HISTORY IN OUR MIDST: VICTORIA MEMORIAL HALL & VICTORIA THEATRE HISTORY GALLERY

If you happen to have ten minutes or so to spare (that's enough time within an intermission in any concert), take a look at the small but rather splendid History Gallery of Victoria Memorial Hall and Victoria Theatre. Located on the third floor of Victoria Concert Hall and easily accessible by lift, the gallery is not easy to miss.

In a space once occupied by music studios, a history of the twin performing spaces that is Victoria Memorial Hall and Victoria Theatre is lovingly recounted. There are brief write-ups and historical photos with annotations as well as a collection of memorabilia - old programmes, posters and leaflets which reveal a wealth of performance history that took place within those walls.

Polish artist Feliks Topolski's mural
Calvacade of the Commonwealth (1951)
has been returned to UK post-independence.

The Old Vic is deeply entwined with history from British colonial years, Second World War, Singapore's independence to the present state of the performing arts here. I took some time between halves of Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra's 40th anniversary concert to pay a closer look to how VCH / VT came to be, and the historical forces and persons who helped make that happen.

One of Singapore's true musical pioneers,
Goh Soon Tioe (1911-1982)

Groups that livened Singapore's musical scene,
Goh Soon Tioe String Orchestra 
& Paul Abisheganaden's
Singapore Chamber Ensemble.

A multi-cultural Arts Festival held
months before Singapore's first general election
and commencement of internal self-governance.

Victoria Memorial Hall had a major renovation, completed in 1980, after which it was renamed Victoria Concert Hall and became the home of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Another round of major renovations took place in 2010-2014 to become the spanking new concert venue it is today.

The Old Vic in 1980, post-renovation.
Notice the now-expunged lift shaft behind
the clock tower and sealed-up posterior entrance.

SSO's founding fathers:
Dr Goh Keng Swee and Maestro Choo Hoey

We used to sit on these velvet red seats.

Autographed Yo-Yo Ma Gala Concert
programme booklet with SSO from 1999.

Even young Samuel Phua
has become part of VCH history.
He was the first saxophonist to appear in
the President's Young Performers Concert.

Entrance to the history gallery is free of charge and is open during all concert evenings. 

VICTORIA CONCERT HALL 

& VICTORIA THEATRE

11 Empress Place #01-02

Singapore 179558

(Just take the lift to the 

3rd floor and turn right)

   

This Victoria Concert Hall & Victoria Theatre
souvenir paper-weight from the 2014
re-opening now sits on the desk of my office.

MARC-ANDRE HAMELIN GETS TO MEET (BRIEFLY) SINGAPORE PIANOPHILES

The world-renowned Canadian pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin was in town last week to perform with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in concerto and chamber music, his first visit here since 2012. No meet-and-greet or autograph session was arranged by the SSO, but a bunch of hopeful local pianophiles aggregated outside Victoria Concert Hall's stage door to get a glimpse of the super-virtuoso and possibly have a few words with him.

He soon emerged, and it was credit to the on-duty SSO staff that he was not straight away bundled into the limousine and rushed back to the hotel or airport. He thus had a chance to chat with those pianophiles, sign autographs and take photos. Many were armed with CD sleeves, and others with his piano scores (his Twelve Etudes published by C.F.Peters was a particular favourite) and other memorabilia. As obliging as always, he met with each and every person, and nobody was going home disappointing. Instead, they will be telling their friends here and overseas all about it.

For the record, Hamelin has come to Singapore on five occasions, first performing at the 4th Singapore International Piano Festival in 1997 (Beethoven & Liszt) and in concertos with the SSO in 2005 (Rachmaninov 3), 2008 (Mendelssohn 1), 2012 (Beethoven 4) and most recently 2026 (Brahms 2). All these are popular mainstream piano concertos. Can we even hope for the near future, performances of Nikolai Medtner concertos (any one of three, especially No.2) or dare we even dream, Busoni's Piano Concerto? 

A SUNDAY AFTERNOON WELL SPENT AT THE NATIONAL PIANO & VIOLIN COMPETITION 2023

 

A SUNDAY AFTERNOON 

WELL-SPENT AT THE 

NATIONAL PIANO & 

VIOLIN COMPETITION 2023

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (26 November 2023)

The Covid pandemic had wreaked havoc for Singapore's premier music competition for locally-based pianists and violinists. In 2021, the National Piano & Violin Competition (NPVC) was held completely online with no live audience in attendance. The grand finals of both Piano and Violin Artist categories were performed with piano accompaniment instead of an orchestra. Thus, it was a pleasure to be able to attend the quarter-final recitals of the Piano Artist category in person at Victoria Concert Hall. A lazy Sunday afternoon never felt more well spent.

