HOMECOMING III / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

HOMECOMING III

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (27 April 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 April 2019 with the title "Rousing finale for SCO's Homecoming concert".

Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s Homecoming series of concerts is a showcase of local musical talents who have established international careers, mostly while plying their artistry overseas. Past editions have included pianist Melvyn Tan, violinist Kam Ning, wind soloists Kwok Chin-chye and Choo Boon Chong, and the T’ang Quartet. This latest concert conducted by Yeh Tsung featured three SCO percussionists and America-based violinist Siow Lee-Chin as soloists.

There were two major concertante works by Singaporean composer Ho Chee Kong, Head of Composition at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory. Both works integrated solo parts so well into the orchestral fabric that these could be considered symphonic poems rather than actual concertos. The Way Of Play (2005) saw percussionists Xu Fan, Tan Loke Chuah and Benjamin Boo placed behind the orchestra but they generated enough volume and pulse to drive this work of extreme energy.

There was also a pan-Asian air to its palette of symphonic colours, leaving one to wonder whether the inspirations were Japanese, Javanese or from Jiangnan. Notions of temple and courtly rituals were conjured, but it was when conductor Yeh stepped off the podium to admire the threesome’s cadenza that one realised this was actually a virtuoso’s paradise.

  

More Chinese in feel was There And Back, a double concerto receiving its World Premiere by Siow and cellist Qin Li-Wei. Here, Ho crafted an atmospheric and cinematic score that evoked the rigours of a journey through China’s vast loess plateau. Siow’s ethereal violin opened the slow introduction, answered by Qin’s mellower and deeper plaint.

Before long, soloists and orchestra were swept into a rugged but exhilarating dance of the steppes. The most poignant moments transpired when the lights were further dimmed, revealing only Siow and Qin in an intimate duet, one of rapt stillness and seeming finality for the ages. This new work deserves to be heard in SCO’s future overseas tours.

Tagged on after the intermission were two solo works with Siow. Despite the obvious show of bravura, Henryk Wieniawski’s famous Polonaise in D major sounded unwieldy in its guise with Chinese orchestral accompaniment. Much better was Manuel Ponce’s Estrellita, with Siow’s flowing lyricism backed by shimmering huqins in Phang Kok Jun’s excellent arrangement.

The balance of the concert was a extroverted display of the Chinese orchestra’s wealth of instrumental colours and textures. Liu Qing’s Puppetry, which began the evening, was finely balanced between modernity and tradition. Concertmaster Li Bao Shun’s jinghu solo, like some suspended character from puppet theatre, served as a focal point.    

Zhao Ji Ping’s Homeland Nostalgia from Silk Road Melody was Debussyan in mood, with Zhao Jianhua’s erhu as protagonist while including the popular melody Chai Yun Zhui Yue (Colourful Clouds Chasing The Moon) as one of its motifs. Wang Danhong’s eclectic Macau Capriccio, more Western (with ideas from Tchaikovsky and Dave Brubeck) than oriental in feel, closed the evening on a rowdy note.   

Photos from Book Launch of FROM CLEMENTI TO CARNEGIE, Autobiography of Singaporean Violinist SIOW LEE CHIN

Singaporean virtuoso violinist Siow Lee Chin's autobiography From Clementi To Carnegie was officially launched today (Friday, 31 July 2015) at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. 

It was already on sale last week at the Singapore National Youth Orchestra / Singapore Youth Chinese Orchestra concert at Esplanade Concert Hall last week, where she had given a concerto performance. It was also seen on the shelves of Books Kinokuniya over the weekend. This is an inspirational book of sorts, so buy it to find out how one becomes a Singaporean cultural icon!

Siow Lee Chin made her opening speech,
thanking all the guests and people who made
her musical journey a reality.

From girl next door to Miss Va-va-voom!

With the movers and shakers of Singapore's cultural scene:
Esplanade CEO Benson Phua, NAC CEO Cathy Lai,
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory head Bernard Lanskey,
Keppel Corp President Choo Chiau Beng
and humourist Sylvia "Eh, Goondu!" Toh Paik Choo.

