Concert review
SSO demonstrates growth with performance of Shostakovich’s epic Fourth Symphony
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The Singapore Symphony Children’s Choir performed Arvo Part’s Our Garden.
PHOTO: JACK YAM
- The Singapore Symphony Orchestra showcased growth with a diverse concert featuring Arvo Part's children's cantata, Saint-Saens' cello concerto by Gautier Capucon, and the Singapore premiere of Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony.
- Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony, a complex and massive work requiring over 120 players, was performed under Vasily Petrenko.
- The concert contrasted Socialist Realist optimism with Shostakovich’s critique of oppressive society, culminating the SSO's journey through all eleven of the composer’s orchestral symphonies since 1980.
AI generated
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Sept 18, 7.30pm
This concert of rather unusual juxtapositions led by Russian guest conductor Vasily Petrenko opened with Estonian composer Arvo Part’s Our Garden (1959), a cantata for children’s choir and orchestra. This very pleasant 12 minutes with Estonian words was sung completely from memory by 49 members of the Singapore Symphony Children’s Choir (choirmaster Wong Lai Foon).