OVERALL NOISE RATING: 4 (Some members of the audience commemorated Bach on their handphones; some brought their toddlers along; yet others were moving in and out of the concert hall while the performance was in progress. Inflicting a classical concert on very young kids is a cruel thing, and especially to the adults in close proximity to aforesaid kids.)

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.

Billed as a "Lecture-Recital Programme", this performance was clearly a labour of love for Dr Chen and a wonderful opportunity to share her affection for the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Towards this intent, the venture was a success, striking an excellent amalgam of scholarly rectitude and enlightened artistry. Dr Chen's qualities as music educationist came to the fore.

Prefacing each piece with an erudite - even penetrating - introduction, she successfully brought the music down to an egalitarian level, down to terms which everyone in the audience could understand and appreciate. For one afternoon, the audience was taken on a musical journey of the baroque organ that, fired by Dr Chen's enthusiasm for the music, was far from pedantic or humdrum.

(Seasoned concert-goers may still remember her Singlish-accented Grandfather in Peter and the Wolf earlier this year, which didn't rub off as well with some curmudgeons in the audience. Be that as it may, concerts with Dr Chen presenting are anything but humdrum.)

The first indication that this concert was not going to be a usual prim and punctillious affair came right from her opening remarks when she encouraged the audience - especially those sitting under the circle seats - to move forward, to better catch the acoustics of the organ, essentially turning the entire seating into a free-for-all. It would not be the first "surprise" of the afternoon - later, Dr Chen would be leading everyone in a singalong of the chorale "Sleepers
Wake", not that anyone could conceivably doze off in this atmosphere.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. For the most part, Dr Chen played superbly, letting the music unfold with a great degree of ease and familiarity, yet fully conveying the charm, humanity and spirituality of Bach's music. (A phrase that comes to mind - literally - is deux ex machina - inasmuch a contraption as mechanical as the pipe organ can be made to emote.)

Waving the applause down between each work, Dr Chen (right) admonished the audience not to clap: "Let's not waste time; let me play and speak first, and then you all can clap at the end of the first section." Here was an effacing artist for whom the sincerity of sharing the love of music came first and personal recognition second. At the end of the first half, she played down the applause, saying that it was the quality of the music that deserved praise, and not - as it were - the artist. Shades, perhaps, of Andrei "I wish I could go on playing Bach all night long" Gavrilov's impromptu recital earlier in the season?

Leading off from the intermission was the Christian Musicians' Fellowship (CMF) Chamber Orchestra, playing the Third Brandenburg Concerto, sans harpsichord continuo. They took the music one musician to a part (three violins, three violas, three cellos and a double bass), chamber-style although the harpsichord timbre was conspicuously missing.

Technically, it was a first-rate performance, but somehow did not fully catch the volatile element of interplay which is the mainstay of the Brandenburgs. The intercalation between each of the instrument parts, to be sure, had much enthusiasm and conviction to credit for it, but an additional degree of blitheness would have made the music sparkle even more.

Dr Chen then led the audience in a vocal rendition of the organ chorale based on the famous "Sleepers Wake" cantata. Photocopied sheets of the music with lyrics had been distributed earlier at the door, and after a run-through of the melodic line, she embarked on the chorale proper. The audience was exhorted to stand up and sing, which they did, albeit tentatively at first. There were, sad to say, two or three people in the half-filled auditorium who probably felt too spiritless to stand up (even just out of respect if they didn't want to sing).

For the second time in a week, the programme notes, nearly amounting to a full essay, was superlative. Eschewing detail about the organ music itself - these were covered by Dr Chen herself in her discourse - the treatise presented a succinct and comprehensive history of the Old Master. A bonus was the inclusion of an obituary excerpt from "The New Bach Reader" (Wolff, Norton 1998). One wishes that all programme notes in the SSO would reach this level of erudition.

On the whole, this was a concert that provided a great deal of pleasure, not just for the opportunity to hear a bit of Bach's organ music, but also for the enervating charisma from Dr Chen's lectures. On the strength of this programme, aimed suitably at family groups and
casual concertgoers, one hopes to see more of such concerts in the future.

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790: 18.10.2000 © William Beh

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