LAN SHUI Music Director
SUBSCRIPTION CONCERT
TINE THING HELSETH • ARUTIUNIAN TRUMPET CONCERTO 5 January 2019
Esplanade Concert Hall
Performing Home of the SSO Jun Märkl, conductor Tine Thing Helseth, trumpet
REICH IN 60 MINUTES
ROCK IN 60 MINUTES
12 JANUARY 2019 VICTORIA CONCERT HALL
31 JANUARY 2019 ESPLANADE CONCERT HALL
Brad Lubman, conductor
Jacomo Bairos, conductor Nick Omiccioli, electric guitar Paul Cesarczyk, electric guitar
E X P L O R E, D I S C O V E R & F E E L R E D B A L L O O N . O R G . S G
M U S I C
5 Jan 2019, Sat
TINE THING HELSETH • ARUTIUNIAN TRUMPET CONCERTO Singapore Symphony Orchestra Jun Märkl, conductor CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS
Suite Algérienne, Op. 60 19’ (Singapore Premiere)
1. 2. 3. 4.
En Vue d’Alger (Molto allegro) Rhapsodie mauresque (Allegretto non troppo) Rêverie du soir à Blida (Allegretto quasi andantino) Marche militaire française (Allegro giocoso)
ALEXANDER ARUTIUNIAN Trumpet Concerto 17’
Andante maestoso – Allegro energico – Meno mosso – Allegro
Tine Thing Helseth, trumpet
Intermission 20’
Tine Thing Helseth will sign autographs in the stalls foyer
MANUEL DE FALLA
The Three-Cornered Hat — Suite No. 2 12’
1. The Neighbours’ Dance (Seguidillas) 2. The Miller’s Dance (Farruca) 3. Final Dance (Jota) MAURICE RAVEL
Alborada del gracioso 8’
Boléro 13’
Concert duration: 1 hr 45 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
Since Lan Shui assumed the position of Music Director in 1997, 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.
Jun Märkl conductor Conductor Jun Märkl is recognised as a devoted advocate of both symphonic and operatic Germanic repertoire, and as a rare specialist for his idiomatic explorations of the French impressionist composers. His long-standing relationships with the Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera Munich and Semperoper Dresden led to his being offered the Music Director posts of the Orchestre National de Lyon, MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig and Basque National Orchestra. He appears as a regular guest with the world’s leading orchestras, having conducted the Czech Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and many others. This season, Märkl appears with the Minnesota Orchestra and returns to various symphony orchestras in North America. In Europe, he returns to the Brussels Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and the Tonkünstler Orchestra Vienna. He also returns to the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the
Melbourne Symphony, and debuts with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan. As an opera conductor, Märkl was a regular guest at the state operas of Vienna, Munich and the Semperoper Dresden, and was permanent conductor of the Bavarian State Opera for many seasons. He made his Royal Opera House debut with Götterdämmerung in 1996 and with Il Trovatore at the Metropolitan Opera in 1998. He conducted complete Ring cycles at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and at the New National Theatre in Tokyo, and toured Japan in 2007. Märkl studied at the Musikhochschule in Hannover, and with Sergiu Celibidache in Munich and Gustav Meier in Michigan. In 1986, he won the conducting competition of the Deutsche Musikrat, and a year later won a scholarship from the Boston Symphony Orchestra to study at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa. Jun Märkl is represented by Ron Merlino, Musicvine.
Tine Thing Helseth trumpet Following her 2013 BBC Proms debut performance of Matthias Pintscher’s Chute d’étoiles with the BBC Scottish Symphony, Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth has rapidly established herself as one of the foremost trumpet soloists of our time, garnering critical praise for her soulful, lyrical sound and collaborative approach to music-making. An artist who challenges the boundaries of genre with an intensely creative, openminded philosophy, Tine has worked with some of the world’s leading orchestras. Recent and forthcoming highlights include performances with Hannu Lintu and the Baltimore Symphony, Andrey Boreyko and the Cincinnati Symphony, Jun Märkl and the Singapore Symphony, as well as debuts with the Warsaw Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and KBS Symphony orchestras. Tine also gave the world premiere of Elliot Goldenthal’s Trumpet Concerto with the National Polish Radio Symphony, and also made a highly anticipated return to Carnegie Hall with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, followed by an acclaimed tour across the US. Tine also tours regularly with her ten-piece, allfemale brass ensemble tenThing.
