OVERALL NOISE RATING: 3 (very quiet audience - but many disturbing noises from phones, creaking doors floating open halfway through a song, 9 and 10 o'clock digital watch beeps - Yicch... bleah!)

The Noise Rating Index is a partially-objective measurement of pager and handphone blasts, 9pm and 10pm watch beeps, coughing-during-the-pianissimo-bits, intra-audience conversation and other mind-bogglingly inept noises emitted in the concert hall during actual performance of music. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 5, in increasing annoyance.

This review has been kindly sponsored by the Singapore Symphonia Co. Ltd

There were cheering crowds in the Victoria Concert Hall on both nights; shouting "encore!" and "bravo!"..., and if endless curtain calls were the norm in Singapore, the audience would not have allowed the King's Singers to leave Singapore without getting their money's worth.

This is the a capella group to listen to and if you missed it, I am sorry for you for it will probably be a long while before they come to Southeast Asia again. Despite their promise to not repeat their 13-year absence from Singapore, I have doubts that you will be hearing this group in Singapore again. The current members of the King's Singers (see above) are not the ones who last visited Singapore and it is anybody's guess whether this formidable group will have the current strength of showmanship when it next comes to Asia.

The six Englishmen known as the King's Singers enjoy a reputation as one of the world's most sought-after and highly acclaimed vocal ensembles. Since their inception at King's College, Cambridge, in 1968, the King's Singers have developed the broadest and most diverse repertoire of any internationally acclaimed singing group. If you haven't heard of the King's Singers, you probably haven't been heard much music. But mark this - the King's Singers are better seen than heard. Well, in a phrase - they are better than on CD.

Numbers such as As Vesta was from Latmos Hill descending displayed the true a capella virtuosity aka the King's Singers while Jungle Book - complete with a puppet snake - brought out the essential comic and pretty showmanship of funny man Stephen Connolly. Without this big-eyed humorous bass - the antics of the entire group, or the entertainment for that matter, wouldn't have quite been what it is.

For that matter, he (Connolly) cleverly drew reference to a irritating hand-phone which went off during Weep, O mine eyes in his introduction of Time Piece , saying, "then God put a stop to the noisy ticking of all the clocks, timepieces and hand-phones...", exacting a 'revenge' to cheering applause from the audience.

All in all, I thought that the King's Singers would be most comfortable in their British programme and indeed it was heard as such. The singing on the first night was consistently more secure. After a shaky start (which happened on both nights), they turned out an excellent section of English Madrigals and a movingly sincere British Pop section - featuring Beatles hits such as Penny Lane and I'll follow the Sun.

Despite this, few groups in the world can compare with the King's in their very natural renditions of jazzy American showpieces. Though I didn't quite enjoy the Lalela Zulu (a modern work by Afro-British composition duo Stanley Glasser and Lewis Nkosi), I thought the Jungle Book Suite arrangement by Jason Carr simply hilarious. It contained hits such as Bare Necessities and Trust in Me which made it memorably evocative.

Forgiving minor inaccuracies in intonation and ensemble untidiness expected in a 'live' performance, the King's Singers stopped tinily short in delivering CD quality performances on account of their weak blend between the upper and lower vocals and the occasional disturbingly loud clapping.

I have heard countless recordings by the King's Singers prior to this - none of it beats the real thing. Though I have my preferences for indivdual voice parts: for example - I much prefer the tenor (I can't remember his name) who sang with the King's Singers in the now deleted recording of popular Christmas music. (No, not that recording with Kiri Te Kanawa, it is much older, I believe). Further, I find the current line-up of lower voices a bit on the harsh side. Nevertheless, who could fault them for their innate musicianship and close-to-perfect showmanship?

This group excels and astounds in their ability to execute dynamic contrast with ranges from pp to ff just with six members. But remarkably - it is aural honey to hear pin-drop silences infused with hush pianissimo chords working towards perfect cadences. A rare distinction indeed!

Ng Yeuk Fan catapults through space and lands in a drain in a roller-blading phenomenon known simply as "an accident". There, there! The limping one at VCH on 6th May 99 (Royal Copenhagen Boy's Choir) is him. Sigh....

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469: 3.5.1999 ŠNg Yeuk Fan

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