Tonight's performances were rather a mixed bag, as perhaps you could have surmised from just looking at the program – four composers with not so much as a hint of similarity between them do not make for an entirely satisfying listening experience, and at the end of the concert I felt like I was suffering from musical indigestion. It was a tiring, enervating experience, and I wonder what it must have been like for the orchestra to have to prepare and rehearse the whole program, with a world premiere thrown in the works yet.

Not that the evening did not start off promisingly. The fleet-footed and rather ebulliently played Don Giovanni overture featured some intelligent and thoughtful phrasing and some graceful playing, even though the conception of the piece seemed rather on-the-spot rather than the result of much preparation, with ensemble suffering especially in the running notes. Overall Lan Shui opted more for drama and fire, with the demonic aspects of Mozart underplayed in favour of virtuosity.

Carl Nielsen is a composer I have had some hit-and-miss experiences with – some of his works seem to me straightforward and indeed listener friendly, whereas some others seem to me rather hard and lumpy and (to use that word again) indigestible. Something to do with that Scandinavian-Danishness that I have yet to come to terms with I suppose, and entirely my problem. Dream of Saga (Saga Drom, Saga Dream)is happily one of his more tuneful, inventive and well-orchestrated works and I find it entirely approachable and refreshing. The overture is broad and evocative, and his orchestration is a model of 'rightness' without resort to tedious formulae. I recommend anyone this work as a concert-opener in place of the usual Coriolan or Leonore overtures (sorry, Beethoven) I would say that the SSO did justice to this piece and Shui Lan did a good job in bringing out the quirky orchestral details of the piece. I think the balance could have been better though; the strings were frequently too loud in the overall sound-picture.

Symphonia Anamneseos, or A Symphony of Remembrance is the newest orchestral piece written by the current Composer-in-Residence, Er Yenn Chwen, who should be 37 this year. The work is written in a manner strongly reminiscent of Olivier Messiaen (1908-92), in terms of content, style, and orchestration. It is set in five movements, the first and last are the longest in length and bookending the middle three, shorter movements. The composer writes in his notes that "it is his personal journey of remembering some of the most significant events that have happened in his past" and that "remembrance is a very powerful exercise of the human mind", then strangely enough proceeds to name his first and last movements "Kyrios" (Lord), and "Amnos"(Lamb) respectively, as if no one with a reasonable knowledge of music (or a passing acquaintance with Christianity or that matter) would be able to draw a semi-religious subtext to all this.

All this is rather non-musical, of course, but it irritates the hell out of me to first have to see a work with titles with one meaning and in the same breath described to me in another vague sense. There is a great divide between the autobiographical subtext suggested by the composer's description and the rather catholic (used here doubly both senses of the word) subtext implied by the titles of the first and last movement, which incidentally also has a pseudo-quote "Worthy is the Lamb which was slain!" attached to its narrative later to quell any doubts.

To return to the purely musical level, the five movements share a theme stated in the first movement by clarinet that is diatonic in the first half and rather sinuous and chromatic in the second half. In orchestration as well as style I found this movement on first listening, as I said earlier, rather reminiscent of Messiaen. The second movement (Megalyno or Exultation) was the shortest but also the most scintillating on first listen, with much emphasis on the solo xylophone part here, and being "quasifugal" (composer's words) in nature. I would say it was also the most successful. To me it suggested a constant movement and evoked a Messiaenic dance (quite different from the conventional dance, of course) than anything else.

The third movement (Invictus or Unconquerable) had shades of Holst's Mars in it with threatening hints of war as depicted by side drum and timpani in a constant tattoo in parts of the piece. Some parts of this movement had rather ear-catching touches in orchestration, but in more than one way it seemed a revisitation of the second movement. The fourth movement, (Agon, or Struggle) featured some rather John-William-like scoring in the opening, with harp and strings. Unfortunately this just made the movement sound syrupy and too-sweet, and 'sentimental' in the worst sense of the word. It was rather a turn-off really. In the titling and ordering of the movement, and the character that they portray, there should be some sense of struggle in this movement followed by resolution in the last movement; unfortunately to me there was strangely a lot of antagonistic material followed by a sudden resolution that does not really carry the title's suggestion to the end.