Tine has been the recipient of various awards, including “Newcomer of the Year” at the 2013 Echo Klassik Awards, the 2009 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, and second prize in the 2006 Eurovision Young Musicians Competition. In 2007, Tine had the rare honour of being the first ever classical artist to win Newcomer of the Year at the Norwegian Grammy® Awards (Spellemannprisen). In 2012, Tine recorded “Storyteller” with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic on EMI Classics. Tine released a further, selftitled CD in 2013 accompanied by pianist Kathryn Stott. Tine resides in Oslo and maintains an active role as a TV and radio presenter, and also teaches trumpet at the Norwegian Academy of Music. In June 2013, Tine launched her own festival, Tine@Munch, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Edvard Munch.
SSO MU S ICIAN S Lan Shui Music Director joshua tan Associate Conductor andrew litton Principal Guest Conductor Choo Hoey Conductor Emeritus Eudenice Palaruan Choral Director WONG LAI FOON Choirmaster
FIRST VIOLIN Igor Yuzefovich1 Concertmaster, The GK Goh Chair 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 Yew Shan^ SECOND VIOLIN Michael Loh Associate Principal Hai-Won Kwok Fixed Chair Kong Xianlong^ Nikolai Koval*
Lee Shi Mei^ Yoko Mano^ 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 Yeo Jan Wea^ 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 Guennadi Mouzyka Principal Yang Zheng Yi Associate Principal Karen Yeo Fixed Chair Olga Alexandrova Ma Li Ming^ Jacek Mirucki Wang Xu
FLUTE Jin Ta Principal Evgueni Brokmiller Associate Principal Roberto Alvarez Miao Shanshan PICCOLO Roberto Alvarez Assistant Principal
Marc-Antoine Robillard Associate Principal Hoang Van Hoc Kartik Alan Jairamin^ TRUMPET 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
TROMBONE
COR ANGLAIS
BASS TROMBONE
Elaine Yeo Associate Principal
Wang Wei Assistant Principal
CLARINET
TUBA
Ma Yue Principal Li Xin Associate Principal Liu Yoko Tang Xiao Ping
Hidehiro Fujita Principal
BASS CLARINET Tang Xiao Ping Assistant Principal BASSOON Wang Xiaoke Principal Liu Chang Associate Principal Christoph Wichert Zhao Ying Xue
Allen Meek Principal Damian Patti Associate Principal Samuel Armstrong
TIMPANI Christian Schiøler Principal Jonathan Fox Associate Principal PERCUSSION Jonathan Fox Principal Mark Suter Associate Principal Robert Clarke^ Lim Meng Keh Zhu Zheng Yi HARP
CONTRABASSOON Zhao Ying Xue Assistant Principal
Gulnara Mashurova Principal Charmaine Teo^
HORN
PIANO / CELESTA
Han Chang Chou Principal Gao Jian Associate Principal Jamie Hersch Associate Principal
Shane Thio^
*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 2 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
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Thank you for attending Tine Thing Helseth ¡ Arutiunian Trumpet Concerto
A colourful programme of rousing Russian greats: Borodin's picturesque Prince Igor Overture, the fairy tale mischief of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 and the supreme Romanticism of Tchaikovsky's Fifth, with highly prominent parts for brass.
SSO GALA: RAY CHEN ESPLANADE CONCERT HALL 15 MAR 2019 Ray Chen, violin Andrew Litton, conductor Singapore Symphony Orchestra with the Singapore National Youth Orchestra
Ravel's bewitching La Valse is an intoxicating, wild tribute to the waltz, the first of three orchestral showcases in this programme, with the remarkably fast-rising pianist Behzod Abduraimov the soloist in Rachmaninov's crowd-favourite Second Piano Concerto.
