KAHCHUN WONG AND SCO / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

KAHCHUN WONG & SCO

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (20 August 2022)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 24 August 2022 with the title "Conducting prowess of Wong Kah Chun on show".

 

Singaporean conductor Kahchun Wong (better known to locals as Wong Kah Chun), recently appointed Chief Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic, made a triumphant return to the orchestra that helped launch his podium career. While still a student at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, he was an Assistant Conductor of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra under Yeh Tsung’s mentorship, a position that paved the way to success in multiple international competitions.

 

Conducting entirely from memory, the concert opened with the Singapore premiere of Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun’s Fire Ritual. This 2018 violin concerto was adapted from his film score Nanjing 1937 (1995) and designated “a music ritual for the Victims of War”. An example of “orchestral theatre”, musicians are part of the act with extra-instrumental activity including vocalisations, sound effects (such as rustling of paper) and offstage maneuvers.  

 

The soloist was SCO’s own zhonghu player Wu Kefei, who performed on three huqins of different registers. The zhonghu’s low and gutteral voice, raw and earthy, was contrasted with the erhu’s pathos-inducing plaints and the gaohu’s mimicry of birdcalls. More than a juggling act, her virtuosity was well-matched by playing of poetry and alluring elegance.

 

Wind players strategically placed in offstage locations provided stunning antiphonal effects that contributed to the visual and aural spectacle. The half-hour work, part temple ceremony and part movie-music epic, laid bare the perpetual toll of history: the suffering of common people.

 

Quite different, and arguably more spectacular, was the world premiere of Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition in an orchestration by conductor Wong for Chinese instruments. Orchestral transcription of this piano suite abound, the most popular being Frenchman Maurice Ravel’s, recognised for its originality and richness of colour. Wong’s no-holds-barred edition, however, topped every other by maximising the full timbrel possibilities of every instrument at his disposal.

 

Central to this self-described sinfonia concertante was the quintet of soloists formed by Tan Man Man (erhu), Lee Cheng Jun (dizi), Zhang Yin (pipa), Ma Huan (yangqin) and Benjamin Boo (percussion). Leading the parade, they provided most of the melodic interest by revelling in feverish and frenetic activity, while the orchestra filled in with near-psychedelic textures and details.

 

Wong was keen to avoid imitating novelties from other scores, instead springing surprises of his own. In The Old Castle, where Ravel used the saxophone, Wong employed low dizi accompanied by wordless voices. Metal plates and heavy chains provided rhythmic impetus to Bydlo, the lumbering ox-cart. The Ballet Of Unhatched Chicks became a riot in the henhouse, winds having a field day besides sneaking in several roosters and even an odd koel.

 

Only someone from Singapore could have transformed the marketplace in Limoges into a bustling pasar resounding with Malay drumming. The xun (ocarina) and a Tibetan prayer bowl gave In Lingua Mortua (In The Language Of The Dead) the eerie vibes it deserved, while the hall’s ornamental ancient bianzhong (bronze chime bells) found their niche in the closing Great Gate of Kiev. Accompanying projected pictures drawn by primary school children, this rich smorgasbord of sound and colour led by Wong could be described in two words: absolutely brilliant. 

BEETHOVEN IM GARTEN / Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra & Wong Kah Chun / Review

BEETHOVEN IM GARTEN 2022

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra

Botanic Gardens 

Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage

Saturday (26 March 2022)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 30 March 2022 with the title "A prelude to better times with Beethoven".

 

The skies over the Botanic Gardens had been overcast for most of the afternoon. Distant thunder rumbled and one wondered whether Beethoven Im Garten (Beethoven in the Garden) would even take place if it had rained. Then at six, the sun emerged from the shadows and a cool breeze swept like a smile over the audience of a thousand, all ticketed, masked and partially socially-distanced.

 

There was to be no repeat of the stormy fourth movement of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, but more like its heartwarming fifth movement, a song of thanksgiving. The symphony to be heard this evening was, however, Beethoven’s Fourth in B flat major (Op.60), not the most popular of his nine masterpieces. The German composer and critic Robert Schumann described it as a “slender Grecian maiden between two Norse giants”, which was flattering albeit in an oblique way.  

 

Beethoven In Garten was an initiative of the German Embassy in Singapore with young Singaporean conductor Wong Kah Chun, presently chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony, inaugurated in 2018 to celebrate German-Singapore friendship. Performed by the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra (Wong’s alma mater) augmented by ten members from the Dresden Philharmonic, this event had the welcoming effect of ushering in a raft of concerts with relaxed Covid rules.

Mind the Gap!
Why such poor planning from National Parks?

 

The audience was still a segregated one, with sponsored and specially invited guests seated near the stage, while commoners (including this listener) were secluded far back in the rear separated by a 50-metre stretch of no man’s land. It was no picnic either as food and drinks had been banned, and listeners had to be content with listening to one of two speakers blaring out the music while observing the proceedings through binoculars.

