A CELLO LIFE / Voice of the Cello 10th Anniversary Concert / Review

 

A CELLO LIFE 

Voice of the Cello 

10th Anniversary Concert 

Chijmes Hall 

Thursday (28 November 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 30 November 2024 with the title "Voice of the Cello's 10th anniversary concert a celebration of budding young talent".

Voice of the Cello (VOTC) is a collective for cellists founded by cellist and cello teacher Natasha Liu which made its debut at the Singapore Raffles International Music Festival in 2014. What appeared then like an encouraging prospect has now burgeoned into a full-blown movement merging musical excellence with an unadulterated sense of fun. 

There were 32 cello cases. Count them all.

Popper Eight.

No less than 32 young cellists played at VOTC’s 10th anniversary concert, in a wide-ranging programme from solos to massed performances. The opening act had The Popper Eight, an octet of eight to eleven-year-old girls, playing Bohemian composer David Popper’s Polonaise de Concert (Op.14). Coordination and intonation was an initial concern but they soon warmed up, giving the lively dance music its shine. 

Next came a series of duos and solos accompanied by pianist Michelle Seah. Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Pezzo Capriccioso (Op.62) paired 13-year-old Alyssa Teo with 12-year-old Ji Yuanjun, who were very well matched. Together, they brought out the work’s melodic allure and Slavic melancholy, with a short virtuosic flourish to close. 

In the fiery first movement of Camille Saint-Saens’ First Cello Concerto, Amelie See (12) played keen mentor to Lexi Eugenie (8), with a cohesiveness palpable despite their age-gap. A similar tandem saw Jacqueline Low (10) with Wang Yaxi (13) in Nicolo Paganini’s Mose-Fantasia, based on music by Gioachino Rossini, with the result being just as astonishing. 

In the solos, Grace Joy Chee (10) navigated Frederic Chopin’s Polonaise Brillante (Op.3) with utter confidence, its lyrical cantabile opening soon progressing to impressive fireworks. After that, Lucas Liow (13) ably brought out the dramatics of the opening movement of Antonin Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor. 

Arguably the most arresting performance of all came from Natalie Yong (15) in Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, scaling its peaks and troughs with an authority and ease that seemed uncanny. Here is a natural talent who could walk into any music conservatory of her choice. 

The concert’s shorter second half was devoted to cello playing involving larger groups. William Squire’s Danse Rustique saw the six members of Cello Buds (all under 9) playing in an even unison voice. For Saint-Saens’ The Swan, the six players of Cello Cygnets divided their labour between bowing melodies and plucking pizzicatos. 

One of the youngest cellists
demonstrating her ballet moves in Le Cygne.

The Cello Oppas at work.

The mixed group of Alpha Origins, six girls and two boys, generated a pleasant blend of sound in Tomaso Albinoni Adagio in G minor. A half-dozen of older teenaged boys called the Cello Oppas brought out the angst and pathos of John Williams’ Main Theme from Schindler’s List. The unaccompanied quartet of Jazz Belles played it cool in Duke Ellington’s It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing). 

14 cellists and 4 tambourine players.

The stage got ever more congested with an increasing number of players, the peak being reached with 14 cellists in Astor Piazzolla’s rocking Libertango before the closing Hymn a l’Amour by Edith Piaf with ten performers. The sheer passion and enthusiasm shared by all who performed can only bode well for the future of the instrument in Singapore.

Pianist Michelle Seah and
VOTC founder Natasha Liu get their bouquets.

MADELINE GOH Violin Recital / STORIES FROM THE HEART by Voice of the Cello / Review

MADELINE GOH Violin Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Wednesday (4 January 2023)

 

STORIES FROM THE HEART

Voice of the Cello

School of the Arts Concert Hall

Sunday (8 January 2023)

 

This review was published in The Straits Times on 10 January 2022 with the title "Concerts showcase Singapore's wealth of string talent".

