SUBSCRIPTION CONCERT
MASTER OF THE HARP 1 & 2 March 2019 Victoria Concert Hall Home of the SSO
Alexander Liebreich, conductor Xavier de Maistre, harp
Behold! The SSO presents the Irish Queen of Games Music, Eímear Noone, in a grand musical party of Video Games Classics! The award-winning composer and conductor, responsible for such fan favourites as “Malach” from World of Warcraft, will be joined by the Singapore Symphony Youth Choir & Friends in a journey of fantastic tunes from the rich worlds of World of Warcraft, Skyrim, Final Fantasy and Tetris. When past and present collide, the fate of all worlds hangs in the balance. Eímear Noone, conductor Victoria Songwei Li, soprano Jade Tan, mezzo-soprano Singapore Symphony Youth Choir & Friends Wong Lai Foon, choirmaster
1 & 2 Mar 19, Fri & Sat
MASTER OF THE HARP Singapore Symphony Orchestra Alexander Liebreich, conductor FRANZ SCHUBERT
Symphony No. 3 in D major, D.200 26’
1. 2. 3. 4.
Adagio maestoso – Allegro con brio Allegretto Menuetto. Vivace – Trio Presto vivace
FRANÇOIS-ADRIEN Harp Concerto in C 22’ BOIELDIEU 1. Allegro brilliante 2. Andante lento 3. Allegro agitato
Xavier de Maistre, harp
Intermission 20’
Xavier de Maistre will sign autographs in the stalls foyer
LUDWIG VAN Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Op. 60 34’ BEETHOVEN 1. Adagio – Allegro vivace 2. Adagio 3. Allegro vivace 4. Allegro ma non troppo
Concert duration: 2 hrs Go green. Digital programme booklets are available on www.sso.org.sg. Scan the QR code in the foyer to view a copy.
S ing a p or e S y mp hon y Or c he s t r a Since its founding in 1979, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) has been Singapore’s flagship orchestra, touching lives through classical music and providing the heartbeat of the cultural scene in the cosmopolitan city-state. In addition to its subscription series concerts, the orchestra is well-loved for its outdoor and community appearances, and its significant role educating the young people of Singapore. The SSO has also earned an international reputation for its orchestral virtuosity, having garnered sterling reviews for its overseas tours and many successful recordings.
Concert Hall. More intimate works and all outreach and community performances take place at the 673-seat Victoria Concert Hall, the home of the SSO. The orchestra performs 100 concerts a year, and its versatile repertoire spans all-time favourites and orchestral masterpieces to exciting cutting-edge premieres. Bridging the musical traditions of East and West, Singaporean and Asian musicians and composers are regularly showcased in the concert season. This has been a core of the SSO’s programming philosophy from the very beginning under Choo Hoey, who was Music Director from 1979 to 1996.
The SSO makes its performing home at the 1,800-seat state-of-the-art Esplanade
Under the Music Directorship of Lan Shui from 1997 to Jan 2019, the SSO has performed
in Europe, Asia and the United States. In May 2016 the SSO was invited to perform at the Dresden Music Festival and the Prague Spring International Music Festival. This successful five‑city tour of Germany and Prague also included the SSO’s return to the Berlin Philharmonie after six years. In 2014 the SSO’s debut at the 120th BBC Proms in London received critical acclaim in the major UK newspapers The Guardian and Telegraph. The SSO has also performed in China on multiple occasions. Notable SSO releases under BIS include a Rachmaninoff series, a “Seascapes” album, two Debussy discs “La Mer” and “Jeux”, and the first-ever cycle of Tcherepnin’s piano concertos
and symphonies. The SSO has also collaborated with such great artists as Lorin Maazel, Charles Dutoit, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Neeme Järvi, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Diana Damrau, Martha Argerich, Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Janine Jansen, Leonidas Kavakos and Gil Shaham. The SSO is part of the Singapore Symphony Group, which also manages the Singapore Symphony Choruses, and the Singapore National Youth Orchestra. The mission of the Group is to create memorable shared experiences with music. Through the SSO and its affiliated performing groups, we spread the love for music, nurture talent and enrich Singapore’s diverse communities.
