Graduating students of Yong Siew Toh Conservatory triumph with Rachmaninov's Second

Subito Con Forza!

- Chang Tou Liang

CONCERT SUBITO CON FORZA! Yong Siew Toh Orchestral Institute Esplanade Concert Hall April 19

It is the end of an academic year, and the Yong Siew Toh Orchestral Institute led by principal conductor Jason Lai performed its last concert before the students sit their examinations and get to graduate. For an emotional close to the season, a more apt programme would have been hard to find.

Subito Con Forza (2020) by contemporary South Korean composer Unsuk Chin opened the evening. Translated from Italian as Suddenly With Force, the five-minute work was a tribute to Ludwig von Beethoven.

The first bars quoted the beginning of Beethoven's Coriolan Overture, two strident chords which became a leitmotif and a crash of percussion. Through scurrying string figurations, there were sudden loud interjections typical of the German's tempestuous nature.