With jazz supremo Jeremy Monteiro
& former Singapore Arts Festival boss Goh Ching Lee. 

Journalist and Lianhe Zaobao editor Hu Wenyan, 
Goh Ching Lee, Lau Wei Yi  and SSO violinist Karen Tan.

Singapore's champion sportsmen Ang Peng Siong
and C.Kunalan with their spouses.

Lee Chin's brother Dr Siow Yew Nam
and their mother Mdm Choong Siew Kum.

My little contribution to the book,
and how thrilled I was to find it placed
just below Gary Graffman's tribute!

2013 ASIAN TOUR: SINGAPORE CONCERT / Bard College Conservatory & Soochow University School of Music / Review

2013 ASIA TOUR: SINGAPORE CONCERT

Siow Lee Chin with faculty of 

Bard College Conservatory &

Soochow University School of Music

Esplanade Concert Hall

Tuesday (3 December 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 December 2013 with the title "Winning partnership".

It was good to see violinist Siow Lee Chin back in concert after close to two years, having recovered from a career-threatening injury sustained in a hit-and-run auto accident last year. She not playing solo but partnering colleagues from New York’s Bard College Conservatory and the newly formed Soochow University School of Music in a short but lovely programme of chamber music.

Mozart’s popular Flute Quartet in D major (K.285) provided a most congenial opener, with Czech flautist Clara Novakova weaving clear and pristine lines, closely supported by Siow, violist Shawn Moore and cellist Wu Hekun. The vital essence of chamber music was in play throughout, with an ideal balance of sound and tautness of ensemble.

Its Adagio was a charming aria-like serenade, with flute floating above gently plucked pizzicato strings. But before one could get too comfortable, it abruptly broke off into the lively Rondo finale with all four musicians articulating its joyous strains in one accord.

Siow spoke briefly about her home-coming and learning new repertoire, which included arrangements by Levon Atovmyan’s of Shostakovich’s Five Pieces for two violins and piano. Here was the Soviet composer at his least forbidding, writing popular and banal melodies, mostly for films and ballets, without resorting to his trademark cynicism.

She was partnered by Moore, now playing second violin, and pianist Elise Yun. Although undemanding on the ears, the little pieces which include a Prelude, Gavotte, Elegy, Waltz and Polka required warmth, delicacy and no little good humour.  These were in bounteous supply, but need the audience applaud after every two minutes?      

Enthusiasm and ignorance were equally and graciously accepted by the performers, whose role was to proselytise on behalf of music and the conservatories. This continued into the concert’s major work, where cellist Wu returned to join Siow and Yun in Mendelssohn’s First Piano Trio in D minor (Op.49).   

One of the great trios of the early Romantic period, its share of overflowing melody and fastidiously crafted note-spinning was gratefully reciprocated by the threesome. Yun had the most running notes, which she accurately and crisply rolled out on the keyboard. The singing qualities of Siow’s violin playing, always a pleasure, were complemented by Wu’s big-toned and lusty bowing.

The song without words that is the slow movement was followed by the quicksilver Scherzo, which flitted and flew with feathery lightness. The finale with its big striding tunes completed the picture and closed the concert with passionate aplomb. With teachers like these on board, Suzhou might soon be known for its classical music, alongside its gardens and industrial parks.  

Concert photograph courtesy of Dr Siow Yew Nam.

We Remember Singaporean Pioneer Violinist SIOW HEE SHUN (1935-2012)

 

  

We remember pioneering Singaporean violinist SIOW HEE SHUN (1935-1912), who passed away on 23 December 2012 after a prolonged illness.  He was a member of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra when it gave its first concerts in January 1979, one of eight Singaporeans who were founding members of the orchestra. He was also a well-known violin teacher, who counts among his students her daughter well-known Singaporean violinist Siow Lee Chin and many others.