 

After the obligatory speeches, the symphony soon got underway and Beethoven’s music rarely disappointed. Did one know that the slow introduction of the first movement employed a variant of the Fate motif of his famous Fifth Symphony? Now slowed down till barely recognisable, but it served as a launching pad for the movement’s exciting main section.

 

The energised start was followed by a masterly slow movement built on waves upon waves of sound. Contrast was provided by the Scherzo's somewhat ungainly lurching, but Wong's taut direction ensured the ensemble kept in sync throughout. Applause greeted the end of each movement, but unlike in concert halls, it did not feel inappropriate but a totally natural response. 

 

The finale was a perpetual motion in fast tarantella rhythm, a breathless ride in which every player became his or her own virtuoso musician. Conductor Wong then spoke touchingly but frankly about how the pandemic had affected the lives of young professional musicians, and this concert was a harbinger for better times ahead.

 

The concert closed with the exhilarating final movement Saltarello (another fast and swirling dance) from Mendelssohn’s Fourth Symphony, better known as his Italian Symphony. The skies had darkened but the weather held up for a stirring conclusion.

You can catch the concert here:

[LIVE] Beethoven im Garten - YouTube

BEETHOVEN 360° / Wong Kah Chun et al / Reveiw

BEETHOVEN 360°

WONG KAH CHUN, Conductor

Streamed on the Internet @ YouTube Live

Thursday (30 July 2020)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 August 2020 with the title "Uplifting performance delivers message of friendship and unity". 

On Christmas Day 1989, a concert at Berlin’s Konzerthaus saw a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, known as his Choral Symphony, led by legendary American conductor Leonard Bernstein. The orchestra and singers comprised an international legion of musicians from Germany, United Kingdom, France, Soviet Union and United States of America. The celebratory occasion had marked the fall of the Berlin Wall just the month before.

 

A similar assemblage of performers, now over a thousand-strong from around the planet, reprised the symphony’s final movement Ode To Joy on International Friendship Day (30 July). Conducting the Internet-united ensemble was Singapore’s Wong Kah Chun (or Kahchun Wong as he is known internationally), winner of the Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition and Chief Conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra.

 

In what is possibly mankind’s darkest hour of the new millennium, besieged by the Covid-19 global pandemic, Wong’s “universal musical kampong” delivered a heartwarming message. “Alle Menschen Werden Bruder”, or All People Become Brothers, was Friedrich Schiller’s clarion call of 1785, which became Beethoven’s personal credo in his final symphony of 1824.

 

All 25 minutes or so of the Ode was performed. Even for those with limited attention spans, it seemed a breeze. The virtual concert hall, with a 360° view of all the performers in socially distanced screens with Wong leading at its centre, was a marvel of modern innovation and technology.

 

The opening outburst and low string declamations suggested a world in primordial chaos, and the visual was that of Wong conducting within a fiery sea of lava and rising steam. With each measure of Beethoven’s iconic melody, each player was introduced in a puff of smoke, until a revolving wall of humanity surrounded the maestro. Disorder had given way to a semblance of form.

 

Then it was bass-baritone Nicholas Brownlee’s declaration of O Freunde (O Friends), a coming together of peoples, leading into the greenery of Beethoven Im Garten, Wong and Singapore German Embassy’s shared vision of bringing Beethoven to the masses. A celestial band of angel-winged players (providing unusually comic moments) accompanied tenor Gerard Schneider for the Turkish march episode before the tutti chorus’ glorious statement of the big tune.

 

With hundreds, possibly a thousand faces appearing onscreen for the first time, this was the proverbial “lump in the throat” moment, sending shocks of frisson coursing down the spine. The choral fugue was accompanied by four staves in German (with English transliterations), each corresponding to a SATB (soprano alto tenor bass) voice part, a nifty concept that hinted of karaoke inspirations at play.

 

The ensemble was then transported into a smart pencil-drawn 3-D representation of Esplanade Concert Hall before closing with a coda in the clouds, all players being united for the final time. With excellent recorded sound and crystal clear visuals, Beethoven 360° was a truly memorable and immersive experience to savoured over and over. 

Watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrjD6Npc7Pk&t=937s

XPERIENZ: IN C / Asian Contemporary Ensemble / Review

XPERIENZ: IN C

Asian Contemporary Ensemble

University Cultural Centre Dance Studio

Friday (25 March 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 March 2016 with the title "Unusual experience of minimalist music".

The Asian Contemporary Ensemble (ACE) founded by young conductor Wong Kah Chun surprised once again, and in ways which one least expected. Its latest concert coupled Beethoven's evergreen Fifth Symphony with the Singaporean premiere of American minimalist Terry Riley's seminal score In C, in performances which confounded expectations and pre-conceived ideas.

The Dance Studio at UCC is a very small space, which meant that the audience numbering about 100 was seated within the orchestra's ranks. This closeness must have been unnerving for performer and listener, but within a friendly milieu of sharing space and feedback, both parties soon got used to each other.

