellent enunciation of consonants, all through to the close.

The soloists:
Baritone Martin Ng, soprano Victoria Songwei Li
and violinist Igor Yuzefovich (behind harp)

 

Organist Isaac Lee provided steadfast support on the hall’s Klais organ, and Yuzefovich’s delightful obbligato violin solos in Sanctus and In Paradisum were the gilded edge. Two of Singapore’s finest young opera singers also had spots to shine. Baritone Martin Ng lent gravitas in Hostias and the rapturous Libera me, while London-based soprano Victoria Songwei Li’s cameo in Pie Jesu revealed a voice of rare beauty. The closing In Paradisum floated on angels’ wings, its ethereal lightness finding a perfect match in the purity of the voices. It would have been hard to find dry eyes among the audience in this requiem of repose.

Photo: Jack Yam / Singapore Symphony Orchestra

 

Star Rating: *****

CD Review (The Straits Times, March 2018)

AND I'LL SING ONCE MORE

Singapore Symphony Children's Choir

Wong Lai Foon (Conductor)

Singapore Symphony Group  / ****1/2

This recording was conceived in celebration of the 10^th anniversary of the Singapore Symphony Children's Choir. The choir was formed in 2007 and made its debut in the Singapore premiere of Mahler's Third Symphony. 

This is a short disc but amply displays the choir's versatility under one of its founder conductors Wong Lai Foon. There are popular items such as Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus (arranged by Briant Trant), Richard Rodgers' The Sound Of Music (arr. Charles Smith),  Joe Hisaishi's Kimi Wo Nosete (Carrying You, arr. Yu Fukuzawa), and John Rutter's It Was A Lover And His Lass. The 52-member choir sings with purity, innocence and very good discipline.

The longest item is Bob Chilcott's A Little Jazz Mass, which positively swings through its five liturgical movements. High class backing is provided by pianist Gabriel Hoe and principal musicians of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, including bassist Guennadi Mouzyka and Mark Suter on drums. 

There are also two Singaporean works, Lee Chin Sin's lovely A Child's Voice and Chen Zhangyi's slightly modernistic Water. The choir's mastery of the latter's idiom and subtle dissonances suggests it can handle Benjamin Britten's choral scores next. A very pleasant listening experience, so more of the same please. 

GALA: MAHLER'S THIRD / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

GALA: MAHLER'S THIRD

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Saturday (16 January 2016)

Esplanade Concert Hall

This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 January 2016v with the title "Journey from vulgarity to sublime".

The Guinness Book of World Records once listed Gustav Mahler's Third Symphony in D minor as the longest symphony ever written. It has since been surpassed by Havergal Brian's rarely-performed Gothic Symphony, but at over 100 minutes and in six movements, it remains the unsurpassed titan of the regular orchestral repertoire. Even the term regular is relative, as this was only the second performance in the Singapore Symphony Orchestra's 37 year history.

The Singapore premiere took place in 2007, when the newly-formed Singapore Symphony Children's Choir made its debut. Conducted again by SSO Music Director Shui Lan, this performance showed that both orchestra and chorus had made considerable progress over the intervening years. One might even conclude that SSO has become a great Mahler orchestra.

Eight French horns boldly declared the first in a series of fanfares in the opening movement, a statement of intent that was to distinguish the evening's work. Under Shui's firm guiding hand, the sprawling movement that was itself longer than most Mozart and Beethoven symphonies did not come across as a string of unrelated episodes.

Instead the music flowed through its progression of marches, with brass, winds and percussion in full throttle. Allen Meek's solo trombone led the procession, and the relentless pursuit of perfection was infectious, all the way through to tumultuous climax and dramatic close.

The second and third movements were shorter and lighter, with dance-like rhythms possessed with a rusticity that deliberately bordered on the provincial. A fairytale-like atmosphere gave way to more earthy vibes with Jon Paul Dante's offstage trumpet solo, sure and unwavering, being the pivotal key. All this apparent light-heartedness was, characteristic of the Bohemian composer, tinged with a sense of menace and macabre.

