MUSICAL MOSAICS: SINGAPORE UNSUNG / Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

MUSICAL MOSAICS: 

SINGAPORE UNSUNG

Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (1 August 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 August 2026 with the title "Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra turns 10, celebrates with Singapore works".

When the Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra (ACSO) gave its first concert in August 2016, it performed the popular Butterfly Lovers and Yellow River Concertos, both by Chinese composers. The mission to promote works by Asian composers had evolved such that by its 10th anniversary, the chosen repertoire was wholly Singaporean.

Led by co-music directors Dedric Wong and Adrian Chiang, the landmark concert was a celebration of the people who made and defined Singapore, not statesmen, politicians or history-makers, but good ordinary folk who risk being sidelined or forgotten. It opened with Wang Chenwei’s Samsui Women, a vigourous work song that quoted the Cantonese melody Ping Hu Qiu Yue (Autumn Moon Over A Calm Lake), later briefly and cleverly merged in counterpoint with Rasa Sayang.

A drum-set provided a driving beat to Terrence Wong’s Fortitude, where 19-year-old soloist Dante Tan let rip on soprano and alto saxophone, with the latter reveling on a long-held note at its climax. The work was a tribute to our hardworking Pioneer and Merdeka generations.

In Syafiqah ‘Adha Sallehin’s Everyday Guardians: Three Portraits Of Service, three groups of civil servants were lauded. Zulkifli Mohamed Amin’s accordion portrayed resoluteness and constancy in The Nurse – Steady Hands, contrasted with Madhavan Kalaichelvan’s swashbuckling veena in The Firefighter – Into The Flames, a show of courage and fearlessness. Finally, Joyce Poh’s dizi was calm and decorous for The Teacher – Light In The Classroom, with a modal melody that resembled a folksong.

Lyricism and tenderness came to the fore in Germaine Goh’s Pillars Of Strength: Tribute To Migrant Domestic Workers, where warm tones of the brass were reinforced by Alan Kartik’s French horn solo. Goh herself played on the grand piano, a calm and reassuring presence.

Jazz legend Jeremy Monteiro’s Fortitude was a completely different work from Wong’s earlier number. Originally scored for wind band, its orchestral version was built on a series of chorales, all in praise of Singapore’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (1923-2015), a force of personality always the exception to the rule.

Founder-director of Voices of Singapore (VOS) mega-choir, Darius Lim was the soloist in his Between Heaven and Earth which received its world premiere. Using the model found in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia (Op.80), his passionately Romantic piano part ushered in the 34 members of VOS Ladies Choir who sang in English, expressing his aspirations and pondering the purpose of life. This was the score that came closest to popular Disney film music.

Closing the concert was Ralph Emmanuel Lim’s Singapura Tapestries, a fantasy that brought together two very different local songs, Dick Lee’s Bunga Sayang from the musical Kampong Amber and Shabir Sulthan’s Singai Naadu (Singapore My Country) sung in Tamil.

Singapore’s racial harmony was further emphasised in the encore, which included an audience sing-along for the 2003 National Day Parade song One United People by Joshua Wan, popularised by Stefanie Sun. A nation that sings together stays together.

NEW YEAR'S EVE COUNTDOWN GALA CONCERT 2016 / The Philharmonic Orchestra / Review

NEW YEAR'S EVE

COUNTDOWN GALA CONCERT 2016

The Philharmonic Orchestra

School of the Arts Concert Hall

Thursday (31 December 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 January 2016 with the title "Rousing start to the new year".

If there is a local musical tradition worth preserving, that might be The Philharmonic Orchestra's annual New Year's Eve Concert, now in its fifth edition. Although that may seem a short span of time compared with the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Day Concert, it has nevertheless started a trend of sorts.

TPO Music Director Lim Yau has been the mainstay of this series, but this year he shared the conducting responsibilities with young composer-conductor Terrence Wong Fei Yang. Lim led the opener, Otto Nicolai's Overture to The Merry Wives Of Windsor, which began with refined string sound in its introduction before erupting to ebullient life in its allegro section of Mendelssohnian lightness.

Wong then took over the baton for Johann Strauss Junior's popular Pizzicato Polka, which was accompanied by a short film of orchestra members recounting their favourite moments of the year 2015. His steady guiding hand also brought charm to the familiar Waltz from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, which was followed by two movements from Grieg's Peer Gynt.

