Our #DabaoSCO selection: Strings Fantasy

Text: Lim Ka Min

Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO) has been releasing digital concert series and innovative online content series, bringing our music to everyone. To lift the spirits of Singaporeans, SCO first took the lead and launched a fresh new YouTube playlist #DabaoSCO on 14 February 2020 (Friday). Followers get to “da-bao” (takeaway) full-length SCO concerts, and enjoy concerts at the comfort of your home! This series feature some of the best past SCO Concerts.

Till date, SCO has shared more than 24 full-length concerts, which was held between 2013 till 2019.

Starting from July 2020, SCO will recommend you to 1 must-watch #DabaoSCO concert video every month, so please stay tuned for more! 

PHOTO: SINGAPORE CHINESE ORCHESTRA

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3 reasons to not miss Strings Fantasy on #DabaoSCO

 

1. SCO meets Violin and Cello

Internationally renowned Chinese violinist Lu Si Qing was the first Asian violinist to win the gold prize at the Paganini International Violin Competition in Italy in 1987 when he was only 18 years old. Lu Siqing’s splendid and unparalleled enthralling violin performance has impressed the audience world-wide and has brought his virtuosity to about forty countries throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia.

Writer’s Notes and Observations: Coincidentally (or planned), the day of concert (26 November) was Lu Siqing’s birthday. Watch SCO perform a lovely Happy Birthday song for him! And he wows audiences with more than one encore piece too!

LU SI QING; PHOTO: SINGAPORE CHINESE ORCHESTRA

In this concert, Lu Si Qing will perform with acclaimed cellist Qin Li-Wei, who heads Cello Studies at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.

Qin Li-Wei has collaborated successfully both as a soloist and chamber musician with many internationally renowed orchestras and conductors. He was awarded silver medal after his extraordinary splendour at the 11th Tchaikovsky International Competition and in 2001, he won the first prize in the prestigious Naumburg Competition in New York.

Writer’s Notes and Observations: Qin Li-Wei was also the teacher of SCO Cello musician Xu Xuena. Find out more about her story on Human Diaries here.

QIN LI-WEI; PHOTO: SINGAPORE CHINESE ORCHESTRA

2. SCO performs renowned composer Zhao Jiping’s masterworks

If you are a big fan of Chinese composer Zhao Ji Ping, you wouldn’t want to miss SCO’s rendition of his new masterwork: The Feng Ya Song Symphony’s fourth and fifth movement, namely Melody of the Secluded Orchid and Guo Feng.

The Feng Ya Song Symphony, which is commissioned by the China Federation of Literary Art Circles and Chinese Musicians’ Association, comprises of five movements.

Writer’s Notes and Observations: If you are interested to watch the full rendition of The Feng Ya Song Symphony, please watch this concert The Feng Ya Song Symphony, 3 August 2019. Click here.

QIN LI-WEI (LEFT), ZHAO JI PING AND CONDUCTOR TSUNG YEH; PHOTO: SINGAPORE CHINESE ORCHESTRA

Also, the orchestra performs the piece Disillusioned Dreams. Music in a dream runs free – “Now I do not know whether I was then a Man dreaming I was a Butterfly, or whether I am now a Butterfly, dreaming I am a Man.” Expressed with a cello concerto, the composer inferences on the philosophical musings of China's pre-Qin dynasty thinker, Zhuang Zi in presentation of the Taoism’s charm.

Composer Zhao has great appreciation towards the Chinese culture and claimed responsibility for culture composition. Acquiring from the archaic accumulated poetries, the Classic of Poetry, and Tang poetry, the representative chapters have its unique ethnic music language and comprise of different ways in expressing salutation towards the illustrious Chinese culture.

 

3. Confluence of Eastern and Western culture in one concert

SCO presented Carmen Fantasy, Op. 25 Composed by Pablo de Sarasate, Adapted by Law Wai Lun and The Celestial Web, Poem by Tan Swie Hian, Composed by Law Wai Lun.

Writer’s Notes and Observations: By performing these two pieces one after another, this East-Meets-West concert brings forth a beautiful blend of culture and will certainly delight both Chinese music enthusiasts and Western music enthusiasts.

LU SI QING; PHOTO: SINGAPORE CHINESE ORCHESTRA

Spanish violinist and composer Sarasate had adapted and re-arranged the most famous passage from the opera Carmen by George Bizet. The music piece consists of four sections: with an introduction employing the melody of an intermezzo in Act Four of the opera.

The first section, Habanera, is originally a famous aria in which Carmen first appears in the opera. The second section, Interlude, illustrates the unrestrained personality of Carmen. The third section, Seguidilla, illustrates Carmen being brought to prison for attacking her enemy with a knife, displaying her flirtatious personality towards the dragoon. The fourth section was composed based on the Spanish Bolero dance music filled with exuberant rhythm and emotions, showing the Gypsies indulge in singing and dancing. The pace of the music grows faster and faster and it ends in a most exciting atmosphere.

PHOTO: SINGAPORE CHINESE ORCHESTRA

The Celestial Web is a 117-verse modern poem specially written by iconic Singapore artist Tan Swie Hian. The poem took reference from the Avatamsaka Sutra, which expounds the noble philosophical insights of the universal love and interconnectedness between sentient beings. This work was commissioned for the Singapore Arts Festival 2003, co-produced by the National Arts Council and SCO.

The first section started with a peaceful melody followed by an outburst of recitation and chorus, expressing every single thread of the celestial web that holds the university in eternity. The second section used the light and graceful tones produced by the orchestra and recitalists to paint a picture of shimmering jewels on the celestial web. The third section symbolised the Heavenly Mother, Vasumitra, flying and giving the breath of life to the universe. The fourth section came in the form of recitation, praises Gaia, the goddess of Earth in Greek myth, who used up her time and voices in her entire life to pray for sentient beings. The fifth section began in a peaceful mode and ends in a climax. It is the concluding chapter of the entire poem, which takes us across mountains and rivers, to the heaven and eternity via a source of white light.

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Title of concert: Strings Fantasy

Original broadcast date and time: 26 November 2016 (Sat), 8pm. Click here for Programme booklet.

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Please click here for Part one video and click here for Part two video. 

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Pieces performed:

Guo Feng / Zhao Ji Ping

Melody of the Secluded Orchid / Zhao Ji Ping

Disillusioned Dreams / Zhao Ji Ping

The Sun Shines on Tashkurghan / Chen Gang, re-arranged by Phoon Yew Tien

Carmen Fantasy / Pablo de Sarasate, re-arranged by Law Wai Lun

The Celestial Web / Poem by Tan Swie Hian, Composed by Law Wai Lun

 

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We are getting ready! Singapore Chinese Orchestra is geared up to start preparations for our upcoming programmes in August and September 2020.

Singapore Chinese Orchestra will be rolling out 2 digital chamber concerts on SISTIC LIVE, on 28 August 2020 and 18 September 2020. You can purchase an e-ticket soon on Sistic, and catch our digital concert in the comfort of your home. Also, look forward to our National Day Concert as well. We hope to see you! 

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