ALEXANDER LIEBREICH conductor Alexander Liebreich became Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra in September 2018. He also took over as Artistic Director of the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 2018 which led to him being elected head of the Richard-Strauss-Society, following Wolfgang Sawallisch and Brigitte Fassbaender in this position. Liebreich held the position of Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Munich Chamber Orchestra from 2006–2016. Their first collaborative CD, featuring works by Joseph Haydn and Isang Yun, was released to great critical acclaim in January 2008. The recent release Requiem by Tigran Mansurian, with RIAS Kammerchor on the label ECM Classics received nominations for the Grammy Award 2018 and the ICMA Award 2018 in the “Contemporary Music” category. As a guest conductor, Liebreich has worked with many prestigious orchestras including the Concertgebouw Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Orquestra
Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra and Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich. Recent and future engagements include debuts with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta de Valencia and Mahler Chamber Orchestra. He regularly performs with distinguished soloists such as Lisa Batiashvili, Krystian Zimerman, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Alban Gerhardt, Leila Josefowicz, and Isabelle Faust.
Xavier de Maistre harp Xavier de Maistre belongs to an elite category of soloists who are redefining what is possible with their instrument. Aside from commissions from composers such as Kaija Saariaho, he performs works like Smetana’s Ma Vlast with breathtaking precision, presenting masterful arrangements of works that are usually played by an entire orchestra. The interpretation of these works, that few harpists before him have even considered playing, has contributed to his reputation as one of the most creative and extraordinary musicians of his generation. Xavier de Maistre has appeared with major orchestras under the direction of such eminent conductors as Bertrand de Billy, Lionel Bringuier, Daniele Gatti, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, Daniel Harding, Kristjan Järvi, Philippe Jordan, Riccardo Muti, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, André Previn, Sir Simon Rattle and Yuri Temirkanov. He performs at many leading international festivals, including Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Salzburg Festival, Budapest Spring Festival and Mostly Mozart in New York. He collaborates with such chamber music partners as Diana Damrau, Daniel Müller-Schott and Baiba Skride.
De Maistre’s recordings have garnered numerous awards and distinctions. Most recent releases include La Harpe Reine with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie in October 2016 (harmonia mundi) and a new Spanish repertoire CD with Spanish-Mexican flamenco legend Lucero Tena (castanets) in April 2018 (Sony). Xavier de Maistre was born in Toulon and began studying harp at age nine. He studied in Paris and in 1998 he was awarded First Prize at the International Harp Competition in Bloomington, Indiana, immediately becoming the first French musician to join the ranks of the prestigious Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2001, Xavier de Maistre has taught at the Hamburg Academy of Music. He also gives regular masterclasses at New York’s Juilliard School of Music, Tokyo’s Toho University and London’s Trinity College of Music.
SSO MU SICIAN S joshua tan Associate Conductor andrew litton Principal Guest Conductor Choo Hoey Conductor Emeritus Lan Shui Conductor Laureate Eudenice Palaruan Choral Director WONG LAI FOON Choirmaster
Shao Tao Tao Wu Man Yun* Xu Jue Yi* Ye Lin* Yeo Teow Meng Yin Shu Zhan* Zhang Si Jing* Zhao Tian* VIOLA Zhang Manchin Principal Guan Qi Associate Principal Gu Bing Jie* Fixed Chair Marietta Ku Luo Biao Julia Park Shui Bing Tan Wee-Hsin Janice Tsai Wang Dandan Yang Shi Li CELLO
FIRST VIOLIN Igor Yuzefovich1 Concertmaster, The GK Goh Chair Charles Tyler Wetherbee^ Concertmaster Lynnette Seah2 Co-Concertmaster Kong Zhao Hui* Associate Concertmaster Chan Yoong-Han Fixed Chair Cao Can* Chen Da Wei Duan Yu Ling Foo Say Ming Gu Wen Li Jin Li Cindy Lee Karen Tan William Tan Wei Zhe SECOND VIOLIN Michael Loh Associate Principal Hai-Won Kwok Fixed Chair Nikolai Koval* Chikako Sasaki* Margit Saur
Ng Pei-Sian Principal Yu Jing Associate Principal Guo Hao Fixed Chair Chan Wei Shing Song Woon Teng Wang Yan Wang Zihao* Wu Dai Dai Zhao Yu Er DOUBLE BASS Joan Perarnau Gerriga^ Principal Yang Zheng Yi Associate Principal Karen Yeo Fixed Chair Olga Alexandrova Jacek Mirucki Guennadi Mouzyka Wang Xu FLUTE Jin Ta Principal Evgueni Brokmiller Associate Principal Roberto Alvarez Miao Shanshan