I was at his funeral wake when I found out that he was a survivor of the Japanese holocaust (Sook Ching or ethnic cleansing) that took place during the Second World War when the Japanese Imperial Army occupied Singapore. He and many young Chinese males were rounded up by Japanese soldiers and were forced to dig their own graves before being machine-gunned at close range. He fell into the pit and feigned death despite being bayoneted as well. He laid in the mass grave till nightfall and after the soldiers left, before escaping into the darkness. His children remember being shown the stab wounds on his back.

After the war, he picked up the violin and had lessons with the legendary pedagogue Goh Soon Tioe. As he could not afford a formal education in music, he was largely self-taught and made a living by playing in string ensembles and bands in Malaya and Singapore. He is survived by his wife and three grown-up children. His eldest is daughter Siow Lee Chin, who dedicated her debut violin recital album to him, entitled "Songs My Father Taught Me". Like her father, Lee Chin is also a dedicated teacher and is presently the Head of Strings at the College of Music in Charleston, South Carolina. His elder son, Dr Siow Yew Nam, a consultant paediatric anaesthetist at Kandang Kerbau Hospital, is a very accomplished amateur violinist.     

  

Siow Lee Chin giving a violin masterclass at Raffles Institution. 

Mr Siow suffered from Parkinson's Disease during his final years, but was still very moved by music. He also helped Lee Chin by actively listening to her takes during the recording process and was involved in the editing. He was well enough to attend Lee Chin's concert with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in January this year at the Esplanade. Although he became less responsive and could not recognise loved ones, Lee Chin remembers that whenever she played the violin for him, tears would roll down his cheeks. It was the love of music and his family that kept him on until his final days.

Without pioneering musicians and teachers like Siow Hee Shun, the musical scene in Singapore will not have been what it is today (with no thanks to the Japanese). For this, we owe him a debt of thanks.  

Singapore Musical News in American Record Guide

Its always great to read about Singaporean musicians in a overseas musical period. There are two glowing notices in the November-December 2009 issue of American Record Guide. First is our wonderful girl-next-door Siow Lee Chin's debut CD recording Songs My Father Taught Me:(Click on image to enlarge)

A summary of superlatives from the ever-supportive Robert Markow:

"Seldom have I heard Wieniawski's Concert Polonaise rendered with more flair and visceral enchantment. Rarely have I been more enchanted with Still's Gamin' and Beach's lovely Romance, both played with engaging charm and obvious affection."

"Her technique is flawless... yet it is used only for expressive purposes, never as an end in itself."

"She reveals herself as a fully-formed artist, assertive yet sensitive, infusing meaning into every phrase, taking elegance and finesse to heights seldom reached by her colleagues."

"The sound she draws from that Guadagnini is huge, sumptuous, and rich in every register, reminiscent of David Oistrakh at his peak, with the color of dark amber."

Also in the same issue, a review of Alone, a solo cello recital of 20th and 21st century music by Qin Li-Wei, which includes the World Premiere recording of Ho Chee Kong's Tembusu Evenings.
Is anyone still unconvinced that Singapore is in the midst of a musical renaissance?

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, June 2009)

TAN DUN Pipa Concerto
& works by Takemitsu & Hayashi
Wu Man, Pipa
Moscow Soloists / Yuri Bashmet
Onyx 4027

Rating *****

Globalism is said to have succeeded when a Russian ensemble plays and records Chinese and Japanese music so well. Followers of Tan Dun, surely the most “commercial” of the clique of Chinese-American composers, will certainly not want to miss his Pipa Concerto. It unfolds typically like his movie soundtracks, alternating quiet and meditative sections with exciting climaxes, all in a highly tonal and accessible Chinese idiom. Hangzhou-born virtuoso Wu Man – now the world’s most famous pipa exponent – also lends her voice in this melodramatic score, accompanied by shouts from the string players. Yuri Bashmet also solos in Hikaru Hayashi’s Viola Concerto, soulful Japanese fare flavoured with Bartok and Janacek orchestral colours. Violist turns violinist for Toru Takemitsu’s Nostalghia, a brief but beautiful piece. Takemitsu’s versatility in different styles is also amply demonstrated in a suite of film score highlights. Grab this one if you can.

