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    Music From the Hearts 2003: A review of the joint charity concert to raise funds for Singapore's Community Chest

    A vibrant music scene is developing in Singapore, and it is doing so right under the noses of those who claim almost precisely the opposite. I refer, of course, to the local media. On July 12, 2003, lovers of wind band music in Singapore were treated to a landmark charity concert at the country’s newly opened Esplanade Concert Hall.

    The 1,600 capacity Concert Hall was packed, and the music standards on display by some of the country’s best youth concert bands was outstanding, yet the efforts of the organisers to alert the local media proved fruitless. The weekly arts section of the Straits Times didn’t even bother to inform its readers of the event! Instead, the newspaper carried a brief announcement of a Beethoven recital by the Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra scheduled for the following day in the much smaller Esplanade Recital Studio.

    A charity event held to raise funds for the Community Chest, the concert showcased the three bands: the Nanyang Technological University’s Symphonic Band (NTUSB - which played host); the Nanyang Polytechnic Symphonic Band (NPSB) and the Victoria Junior College Symphonic Band (VJCSB). All three orchestras operate under the musical direction of Mr. Luk Hoi Yui, one of Singapore’s most well-known band directors.

    This was a night when high standards were set.
    Of the three bands, the NTUSB was the most experienced – and it showed! The close attention to detail, dynamic contrast and phrasing resulted in some superb musical moments. One can only imagine how much more impressive they must have sounded when, under pressure to perform their best, the band won accolades in international music competitions in Norway, Australia and the Netherlands in previous years. VJCSB played well. But the band, which won a gold medal at the Singapore Youth Festival in May this year, sounded tired by comparison, possibly due to lack of practice during the recent examination season. NPSB suffered from intonation problems. But this was a night when high standards were being set, and it is not really surprising that the generally younger performers in these two bands were found wanting when measured against NTUSB.

    The marvellous acoustics at the Esplanade Concert Hall proved to be a double edged sword. While enabling the players to hear each other better during performance, leading to an overall improvement in blend as well as sonority, the improved acoustics also made fumbled entries and occasional intonation problems more obvious to the audience. Even so, this latter problem may yet prove to be a blessing in disguise. By highlighting such imperfections, Singapore’s new concert hall is going to force the young bands who want to play there to pay more attention to such details, and we are likely to see yet further improvements in playing standards.

    The combined band could have made greater use of the acoustics of the hall.
    Judging from its placement at the end of the programme, the organisers probably meant T. Conway Brown’s arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture to be the climax of the evening.  Unfortunately, this was not the case for this reviewer – NTUSB’s rendition of Fantasy Variations on a Theme by Niccolo Paganini (James Barnes) was much better played. Perhaps one tends to be more critical of well-known Classical pieces, subconsciously demanding standards associated with world class orchestras. Even so, it appeared that the Tchaikovsky piece was not prepared with the same care as other works on the programme. For example, the combined band could have made greater use of the acoustics of the hall, playing the chorale-like opening bars (it is actually a Russian sacred hymn) much more softly and slowly so that the tremendous climax near the end would have been more pronounced and therefore more effective. More could also have been made of the various contrasts of texture and tone colour.

    One of the challenges faced by any performers attempting the 1812 Overture is how to imitate the sounds of the cannon at the climax. The audience will certainly be listening for them and - for some observers at least - the performance of the work will always be judged by how impressively the sound is approximated. The combined band chose to use a recorded sound activated by a keyboard. Unfortunately, something went wrong with the sound system and only half the audience heard them. This was a real disappointment, particularly since the performers worked hard to produce a suitably dramatic musical backdrop.

    It was well worth the slightly more expensive ticket price.
    Overall, though, it was a great concert, well worth the slightly more expensive ticket price that one usually pays at venues such as the Victoria Concert Hall. And as a result of the huge turnout, the organisers will no doubt be presenting Singapore’s Community Chest with a fat cheque – no thanks to the efforts of the local media! Mr. Luk and his young performers have a lot to be proud of.

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    Many people believe that musicians are more moody and prone to suicide than other professionals, and that - as a result - a greater percentage of them end their lives in mental institutions or are fated to live emotionally tempestuous lives. Musicians are also commonly suspected of being over sensitive to criticism, having delusions of grandeur and other neurotic traits.

    The statistics fail to bear this out, although it is possible to find enough examples to make the case in front of those unfamiliar with Western musical history. Like actors, politicians and others obliged to face the public on a regular basis, musicians probably have their fair share of emotional problems. However, such problems do not constitute evidence of neuroticism.

     Musicians probably have their fair share of emotional problems. 

    Beethoven was known for his moodiness, but this was probably closely related to his growing frustration as he began to go deaf. Among the famous composers, only Schumann and MacDowell ended  up in mental institutions. Musicians probably have no more suicidal impulses than the rest of the population. But should a prominent musician decide to take his life, it is likely to get a good deal of publicity.

    Perhaps the most morbid suicide was planned by the pianist Alexander Kelberine, who arranged his last concert programme to consist only of works dealing with death. He then went home and took an overdose of sleeping pills. Schumann jumped into the Rhine, only to be rescued by a fisherman. Rezso Seress composed Gloomy Sunday, a work that was once banned in Europe because it triggered a wave of suicides by young people on Sundays. Seress himself committed suicide by jumping out of a window. The vast majority of musicians, however, die of causes that reflect the state of medical knowledge in the particular historical period in which they live.

    Some musicians certainly had sad lives. Mozart, perhaps the greatest of the composers in the Classical Period of music, died a pauper. The pianist Chopin, a Polish nationalist and tormented lover, was terrified of large audiences. He died of tuberculosis when he was 39. Bizet, a French composer who died when he was 36, was beset by crises of self-confidence and emotional upheaval. Unlike Chopin, his works only achieved widespread recognition after his death.

     Wagner had the emotional maturity of a spoilt child. 

    George Gershwin only had a short life, but it was a good one. He died of a brain tumor when he was 39 after a rags to riches story that made him one of the most well known composers of popular music in  the United States.

    Others lived long and had much success, despite treating others abominably, including many of their friends. Wagner considered himself a genius as a playwright, poet, stage director, and philosopher as well as a composer, and was not shy about letting others know it! Although not particularly handsome, his personal magnetism was such that he had numerous affairs, usually with married women, despite the fact that he was married himself. His biographers describe him as having the emotional maturity of a spoilt child, complete with tantrums if he could not get his way. He died at the age of 70, widely acclaimed as one of the greatest composers of his time.

    The pianist Franz Liszt's dashing good looks enabled him to have numerous affairs with many woman. He died of pneumonia at the age of 75. Contrast this with the fate of Schubert, who was short, fat, bespectacled and naturally shy. He died of syphilis at the age of 31 after his friends encouraged him to visit a brothel. Those who knew him well described him as having a warm and friendly nature. Somehow, it doesn't sound fair.

     The life of J.S. Bach must have been very boring. 

    The majority of musicians now and in the past lead fairly quiet lives. Edward Elgar, a largely self-taught musician, rose from humble origins to become the first English composer in 200 years to gain international acclaim. He had a stable marriage, and was regarded by many as a typical English gentleman. He died at the age of 77. Sergei Rachmaninov, the Russian composer, also had a good life despite being out of step with his country's politics and music. He died at the age of 70.

    The life of J.S. Bach must have been the most boring of all. He spent almost his entire life in the same small region of Germany where he was born. And nobody took much notice of him either. It was not until about 80 years after his death that his works attracted the attention they deserved.

     

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