SSO'S FORGOTTEN RECORDINGS: COMING OF AGE / SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 21ST ANNIVERSARY

COMING OF AGE

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

21st Anniversary

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra marked its 21st birthday in 2000 with this compilation album of recordings made between 1979 and 1999. It includes important landmarks from the orchestra’s history from its inaugural concerts in January 1979, live performances and recordings made during this period. It would go on to make much better recordings, but this album, despite the variable quality of sound, provided an important snapshot of SSO’s progress over the years. The way we were, so to speak.

In the beginning...

The journey takes place at its very beginning, with a live reading of the popular Dance of the Yau People by Mao Yuan and Liu Tien-Shan, from the inaugural concerts at Singapore Conference Hall led by founding music director Choo Hoey, complete with audience applause. Following that is the brief but brutal second movement from Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, issued on a once-off Philips recording to mark SSO’s 10th anniversary in 1989. SSO’s prowess in 20th century music, Choo’s speciality, was evident for all to hear.

The only concertante track was the Rondo from Mozart’s Concerto for Three Pianos in F major (K.242) with the celebrated duo of Dennis Lee and Toh Chee Hung and SSO Chairman Tan Boon Teik, who was then the nation’s attorney-general (a sort of Singapore answer to West Germany’s Helmut Schmidt). That was part of a fund-raising LP recording made in 1983. Music by Singaporean composers was represented by Leong Yoon Pin’s Dayong Sampan, taken from the 1993 documentation recording rather than the 10th anniversary Philips album from 1989.

Lim Yau (extreme right) was
SSO Associate Conductor and SSC Chorusmaster
when he got the Cultural Medallion in 1990.

The dramatis personae who defined the SSO’s early years have been included, including long-time associate conductor Lim Yau and his Singapore Symphony Chorus, performing the Ode To Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth, the Choral Symphony. The 10-minute segment starts from bar 195, after the first orchestral fugue, all through to its glorious end. Lim’s successor for three years (1998-2000), the American Bart Folse is represented with Isoldes Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, the recording from a Familiar Favourites concert “Opera Without Words”. SSO’s principal guest conductor the Finn Okko Kamu, appointed in 1994, does the honours in three Brahms Hungarian Dances, Nos.1, 5 and 17.

Bart Folse assumed Lim Yau's positions
from 1998 to 2000.

Okko Kamu was SSO Principal
Guest Conductor for over 20 years.

Lan Shui was SSO music director
from 1997 to 2019.

In 1997, Lan Shui succeeded Choo Hoey, becoming SSO’s second music director. One of his earliest recording projects on the Swedish BIS label was the complete symphonies and piano concertos of Russia-born composer Alexander Tcherepnin. The 2nd movement from the Third Symphony “Chinese” has been included here. The hour-long disc closes with three dances from Tchaikovsky’s ballets Swan Lake (Waltz) and Sleeping Beauty (Panorama and Waltz), a clear demonstration that the orchestra was truly adept in dance music.

At the turn of the century, SSO at 21 had come of age, and that was just the beginning of a long journey to musical excellence and worldwide recognition.

The cardboard case which the 
jewel case and CD were enclosed.

Post-script: This commemoration album was not for public sale, but presented to sponsors and guests at SSO's fundraising dinner in 2000. As editor of BraviSSimO! (The SSO Friends newsletter) and all-round kaypoh at large, I was asked to script the programme notes as well as the Chairmen's congratulatory messages.

An Interview with SSO's Founding Father Mr Tan Boon Teik (2002)

(Click on image to enlarge)

Above is a scan of an interview which I did with Mr Tan Boon Teik, Honorary Chairman of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, in 2000. Mr Tan passed away on 10 March 2012 at the age of 83 following an illustrious legal career (where he served as Singapore's longest-serving Attorney General) and immense contributions to the classical music scene in Singapore.

Here he recounts some of the heady early days of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, with some very frank comments on the SSO administration, and some financial realities in running a professional symphony orchestra.

Note: In the large photo in the middle, you might be able to spot a younger PianoManiac, when he joined the SSO board of directors as its latest member.

We Remember MR TAN BOON TEIK, Honorary Chairman of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Another illustrious member of Singapore's classical music fraternity has left us. We remember Mr TAN BOON TEIK, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra's founding Chairman, who passed away peacefully on 10 March 2012. He was 83 years old. Mr Tan was Singapore's Attorney-General (from 1969-1992), when he was approached along with Prof. Bernard Tan by then Minister of Defence Dr Goh Keng Swee to form Singapore's first professional symphony orchestra. In 1979, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra gave its first concerts, and Mr Tan served as its Chairman till 1999, when he became its Honorary Chairman (with Prof. Cham Tao Soon assuming the Chairman's role).

Mr Tan was a true lover of good music and regularly attended SSO concerts long after leaving the SSO Board, and despite his failing health. He and his wife had attended the last SSO concert on Saturday 3 March, with Marc-Andre Hamelin performing Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto. He actively sought to bring good music to Singapore, including inviting the publisher-turned-conductor Gilbert Kaplan to conduct the Singapore premiere of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony in 1994. In his capacity as Singapore Ambassador to Austria and Hungary, he was instrumental in bringing opera productions of Mozart's Don Giovanni (Budapest National Opera) and Mozart's Cosi fan tutte (Graz Opera) to Singapore.

He was also a more than competent amateur pianist, who performed the third piano part alongside Dennis Lee and Toh Chee Hung in Mozart's Triple Piano Concerto (K.242) with the SSO conducted by Choo Hoey. An LP recording of that performance helped raise $1 million for the SSO. Pianomania is also proud that he was the first pianist to perform at the first SSO Piano Marathon held at Raffles City Atrium in 1998. At 70 years old, he holds the record of being the oldest performer in all of SSO's music marathons. On that Saturday morning, he played Chopin's Waltz in A flat major "Adieu", poetically the fitting tribute to a gentleman who truly and passionately loved music.