SONGS MY FATHER TAUGHT ME
Siow Lee-Chin, Violin
Albert Tiu, Piano
SLC 1118

Rating ****1/2

Despite its title being a tribute to her violinist father, Siow Lee-Chin’s début album is a musical autobiography of her journey from child prodigy to mature performer. And this may very well be a first-ever locally produced compact disc recording by a Singaporean violinist. Showpieces she learnt as a student - Wieniawski’s Polonaise in D and Paganini’s Cantabile – are de rigeuer, as is a virtuoso gypsy element – Sarasate’s Gypsy Airs, Kreisler’s La Gitana and Monti’s Csardas - which sums up her itinerant years as a “wandering” minstrel.

What distinguishes is her lovely, warm and effusive tone coaxed from the National Arts Council’s 1750 Guadagnini violin. Tear-jerkers like Heinz Provost’s Intermezzo, Amy Beach’s Romance and Manuel Ponce’s Estrellita are testament to that. I challenge the listener not to be touched. Partnered sympathetically by pianist Albert Tiu, this peach of a disc, vividly recorded at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, should be in every music-lover’s collection.

SCHOENBERG Orchestral Works
EMI Classics 3714925 (2 CDs)

Rating ****

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was the avant-garde Viennese composer whose radical ideas on tonality and harmony revolutionised music. His rules of dodecaphony treated all notes equally, so that something “tuneless” and totally discordant could pass as music. After Wagner, Schoenberg became inevitable. The supreme irony is that Schoenberg’s early Wagner-influenced pieces have become his most performed and recorded works. Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) is his greatest hit; its poignant subject of unconditional love seems more Romantic than Expressionist. The 42-minute long symphonic poem Pelleas and Melisande is the logical extension of Tristan and Isolde, rambling but without the voices.

His first important “modern” work is Chamber Symphony No.1; its economy of themes lends it a certain cohesiveness and approachability. Schoenberg’s colourful transcription of Brahms’ First Piano Quartet, cheekily referred to as Brahms’ Fifth Symphony, is Schoenberg at his most exuberant and irreverent. These performances by British orchestras dating from 1968 to 1995 – conducted by Barbirolli, Barenboim and Rattle – provide a listener-friendly introduction to a great but controversial musical personality.

Lee Chin & Friends: A Strings Extravaganza / Review

LEE CHIN & FRIENDS
A STRINGS EXTRAVAGANZA
Siow Lee Chin, Violin

Albert Tiu, Piano & Harpsichord

RGS String Ensemble

Lorenzo Muti, Conductor

Esplanade Concert Hall
Monday (27 April 2009)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 April 2009.

Singaporean violinist Siow Lee Chin, whose homecoming concert last November sparked frenzied scenes at the Conservatory, played to a far-bigger audience at the Esplanade in an event that also demonstrated how young women have progressed as musicians in Singapore. It is no exaggeration to state that today the most prominent violin names here belong to women.

Siow’s friends in concert included the String Ensemble of Raffles Girls School, her alma mater, and a couple of her students from South Carolina. The sight of an all-girl band with four solo violinists conducted by the Italian conductor Lorenzo Muti is reminiscent of Vivaldi’s Ospedale della Pieta orchestra of orphaned girls in Venice.

Quite appropriately, they gave an invigorating account of Vivaldi’s Concerto in B minor for four violins. Even though one of the young soloists dropped the baton along the way, there was a real sense of camaraderie as Siow gave her an encouraging pat on the back, like any good elder sister would. The concert opened with a larger body of strings in Black American composer George Walker’s elegiac Lyric for Strings, a refreshing alternative to Barber’s Adagio, with a gentle and clearly defined warmth.

Two students, Peruvian Jimena Lovon and Singaporean Lanabel Teo, then fearlessly raced through Sarasate’s virtuosic Navarra for two violins. It was never going to be perfect, but it was full of heart.

The rest of the evening belonged to Siow and her superb pianist collaborator Albert Tiu. Three movements from William Grant Still’s Suite for violin and piano were ample evidence of her wide-ranging assets – razor-keen reflexes, an acute sense of nuance, rhythmic exuberance and a beautiful singing line. Woman power came to the fore with her signature piece, Amy Beach’s Romance, written for the pre-eminent American lady violinist Maud Powell.

