SUBSCRIPTION CONCERT
CHRISTOPHER PARK PLAYS MOZART 22 & 23 February 2019 Victoria Concert Hall Home of the SSO
Bruno Weil, conductor Christopher Park, piano
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22 & 23 Feb 19, Fri & Sat
CHRISTOPHER PARK PLAYS MOZART Singapore Symphony Orchestra Bruno Weil, conductor WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Symphony in D major, after the Posthorn Serenade, K.320 18’ (Singapore Premiere)
1. Adagio maestoso - Allegro con spirito 2. Andantino 3. Presto
Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K.466 30’
1. Allegro 2. Romanze 3. Rondo. Allegro assai
Christopher Park, piano
Intermission 20’
JOSEPH HAYDN
Symphony No. 103 in E-flat major “Drumroll” 27’ (Singapore Premiere)
1. Adagio – Allegro con spirito 2. Andante più tosto allegretto 3. Minuet – Trio 4. Finale. Allegro con spirito Post-concert autograph signing with Christopher Park in the stalls foyer
Concert duration: 1 hr 50 mins 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.
Bruno Weil conductor Bruno Weil is one of the world’s leading conductors of the music of the First Viennese School, having gained this remarkable reputation working with such orchestras as the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Bamberger Symphoniker, Vienna Symphonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Orchestre National de France, NHK Orchestra Tokyo, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Bruno Weil was founder and artistic director of KLANG & RAUM Music festival at Irsee monastery in Allgäu. Founded in 1993 it became an international platform for concerts on period instruments. From 1992–2010, Weil was Director of Carmel Bach Festival, one of the oldest music festivals in the US. Together with the Canadian Tafelmusik Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Weil has recorded a vast number of widely acclaimed CDs for SONY CLASSICAL. Weil is a five-time winner of the “Deutsche Schallplattenpreis – Echo
Klassik”, including “Conductor of the Year” in 1997, “Best record of an opera 17th/18th century” in 2000, and for Haydn Symphonies Nos. 93, 95 and 96 in 2010. In 2006 Bruno Weil received the “Juno Award”, together with the Canadian Tafelmusik Orchestra for their recording of Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6. Weil was one of the last students of Hans Swarowsky, and has won numerous international competitions. After appointments as Kapellmeister at Staatstheater Wiesbaden and Braunschweig he became Augsburg’s youngest General Music Director (GMD) at the age of 31. Weil was GMD in Duisburg from 1994–2002 and from 2001–2016, he was professor at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich. He has been holding the same position at the University Mozarteum in Salzburg since 2015. In autumn 2018, Weil started his tenure as First Guest Conductor at the Bruckner Orchester Linz.
Christopher Park piano “Christopher Park is a pianist who captivates with his fascinating technical mastery, astounding musical maturity, and a particularly intense performance style” – remarked the jury of the Stiftung Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival upon awarding Christopher Park the renowned Leonard Bernstein Award 2014. Numerous important orchestras, festivals and recital series worldwide have engaged Park, a Bamberg-born musician with German-Korean roots. In November 2014, Park stood in for Emanuel Ax to great success with the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra, only a few months after his widely celebrated debut in Hamburg. So far he has worked with conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Paavo Järvi, Sebastian Weigle, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Ion Marin, Paul Daniel and Dimitri Kitaenko. He has played at events including the Ravinia Festival, Lucerne Festival, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Festspiele MecklenburgVorpommern, Rheingau Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Quincena Musical de San Sebastián and the Burgos International Music Festival. Christopher Park has been chosen as “Rising Star” by the ECHO (European Concert Hall Organisation) and debuted
in Europe’s renowned concert halls in London, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Vienna, Stockholm, Barcelona, Budapest, Lisboa and many others. Besides his engagements as a soloist, he is passionately involved in chamber music. He made his debut in the Brahms Saal of the Vienna Musikverein at the end of 2014 with the Küchl Quartet, which comprises members of the Vienna Philharmonic. He has also played with Avi Avital, Pablo Ferrandez, Marc Bouchkov, Richard O’Neill, Leticia Moreno, Adolfo Gutiérrez Arenas, the Pavel-Haas Quartet and accompanied singers including Sumi Jo. His 2016 album featuring works by Schumann, Stravinsky and Neuwirth, is celebrated in European magazines as a “brilliant recording” and as the “reference version”. It is released with Oehms Classics, which will also present his next album – dedicated to Schumann – in April 2019. Christopher Park was influenced by two major musical traditions during his studies: the Russian school of Lev Oborin with Lev Natochenny as well as the German school of Wilhelm Kempff with Joachim Volkmann.
