Christmas concert

I was at Esplanade's concert hall on thursday with a friend to attend a Christmas concert by the S'pore Symphony Orchestra & S'pore Symphony Children's Choir. The 1600-seats hall was almost full and it was like a family day with many parents & young kids. I guess most are probably supporters of the choir or were encouraged by their company (CIMB-GK Securities) to attend since they sponsored that day's performance.

The programme started with the choir performing a 23-minute piece with harp accompaniment - Benjamin Britten's "A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28". I didn't quite appreciate it at first but was soon drawn to the beautiful music. The voices were lovely, especially the crystal clear voices of the few members who sang solo parts. It brought back memories of my 8 years in school choir & Japanese culture society choir. My friend who's more into ktv singing dozed off half-way thru the performance. Hahaha!

Part of the music from A Ceremony of Carols


After the choir performance was a 30 minutes intermission which gave us time to grab a coffee (for my sleepy friend) & a muffin (for a hungry me!) at Mrs Fields. The more 'atas' people bought expensive drinks right outside the concert hall. A small bottle of evian water costs $4. So were the soft drinks. The rest were alcoholic drinks retailing at $10-$16 per glass. We were on the 3rd floor (circle seats) due to budget and hardly anyone bought drinks there. The lower the levels we went (where the expensive seats are), the more people buying drinks. And the people downstairs were more dressed up with an 'atas' air around them. Upstairs you'll see people in polo-tee & jeans.

The rest of the programme was performed by the orchestra, featuring more popular pieces that appealed to the mass audience. There was the familiar Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker: Suite No.1, Op.71a" which we liked, followed by many christmas music that got everyone in the christmas mood.

The Nutcracker Suite (Part 1)


The Nutcracker Suite (Part 2)


The concert ended with a carol sing-a-long and it was nice to hear almost everyone singing with orchestra accompaniment. Carols in the sing-a-long included O Come, All Ye Faithful, Silent Night, Deck the Halls, Hark! the Herald Angels Sing, We Wish You A Merry Christmas. I would have preferred more lively christmas songs like Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer or Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

On the whole we enjoyed the concert and will be back next year!