From Damase to Shostakovich: Opening Concert of SCMF 2026 Announced

Feb 23

📅 Friday, 27 March 2026
🕢 7:30–9:00 PM
📍 YST Concert Hall, NUS

The Singapore Chamber Music Festival 2026 opens with Festival Concert I: Concordia Quartet & Friends, bringing together unique combinations of chamber ensembles to explore neo-classical music of the 20th and 21st centuries.

The programme begins with Jean-Michel Damase’s Trio for Flute, Oboe and Piano (1960), which blends modern harmonies and techniques with classical forms and textures, producing music described as cheerful and singing, enriched with a certain nostalgia.

Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 7 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 108 (1960) follows, with rapid shifts of mood and tempo that alternate between playful and sorrowful. The Concordia Quartet previously performed Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 2 at their “Sunshine & Shadows” concert in March 2025, and now presents his No. 7.

The concert also features Eric Watson’s Concerto Arabesque for Flute and String Quartet, reworked from his 2024 composition for flute and string orchestra originally performed by re:Sound.

The evening concludes with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Guitar Quintet, Op. 143 (1950), considered by the composer as one of his most “melodious and serene” chamber works.

Programme

• Jean-Michel Damase, Trio for Flute, Oboe and Piano
• Dmitri Shostakovich, String Quartet No. 7 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 108
• Eric Watson, Concerto Arabesque for Flute and String Quartet
• Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Guitar Quintet, Op. 143

Duration: 90 minutes with a 20-minute intermission