STRAWBERRY AND CHOCOLATE AFTERNOON TEA AT LOBBY LOUNGE Love is in the air this February. Shower and pamper that special someone with our tempting strawberry and chocolate themed afternoon tea. Weekday Price: S$32++ per person Weekend Price: S$68++ per person
(Inclusive of a seafood platter and cheese board)
Available between 2 February and 28 February 2019 For reservations, visit www.connoisseur.sg or call 6432 7483.
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SSO MU S ICIAN 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
FIRST VIOLIN Igor Yuzefovich1 Concertmaster, The GK Goh Chair Eugen Tichindeleanu^ 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 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 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 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.
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A S ta nding Ovat ion to our Donor s a nd Sp on s or s PATRON SPONSOR
Tote Board Group (Tote Board, Singapore Pools & Singapore Turf Club) $500,000 AND ABOVE
Temasek Foundation Nurtures CLG Limited Mr & Mrs Goh Yew Lin $100,000 and above
Christopher Ho & Rosy Ho Anonymous $50,000 and above
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Thank you for attending Christopher Park Plays Mozart
If you have enjoyed the lyric finesse of Mozart, we invite you to hear the charming Harp Concerto by "The French Mozart", François-Adrien Boieldieu. It's rare to hear a harp concerto 'live', let alone played by a male harp virtuoso! The accessible programme also includes symphonies by Schubert and Beethoven.
Mozart's Clarinet Concerto is without doubt one of the most beautiful music to ever come from his hand. Its radiant joy and meditative serenity stands starkly against the fact that it was written just two months before his untimely death. Hear it this March with the celebrated German clarinettist Sabine Meyer.
MASTER OF THE HARP VICTORIA CONCERT HALL 1 & 2 MAR 2019
SABINE MEYER · MOZART CLARINET CONCERTO VICTORIA CONCERT HALL 22 & 23 MAR 2019
Xavier de Maistre, harp Alexander Liebreich, conductor
SELLING FAST
Sabine Meyer, clarinet Andrew Litton, conductor
Let's try something on the grand scale. Our next SSO Gala at the Esplanade features the fast-rising young Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov, the soloist in Rachmaninov's dark, majestic and breathtakingly Romantic Piano Concerto No. 2.
The talented young violinist Stefan Jackiw - also half-Korean like Christopher Park presents Mendelssohn's mellifluous Violin Concerto. This and the rest of the programme, comprising the Hebrides Overture and the Scottish Symphony, are among the German composer's finest, most captivating classics.