Thanks to astute choices made by the preliminary judging panel, only eight pianists were chosen to perform their quarter-finals recital, and they were mostly excellent. The repertoire was limited to just a single baroque work lasting between 15-25 minutes. As fortune would have it, all eight pianists performed different works - with no repetition of repertoire - and this made for an enthralling afternoon.

The afternoon opened with Michelle (only one name, as Indonesians are wont to be) performing an unusual choice of Handel's Keyboard Suite in D minor (HWV.428). This multi-movement work could easily have been mistaken for Bach, if not for a fugal second movement, and with theme and variations as its finale. Hers was a very clean and articulate reading, with good pedalling and contrapuntal lines well delineated. The variations felt almost improvisatory and she finished emphatically.

Next was Zongxi He in the often-performed Bach Partita No.1 in B flat major, a work that risks been over-familiar. There were some nice ornamentations applied, and she was very fluent in the fast running dance movements. Taking risks, there were some missed notes, but it was still a satisfying reading.

Giving the most personal performance of the afternoon was Long Jing Xuan in Bach's Partita No.6 in E minor, easily the longest work on show. He was determined to make each movement count by taking as many liberties as possible and extracting the maximal sonorities from the Steinway grand. Improvisatory in feel for many parts, his was the most interesting reading of all, but would he be considered mannered by the jury? One good thing: he was allowed to perform the entire without any interruption (that dreaded time-keeping bell was not employed for the entire afternoon) and that was just great.

Another very familiar work was Bach's French Suite No.5 in G major, which saw a reading by Lee Ann that exposed her nerves, when she had a minor stumble in the opening bar. She nevertheless recovered and offered some of the more interesting ornamentations (some might consider these overdone) heard this afternoon. The prestidigitation in the Gigue was excellent, and she had the requisite technique to keep the dynamo running unimpeded.

After a 15-minute intermission, the baroque feast continued with Wang Chien Jou in Bach's English Suite No.3 in G minor. Hers was a very confident and sonorous performance with very clean and no-nonsense approach. Parts could sound metronomic at times, but a well-schooled technique ensured a cool but emphatic close.

There was little to separate her and Fong Zi Ying, who followed with Bach's Partita No.3 in A minor, which had similar qualities of being very fluent, tasteful and ultimately satisfying. I expect both of these young lasses to advance.

Bach's English Suite No.2 in A minor has the most virtuosic Prelude of them all, and Fong Kai De made every note count by channeling an inner Argerich or Pogorelich with a sure-fingered brilliance. This performance was not mere superficial flash but possessed with a nuanced approach which not just exciting but also touched. Just for the febrile nature of his reading, this might have been the standout performance of the afternoon.

Closing the afternoon was Joshua Lau in Bach's Partita No.5 in G major, in a very strong, very crisp and very musical reading. His was epitome of good taste and refinement, with not a single hair out of place. The fugal passages in the closing Gigue were very well articulated, the brilliant close suggests this young man to be the person to beat in this competition.

It was close to 6 pm when the pianists, jury and audience dispersed for dinner and well-earned rest, and four pianists would be picked to advance - Long, Lee, Fong (the lady) and Tang. The semi-finals and finals (three out of this goodly quartet) should be exciting prospects.

Piano professors meet:
Nicholas Ong, Boris Kraljevic and Albert Tiu
account for all four semifinalists
in the Piano Artist category this year!

Tickets for the Grand Final (only $10, a steal in Singapore!) on Saturday 2 December 2023 to watch three piano concertos accompanied by the NPVC Orchestra (actually the Singapore Symphony Orchestra but in name) may be purchased here: 

Singapore Symphony Orchestra (sso.org.sg)

A PIANO RECITAL NOT TO MISS: THE MODERN CHOPIN by POOM PROMMACHART, Sunday 29 January 2023

Here is a piano recital not to miss: Thailand's finest young pianist Poom Prommachart performs an all-Chopin programme of his greatest music, the 24 Preludes (Op.28) and the Third Sonata in B minor (Op.58).

Poom was a student at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and London's Royal College of Music. He has recently completed his doctorate at the University of Montreal, while a student of the great Vietnamese pianist Dang Thai Son, Asia's first winner of the Chopin International Piano Competition in 1980.

Watch this video:

THE MODERN CHOPIN Promo Video - Dr. Poom Prommachart's Singapore's Recital 29 Jan 2023, 4pm, VCH - YouTube 

The programme as follows:

CHOPIN 24 Preludes, Op.28

CHOPIN Sonata No.3 

  in B minor, Op.58

Sunday, 29 January 2023

Victoria Concert Hall, 4 pm

Book your tickets here:

Tickets: The Modern Chopin @ Victoria Concert Hall | 29 Jan 2023 (Sun.) | Ticketmaster SG

HALLOWEEN AT VICTORIA CONCERT HALL

HALLOWEEN NIGHT

LORAINE MUTHIAH, Organ

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (30 October 2022)

 

It was a sold-out concert on Sunday afternoon, and there was a crush to get into Victoria Concert Hall. The long queue that snaked outside all through The Arts House porch was mostly to see Shen the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton (to be auctioned by Christie’s), and it seemed appropriate given this was the day before Halloween. I was fortunate to get a seat through jazz pianist Tze Toh, who has a new composition premiered by his NUS Piano Ensemble alumnus-colleague and organist Loraine Muthiah at this Halloween-themed organ recital.