Conductor Wong, informally attired in polo shirt and denim jeans, introduced the various instrumental groups to the audience and also briefly spoke about Beethoven's orchestration between the movements. Without further fanfare, the Beethoven symphony got underway with the familiar “da-da-da-dum” motif.

Shorn of opulence or bombast, the composer's ideas were laid bare on a plate. One soon discerned how he brought the disparate parts together, in consonance and dissonance. Just four each of first and second violins, three violas, two cellos, two basses and the minimum complement of winds, brass and percussion, meant that the sound was not going to be rich or fulsome.

That was not the idea in the first place, and depending on where one sat, the balance was also certain to be awry. However what the listener got was a truly organic feel of an overplayed masterpiece, and the power of raw emotions set into music. This pair of ears happened to be in the direct trajectory of the trio of trombones that announced themselves wholeheartedly in the finale, and shrill blast of the piccolo.

The Surround Sound effect worked better in Riley's 1964 classic that started an inexorable trend in musical minimalism. Its premise was both simple and primitive, a repeated rhythmic pattern of the C note over which various sequences from combinations of instruments could be grafted onto its unwavering linear structure.

The ensemble was further pared down, now led by percussionist Ramu Thiruyanam on the MalletKat Pro (an electronic xylophone) and drum, with significant contributions from cello and keyboard. Traditional instruments like guzheng, tabla, guitar and bamboo flute were added into the mix, and audience members armed with a single-paged score were encouraged to sing any of the 53 notated fragments during appropriate moments.

The result was a heady and serendipitous melange of sounds, dizzying and strangely hypnotic. Riley's work was in essence the basis of music itself, the very foundation upon which the sounds of African drumming and Javanese gamelan become possible. The Western forms of the canon, passacaglia, theme and variations and the more sophisticated fugue could all be derived from its basic pulse and momentum.

Every incarnation of In C would result in very different outcomes, and ACE'ss version which played for  a good 37 minutes became a thrilling encounter with music at its most rudimentary grassroots. Little wonder that the many children in the audience sat quietly transfixed, clearly overawed by the experience. That is exactly how good music should move people.      

Professor Ho Chee Kong was in the audience, and
took the opportunity for photos with the performers.

SAYANG SINGAPURA! ORIGINS / Asian Contemporary Ensemble / Review

SAYANG SINGAPURA! ORIGINS

Asian Contemporary Ensemble

The Chamber, The Arts House

Saturday (14 November 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 November 2015 with the title "Fun way to discover Singapore".

The Asian Contemporary Ensemble, founded by Singaporean conductor-composer Wong Kah Chun, seeks to preserve Asian musical aesthetics while forging new paths in expression. Its 75-minute-long concert incorporated story-telling, dance and pantomime with eight works (including three world premieres) woven into its fabric.

Aimed at young people, the story of Indian King Rajasuran and how his grandson Sang Nila Utama discovered Temasek was directed by Peggy Ferroa, narrated by Rosemarie Somaiah, choreographed and danced by members of Paragraph. The 11 members of ACE conducted by Wong performed on stage, making for a colourful affair of sound and movement.

Phoon Yew Tien's Variations On A Transfigured Theme Rasa Sayang performed on piano by Jonathan Shin opened the concert, revealing a metamorphosis of a simple song that went through a whole panoply of tonalities and modes. John Sharpley's Glissando On The Black Keys was a pentatonic fantasy that saw Shin's instrument channelling the sound world of a Chinese guzheng.

The three world premieres began with Christopher Clarke's Teeth, a concertino for saxophone accompanied by Indian percussion inspired by the merlion's dentition. Samuel Phua's dusky tone on sax was a revelation, as was Joyce Poh's dizi in Bernard Tan's Keroncong, a cheerful dance that combined Chinese and Malay influences with the Western rondo form. Poh's arrangement of the popular Jiangnan Hao saw the familiar Chinese tune on dizi accompanied by Edward Tan's violin and Dylan Lee's cello.

The musicians then congregated around a collection of gongs and metallophones for the gamelan-inspired Suite of the Thieving Sea by Anne Choo, with solo parts for bamboo flute and bowed rebab. This Javanese-styled music accompanied the dance of Sang Nila Utama surrending his crown to appease buffeting waves, before the premiere of Shin's Sang Nila Utama Meets The Mercat, which saw Li Lingzhi's clarinet, sax and dizi backed by tinkling toy piano.

The mercat is the official mascot of ACE, created by violinist Ayane Sato, and supposedly some descendant of the merlion, Pokemon and Hello Kitty. Even she has a theme of her own, composed by Wong, which combines a march, sea shanty and Anime music.

This final piece of merrymaking saw the appearance of the fluffy blue mascot, also named Ace, in the flesh, who went on to pose for photographs with National Arts Council CEO Kathy Lai and all the children in attendance. Needless to say, everyone present had a good laugh. 

Photographs by the kind permission of Asian Contemporary Ensemble.