SSO GALA: RACHMANINOV PIANO CONCERTO 2 ESPLANADE CONCERT HALL 12 APR 2019
FAMILIAR FAVOURITES: MENDELSSOHN VIOLIN CONCERTO ESPLANADE CONCERT HALL 27 APR 2019
Behzod Abduraimov, piano Lionel Bringuier, conductor
Stefan Jackiw, violin Josep Pons, conductor
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Did you know? Our free concerts and events delight over 45,000 people every year Ticket revenue accounts for less than 10% of our total budget To keep our concerts accessible, we keep ticket prices as low as $10
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WOL F GANG AMA DEU S MOZ ART (175 6 –1791) Symphony in D major, after the Posthorn Serenade, K.320 18’ (Singapore Premiere)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, son of Leopold Mozart, a notable composer in his own right, was a child prodigy who began composing at the age of four, writing his first symphony at the age of eight. He spent much of his childhood on tour around Europe, with some of these tours lasting as long as three and a half years. The Symphony in D, after the Posthorn Serenade, K.320 is a selection of three movements from his Posthorn Serenade, namely the first (Adagio maestoso Allegro con spirito), the fifth (Andantino), and seventh (Presto). It reminds us that composers often reuse and rework musical material, and this both was and is a common practice. We know from the Mozart family correspondence that the original serenade was completed on 3 August 1779, when Mozart was a 23-year-
World Premiere c. 1779, Salzburg First performed by SSO 22 & 23 Feb 2019
old bachelor unhappily employed as organist and concertmaster at the Salzburg court of Prince-Archbishop Hieronymous Colloredo. Given the date, it may have been composed as Finalmusik (music for graduation ceremonies) at Salzburg University. The music shows the playful and exuberant side of the young Mozart. An opening slow and stately Adagio maestoso constantly interrupted by a rush of impatient joyous excitement, allegro interjections and fragments of march-like rhythms, eventually resolving to the principal Allegro con spirito. The theme seems to alternate between an aggressively gruff one-measure figure for all the strings in octaves, and a gentle melodious and pleading phrase. The theme could easily be seen as the dialogue in an oral examination between a stern examining professor and a hopeful student trying to bluff his way through.
PROGRAMME NOTES
Poise and elegance are words often associated with 18th-century music, and the works in this evening’s programme are no exception. The Austrian composers Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart exemplify the grace of the Wiener Klassik (Germ: Viennese classical music), giving us a glimpse into the mirrored corridors and gilded concert halls of late 1700s Europe.
Instrumentation 2 oboes 2 bassoons 2 horns 2 trumpets timpani strings
The middle slow movement (Andantino) is a surprisingly haunting one in D minor, the key later to be used in his famous Requiem, with ethereal motifs and hesitation that resolve after extended minor-key excursions. The final thrilling Presto returns us to optimism and high spirits, as thematically rich as many of Mozart’s later mature symphonies. It includes an unusually elaborate symphonic development section and a final coda, emphasising again the mood of celebration for which the original piece was commissioned.
Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K.466 30’ Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K.466 was written in a fit of inspiration and premiered in 1785. When he wrote this, Mozart was living in Vienna and giving subscription concerts, which gave him a substantial income. Mozart and his wife Constanze adopted a lavish lifestyle, moving into an expensive apartment, sending their son Karl Thomas to an expensive boarding school, and kept servants. In short, Mozart was doing very well – socially and financially secure. Between 1782 and 1785, Mozart’s subscription concerts premiered three or four new piano concertos in each season, with himself as soloist. Being one of only two in a minor key, this concerto has captivated listeners with its dramatic and dark passion. D minor is, for Mozart, the key of tragedy and emotional conflict. The young Beethoven particularly admired Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 – so much so, in fact, that he composed a cadenza for the work, and it was the only one he played in public. Throughout the 19th century, it was the sole concerto by Mozart that was regularly performed – evidently its dark beauty spoke to musicians and audiences raised on Chopin and Liszt. The first movement, opening with throbbing D minor chords, is clearly about rhythm and tension, almost setting the stage, just like the terrifying D minor chords that open Don Giovanni and accompany Don Juan being dragged down to hell, then
going down to an ominous quiet for the piano to make its appearance. In all of Mozart’s previous concerti, when the piano enters, it repeats the theme established by the orchestra. Here, the piano begins with its own highly individual phrases, without once repeating those signature D minor chords in the entire movement. Conversely, the piano’s opening singing recitative lines are not imitated by the orchestra. A tense relationship ensues, almost like a dialogue between protagonist and chorus in a Greek tragedy. Here Mozart pushes the piano concerto into a space where it almost intersects with symphony and opera.
The final movement is a charged and forceful rondo which, in its darkness and power, anticipates the minor-key finale of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto. Finally, just as the chilling D minor of Don Giovanni ends in the brilliance of D major, so too this dramatic concerto ends in D major in a cheerful coda that is equivalent to the tidy happy ending required by the 18thcentury opera stage.
