IN MEMORIAM: A TRIBUTE TO ADRIAN TAN / Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra / Review

IN MEMORIAM:

A TRIBUTE TO ADRIAN TAN

Braddell Heights 

Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday (11 September 2022)

 

A year and a bit has passed since the tragic and premature passing on 12 July 2021 of Singaporean conductor Adrian Tan, music director of the Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra (BHSO). A successor has yet to be appointed. This well-conceived memorial concert led by Taiwanese conductor Apo Hsu was a moving memorial to one truly passionate about music, and a timely reminder of our massive loss.

The Maestro Adrian Tan
all of us remember.

 

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony was an appropriate opener as it was Fate that took Adrian away. Beethoven’s fist-shaking defiance, expressed so dramatically in C minor, was what identified most with Adrian’s “can do” spirit. A naval officer with an arts degree in theatre studies who wanted so badly to be a conductor that he gave up a stable career to study music from scratch deserved our time and attention. His pot of gold at the end of the rainbow was the BHSO, which he whole-heartedly and single-mindedly honed into a fine ensemble capable of very convincing performances.

 

Under Hsu’s baton-less direction, a tautly gripping performance was the just result. The ensemble played their hearts out for her (and Adrian), often as if their lives depended on it. The opening Allegro con brio had vim and vigour, displaying an admirable cohesiveness. The slow movement sang unabated, the few rough spots from woodwinds doing little to derail the effort.  Time seemed to fly and spirits never flagged leading into the valedictory finale, culminating in glorious C major. From the stress of uncertainty to ultimate triumph was the path taken in this symphony and Adrian’s life, and he would have been immensely proud of it.

 

After the intermission, Singapore-based Filipino pianist Albert Tiu, regular collaborator with Adrian, was soloist in the slow third movement of Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto. Last year, he had crafted a solo piano transcription dedicated to Adrian, and here was the full monty with orchestra. It would have been great if Noella Yan (daughter of BHSO founder Yan Ying Wing and close family friend) had performed the cello obbligato part, but BHSO principal cellist Peh Xiang Hong was no slouch. Her solo was poignantly felt, the perfect introduction to Tiu’s impassioned reading which scaled the emotional heights yet found peace and resolution at its serene conclusion.

 

Twin composers Low Shao Ying 
and Shao Suan remember Adrian fondly.

Coinciding with the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II, Nimrod from Elgar’s Enigma Variations was also a fortuitous choice. There can be no music more moving than this, a regal nobilmente which aligned publisher A.J.Jaeger’s (Nimrod was his nickname) championship of Elgar’s music with Adrian’s keen support of Singaporean composers. The performance was a particularly rapturous one, which Song For Adrian by twin sisters Low Shao Ying and Shao Suan became the most logical follow-up. Scored for just strings, this was an elegy but one which channeled sadness into hope and optimism. Cast in C major, its musical idiom may be said to be a cross between Elgar and Sibelius.  

Singapore Symphony Orchestra's
fourth chair first violinist Chan Yoong Han was
an uncredited performer in this tribute concert.

Sama-sama maju ke hadapan
pandai cari pelajaran...

 

A familiar note (particularly for those growing up in the 60s and 70s) was struck with BHSO Arranger-in-Residence Mohd Rasull’s Fantasy on Zubir Said’s Semoga Bahagia (May You Achieve Happiness). Known popularly as the “Sama-sama Song", its melody brought back lots of primary school memories. It was sung in unison gusto by The Joy Chorale (Khor Ai Ming, Choirmaster) and some members of the audience (with whatever childhood memories of those bygone day). This work, which included a fugue among its variations, pulled out the stops in the best way possible.   

Handphones were not
prohibited in this concert!

A magical atmosphere
for Dick Lee's Home
Photo: Muhd Firdauz Bin Sapii

 

The evening concluded with Dick Lee’s Home as transcribed by Kelly Teng. A popular favourite, it had to be encored, this time accompanied by swaying lights emanating from hundreds of handphones within the audience. It was a spontaneous act that captured the spirit of the event, providing magical moments for all who attended. The Last Night of the Proms might have been cancelled in London, but nobody was to deny Adrian Tan his spot in our collective memories. His passion, zeal and courage will never be forgotten.

This is how Adrian Tan will be
remembered by all who knew him well.

NATIONAL DAY CONCERT 2022 / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

NATIONAL DAY CONCERT 2022

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (13 August 2022)

This review was first published in Bachtrack on 15 August 2022 with the title "What is Singapore music? Singapore Symphony’s National Day Concert provides the clues."

 

Ever since 2018, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s National Day Concert has become the showcase of music by Singaporean composers. The sixty-four million dollar question inevitably arises: What is Singapore music? This leads to further questions: Who composes Singapore music? What does it sound like?   

