Sisters' Islands

The Singaporean composer Wang Chenwei based this work on a local legend: two devoted sisters drowned at sea and rose again as the Sisters' Islands south of Singapore. Originally written for Chinese orchestra and a signature piece of Singapore's homegrown repertoire, it is heard here in its symphony-orchestra version. The music follows the tale — sisterly tenderness, a rising storm, and a becalmed close as the islands appear — in a melodic idiom colored by the Nanyang region.