[LJ2ME] The So(u)n(d) of the Yellow River
I couldn't suppress and disguise my envy when in conversation with a friend in London some years back, he let on that he had seen Sarah Brightman and Lea Salonga in Phantom and Miss Saigon respectively. Of course, it was also information to rib him about his implied age, which gets his goat.
So it was in the vein of acquiring the same cachet that I booked myself a seat at last evening's Singapore Chinese Orchestra concert. As one of the collaborators and contributors on top of being the primary composer of The Yellow River Piano Concerto, hearing Yin Cheng Zong perform the work is as close to a definitive stamp of approval and seal of quality one can find.
The work builds up momentum to a rousing "The East is Red" finale in which the soloist despatches flourishes and runs with piston-driven mechanism and accuracy. Elsewhere, the chinoiserie the work is steeped in was redolent with a tacky show of bravura. The work is exciting in itself with a quasi patriotic and militaristic touch, but the all-too-apparent start-stop feel of the breaks in between movements does not allow the work continuity of train of thought and progression of ideas.
The audience was won over though and called Yin back for an encore whereupon the climax was taken up again, with Maestro Tsung Yeh cueing the house to clap along in participation.
On the issue of applause, I was most impressed by the turnout this evening where there was no inappropriate applause between movements save for one which would have been perverse if it had been withheld. The incident in question was the virtuosic reed whistling of suona player, Jin Shi Yi, who initially baffled one and all with the apparently unaided performance only for him to remove the unobtrusive item from his lips later.
Just the other evening at the SSO's presentation of Brahms' German Requiem, some smart arse decided to "show off" by clapping at the very split-second Maestro Lan Shui brought the work to completion. The powerful and overwhelming work was still being absorbed by the audience and the conductor was still not consciously back on the podium with his hands still positioned in his finishing masterstroke.
Mr Actsy Borak was joined by some sporadic hands only for it to last no more than 10 seconds before it started to thin-out but he tried to salvage his faux pas by continuing to clap, only to also give up a few seconds later. Perhaps by a fluke of coincidence, the conductor then dropped his arms to his sides, for the real applause to begin. Yes, there's nothing quite like applause to spoil a performance and a performer's concentration.
So it was in the vein of acquiring the same cachet that I booked myself a seat at last evening's Singapore Chinese Orchestra concert. As one of the collaborators and contributors on top of being the primary composer of The Yellow River Piano Concerto, hearing Yin Cheng Zong perform the work is as close to a definitive stamp of approval and seal of quality one can find.
The work builds up momentum to a rousing "The East is Red" finale in which the soloist despatches flourishes and runs with piston-driven mechanism and accuracy. Elsewhere, the chinoiserie the work is steeped in was redolent with a tacky show of bravura. The work is exciting in itself with a quasi patriotic and militaristic touch, but the all-too-apparent start-stop feel of the breaks in between movements does not allow the work continuity of train of thought and progression of ideas.
The audience was won over though and called Yin back for an encore whereupon the climax was taken up again, with Maestro Tsung Yeh cueing the house to clap along in participation.
On the issue of applause, I was most impressed by the turnout this evening where there was no inappropriate applause between movements save for one which would have been perverse if it had been withheld. The incident in question was the virtuosic reed whistling of suona player, Jin Shi Yi, who initially baffled one and all with the apparently unaided performance only for him to remove the unobtrusive item from his lips later.
Just the other evening at the SSO's presentation of Brahms' German Requiem, some smart arse decided to "show off" by clapping at the very split-second Maestro Lan Shui brought the work to completion. The powerful and overwhelming work was still being absorbed by the audience and the conductor was still not consciously back on the podium with his hands still positioned in his finishing masterstroke.
Mr Actsy Borak was joined by some sporadic hands only for it to last no more than 10 seconds before it started to thin-out but he tried to salvage his faux pas by continuing to clap, only to also give up a few seconds later. Perhaps by a fluke of coincidence, the conductor then dropped his arms to his sides, for the real applause to begin. Yes, there's nothing quite like applause to spoil a performance and a performer's concentration.