Han-Na Chang conducts familiar favourites as the Singapore Symphony's new season opens

Now that the pandemic has attained endemic status in Singapore, this opening concert of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s 2022-23 season thus marked a complete reset to the “good old days” of before the virus. This reset also saw concert programmes reminiscent of the orchestra’s early years (1979 to early-80s), when wet-behind-the-ears audiences were gradually introduced to popular works of the repertoire in accessible doses. Mahler, Bruckner and Shostakovich would come much later, but one name was ubiquitous: Rossini. His operatic overtures were de rigeuer in early SSO concerts, so the inclusion of the Overture to William Tell was most apt. 

Its opening with massed cellos was atmospheric, with principal Ng Pei-Sian’s solo a real standout. The ensuing Alpine storm was short but riveting, and the pastoral scene with Elaine Yeo’s cor anglais and Roberto Alvarez’s flute contributions being pivotal to the performance’s finesse. This “mini concerto for orchestra” concluded with the most famous musical gallop of all, with brass working overtime. This would have been the perfect primer to the orchestra for any person attending a classical concert for the very first time. 

Credit must also go to Korean guest conductor Han-Na Chang, former child prodigy cellist, for her mastery of fine orchestral detail, which would also influence the performance of Grieg’s evergreen Piano Concerto in A minor that followed. It is often said that all conductors will sleepwalk through this work. Not so this evening, as her astute marshalling of the orchestral forces paved the way for Singaporean pianist Churen Li’s showcase. 

Li was a graduate from Singapore’s Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, and has garnered master’s degrees in music and philosophy from Yale and Cambridge respectively. Academic achievements aside, her full-blooded approach to the Grieg had much to recommend. Hers was not just a performance of utmost virtuosity but one full of nuances as well. Keen awareness for the music’s inner poetry sat cheek-by-jowl with the requisite barnstorming, not least in the first movement’s Lisztian cadenza. The slow movement’s muted strings ushered in heart-on-sleeve emoting by Li before the finale’s bounding Halling dance. There was a brief lapse of synchronicity but that was shrugged off without issue, the grandstanding close being what what mattered most. Her lovely encore was retiring in stark contrast, Dobrou noc ! (Good Night!) from Janacek’s On an Overgrown Path. 

The 52 minutes of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony might seem long-drawn or dragged out, but it did not feel that way. Under Chang, who conducted from memory, the overall pacing was very well judged. The emphatically punched-out two opening chords set the tone; this was not going to be a routine run through. Although brisk and bristling with urgency, the tempos never felt hectic or forced. The ever-pervasive sense of surging forward came in waves, symbolic of the impetuous Napoleonic inspiration, except that Beethoven had angrily scratched out his original dedication. He was not going to honour an emperor and tyrant, but the memory of a hero that was. To that end, the second movement’s funeral march became all the more inevitable. Again, the pacing was just right; not too lugubrious, and the build up to its powerful climax proved to be the highlight. Spurts of premature applause from newbies in the audience seemed like the right response to relieve the tension. To contrast the symphony’s shorter and far lighter second half with the very serious first, the mood softened considerably. 

The Scherzo was clockwork in its delivery, capped by the trio of French horns who were in sync throughout. The finale, playing on the comedic Creatures of Prometheus theme, revelled in its humour and busy counterpoint, without being frivolous. This was a nuanced reading which took its time in the quieter bits, which made the furious coda all the more exciting as the symphony drew to its triumphant close. There must have been many first-timers to this concert, and judging by the applause accorded to Chang and her charges, it certainly will not be their last.