PICCOLO
TRUMPET
Roberto Alvarez Assistant Principal
Jon Paul Dante Principal David Smith Associate Principal Lau Wen Rong Sergey Tyuteykin
OBOE Rachel Walker Principal Pan Yun Associate Principal Carolyn Hollier Elaine Yeo COR ANGLAIS Elaine Yeo Associate Principal CLARINET Ma Yue Principal Li Xin Associate Principal Liu Yoko Tang Xiao Ping
TROMBONE Allen Meek Principal Damian Patti Associate Principal Samuel Armstrong BASS TROMBONE Wang Wei Assistant Principal TIMPANI Christian Schiøler Principal Jonathan Fox Associate Principal
BASS CLARINET
PERCUSSION
Tang Xiao Ping Assistant Principal
Jonathan Fox Principal Mark Suter Associate Principal Lim Meng Keh Zhu Zheng Yi
BASSOON Wang Xiaoke Principal Liu Chang Associate Principal Christoph Wichert Zhao Ying Xue
HARP Gulnara Mashurova Principal
CONTRABASSOON Zhao Ying Xue Assistant Principal HORN Han Chang Chou Principal Gao Jian Associate Principal Jamie Hersch Associate Principal Marc-Antoine Robillard Associate Principal Hoang Van Hoc
*With deep appreciation to the Rin Collection for their generous loan of string instruments. Igor Yuzefovich plays an instrument generously loaned by Mr & Mrs G K Goh Lynnette Seah performs on a J.B. Guadagnini of Milan, c. 1750, donated by the National Arts Council, Singapore, with the support of Far East Organization and Lee Foundation. ^Musician on temporary contract Musicians listed alphabetically by family name rotate their seats on a per programme basis.
1 2
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Thank you for attending Master of the Harp
Like the modern harp, the modern clarinet is a relatively recent instrument in the orchestra, and concertos written for it are also uncommon. However, one of the earliest and surely one of the most divine is Mozart's, written in 1791. Its vivacious joy and glowing beauty is a perfect embodiment of the composer's melodic gifts and the instrument's expressive purity.
SABINE MEYER · MOZART CLARINET CONCERTO VICTORIA CONCERT HALL 22 & 23 MAR 2019 Sabine Meyer, clarinet Andrew Litton, conductor
Led by Irish Queen of Games Music Eímear Noone, this extra-musical extravaganza will mix orchestral and choral classics with music from famous video games. Mozart, Beethoven and Stravinsky are played alongside music from World of Warcraft, Skyrim, Stravinsky, Super Mario Brothers and Final Fantasy. Enter a new level!
VIDEO GAMES CLASSICS ESPLANADE CONCERT HALL 5 APR 2019 Eímear Noone, conductor Victoria Songwei Li, soprano Jade Tan, mezzo-soprano Singapore Symphony Youth Choir & Friends Wong Lai Foon, choirmaster
Frankly, none of Mozart's concertos can do any wrong, so here's another heartwarming example, his Fourth Violin Concerto, 25 minutes of poised lyrical delight. Bonus if you're a harp enthusiast: the other pieces in the programme, Stravinsky's Song of the Nightingale and Bartรณk's Suite No. 1 both feature two harps in the score.
MAESTRO CHOO HOEY ESPLANADE CONCERT HALL 18 APR 2019 He Ziyu, violin Choo Hoey, conductor
If you combine the melodic gift of Mozart with the blistering verve of Beethoven and the melancholy lyricism of Schubert, you get Mendelssohn - a startlingly prolific Romantic talent, every single note worth relishing. The young, upcoming Korean-Ukrainian violinist Stefan Jackiw guest stars in Mendelssohn's beloved Violin Concerto. The accessible programme also includes the Hebrides Overture and the Scottish Symphony.
FAMILIAR FAVOURITES: MENDELSSOHN VIOLIN CONCERTO ESPLANADE CONCERT HALL 27 APR 2019 Stefan Jackiw, violin Josep Pons, conductor
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F RANZ S CHUB ERT (1797–18 28) Symphony No. 3 in D major, D.200 26’
One such composer is the Austrian Franz Peter Schubert. Despite dying at the age of 31, his prolific oeuvre was admired posthumously by Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Liszt. Schubert’s Symphony No. 3 in D major, D.200, was written over the summer of 1815, a particularly productive year,
World Premiere 19 Feb 1881, London (first known public performance) First performed by SSO 24 May 2006
when Schubert was 18, living with his father, while teaching at a school and giving private music lessons. In that year he wrote two piano sonatas; a set of variations; keyboard dances, a string quartet, two masses, large amounts of miscellaneous choral music, four operas, 145 songs, and this symphony. Schubert grew up surrounded by the music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and was a student of Antonio Salieri at this point, and the influences of all these composers is audible in the music of this cheerful early symphony, which nevertheless bears all the marks of a composer who had found his own voice. Started on 24 May, he spent a few days completing the introduction, then put the work aside. Picking it up again on 11 July, he finished the work in eight days.