Shen, the T.rex skeleton
will be sold to the highest bidder,
and probably end up in Dubai!

 

All such recitals on The Old Vic's Klais Organ must begin with J.S.Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. There is really nothing scary about this work, except for its frequent associations with ghoulish organist-characters playing in supposedly haunted houses. Do all haunted houses have pipe organs? It’s all a movie cliche, which Victoria Concert Hall Presents series perpetrates with its visually appealing and credible son et lumiere show this afternoon. Loraine is certainly a fine performer, one who has the chops for this music, which continued into Henri Mulet’s Chapelle de morts and Louis Vierne’s Gargoyles and Chimerae.

 

There isn’t anything particularly haunting about the Mulet other than a plodding beat leading into the catacombs, while the frequent change of registers and dynamics in the Vierne had a kind of dissonance which was intermittently disconcerting to say the least. Christopher Brown’s Nocturne is an effective night piece but nowhere as skin-crawling as Bartok’s patented night music. An organ transcription of his Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta would really work in this context.

 

Rumour has it that Victoria Concert Hall is still occupied by spectral beings, even after its major renovation. One must not forget that it was once used as a hospital during World War II, and several Japanese officers and administrators were sentenced to death in the tribunals, and the late Lee Kuan Yew’s inauguration of his People’s Action Party took place at this very venue. I have not personally witnessed any paranormal aberrations other than zombie automatons trying to prevent human beings from taking photographs in concerts. 

 

Perhaps the most interesting diversion was provided by Tze’s Enemy Mine, which had nifty effects of an alien’s heavy breathing and possible spaceship sounds. His alien creature is supposedly hideous-looking but as the work progressed on its syncopated, rhythmic and tango-inspired path, it began to metamorphose and normalise in appearance. At the end, it looks like one of us.

 

Closing the concert was a staple of pipe organists, all four movements of Leon Boellmann’s Suite Gothique. Its imposing opening movement made a hugh roar, contrasted by the quieter central movements. Stealing the show was its Toccata finale, and has anybody noticed that its main melody is the same as the Malay song Di Tanjung Katong but in a minor key? Needless to say, it provided a sangat baik close to an interesting and involving recital.

Loraine Muthiah, Tze Toh
and some Halloween guests.

 

Some people really dressed the part.

On a more sombre note, we offer heartfelt condolences to the families who lost loved ones at the Halloween weekend disaster in Itaewon, Seoul the night before. Nothing can replace their loss, and we can only hope that time heals wounds, and such tragedies should never happen again.

A PIANO RECITAL NOT TO BE MISSED: YEVGENY SUDBIN at Victoria Concert Hall, Thursday 16 January 2020

Here is a piano recital not to be missed. 

Russian pianist Yevgeny Sudbin makes a welcome return to Singapore for a one-night-only piano recital at Victoria Concert Hall on 16 January 2020. This recital is presented by Altenburg Arts, the brains behind Yuja Wang and Martha Argerich's debuts in Singapore.

Place: Victoria Concert Hall

When: 7.30 pm, Thursday 16 January 2020

Tickets available at SISTIC

https://www.sistic.com.sg/events/sudbin0120 

Programme:

SCARLATTI 4 Sonatas

TCHAIKOVSKY-SUDBIN

Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture

TCHAIKOVSKY Two Nocturnes

SCRIABIN Nocturne for the left hand, Op.9 No.2

RAVEL Gaspard de la nuit

DO NOT MISS THIS CONCERT IF YOU LOVE PIANO SONATAS... AND KOREAN PIANISTS!

Here is a piano recital you will not want to miss if you love piano sonatas. Multiple-award winning Korean pianist Chi-Ho Han will perform just two works in his Victoria Concert Hall recital: Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata and Liszt's Sonata in B minor. You will not bigger sonatas than these!

CHI-HO HAN Piano Recital

Victoria Concert Hall

Tuesday 20 March 2018, 7.30 pm

BEETHOVEN Sonata No.29 in B flat major,

   Op.106 "Hammerklavier"

LISZT Sonata in B minor

Tickets available at SISTIC:

https://www.sistic.com.sg/events/cchiho0318

Enjoy a 20% discount on tickets when you use this code: HAN20