The last movement was by far the least 'modern' sounding, but also the most difficult to listen to, in the sense that it was plain syrupy material again. If it was religious it was hard to tell; there were hardly any of the prayerful touches that one might expect, rather it was just sweet and yet unpalatable all the way. Unfortunately it was also quite long. At the end I felt as if someone had dipped me in a chocolate-ice-cream-factory-with-extra-toppings – pleasant enough at first, but dying to get out later. The composer should decide if he wants to write sound-tracks or 'proper' music and he should try to assimilate his writing styles and not to make them too divergent. One thing which I kept thinking throughout listening to the piece was that the theme was not un-developable. He should have spent more time trying to develop the theme, and just perhaps try to write in a more symphonic (read: development) style instead of presenting us five chunks of material and leaving it up to us to put them together ourselves. One long concert movement might have been possible with more thought, and more careful editing and usage of the material would perhaps reveal more aspects of the theme(s) and result in a better appreciation of the theme(s). A greater degree of psychological 'flow' is, I feel, lacking still in this work.

For a world premiere, the SSO did admirably, with Lan Shui at flashy top form and conducting as if it were his tenth time and not the first. Special mention goes to the solo trumpet, harp and xylophonist, for their contribution.

There was an interval of fifteen minutes before we continued with what was arguably the highlight of the night, Elgar's juggernaut of a violin concerto with renowned violinist Dong Suk-Kang. The concerto is, even if you ignore its interpretational difficulties, a tour de force in pure stamina. That, along with its labyrinthine last movement and the concerto's relative obscurity to Elgar's Cello concerto are probably the reasons why few violinists have attempted the work. Dong Suk-Kang handled the solo part in the first movement with aplomb, despite playing with the score, probably just as a memory aid. Shui Lan started the movement with a moderate to fast tempo, and in the opening orchestral exposition, there was a hint of things falling apart somewhat, especially in the way tempo relations were managed. The orchestra played acceptably, but they weren't up to the same high standard of Dong Suk-Kang's entry – he clearly wanted to slow things down somewhat and make a bigger statement with the entry. He managed to keep a coherent flow of the music throughout.

The SSO's accompaniment often did not manage to be accurate or precise enough, and though I realize there must be a limited amount with what one can do in a week's rehearsal, some parts were really quite wishy-washy. More micro-management was probably needed in this concerto, instead of just making sure that the tuttis were played acceptably. More polish and character were also needed in the obbligato bits here and there. All in all, though, the first movement was managed quite well, due mostly to Kang, whose playing was never less than excellent and who managed to make the rhapsodic strands cohere. His playing treaded a thin line between classical and romantic, but in the last analysis was probably a bit more classical and severe. His tempi were mostly straightforward, and his tone, though not small, tends towards the steely rather than the warm.

The slow Andante movement was played very finely indeed, and managed to be both evocative and heart-felt, though I think the playing was not varied enough and in some places the pace tended to drag. More attention was probably needed from the orchestra to what the soloist was playing, since his contributions tend in some parts to be understated, yet important in the context of the overall picture.

Then we have the third movement. I must admit I have problems with this movement – sometimes it can cohere for me, and sometimes it does not, no matter how hard I try to concentrate. There are so many notes in this movement, not least in the imposingly difficult violin part.; not at all ingratiating for whoever is playing it. The performers have to make sense of this, and hope that somehow everything will fall in place for that particular performance. This performance was an exercise in the large-hewn rather than the miniscule, and I think that Kang's experience with this concerto did not help. The movement seemed like a continuous exercise in virtuosity rather than genuine music-making, something most disappointing after such a promising start. Kang seemed to tire somewhat in the mass of notes, and the cadenza, while having all the notes, did not quite make the grade. The orchestra also sometimes seemed a bit bewildered with the thrumming that accompanied the cadenza accompagnato.

So while the first two movements were done very well, the last one was somewhat of a disappointment, rather like the concert as a whole. Perhaps Lan Shui should focus more and not tax the resources of his orchestra too much. They will respect him all the more for that.