If one wondered how Singapore produces so many excellent young musicians in recent decades, the answer can be attributed to good teaching. Pioneering classical musician Goh Soon Tioe (1911-1982), violinist, conductor, pedagogue and impresario, saw to the beginning of this renaissance. His legacy lives on through his many students and awards bestowed in his memory.

Photo: Gilbert Chan

 

The tenth and latest recipient of the Goh Soon Tioe Centenary Award was 15-year-old violinist Madeline Goh Anyi, former student of violinist Min Lee, who is pursuing pre-college studies at the Salzburg Mozarteum. Her hour-long recital was a showcase of precocity balanced by maturity beyond tender years.

Photo: Gilbert Chan

 

In Mozart’s Violin Sonata in B flat major (K.378), the hallmarks of fine musicianship were displayed, including clarity of articulation, beautiful cantabile tone, excellent intonation and  attention to phrasing and nuances. There was never a moment of artifice as she and pianist Beatrice Lin sang their way through to its virtuosic close in double-quick time.  

Photo: Gilbert Chan

 

In unaccompanied music, Goh was nigh unimpeachable in two movements from J.S.Bach’s Sonata No.2 in A major, with the fugue’s complex counterpoint mastered with aplomb. Scaling fiendish heights in Paganini’s mercurial Caprice No.10 and contemporary Austrian composer Gerhard Wimberger’s Toi, Toi, Toi (2016), tricks and cliches of the trade were laid out and skilfully dissected with a surgeon’s precision.

 

There were moments to relax in Eugene Ysaye’s salon-like Mazurka (In A Distance) in gentle triple-time but all stops were pulled for Wieniawski’s showpiece Polonaise in D major,  bringing down the house. As an encore, Madeline was joined by elder sister Mathea (award recipient in 2016) in the Allegro movement from Prokofiev’s Sonata for two violins (Op.56), a show of perfect synchrony demonstrating that musical talent does run in families.

Madeline Goh receives her big cheque
from Vivien Goh,Goh Soon Tioe's daughter.

 

If one thought pianists and violinists were main foci of attention, young cellists have begun to have their say. Stories From The Heart was a fundraiser for The Business Times Budding Artist Fund presented by Voice of the Cello, a collective mentored by veteran cellist Natasha Liu. No less than 40 cellists performed in this impressive showcase.

Amelie See with Michelle Seah

 

Its first half highlighted solo works, with 10-year-old Amelie See opening in Bohemian composer David Popper’s Polonaise de Concert with a display of confidence and poise. Even younger was 8-year-old Grace Joy Chee who blew away Saint-Saëns’ showpiece Allegro Appasionato with relative ease, followed by Ji Yuanjun (10) in the finale from Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C major, possessing both lightness and fleet-fingeredness.

Grace Joy Chee

Natalie Yong

 

By way of contrast, Lucas Liow (11) bared his heart and soul in the contemplative Andante movement of Rachmaninov’s ever-popular Cello Sonata, while Natalie Yong (13) luxuriated in the cantabile opening of Paganini’s Variations on Rossini’s Moses in Egypt, and never faltered as the work got increasingly thorny by the minute. All the works were partnered by pianist Michelle Seah.

 

The concert’s second half featured cello ensemble works ranging from three to twelve cellists. Six six-year-olds delighted in Tchaikovsky’s Sugar Plum Fairy while twelve seven-to-nines had their work cut out in William Squire’s very animated Tarantella. Stealing the show were four immaculately dressed lasses in all-white outfits for Saint-Saëns’ The Swan, and a choreographed  Elgar’s Salut d’amour for three cellists accompanying three dancers befitting the gracefulness of the music. Just too cute for words.

 

Six twelve-year-olds tackled Gabriel Fauré’s Elegie, calling for sobriety and depth of expression without piano accompaniment, while Shostakovich’s Waltz No.2 closed the variety programme on a lighter note. The grand finale saw the entire ensemble of 40 cellists converge in Harold Arlen’s Over The Rainbow, with a melody that would melt even the stoutest of hearts. Singapore’s got talent, and there are no two ways about it.  

Photo: Voice of the Cello