Chloe Chua and SSO’s latest album hits No. 1 on Apple Music’s classical music chart
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
This is the second time an album by Chloe Chua and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra has topped Apple Music's classical music chart.
PHOTO: PENTATONE
Follow topic:
SINGAPORE – Singaporean violinist Chloe Chua’s new album Mozart: Violin Concertos has reached the No. 1 spot on Apple Music’s global Classical Top 100 chart.
The album, recorded with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) under the baton of Hans Graf, also reached No. 5 on the United Kingdom’s Official Specialist Classical Chart. The album was released on July 18.
This is the second time Chua and the SSO have snagged the top spot. The first was in August 2024, with their recording of Butterfly Lovers Concerto & Paganini, which was released on July 26, 2024.
The SSO has been steadily clocking new achievements with recordings and tours post-pandemic.
In 2023, its recording of film composer Bernard Herrmann’s Suite From Wuthering Heights: Echoes For Strings debuted at No. 5 on the UK’s classical music chart, the first time it cracked the Official Specialist Classical Chart’s coveted top five spots.
Chua, 18, and the SSO bettered that achievement when Butterfly Lovers reached No. 4.
The 46-year-old orchestra also went on a sold-out three-city tour in Australia in February.
Singapore Symphony Group chief executive officer Kenneth Kwok says: “This achievement is further proof that our national orchestra and Singapore classical music talents are gaining global attention, and able to compete on the international stage.
“We are especially proud of this recognition in a field that is dominated by orchestras with a much longer tradition and history. When we made the BBC Music Magazine’s world’s top orchestras list in 2022, we were one of the two youngest and only two Asian orchestras.”
Mozart: Violin Concertos teams Chua with Chinese violist Ziyu He, a fellow alumnus of the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists. The recording includes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Rondos, K. 269 and K. 373, as well as the Sinfonia Concertante, K. 364.
In a four-starred review of the recording, British newspaper The Guardian noted that Chua holds attention with her “notably mature” interpretations, which are “balanced, considered and never trying too hard”. The review added: “Everything Chua plays has a clean, focused tone, an unfailingly elegant turn of phrase and a quiet wit.”
Chua will be performing Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the SSO at the Esplanade Concert Hall on Aug 21 and 22. Tickets are sold out, but additional seats in the choir gallery have been released.
Correction note: This story has been edited for clarity.