PROGRAMME NOTES
In music history, we are taught that the Baroque period is followed by the Classical, which is followed by the Romantic, and so on. We can name composers who fall neatly into each periods, but in reality, few things in life are so clear cut, and as with all historical matters, the closer one examines the evidence, the murkier things become. The Classical period was roughly 1730–1820, but the Romantic period is thought of as roughly 1780–1910, making for some 40 years of overlap. Composers did not wake up one day thinking ‘the Classical is over, we are now in the Romantic period and will compose in a different style’. Musical styles changed gradually, and like historical periods, defy categorisation into neat discrete boxes. While they present objects of terror for music students writing essays, often it is the transitional composers straddling styles that provide the greatest interest, showing how a period dovetails neatly and seamlessly into the next.
Instrumentation 2 flutes 2 oboes 2 clarinets 2 bassoons 2 horns 2 trumpets timpani strings
The first movement opens with an Adagio maestoso that is slow and bears shades of Beethoven, with a perky clarinet leading the strings in a buildup to the Allegro con brio. Unlike Mozart, who had a reputation for writing down works fully formed, the manuscript shows Schubert originally scored this theme for oboe and horns, before deciding on clarinet and strings, with the oboe relegated to the subsidiary melody. A brief development and recapitulation follow. Schubert had planned for an Adagio for the second movement, even sketching a theme in this tempo, but settled on a G major Allegretto in A-B-A form, with a peasant-dance-like tune in which all the Germanic qualities of Gemütlichkeit (warmth, friendliness, and good cheer) shine. The third movement is marked Menuetto, with moments reminiscent of the Ländler, that Austrian folk dance which was later to develop into the iconic Viennese waltz. That summer when Schubert sat writing this movement, Napoleon had abdicated and the Congress of Vienna was in session, discussing a long-term peace plan for Europe after the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. With generous expense accounts, the pan-European delegates spent much of their time wining, dining, dancing, and singing, and when they left for home, they brought their passion for the waltz all over the continent. It is tempting to think that this movement was part of that ‘waltz fever’.
The Presto vivace finale begins pianissimo, quietly, but led by the timpani, spills over into an irresistible vivacity and almost Italianate drama in its tarantella rhythm and bold harmonic progressions. Some musicologists, such as Mosco Carner, have pointed out its similarity to Rossini’s music sweeping Europe at the time.
F RANÇ OIS - A DRIEN B OIE L DIE U (1775 –18 3 4) Harp Concerto in C 22’
Outside of his operatic works, his output was a mere trickle that mostly dried up as soon as he became the top opera composer in Paris. His most famous instrumental composition is the Harp Concerto in C, written c. 1800, and with over ten recorded versions on CD. The composition of this concerto may have been influenced by Boieldieu sharing a residence with the French instrument maker Sébastien Érard. Érard specialised in producing harps and pianos, and was an important pioneer in developing both instruments. Érard is responsible for the seven-pedal mechanism still used in modern concert harps and which, by allowing each string to be sharpened by one or two semitones, allowed the harp to play music far more chromatic than before.
World Premiere Unknown (after 1800) First performed by SSO 13 & 15 Apr 1995 (Barbara Markiewicz, harp)
The first movement, Allegro brilliante, starts in a late Classical style, and could almost have been written by Mozart or Beethoven, festively and restlessly moving forward. The orchestral accompaniment is light and mostly confined to harmonic punctuation and rhetorical phrases – the ‘brilliante’ comes from the intricate harp solo part – with generous trills, passage work, and glissandi (gliding across the strings). The second movement, Andante lento, is almost a dramatic scene for soprano diva, showing the composer’s background in opera and flair for theatrical touches, with the theme of this movement being possibly the last word in elegant pathos. Difficult enough on the harp of Boieldieu’s day, the octaves in the cadenza are even more challenging on the modern concert harp, with even wider spacing between the strings.