 

Antonin Dvorak posed similar questions about American music more than a century ago, sparking a musical revolution that inspired composers like Ives, Gershwin, Copland, Barber, Bernstein and Florence Price. Singapore’s first major post-Colonial post-Independence composer was Leong Yoon Pin (1931-2011), notably a student of Nadia Boulanger. Although Leong’s original music did not feature in this year’s concert, newer generations of composers represented may be considered his spiritual descendants. Led by Grammy-nominated Singaporean conductor Darrell Ang, himself a former student of Leong’s, the music performed was a veritable melting pot of the myriad cultures that make up Singapore society.

Photo: Nathaniel Lim

 

The concert opened with three World Premieres of new commissioned works. Wang Chenwei’s short symphonic poem Thaipusam was inspired by the Tamil (South Indian) Hindu festival day of penitence in honour of deity Lord Murugan. Playing on complex metres and rhythms from Carnatic music, evocative solos for viola and violin lead into a vibrant but sanitised view of the hot and sweaty procession characterised by self-mortification. John Adams goes to Serangoon Road (in Singapore’s Little India) might be an apt description.

Photo: Nathaniel Lim

 

More eclectic was David Loke’s 3 Sketches of Singapore, a modern concerto grosso with the Lorong Boys (“back street boys” in Malay) quintet as soloists. Comprising violinists Gabriel Lee and the composer himself, flautist Rit Xu, percussionist Joachim Lim and pianist Jonathan Shin, this “garage band” of ex-Yong Siew Toh Conservatory students had made its name busking in subway trains. Almost recounting Singapore’s history, its movements include a stormy sea shanty (the nation’s modern founder Stamford Raffles came from the Sceptred Isles, after all), an elegy with a solo from Loke a la John Williams’ Schindler’s List (remembering the genocide of ethnic Chinese perpetrated by the Japanese during WWII) and use of rattling angklungs (bamboo idiophones), before closing with a lively jazz-inflected Raindance.

Lorong Boys take a bow.

 

Niranjan Pandian on the bansuri.

Alicia de Silva’s Echoes of the Woods was the antithesis of Debussy’s Prelude to Afternoon of the Fawn. She painted a balmy night soundscape, resembling Vaughan Williams at his moodiest, before the emergence of Niranjan Pandian’s bansuri (North Indian bamboo flute). Mellow and haunting, its mystique is heightened with cellist Ng Pei Sian’s plaint, the duo completing what was the evening’s most poignant work. The oldest work was Stasis (1988) by the late Tsao Chieh (1953-1996), who made a living as an engineer and defence scientist. Its minimalism was founded on an A minor triad, a gradual crescendo of extreme calm and serenity broken by Evgueni Brokmiller’s flute (resembling the Balinese suling) and concertmaster Kong Zhao Hui’s closing violin solo reminiscent of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending. The serendipitous symmetry provided by both these two works could not have been more striking.  

Photo: Nathaniel Lim

 

A combined chorus of over a hundred singers from the Singapore Symphony Choruses joined the orchestra for three popular National Day Songs: Lee Chin Sin’s Up (orchestrated by Jaffar Sidek), Benjamin Lim’s Little Big Things (combining two songs, sung in English and Chinese) and Dick Lee’s Home (arranged by Wong Lai Foon, orchestrated by Dax Wilson Liang), the last a sentimental favourite so beloved as to have become a second national anthem. Closing with the national anthem Majulah Singapura (Onward Singapore) by Zubir Said (orchestrated by Leong Yoon Pin) sung in Malay, it felt almost like the Last Night of the Proms, but without the jingoism.

Chorus masters Wong Lai Foon and
Eudenice Palaruan sing the National Anthem.

 

Star Rating: ****

You can watch this concert in its entirety here:

Temasek Foundation SSO National Day Concert 2022 - YouTube

All the performers meet
Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat

The Lorong Boys
with the Loke clan. 

SSO NATIONAL DAY CONCERT / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

SSO NATIONAL DAY CONCERT

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (11 August 2018)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 14 August 2018 with the title "Something for everyone in concert of Singaporean music".

What is Singaporean music? That question was partially answered in a first-ever National Day Concert by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, led by Singaporean conductor Darrell Ang. In premiering new works and reliving popular tunes, there seemed to be something for everyone this evening. 

Cultural Medallion recipient Kelly Tang's two suites on popular local melodies began each half of the concert. The Symphonic Suite On A Set Of Local Tunes had Home, Chan Mali Chan, Bunga Sayang and Singapore Heartbeat as main themes, with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Elmer Bernstein's Magnificent Seven as clever cameos. His Sketches Of Singapore did service to Stand Up For Singapore, Rasa Sayang, Where I Belong and Di Tanjong Katong in the flag-waving Americanised style of John Williams.

It was feel good all the way in the original works, beginning with Syafiqah 'Adha Sallehin's Bidasari, a short work based on the pan-Malayan legend of Syair Bidasari. An orchestration of the main theme from her 2016 choreographed work Ikan Girl, atmospheric piccolo and flute solos backed by lush orchestration suggested this to be the Prelude To The Afternoon Of The Fish.

The Malay and marine setting also dominated Wang Chen Wei The Sisters' Islands, based on another legend. This work sounded even more Indo-Malay with the use of the pelog scale, and had solos from a blown conch shell and ocarina as part of its storytelling. The Vienna-trained Wang's Wagnerian orchestration brought echoes of the Rhine to the Straits of Singapore. 

