Man and his relationship with earth was the theme of this Singapore Chinese Orchestra concert conducted by Yeh Tsung. Three major works were performed, beginning with Tang Jianping’s Hou Tu (Empress Earth). In four connected movements, the 1997 work cannily employed pre-recorded songs from ethnic minority hill tribes in China, over which orchestral textures were thickly layered.
High flutes and percussion opened the work before the entrance of children’s voices. In the call and response form of aboriginal chants, with men and women’s voices later introduced, a vigorous and raucous dance ensued. Mostly propulsive and sometimes bordering on violence, this was a Chinese “song of the earth”, but one which bore down to a quiet trance-like close.
German composer Enjott Schneider’s Earth And Fire (2009) was a concerto for sheng in two movements, based on two of the five elements – metal, wood, water, fire and earth – that define nature. It stretched sheng exponent Wu Wei’s virtuosity and his mouth organ’s piquant timbre pierced through the massed instrumental morass with laser-like clarity.
Rhythmic and energetic, Wu’s ponytail flapped in the air for the Earth movement. The ante was upped in Fire, where lapping tongues of orchestral sound rose like some all-consuming force. This was a dance culminating in a fearsome solo cadenza for sheng, gloriously polyphonic and imbued with jazzy vibes. Here was a tour de force of solo playing.
After the interval, Zhao Jiping’s The Feng Ya Song Symphony (2019), in five linked movements, made its Singapore premiere. Veteran composer Zhao is China’s answer to John Williams, having written scores for epic films such as Farewell, My Concubine (1993), Red Sorghum (1988) and Raise The Red Lantern (1991). However, in this symphony, he was more Mahlerian in ambition, hoping to encompass everything within 40 minutes.
The subject had to do with the Chinese worldview as seen through Tang dynasty literature. A wordless choir provided by the Vocal Associates Festival Choruses (Khor Ai Ming, artistic director) set the atmospheric mood for an idiom that resembled the music from those biblical films of old.
Like Mahler’s symphony Song Of The Earth, there were also two solo vocalists. Tenor Kee Loi Seng’s stentorian voice resounded strongly in Guan Ju (Crying Ospreys), a scholar’s lament about forlorn love for a virtuous maiden. Soprano Zhang Ningjia, wife of composer Zhao, was the star in Melody Of The Secluded Orchid, which slowly and gently built up to a stirring climax. Her heartfelt ode was in praise of a humble flower that withstands all trials and thrives.
REVIEW / CONCERT
THE FENG YA SONG SYMPHONY
Singapore Chinese Orchestra
Singapore Conference Hall
Last Saturday
In the purely orchestral scherzo-like 3rd movement, The Mythical Bird, the orchestra spun a tarantella-like perpetual motion through the course of its wild ride. A nationalistic air occupied the finale, Guo Feng, with a grand apotheosis espousing patriotism to the land of one’s being. The perfect start to the week leading to National Day.
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