PROGRAMME NOTES
The French composer François-Adrien Boieldieu is rarely mentioned today, but in his heyday was known as ‘the French Mozart’ and renowned for his operas. Berlioz felt his music had ‘a pleasing and tasteful Parisian elegance’, and Boieldieu’s operas influenced Donizetti. His operas were so phenomenally popular that one of them, La Dame blanche, had one thousand performances at the Opera Comique by 1862, generating bitter jealousy in a young hopeful opera composer named Georges Bizet.
Instrumentation 2 flutes 2 oboes 2 bassoons 2 horns strings
This leads directly into the finale, Allegro agitato, which bounces actively about in a minor mood, moving into a brighter and more extroverted feel. A brief spell of darkness sparkles in a cadenza, before the main theme returns like an operatic villain, followed by another little cadenza of the obligatory glissandi before going back into a dramatic minor-key close, evoking the curtain falling at the end of a tragic opera. RECOMMENDED LISTENING Romantic French Concertos & Pieces for Harp & Orchestra Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, Xavier de Maistre & Shao-Chia Lu (Claves Records, 2002)
L UDW IG VAN B EETHOVEN (1770 –18 27 ) Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Op. 60 34’ Beethoven needs no introduction – most are acquainted with the story of this towering talent who tragically started to lose his hearing in his 20s and was almost completely deaf for the last decade of his life. While a major driver of the Romantic style, Beethoven’s pioneering developments make it easy to forget that he was a crucial transitional figure trained in the older style – he was known for playing Bach in the salons of the nobility. The Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Op. 60, is a light and elegant work often neglected, standing as it does between the two heavyweights of Beethoven’s Third and Fifth Symphonies. While written in 1806, instrumentation is light, and reminiscent of the work of Haydn, with whom Beethoven studied a decade before. The airy and contemplative minor-key slow opening Adagio conjures up images of planets slowly moving through the heavens, searching and so ponderous that when the Allegro vivace appears out of nowhere, it is as if we have hitched a ride on a meteor, with its relentless momentum and force. This movement was written simultaneously with the opening of the more famous Fifth Symphony, and while being lighter in tone, lacks nothing of the tight energy of its fraternal twin.
Instrumentation flute 2 oboes 2 clarinets 2 bassoons 2 horns 2 trumpets timpani strings World Premiere c. Mar 1807, Vienna
The second movement is a tender Adagio, marked cantabile (singing) but with an insistent accompaniment more expansive and restless than customary for slow movements. It also features with repeated appearances of the jagged rhythms of the opening bars and a dark angry minorkey interruption at the theme’s third reappearance. Berlioz liked this movement so much he said it was the work of the Archangel Michael. In the third movement, normally in A-B-A form, Beethoven attempts to enlarge the floor plan of the flat by bringing back the B section a second time, making for an A-B-A-B-A. After the lilting B section trio for strings and winds, the final appearance of the boisterous A section is unexpectedly and rudely cut short by the horns, as
The jocular mood and high spirits continue in the Haydenesque finale, with its contrasts in tempo, dynamics and momentum, but always with the Beethovenian signatures of strength and brashness. While it does not scream violently for attention like the larger Beethoven finales, it ends elegantly with a confident smile, reminding one of the G. K. Chesterton quote: “moderate strength is shown in violence, supreme strength is shown in levity”. For our ears that have heard Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Liszt, and Dvorák, it is easy to chuck this symphony in the ‘Classical’ bin, but that would be to forget how pioneering this work was in its time. It is often the odd neglected bits of transitional history that are the most interesting. Programme notes by Edward C. Yong
PROGRAMME NOTES
First performed by SSO 13 & 14 Feb 1981
if bringing a letter from the Housing Development Board reminding Beethoven not to carry out unapproved renovations.
Formed in 2015 by collaborative musicians and good friends, Kam Ning, Sébastien Walnier and Lisa De Boos, these three locos realised that their music interests ventured far beyond traditional classical music. Shuffle into the evening with the trio’s eclectic mix of pieces by Grammy Award-winning violinist/fiddler Mark O’Connor, swinging right past Stéphane Grappelli’s seductive Les Valseuses, amongst other merry tunes.
Sun 3 Mar 2019 4PM Victoria Concert Hall Kam Ning, violin Sébastien Walnier, cello Lisa De Boos, double bass
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