Flautist Paul Huang's solo was fluid and mellifluous in the atmospheric Morning Mood, while the orchestra churned out an exciting crescendo for Hall Of The Mountain King, which had bassoonist Goh Mok Cheong in suitably belligerent mood.

With less music performed this year, master-of-ceremonies William Ledbetter was compelled to stir up the proceedings, pad up the time with anecdotes and poetry reading, besides priming the  usually sedate Singaporean audience to bellow out a robust “Happy New Year!” at the stroke of midnight. Unfortunately when the time came, he had all but forgotten that cue.

The orchestra performed a couple of rarities, including The Jolly Village Smiths with its striking anvils by Julius Fucik, the Czech composer better known for his Entry Of The Gladiators. The other was David Lovrien's Minor Alterations, a witty medley with Christmas songs like Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, Good King Wenceslas and Rudolf The Red-Nosed Reindeer performed in minor keys. It closed with a hilarious mash-up of Tchaikovsky's Trepak from Nutcracker with Deck The Halls.

As with last year's concert, there were several minutes of sobriety and reflection in memory of personalities who made their departure in 2015, including Kurt Masur, David Willcocks, BB King, Jonah Lomu and Lee Kuan Yew. The aptly moving accompanying music was Estonian composer Arvo Pärt's Cantus In Memoriam Of Benjamin Britten, which consisted of a series of descending scales built on a cantus firmus in A minor.

The countdown to 2016 was ushered in by Respighi's Pines Of The Appian Way, representing the unrelenting march of time and Roman legions, conducted by Lim Yau. Having missed the chance for a communal wishing of new year greetings, the audience nevertheless had a cheerful clap-along to Johann Strauss Senior's Radetzky March. An eventful year of great music beckons.

SINGAPORE COMPOSE! SG50 / The Philharmonic Winds / Review

SINGAPORE COMPOSE! SG50

The Philharmonic Winds

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (24 October 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 26 October 2015 with the title "Remembering legacy of LKY".

Singapore's jubilee year has been open season for a raft of new works inspired by nationhood, nostalgia and the demise of the State's founding father Lee Kuan Yew. This concert by The Philharmonic Winds conducted by Leonard Tan featured no less than five world premieres by established and rising local composers.

Terrence Wong Fei Yang's Foundation began with a timpani roll and brass chorale, from which a passacaglia unfolded with a steady march-like rhythm. This is an antique compositional form with short variations built over a foundation of repeated rhythmic measures. With flourishes from woodwinds and brass, the work gained momentum and speed before closing abruptly.

While the opener pondered about the fate of civilisations, the next two works, selected from an open call for compositions, delved on the wonders of nature. Gregory Gu Wei's Meditation Under The Midnight Sun, composed following a trip to the Norwegian Arctic, had a pastoral feel with prominent piccolo, clarinet and oboe solos. There was a progression to a warmth of real splendour and a serene ending.   

Oh Jin Yong's A Glance Upon The Silver River was a contemplation of the celestial. The contrabassoon's drone, tinkling percussion and piano created an aural haze for this piece of dynamic extremes and abrupt shifts. There was a glorious melody for the solo euphonium, leading to an outbreak of sound before dissipating to the murky and mysterious void as it had began with.

As promising as the three young composers were, it was the veterans who dominated the show. Belgium-born Robert Casteels's symphonic poem Hanging Gardens was the most abstract work, but had the advantage of sound engineering by Dirk Stromberg and a projected film of natural images manned by Andrew Thomas.

Its Wagnerian scope was a breathtaking one, one massive canvas of sound which referenced the loss of the fabled Babylonian ancient wonder with the world today which risks being destroyed by mankind's greed and indifference to nature. Its gravitation to the key of G major provided the work's pivot, which suggests that there is hope for humanity after all.

Zechariah Goh Toh Chai's three-movement L.K.Y.-Legacy was probably the Lee Kuan Yew symphony everybody was waiting for. Thankfully, it was not an ultra-nationalistic paean but a sympathetic view tempered by the loss of the composer's own father in January. The first two movements were prefaced by quotes from the late leader.