World Premiere 11 Feb 1785, Vienna First performed by SSO 15 & 16 Apr 1980 (Lola Belle Wee-Wong, piano)
RECOMMENDED LISTENING Schumann, Stravinsky & Neuwirth: Piano Works Christopher Park (Oehms Classics, 2016)
PROGRAMME NOTES
The second movement is a serene B-flat major Romanze, which starts as a lyrical and serene piano solo, but goes into a second theme in the relative key of G minor, which Mozart’s father Leopold called “the noisy part with the fast triplets”, recalling the unrest of the prior movement.
Instrumentation flute 2 oboes 2 bassoons 2 horns 2 trumpets timpani strings
J O SEPH HAY DN (1732–18 0 9) Symphony No. 103 in E-flat major “Drumroll” 27’ (Singapore Premiere) Joseph Haydn was one of the greatest composers of the Classical period, instrumental in the development of many musical forms, and has been called the ‘Father of the Symphony’ and ‘Father of the String Quartet’. He was a friend and mentor of Mozart, and a tutor of Beethoven. From 1761–1790, he served as a court musician for the princely Hungarian Esterházy family at their remote country estates – either at Eisenstadt (some 60 km from Vienna) or at Esterháza (some 100 km from Vienna, in what is now Hungary). Nevertheless, his music circulated widely, and for much of his career he was considered the finest composer in Europe. With the death of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy in 1790 and succession of his son Anton as prince, Anton tried to downsize the household expenses. A trendy move of the time was to reduce the number of servants – most of the court musicians were dismissed. Haydn retained a nominal appointment at a reduced salary, but as Prince Anton did not much need Haydn’s services, Haydn was thus free to travel. Haydn’s music was wildly popular in
England, and so London was a natural choice. Haydn made two trips to England: the first from 1791–1792 and the second from 1794–1795. Before these trips, he had never been more than a hundred miles from his birthplace and the only ‘public’ he had known was the assorted royal and aristocratic visitors who watched performances in his employers’ residences. In England he received a welcome of a scale that we would now associate with Hollywood celebrities and rockstars. He was fêted by the press, the aristocracy, and electrified full-house audiences. In response to the reception, he wrote an opera and six symphonies. On second visit, lasting 20 months, King George III invited Haydn to settle in England. It was during this second visit that he produced six more symphonies, this evening’s symphony belonging to this set. The Symphony No. 103 in E-flat major, the second last of Haydn’s symphonies, is nicknamed “Drumroll”’ because the first movement (Adagio) begins with a portentous drum roll leading into an ominous theme on celli, basses, and bassoons, making for perhaps the most mysterious symphonic opening before Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony and Beethoven’s Ninth. This leads into a 6/8 Allegro con spirito with a jolly folk-tune first theme and an even more dancelike second theme. Unexpectedly, the sombre opening returns, complete with drumroll, but is eventually banished with fanfares derived from the beginning of the Allegro section. The Andante is a set of variations on two alternating Croatian folk tunes from the
Hungarian countryside around Esterháza, where Haydn had worked for three decades in what must have seemed to him like obscurity now that he was the toast of London. Haydn writes two variations on each theme – the tunes are so closely related themselves that one sounds like a variant of the other – and even manages to work in a stunning violin solo. The London audience liked the Andante so much that the orchestra played it again. The Minuet brings us back to Austria, with its theme derived from folk sources – either a traditional yodel or the Ländler (predecessor of the waltz), depending on whom you ask, and is both graceful and wistful, punctuated by humorous horns.
On 2 March 1795, the night Haydn introduced this dazzling symphony, he fully justified his position as the finest composer alive. Programme notes by Edward C. Yong
World Premiere 2 Mar 1795, London First performed by SSO 22 & 23 Feb 2019
PROGRAMME NOTES
The Finale is one of Haydn’s greatest. It begins with simple horn calls leading into a sprightly violin melody. And with that – a few seconds of music, the simplest seeds of thematic ideas – Haydn, our master of economy, has introduced all the material he will need to build an entire movement full of thrilling harmonic and contrapuntal drama, suspense, and fire. Haydn is working here at the top of his game.
Instrumentation 2 flutes 2 oboes 2 clarinets 2 bassoons 2 horns 2 trumpets timpani strings
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