Review: Red Dot Baroque - Bach Concertos Extravaganza (7 September)

Red Dot Baroque - Bach Concertos Extravaganza

7 September 2025 (Sunday)

3pm

Victoria Concert Hall

You’re here for the completely unhinged, messy, totally biased but honest and genuine review of the recent Red Dot Baroque concert! Welcome to my brain and keep reading!

RED DOT TURNS 7!

Today I learned that Red Dot Baroque (RDB) is 7 years old this year - that’s a Primary 1 schooler in Singapore, my goodness. Huge congratulations to Alan and his team, it is amazing to see how they have grown in size, strength and artistry since their debut in 2018. Zhangyi still has the huge promotional posterboard of their debut concert sitting in his office, and every time I see it, I’m filled with such pride and joy for them. Some of the debut members have left the group, and many new faces have joined. Many members stay constant, and continue to perform in nearly every RDB concert planned for the season.

For RDB, it seems that many visiting performers and collaborators have crossed their paths, new compositions commissioned, many exciting concerts and projects were envisioned and manifested. These efforts have not gone to waste as I sat in VCH today to enjoy their Bach Concertos Extravaganza this afternoon, blown away by the sheer quality in their interpretations of solid classics and newly commissioned work by Zhangyi (Rainforest Refrains), from the very start to the finish. The 120-minute long marathon programme flew by with such delight, I personally enjoyed it so much I selfishly did not want it to end.

BACKSTORY TIME

Some personal backstory time! Alan and I go a long way back, since our Peabody Conservatory days in Baltimore, Maryland. That was 2013 if I recall correctly, when Alan first picked me up from the Baltimore/Washington International (BWI) airport, helping me navigate my way back to Baltimore City centre (cue: Good Morning, Baltimore!) by bus and tram. Our friendship blossomed from there, because we had to 相依为命 (depend on each other) in the rough streets of Baltimore. We survived experiences like mugging, looting, riots, strikes, curfews, incessant ambulance sirens, hovering helicopters, bursting frozen pipes, water outages, testing out my newly-arrived pepper spray at a garbage can in school, Honeypig BBQ birthday surprises, endless froyo, Shoyu Sushi, Nina’s, apartment getting broken into, LKY’s funeral livestream, Taylor Swift themed scavenger hunt adventures etc. 

What an epic time we had in Peabody, I would not have exchanged it for anything else in the world. I miss those days dearly every single day and wish they never had to end. And I think it’s fair to say the same for all of us who have been there. Alan played a huge role in bonding with all the Singaporeans, and neighbouring Asian countries too (we had plenty of Thai, Taiwanese, Korean and Chinese friends in our mix).

From my perspective, studying at the Peabody Conservatory is really Alan’s origin story. Peabody was where Alan, and a whole bunch of other Singaporeans from Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music really started developing an interest in Baroque music. Somehow he managed to convince us, and me, to join the Baltimore Baroque Band (BBB), an elective that I could take as part of my music curriculum. I also started taking baroque viola lessons officially. I even participated in a concerto “competition”, and performed Bach’s Brandenburg No. 6, for two solo violas. Oh my, a solo part (viola 2) for me? It was the scariest thing I’ve ever attempted as an “imposter” violist… What has Alan done to me? 

RDB felt like a very natural continuation of what was left undone, what else can be done and must be continued at BBB, all the potential that was present in the musicians that have graduated and gone back home to Singapore. We had plenty of strings, winds and even keyboardists and voices who were returning from the US, UK and Europe after their own music studies. Why not start our own BBB, and give it our own Singaporean twist? And that was exactly what Alan did, and has been doing for the past solid 7 years. 

BACK HOME & THE NEW COMMISSION

I remember RDB did a series of videos during the COVID period, during lockdown. They went around Singapore's iconic places, socially distanced, and made music videos for Canon in D, to help lift the spirits of the community with their enchanting rendition of a much-too-overplayed piece of Baroque music. I used that video fondly for my classes at SOTA when we were discussing the Baroque era and the students really enjoyed it. 

For this concert, RDB commissioned Zhangyi for a new piece for their Italy tour this year. The theme was something along the lines of “Postcard from Singapore”. How nice! I noticed that Zhangyi has been inspired a lot by nature in his works. Over the years, he has been working on compositions such as “Vanda” (a violin concerto inspired by our national flower), “Istana Wookneuk” for the new and upcoming SYPO, “Rain Tree” (one of the first of so many nature inspired works), and that’s just the ones with nature titles. I also hear the colours and sounds of nature in his other works like “Sandcastles”, but he might disagree with me about that.

Our conversations while Zhangyi is composing often goes like “oh that sounds like Vanda! Raindrops in rainforests…” Perhaps my little comments about it was the inspiration behind a work that is finally completely inspired by the rainforests of Singapore, which he calls “Rainforest Refrains”.