If the first three movements gloried in the banal and commonplace, the next three was preoccupied with the spiritual and eternal. Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke's mellow and reassuring rendering of O Mensch! Gib Acht! (O Man! Take Heed!) from Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra stood apart from the earlier rumblings.

She was later joined by women from the Singapore Symphony Chorus (Lim Yau, Choral Director) and Singapore Symphony Children's Choir (Wong Lai Foon, Choirmaster) in the celestial Es Sungen Drei Engel (Three Angels Sang), which sparkled like gold dust.

The journey of transformation from vulgarity to the sublime was completed in the long-breathed finale. Has Mahler written a better Adagio (marked Langsam in the score) than this? Ethereal strings took over, from its pianissimo beginnings and building up arch-like to final fruition. There were unexpected touches too, such as Jin Ta's sinuous flute appearing from nowhere or concertmaster Igor Yuzefovich's exquisite violin solo standing tall against a brass chorale.  

Conducting completely from memory, Shui's interpretation has to be one of the great Mahler performances in living memory here. The audience, in stark contrast with the one that greeted the Israel Philharmonic just a week ago, was impeccably behaved. Respectfully quiet between movements, it erupted with a chorus of bravos and a prolonged standing ovation at the end. This audience came here for the music, and their faith was justly reciprocated. There is hope for classical music here, after all.

SSO Concert: CARMINA BURANA / Review

CARMINA BURANA

Singapore Symphony Orchestra & Chorus

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (11 May 2012)

An edited (censored, rendered PG and PC) version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 14 May 2012 with the title "Lim Yau's big bang farewell".

Lim Yau’s farewell concert to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra after an eleven year spell as its Resident Conductor was typical of his programme building skills. Helming a concert of 20^th century music juxtaposing the sacred with the profane, yin against yang, Apollonian versus Dionysian, he delivered a big bang, and the season’s longest and loudest sustained standing ovation.

Two 20th century icons:
Igor Stravinsky & Carl Orff

The evening began with strings only for Igor Stravinsky’s ballet Apollon Musagète (1928), a work so subtle that its half-hour slipped by almost unnoticed and possibly unremembered. Not that the performance was unmemorable, because the orchestra’s strings delivered a smooth and silky account, sensitive to its shifts in rhythm and dynamics. It is just that post-Rite of Spring, Stravinsky’s propensity to shock and awe had diminished considerably.

Furthermore the virtues of Calliope, Polymnie and Terpsichore, three of Apollo’s muses, were no match for the vices of Blanziflor, Helena and the Abbot of Cockaigne. To say that this performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana (1937), the first ever in Esplanade, simply rocked from start to finish, was an understatement.

Markus Eiche's hormones have been awakened
with Son Jihye's appearance.

The libretto and translations of its 25 movements were not made available, largely due to the prohibitive costs of publication, but that was a small price to pay. The musical narrative just flowed naturally even without prior knowledge of the actual words. The opening chorus O Fortuna was delivered with great vehemence, each of the consonants spat out with relish and precision. In particular, the men’s chorus, with only 37 members, stood tall and unflinching at every turn, never fazed by the percussion-laden ensemble.

The highly theatrical trio of soloists was the strongest assembled for this work, led by moody German baritone Markus Eiche, whose every growl, grunt and grimace registered as palpably as his powerfully honed voice. He almost scared away American tenor John Zuckerman’s splendidly agonising roasted swan aria Olim lacus colueram into a cowering submission.

At last, consummation!

However every man can be mesmerised by a skirt, as Korean coloratura Son Jihye in a blood red gown was an instant head-turner. Her aria In Trutina and spectacular summiting of Dulcissimme, was good enough to make one soft in the knees (and stiffen elsewhere). The children’s choir was all innocence until its unfortunate premature ejaculation at the last run of the lusty chorus in Tempus est iocundum.

The final minutes were the very reasons why this concert hall exists in the first place, to deliver the ultimate masterclass in “live” sonic projection. Lim Yau and his charges gave what overpriced hi-fi systems can never achieve: a true sense of occasion, one which the audience lapped up and reciprocated with unapologetic fervour. Simply a great way to end the orchestral season.

A standing ovation for all.

HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY, LIM YAU!

(14 May 2012)