The longest work was Chen Zhangyi 17-minute-long Violin Concerto entitled Vanda, a tribute to the national flower (Vanda Miss Joachim) and our Garden City. The soloist was London-based Kam Ning who mastered its three movements with her usual easy-going aplomb. The first two botanically-inspired movements were slow, and the fast finale, titled A Renaissance, included a virtuosic jazz-inflected cadenza by Kam herself. Her encore relived the raucous sounds of Chinatown, a Paganinian movement from her father Kam Kee Yong's 1976 sonata Huai Ku.

Xinyao (1980s Singaporean mandarin pop) had a look in with Liang Wern Fook's This Is Singapore Medley orchestrated by Samuel Tan, Its big band arrangement that found an apotheosis in his best-known song Xi Shui Chang Liu. The legacy of Sing Singapore and NDP was revived in Phoon Yew Tien's arrangements of Zubir Said's Semoga Bahagia (May You Achieve Happiness, better known as The Children's Day Song) and S.Jesudassan's Tamil favourite Munnaeru Vaalibaa (Come Forward, Youths!), now joined by the 100-strong combined choirs of the Singapore Symphony group.

It would not be a National Day Concert without Dick Lee's ubiquitous Home, arranged by Tang, and the audience stood up for the national anthem Majulah Singapura by Zubir Said. One senses that this concert has merely scratched the surface of Singaporean music. It is imperative that there will be many more National Day Concerts by the SSO to come in the future. 

THE ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA / Review

THE ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

MasterCard Theatres at Marina Bay Sands

Tuesday (11 November 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 13 November 2014 with the title "Terrific orchestra, terrible acoustics".

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s debut concert in Singapore was a late addition to its East Asian tour, and because of the unavailability of Esplanade Concert Hall, had to be held in the MasterCard Theatres at Marina Bay Sands. There are good reasons why symphony orchestra concerts are not held at this cavernous venue far better suited for Broadway musicals and pop concerts. This otherwise historic event may be summarised in four words: terrific orchestra, terrible acoustics.

But first, the audience stood to attention for the opening works conducted by the IPO’s Music Director for life, Zubin Mehta. Zubir Said’s Majulah Singapura in Phoon Yew Tien’s arrangement was followed by Hatikvah (The Hope), the national anthem of Israel. Contrasts could not be greater, Singapore’s extroverted major-key march with Israel’s melancholic minor-key plaint. Both were greeted with heartfelt applause.  

Vivaldi’s popular Concerto for Four Violins in B minor featured four of the orchestra’s lady violinists as soloists. Electrical amplification was apparent from the outset, and while all four were evenly highlighted, it was curious to hear one player ornamenting her part far more than the others. A case of one-upwomanship was beginning to upset the balance.

By the time Mozart’s Symphony No.36, nicknamed the Linz (after the Austrian city), came on, the artificial boosting of certain sections of the orchestra started to play havoc on the ears. This was no fault of the players or the conductor who strived to give an honest and committed account. Instead of hearing a homogeneous sound, amplified woodwind and brass with added reverberation emanated from the giant speakers on either side of the stage.

Depending where one sat in the hall, the perspective of sound was glaringly off centre, and this got worse when the orchestra played louder. As much as one tried to enjoy the playing, the unfortunate distortions were both trying and distracting. The audience also did not help by clapping in between movements, and conductor Mehta had to raise his hand to stop premature applause in order for the finale to begin. This alone raised ripples of laughter, rather than outright embarrassment.   

Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony is an ideal showcase for touring orchestras, and in terms of sheer passion and virtuosity, the IPO did not disappoint. The sense of cohesion, tightness of ensemble, and the 78-year-old conductor’s magisterial approach to tempos and dynamics all contributed to a stirring performance. In the slow movement, the principal French horn’s solo was a thing of lingering beauty. The 3^rd movement lilted with rare grace before the finale’s hell-for-leather development section and grand apotheosis.

All this had, of course, to be filtered through the morass of unnatural sonority, which included extraneous noises of microphones being accidentally knocked and other indignities. At least the audience saw fit the orchestra’s valour in this field of battle to be accorded an instant standing ovation. Their reward was an encore, the Intermezzo from Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, with its gorgeous string playing.

At a post-concert reception, conductor Mehta thanked his hosts and expressed the hope of IPO returning to play in a “better hall”. Although the event to commemorate SG50 was well-meaning, this humiliation of sorts was a corollary to the state of the pitch in the Sports Hub, another big question mark as to whether we know the true meaning of being “world class”.

To add insult to injury, concert programmes were sold at a ridiculously inflated price of $30. Classical concerts in Marina Bay Sands should not be like shopping for mobile phones in Sim Lim Square, where one is likely to be short-changed.   

Conductor Zubin Mehta at the post-concert reception,
with Israel's ambassador to Singapore
H.E.Yael Rubinstein fondly looking on.