The stage is dark and an alien hum fills the air, like that
of a spaceship coming in for landing. A lady drags her seemingly leaden
suitcase across the stage, and a monolithic image resembling some sort of great
gate, appears on the backdrop screen. Slowly a row of music stands is revealed,
like runway lights. Five musicians wander through the darkness, searching for
their places. And when they are finally seated, we arrive at the beginnings of
one of the most remarkable compositions of this year.
This is Adeline Wong’s latest opus, 'Longing', a Malaysian
premiere after it was incarnated as Lengt in Norway in 2010. This nearly fifty
minute work for string quartet, solo cello, electronics, in collaboration with
photographic art, film and dance, is what Wong referred to as a kind of “live
film”. It is also one of Malaysia’s most large-scale, extended compositions to
date next to Johan Othman’s opera Conference of the Birds from 2009.
Performing the work in KLPAC this February was Singapore’s
flamboyant T’ang Quartet with former MPO cellist Ornulf Lillebjerka, and the
creative team from Norway who worked on the original collaboration. Heading the
team is the heart of Longing, the Norwegian artist- photographer Are Andreassen
who had chanced upon Wong’s music through Lillebjerka and found in her music a
resonance with his own artistic impulses.
