[LJ2ME] Music In The Making
With a moniker as whimsical and tongue-in-cheek as it is descriptive and figurative, there was that hint of more than meets the eye (and ears) with the debut of The Orchestra of the Music Makers.
This newly formed orchestra endeavours to provide amateur musicians with a platform on and from which they can contribute to the local cultural scene. Note here that by amateur, the inference is on non-professionals and not in the sense that we're paying peanuts for monkeys.
Supposedly culled from students and NSFs, the orchestra members were indeed a young and motley crew, with, I am pleased to observe, a sprinkling of eye candy to tease and please those of us thus inclined.
The evening's programme had as its mainstay Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, with a substantial partner in Dvorak's Cello Concerto. The repertoire could not have been better programmed for this inaugural concert, for the wealth of material and possibilities that was afforded by the soundscape of the works.
YSTCM alumni, Zhou Mi, held fort with a searing and searching reading of the Dvorak, evoking poignancy and plangency with every bow stroke as she tore into the notes and threw herself into the music.
Sensitive and delicate at times, angsty and predatory at others, her tone was rich and full from the throaty bowels of the instrument to the heart-rending high register in its mournful cry. It didn't hurt that she had the use of a beautiful instrument in a 1780 Guadagnini.
As the masterpiece drew to its finale and close, the concert leader, Edward Tan, almost stole the show with a most impassioned duet with the soloist. Zhou Mi ceded an encore by playing "something fun" which involved a lot of plucked pizzicato in a jazzy, tango-inspired trip.
This too, was lapped up by the appreciative audience, who I must concede, were very well-behaved, with nary a clap between movements, save for late-comers who clomped in after the first movement which necessitated the orchestra, conductor and soloist to wait for them to take their seats before continuing.
The piece-de-resistance in Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade was the perfect showcase for a fledging orchestra to display its mettle, with highlights in the score for all the instruments to shine in turn.
Guest concert leader, SSO's Chan Yoong Han slipped under the skin of the titular protagonist and crafted her theme in an evocatively sensual and sexual violin solo that was the leitmotif that didn't stray too far from the central plot, always returning in various voices to haunt and make its presence felt.
Special mention goes to the woodwind (the melancholic clarinet glissando!), brass (the strident call-to-arms of the trumpets!) and percussion sections (that spot-on dry rasp of the snare drum!) for their essential contribution to the atmospheric and scene-painting music
Be it the sea salt spray of the stormy voyage or the busy bustling bazaar with the aroma of spices and coffee, the orchestra served up a performance redolent of the exotic charm of the Orient and the erotic allure of the Arabian Nights.
For all the grand illusions of their brand, what mattered most was the quality of their work, which they proved they had in quantity. No harm done then, for the name might even herald an illustrious reputation along the lines of The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Who's laughing now?
This newly formed orchestra endeavours to provide amateur musicians with a platform on and from which they can contribute to the local cultural scene. Note here that by amateur, the inference is on non-professionals and not in the sense that we're paying peanuts for monkeys.
Supposedly culled from students and NSFs, the orchestra members were indeed a young and motley crew, with, I am pleased to observe, a sprinkling of eye candy to tease and please those of us thus inclined.
The evening's programme had as its mainstay Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, with a substantial partner in Dvorak's Cello Concerto. The repertoire could not have been better programmed for this inaugural concert, for the wealth of material and possibilities that was afforded by the soundscape of the works.
YSTCM alumni, Zhou Mi, held fort with a searing and searching reading of the Dvorak, evoking poignancy and plangency with every bow stroke as she tore into the notes and threw herself into the music.
Sensitive and delicate at times, angsty and predatory at others, her tone was rich and full from the throaty bowels of the instrument to the heart-rending high register in its mournful cry. It didn't hurt that she had the use of a beautiful instrument in a 1780 Guadagnini.
As the masterpiece drew to its finale and close, the concert leader, Edward Tan, almost stole the show with a most impassioned duet with the soloist. Zhou Mi ceded an encore by playing "something fun" which involved a lot of plucked pizzicato in a jazzy, tango-inspired trip.
This too, was lapped up by the appreciative audience, who I must concede, were very well-behaved, with nary a clap between movements, save for late-comers who clomped in after the first movement which necessitated the orchestra, conductor and soloist to wait for them to take their seats before continuing.
The piece-de-resistance in Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade was the perfect showcase for a fledging orchestra to display its mettle, with highlights in the score for all the instruments to shine in turn.
Guest concert leader, SSO's Chan Yoong Han slipped under the skin of the titular protagonist and crafted her theme in an evocatively sensual and sexual violin solo that was the leitmotif that didn't stray too far from the central plot, always returning in various voices to haunt and make its presence felt.
Special mention goes to the woodwind (the melancholic clarinet glissando!), brass (the strident call-to-arms of the trumpets!) and percussion sections (that spot-on dry rasp of the snare drum!) for their essential contribution to the atmospheric and scene-painting music
Be it the sea salt spray of the stormy voyage or the busy bustling bazaar with the aroma of spices and coffee, the orchestra served up a performance redolent of the exotic charm of the Orient and the erotic allure of the Arabian Nights.
For all the grand illusions of their brand, what mattered most was the quality of their work, which they proved they had in quantity. No harm done then, for the name might even herald an illustrious reputation along the lines of The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Who's laughing now?