The first, Herald, dealt with Singapore's separation from Malaysia, a movement of dissonance and chromaticism reflecting Lee's anguish on 9 August 1965 with a trumpet solo resounding from the hall's Circle. The second, Romanza, was lighter and a tender tribute to the pre-deceased Mrs Lee, his pillar of strength for many decades. Its key of G minor however projected a pervading sense of loss.

The finale, Monumentum, quoted Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the State Funeral and the epitaph of Sir Christopher Wren in St Paul's Cathedral, Si monumentum requiris, circumspice (If you seek his monument, look around you). The melody, resembling that of Faure's Pavane, was sung by members of the orchestra and the work closed with a conspicuous lack of pomp or bombast. That would have been exactly how Mr Lee would have liked it.

REFRACTING RITUALS / Quinnuance / Review

REFRACTING RITUALS

Quinnuance

Esplanade Recital Studio

Wednesday (27 May 2015) 

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 May 2015 with the title "Synchronised laughter, random acts".

In Refracting Rituals, the intrepid group of local composers and performers called Quinnuance attempted to redefine the way people perceive of musical performances. Viewing through its distorting mirror and prism, a concert was no longer just an aural experience but one involving elements of performance art, theatre, acts of randomness and audience interaction.

Music of four composers was showcased, beginning with serial atonalist Bernard Lee Kah Hong's The Unfathomable Being Of Vengeance Spiral In The Existential Light Of Nucleus. This was an unusual setting of Sylvia Plath's poem A Lesson In Vengeance, read by a kebaya-clad Natalie Ng with Clarence Tan scraping a double-bass centrestage. They were joined by violinist Nanako Takata, violist Jeremy Chiew and trumpeter Christopher Yong Lin who played from the wings and then proceeded to parade onstage as a gesture of discord, symbolic of mankind's propensity for vengeful violence. Lee's dodecaphonic music continues to provoke and challenge listeners, including trying to remember the titles of his works.   

Terrence Wong was represented by two works for brass. Pentasy, compacting the words “pentatonal” and “fantasy”, for bass trombone and piano, was a conventional concert piece that stretched trombonist Jasper Tan's technique to the fullest. Accompanied by pianist Gabriel Hoe, the unremittingly tonal music hinted of the Orient, coursing through pensive moments and emotional highs before a sedate close.

The more theatrical Choices for solo trumpet saw a return of Yong, this time donning the feathered headdress of a Native American Indian and moving between stations on stage. One technique he employed was polyphonics, that was producing two different sets of notes, from the trumpet as well as gutteral vocalising. This dichotomy represented metaphorically the paths of good and evil. Putting it more simply like in those cowboy Westerns of old, were the Injuns good guys or baddies?

In between was Alicia De Silva's In Our Last for flute, soprano and piano, a contemplation of death through the Roman Catholic requiem mass. The first part, In This Darkened Valley, soprano Evelyn Ang's  sprechgesang (hovering between speech and singing) was in tormented conflict with Paul Huang's flute, which represented a soothing, even seductive prospect of death. The final acceptance of death came in the second part, Eternal Song, where both flute and voice played in unison and chanted the words, “May eternal rest and perpetual light shine upon them.”    

Completely visual was American Mark Applebaum's Tlön for three conductors which comprised six and half minutes of virtual silence. Conductors Tan, Wong and De Silva, with the aid of click tracks and ear pieces connected to a laptop, crafted an elaborate act of choreography, that of directing three imaginary orchestras before taking their bows in front of an imaginary audience.

Those in the bemused but well-behaved audience had a chance to join the the finale, which was Lu Heng's Laughter Propaganda. Here nine performers including conductor Tan were engaged in synchronised laughing, which was eventually extended to the audience. This exercise begged the question about laughter: is laughing a truly spontaneous act? Or are we programmed in our minds to laugh only at certain jokes, words or acts, and only when it is deemed appropriate? 

Between plotting retribution and unapologetic bellyaching, Quinnuance has turned the traditional concept of the concert upon its head. That is what the experience of new music is all about. 

A JOURNEY THROUGH THE HISTORY OF WIND MUSIC / NAFA Wind & Brass Ensembles / Review

A JOURNEY THROUGH THE

HISTORY OF WIND MUSIC

NAFA Wind & Brass Ensembles

Lee Foundation Theatre

Thursday (5 February 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 7 February 2015 with the title "Blowing through history of wind music".