I had the privilege to attend one of the rehearsals at YST where they rehearsed Rainforest Refrains for the first time since coming back from their Italy tour. Hearing it live vs hearing the MIDI version of it was mind blowing because it is accompanied with a beautiful narration and singing by Xiang Ting. I was stunned by her performance of the three songs featured in the work, which was a multi-movement suite that is performed in the style of Peter and the Wolf. A short blurb, written by Zhangyi, is read out to introduce the music, nuances and character that we are about to listen to. I felt young at heart again listening to it, even after many repetitions from the rehearsals, I still experienced new colours and emotions with each performance.

Zhangyi came up with movement titles like “Floral Fragments”, “Slender Squirrels” and “Jingle Jungle”, fun alliteration for a fun piece of work. I observed that the children and older folks in the VCH audience both enjoyed the little musical references that Xiang Ting brought up. It was like a little interlude/palette cleanser that was featured in both halves of the concert, and I saw smiles lit up all around whenever Xiang Ting introduced the next new thing.

My favourite parts were definitely the songs that she sang. Zhangyi has his own arrangement of Burung Kakatua, which earned many nostalgic nods from our older audience members (and myself!). The original melody is given a breath of fresh air from the musical rainforest that Zhangyi has set out to grow and cultivate throughout the duration of his work. Another song that struck me was the last movement, “Durian”. A lilting waltz for a magnificent and iconic fruit, and playing with the Chinese pun for liu lian / durian / lingering. I felt that the narration and songs tied everything together so nicely. A little aural rainforest walk in the cool afternoon, what a delight! Props to Zhangyi for a fitting musical postcard for RDB to send to Italy as well!

BACH CONCERTOS MARATHON!

Let’s talk about the best part of the programme. Alan works hard. And Alan works his musicians hard. Let’s take a look at the repertoire that was presented and their soloists.

Concerto for Oboe and Violin in C minor, BWV 1060R (Veda and Placida)

Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067 (Rachel and Alan)

Concerto for Harpsichord in A major, BWV 1055 (Mervyn)

Concerto for 2 Violins in D minor, BWV 1043 (Alan and Gabriel)

We noticed only after the concert that Alan didn’t have a break at all for the entire programme, and he played for everything on there. My goodness, the physicality required for all that music. Alan’s exuberant playing never wavers from piece to piece, every movement fast or slow, the ensemble takes his lead and energy. 

There is an undeniable chemistry in the group, having played together in a Baroque style over the years. I observed rehearsals for the group have been about experimenting with new ways to take a certain line/phrase, whether its tempo or tone etc, everything was discussed, tried, experimented and these musical decisions all came through during the performance. That’s what kept the music so engaging and exciting even though these were all extremely familiar favourites for Baroque music lovers. 

Zhangyi affectionately calls the Concerto for Oboe and Violin the “Mummy’s Concerto”, because both soloists are proud mummies! Apparently both Veda and Placida also decided to perform their VCH solos “barefoot”, or “baresock” to be more accurate. Comfort above all else, I respect that. Makes for a more grounded performance perhaps, their rendition was above all, a balance of such skill and musicality. Also, I hear that the Baroque oboe is notoriously difficult to play, but Veda managed with such ease, my goodness.

Next was Rachel’s performance of the Orchestral Suite, which I noticed was doubling with Alan’s part most of the time. Rachel stepped in front of the ensemble to present her iconic flute solos towards the end of the suite. And what a treat that was! It was such a confident display of what is probably the most famous movement of the work, a familiar melody that we quite often can hear on the airwaves, on radio, or recordings. Her lines were smooth, elegant and classy, and drew a massive applause from the audience!

Mervyn’s harpsichord concerto was showcased next, and his performance has such a wonderful touch of youthfulness and spiritedness. I could catch Mervyn smiling as he plays, obviously enjoying himself, and the ensemble accompaniment was perfect to match his energy as well. After the concert, Mervyn almost immediately left on a jet plane enroute to Amsterdam to further his musical studies in harpsichord! We are so looking forward to having him back again at RDB concerts, and we wish him all the very best with his studies and endeavours!

The last and final concerto is no stranger to the audience. In fact, there were plenty of youths in the audience, mostly students of the RDB violinists. They have come to support their teachers in action! And what better piece to present than the Bach Double Violin Concerto, something that is featured in our iconic Suzuki violin playing books from young. I imagine that the students in the audience would have been so inspired by Alan and Gabriel’s version of the work, which I thought was on FIRE throughout all three movements. There is undeniable chemistry and years of friendship between the two soloists and it is evident in this performance. Breathtaking and energetic all the way to the very last note. 

Post-concert, through his sweaty blazer and his ever-present winning smiles, I could tell Alan was exhausted but completely satisfied with the concert. Backstage, we also celebrated his birthday! It was his actual birthday - what an epic way to celebrate 35 years of life with a full-length RDB concert packed with such an outstanding quality and delightful treat of a programme.

RDB has such an exciting future ahead, and I am so curious to find out what plans Alan and his ensemble have planned for the months ahead. I definitely wish for more neo-Baroque repertoire, new commissions from young and upcoming composers, and maybe guest soloists from around the world to join this little Singaporean mix of musicians! In the meantime, remember to continue to support your local arts and music scene with your SG60 Culture vouchers!