Its lovely cantabile, milked for all its worth, contrasted wildly with the rhapsodic lashings of Ravel’s gypsy-inspired Tzigane. Also dedicated to a woman violinist, the free-spirited Hungarian Jelly d’Aranyi, out came the stops with a no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners reading. The encores – Li Guo-Quan’s lyrical Fisherman’s Song At Sunset and Wieniawski’s fiery Polonaise – reprised this winning formula. Finery and fireworks, just about perfect.

Footnote: The concert raised $130,000 for the President's Charities.

BUY THIS! Siow Lee Chin's Début CD Album Songs My Father Taught Me

Here's a pitch for my friend Siow Lee Chin's début CD recording, Songs My Father Taught Me. Interestingly, this may be the very first solo recital CD from a Singaporean violinist (No, Vanessa-Mae doesn't count) and it sets a very high standard for future efforts. Lee Chin plays on a 1750 Guadagnini on loan from the National Arts Council, and is sympathetically partnered by pianist Albert Tiu.

BUY THIS! Not because I wrote the Lee Chin interview but because of the sensitive playing - lots of lovely lyrical lines, soaring virtuosity and requisite fireworks. Here's the programme: a healthy dose of gypsy music and mouth-watering lyrical pieces.

Hint: The CD costs $20.95 at Popular Bookstore / CD Rama, $24.95 at Borders and $27.95 at HMV.

For more information, please check out: http://www.leechin.com/

Homecoming: Lee Chin & Friends / Review

HOMECOMING: LEE CHIN & FRIENDS

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Tuesday (18 November 2008 )

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 November 2008.

It has been seven years since Singaporean violinist Siow Lee Chin last appeared in concert on our stages. (She was last heard performing Brahms' Violin Concerto with the Malaysian Philharmonic at the 2001 Singapore Arts Festival). In the interim, Singapore has gained a spanking new concert hall and a space-age conservatory, but it is gratifying to note that some things remain the same. Lee Chin, with her singing violin tone, disarming musicality and charm of the girl-next-door, is one of those things.

Her homecoming concert drew such a large throng at the Conservatory that hundreds without pre-assigned tickets had to be turned away. Was this a repeat of the Hello Kitty mania or Horowitz in Moscow? Thankfully it was mostly the latter, and Lee Chin's two-and-a-half hour concert had the audience lapping from her highly prized hands.

Yet it was not completely her show as the partners in concert were every bit deserving of the limelight. In Beethoven Piano Trio in B flat major (Op. 11, adapted from the Clarinet Trio), cellist Liwei Qin's sonorous utterances and Bernard Lanskey's big-hearted pianism (left) carried equal weight for a light-hearted opening act. Pianist Albert Tiu also covered multitudes of notes in Richard Strauss' Violin Sonata in E flat major with great aplomb, trading silky ornaments and resolute chords with Lee Chin's soaring melodic lines.

Even more sparks flew in the second half. Lee Chin's duo with Liwei Qin (left) in the Handel-Halvorsen Passacaglia ignited with absolute chemistry, and their take had the infectious spontaneity of a jam session. Albert Tiu returned as pianist-collaborator for the balance of the evening, beginning with the three-movement Suite for Violin and Piano by William Grant Still, the first important Afro-American classical composer.

The duo reveled in its Negro hymns, incessant syncopations, wicked blues notes and sexy slides, with Lee Chin's Guadagnini violin reaching heights of a full-throated soprano in the tender second piece, Mother and Child. There were also poignant moments aplenty in Amy Beach's Romance and the second of three encores, Estrellita by Manuel Ponce, especially after her announcement that she and her "little star", on loan from the National Arts Council, would soon be parted.

There was little time to be sentimental as out came the requisite fireworks in Wieniawski's Polonaise in D major (op.4) and the final encore Monti's Csardas, which sent the house into rapture. Welcome home, Lee Chin, and let us not wait another seven years for the next recital!