Noriko Ogawa plays with drive and rhythmic exactitude

CONCERT

- Chang Tou Liang

CONCERT DING YI CHINESE CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL 2024 Esplanade Recital Studio Dec 13 and 14 One of Singapore's best-kept musical secrets is the biennial Ding Yi Chinese Chamber Music Festival, bringing together Chinese chamber ensembles from the Asia-Pacific and the home-grown Ding Yi Music Company. Three evenings of concerts are a showcase of ensemble music more diverse than the sonatas, trios, quartets and quintets that commonly define Western chamber music.

The first evening opened with the senior citizens of Singapore Teochew Ensemble playing traditional tunes Lamps In Thousand Homes and Reminiscence in basic unison heterophony. This is the recreational music often heard at events such as weddings and communal ceremonies.

More sophisticated were Ding Yi Music Company's presentations, a slick huqin quartet in Yao Min's Picking Red Water Chestnuts and a full ensemble in Zhou Jiaying's Twinkling Of Bonfire Night conducted by Dedric Wong. The latter was Impressionist in colour, with a quiet introduction developing into a swift celebratory dance complete with rhythmic foot-stamping.

Windpipe Chinese Music Ensemble (Hong Kong) was the festival's first invited guest, impressing with Cantonese melodies, old and new. Whether playing in unison heterophony in Yan Laolie's United We Go, Luk Wai Chung's Lan Kwai Tang Fong and Drunken Lady Yang At Pavilion Of Hundred Flowers, or the more contemporary pop-inspired approach taken in Cantonese Medley (arranged by Wang Chenwei), the virtuosity in fast numbers was clearly evident.

Both Ding Yi and Windpipe were united for two concertante works. Xu Qiwei's New Rendition Of Early Cantonese Music, conducted by Szeto Kin, featured five Hong Kong soloists who performed adroitly as a concertino group. Wang Jianmin's The Charm Of Tianshan Mountain, conducted by festival director Yeh Tsung, had erhu soloist Yang Xue do the honours in a spectacular concerto with exotic Central Asian influences.