CHRISTMAS CONCERT 2017
Ensemble de la Belle Musique
Esplanade Recital Studio
Monday (18 December 2017 )
This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 December 2017 with the title "Ensemble's debut is a sugar plum fairy party".
Imagine
going to a buffet and heading straight for the desserts to face an array of
pastries, cakes, puddings, jellies, ice-creams and a chocolate fountain.
Ensemble de la Belle Musique's (EBM) inaugural concert was the musical
equivalent of a sugar plum fairy orgy, made more apparent by its Christmas
theme.
The
philosophy of EBM – founded by twin-pianists/composers Low Shao Ying and Shao
Suan and Emmy-nominated composer Joseph Curiale - was to promote and perform
only tonal and aurally beautiful compositions. Consciously rejecting atonalism,
serialism, avant-gardeism, the idea was to present music players love to
perform and audiences want to hear.
There
was none of the bland soppiness associated with André Rieu, Richard Clayderman
and their ilk. There was also no need for listeners to swallow an entire
cheesecake whole as the pieces were short and palatable, each lasting from
three to eight minutes. The ensemble comprising 22 musicians led by conductor
Leonard Tan premiered 11 works by 11 composers from Singapore Australia United States of America Denmark Spain
There
were two commissioned works, Dane Martin Åkerwall's The Snow Queen and
Spaniard Ricardo Molla's Dulcinea. The former conjured a soundscape
redolent of fairy-tale film music in two movements, while the latter played up
contrasts in Chua Lik Wuk's violin and Eddie Sim's cello, its title
highlighting the knight Don Quixote's unattainable dream.
The
Australian Daxter Yeo had two works performed, Belle Reveries being a
slow waltz for piano and strings while La Vie Est Belle unfolded
sumptuously like a Mahlerian slow movement, a crescendo building up to a big
climax before receding to quietness. Here is a composer who deserves to be
heard again.
Fellow
Australian Paul Kopetz's Island Christmas Dawn had Jonathan Lim's
soprano saxophone rising to accompanying strings like a nascent sun, while
American Michael Winstanley's The Ice Palace Waltz was an upbeat number
more in common with waltzes from Shostakovich's Jazz Suites than Johann
Strauss. American Kari Medina
What
about the five Singaporean composers represented? Yvonne Teo's Christmas
Waltz opened with a “Once upon a time” introduction before a wistful and
casually-paced three-quarter rhythm ensued. Germaine Goh's Christmas in June
generated a feeling of mystique, but instead of snow there was sunshine,
unleashed by the brass – Dixie De Souza's French horn, Kenneth Lun's trumpet
and David Wong's trombone - for a big melody at its close.
Twin
sisters Evelyn and Frances Goh's Please Think Of Me This Christmas
(arranged by Jason Shahul) resonated like a K-Pop ballad before ending in
totally agreeable C major. One suspects the final work, Around The World In
One Night by Jon Tho, will be played the most. This was a jazzy big band romp
alluding to popular Christmas songs in a most irrepressible of Santa
sleigh-rides. There can be no better call to bring out the bubbly.
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| The star-studded ensemble included former SSO violinists Yew Shan and Chua Lik Wuk, and the twin sister-act of Low Shao Ying & Shao Suan. |
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| Young composer Jon Tho speaks while the Goh sisters look on. |
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