A more ambitious title for a concert would have been hard to find, but the Wind and Brass Ensembles of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts did what they could to showcase the diversity of of music written for their instruments over the centuries. These are two separate ensembles led by different conductors, and French horns were the only instruments common to both groups.

Nine works, five for woodwinds and four for brass, were performed. These were played not in chronological order but in a sequence alternating brass and winds that allowed the young performers to catch their breath. Historical context was provided by wind ensemble conductor Joost Flach who preceded each work with brief but helpful descriptions in lieu of programme notes.

Fred L.Frank's Overture for Brass scored for four trumpets, three trombones, two horns and one euphonium, began the concert. Conducted by Terrence Wong, the short work included ceremonial fanfares, a waltz and cheerful circus party music to round up. The general warmth of the playing was a reassuring one.

Wind bands gained popularity in the 18^th century, and numerous arrangements of popular works and symphonies, written with or without the composers' permission, arose to cater to the demand. Among these were Josef Heidenreich's arrangement of Mozart's Magic Flute Overture and Charles Bochsa's arrangement of Haydn's Symphony No.85.  

The solemn masonic chordal opening of the former was taken a little too slowly, which resulted in a strain to the ensemble, but the fast fugal section had a good sprightly pace which brought out the ebullience of the piece. The latter's first movement, which included a double bass, was very well judged, befitting its rather regal nickname of “La Reine” or “The Queen”.

Venetian composer Giovanni Gabrieli was famous for his brass choruses which played in the sanctums of St Mark's Cathedral during High Mass. To simulate the antiphonal sonics, eight brass players performed Canzon Septimi Toni No.1 on the steps on both sides of the hall, with Wong conducting in the centre. Even when individual players were not always flawless, the surround-sound effect was nonetheless impressive. The polyphony of Renaissance composer Josquin des Prez's Tulerunt Dominum, performed on stage, provided a similar buzz to the ears.

For once, the noisy girls with handphones
sat through the music stunned with silence.

Two contemporary works for winds were included. Malaysian composer Johan Othman's highly chromatic He Too A Simulacrum, That Another Person Was Dreaming Him was the evening's most demanding work for both players and listeners. Almost atonal, it operated within a narrow bandwidth of dynamics and emotion, and was clearly not meant to be understood at first listen. British composer John McCabe's Symphony for 10 Winds was far more accessible, and the playing was correspondingly more coherent.

To close the winds displayed good unison playing in the first movement of Frenchman Andre Caplet's Persian Suite, while the brass had the last words with two Regimental Marches by Bohemian Franz Krommer. These jaunty and upbeat numbers gave a positive lift to an educational and enlightening evening of music for blown instruments.

STONES, SAND AND LIGHT / Quinnuance / Review

STONES, SAND & LIGHT

Quinnuance

Esplanade Recital Studio

Friday (30 May 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 June 2014 with the title "A meeting of diverse minds".

The cause of new music has been well served by the contemporary music ensembles of Singapore’s tertiary music educational institutions and several intrepid independent groups. Quinnuance, formed mostly by alumni of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, is one such collective of composers and performers. Their third concert of new local works revealed an interesting mix of diverse and sophisticated musical minds.

The composers of Quinnuance:
Bernard Lee, Alicia de Silva, Lu Heng, Terrence Wong
with Music Director Clarence Tan (from L to R)

Terrence Wong is a name which will be heard rather often for some time to come. The concert began with his (D)evolution, an electro-acoustic number based on a D flat minor scale first heard on a cello and then repeated, transformed and manipulated into an ever-expanding aural wall of sound.

Beginning with a low drone and gradually ascending into a menacing growl, it could have functioned as a piece of installation art. The hall plunged into darkness, all that was visible was a spotlight illuminating an empty chair. Its abrupt ending and the minute of uncertain silence from the audience that followed also had a certain whiff of John Cage about it.

Wong’s Morning Dances received its World Premiere by pianist You Yin Fen, oboist Leow Rui Qing and clarinettist Colin Tan Yiliang. Heralded by ostinatos from the piano, both woodwinds engaged in a contest of complex runs and riffs, later accompanied by rhythms foot-stomped by the pianist. Although the gamelan was alluded to in the composer’s programme notes, a fired up jazz band could plausibly have been an influence as well.

Alicia de Silva’s Stones, Sand and Darkness was the longest and most evocative work on the programme. Conceived in three movements, the titular objects were treated as elemental forces, represented by varying tonal sequences heard on five instruments. Sheila Pietono’s piano served as the bass over which Chan Si-Han’s cello sang its lament, contrasted by short interjections on Gabriel Lee’s violin, while oboe and clarinet added their own narratives.

The music emoted on different levels; nostalgia in long-held lingering plaints, agitation in flittering ephemeral phrases and a sense of danger in the toccata-like finale. A short but languorous drawl with the lights going off served as a fitting epilogue.  

Bernard Lee Kah Hong, a state registered nurse by profession, is the group’s dyed-in-the wool atonalist. His Let The Eyes Open in the Hour of Autumn II however has roots in China’s Jiangnan ensemble music. Using the flute, violin, viola and piano in transcription to substitute for the dizi, erhu, sanxian and pipa, he created a stirring if unsettling piece that deserves a second listen. The title refers to receiving an epiphany in one’s advancing years.

Finally, Lu Heng’s Fission for solo violin closed the concert like the way it began. Built on the premise of a single D note, the piece was an elaborate play and metamorphosis on a simple tone. Like particle rays emitting from a nuclear source, the unwavering D dominated while torrents of notes flew from Lee’s violin to its tumultuous close. This might have been a caprice by Paganini had he known Einstein.  

All photographs by courtesy of Quinnuance.

JOSEPH ALESSI AND THE SINGAPORE WIND SYMPHONY / Review

JOSEPH ALESSI &

THE SINGAPORE WIND SYMPHONY

Sunday (23 February 2014)

Esplanade Concert Hall

This review was published in The Straits Times on 25 February 2014 with the title "Blast of a concert".

After the New York Philharmonic Orchestra completed its Asian tour in Taiwan last week, a few of its principals made the short trip to Singapore to give masterclasses at the Conservatory. In the case of its Principal Trombonist Joseph Alessi, he also headlined a concert with the Singapore Wind Symphony (SWS) conducted by Adrian Tan, providing a massive boon to brass enthusiasts here.

Central to this assignment was the World Premiere of young local composer Terrence Wong Fei Yang’s Trombone Concerto, also entitled Empire. With its inspiration being the 18^th and 19^th century Javanese kingdom of Mangkunegara, the solo trombone had a virtuosic narrative which served like a witness against a vast orchestral canvas that is turbulent history.

Its three contrasting sections began with the percussive and martial air of Menacing, with the trombone obliged to boldly emblazon its credentials in the thorny and dissonant solo part. The slower central section was more reflective, which gradually built up to a Benjamin Britten-like climactic catharsis.

Following a typically showy cadenza, the finale marked Furioso erupted with a volcanic violence dictated by drumrolls and an ominously persistent beat. The ends of empires are typically cataclysmic, echoed by Alessi’s trombone and its final brief oration which seemed to ask the rhetorical question: what is the point of it all?

The concerto was sandwiched by two showy pieces also starring Alessi, the more formal lines of Alexandre Guilmant’s Morceux Symphonique contrasted with the brilliant Brazilian samba vibe of Philip Sparke’s Sambezi. The inordinate range and versatility of the sliding brass instrument were all evident in this masterclass.

Alessi himself took on the baton for Paul Creston’s Celebration Overture, an upbeat work which gave clarinets, muted trumpet and the tuba grateful solos under the spotlight. SWS Music Director Tan opened the concert with Bernstein’s popular Candide Overture and closed with the Irish dance rhythms of The Seville Suite by Bill Whelan, better known for his Riverdance music.

There were three encore-like showpieces to end, all starring Alessi. Arthur Pryor’s Air Varie and Fantastic Polka were Paganini-like with their breathtaking feats of instrumental acrobatics, with the ensemble scrambling to keep up. The grand finale saw 18 young trombonists, including a number in street clothes, join Alessi in Meredith Willson’s 76 Trombones from The Music Man, one of the most famous marching band numbers of all. In short, the concert was a blast.