SSO GALA: RACHMANINOV PIANO CONCERTO 2 ESPLANADE CONCERT HALL 12 APR 2019 Behzod Abduraimov, piano Lionel Bringuier, conductor
Two chamber wind concerts featuring SSO musicians in May, the first a woodwind cantilena of rarely played French-inspired works including Martinů's zany ballet La revue de cuisine for clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, violin, cello and piano.
TEMPTATION OF THE SAINTLY POT VICTORIA CONCERT HALL 18 MAY 2019 Woodwinds of the SSO
The brass of the SSO take the stage in splendour with music from the Renaissance (Byrd, Gabrieli, Praetorius) and the 20th century (Tomasi and Dupré).
BRASS ENSEMBLE OF THE SSO VICTORIA CONCERT HALL 19 MAY 2019 Brass Ensemble of the SSO
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CAMILLE S AINT- S A Ë N S (18 3 5 –1921) Suite Algérienne, Op. 60 19’ (Singapore Premiere) Saint-Saëns, in addition to his prodigious musical abilities, could claim expertise in archaeology, astronomy, botany, geology, lepidopterology, mathematics, philosophy, poetry, and foreign travel as well. His exploits took him as far afield as Singapore in one direction and San Francisco in another. Une nuit à Lisbonne for orchestra, the Caprice on Danish and Russian Airs for piano and winds, and the Caprice andalous for violin and orchestra bear further testimony to Saint-Saëns’ love for travel. A destination for which he held a special affinity was North Africa. He went at least twice to Egypt, each visit inspiring a work for piano and orchestra. In 1891 he produced Africa, and in 1896 his Fifth Piano Concerto, subtitled “Egyptian”. He particularly liked Algeria, which at the time belonged to France and was a favourite vacation destination for French citizens. Saint-Saëns visited there often, and died in the capital city of a heart attack. The Suite Algérienne, subtitled “Impressions pittoresques d’un voyage en Algerie” (“Picturesque Impressions of a Voyage to Algeria”), began life as a single movement called Rêverie orientale, which Saint-Saëns composed in 1875 following his first visit to Algeria. When it was performed at a charity concert in Paris in 1879, his publisher Durand requested more “picturesque” pieces to go
Instrumentation 2 flutes piccolo 2 oboes 2 clarinets 2 bassoons 4 horns 2 trumpets 2 cornets 3 trombones tuba timpani tambourine, field drum, triangle, cymbals, bass drum strings World Premiere 19 Dec 1880, (Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris)
with it. Saint-Saëns wrote the remaining movements that eventually became the Suite Algérienne in the seaside town of Boulogne-sur-mer during the summer of 1880. Édouard Colonne conducted the first performance at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on 19 December of that year. The first of the Suite’s four little tone pictures (“View of Algiers”) describes a vessel approaching the port of Algiers on an undulating sea. Moorish Rhapsody, according to a note in the score, is meant to describe the sights and sounds of
traditional local dances as experienced in a café in the city’s Old Quarter. The suavely elegant third movement, An Evening Dream at Blida (originally the Rêverie orientale), carries a distinct whiff of an exotic destination with a sultry climate. (Blida is a city near Algiers.) The Marche militaire française is one of Saint-Saëns’ best-known stand-alone pieces, and has little to do with Algeria; rather, it is a French military march brimming with national pride and featuring a couple of unforgettable tunes.
ALE X ANDER ARUTIUNIAN (1920 –2012) Trumpet Concerto 17’
Much of Arutiunian’s music is inspired by aspects of Armenian folk music, a quality obvious in the thematic material of this
PROGRAMME NOTES
Musical life in Armenia has a long and distinguished history, but it is only in comparatively recent times that it has become known elsewhere. Among the 20th-century composers who have wedded native Armenian musical impulses to the western classical tradition, Aram Khachaturian is surely the best known, but also high on the list is Alexander Arutiunian (sometimes spelled Harut’unyan). Arutiunian graduated from the Yerevan Conservatory, then went to Moscow for further studies (1946 — 1948). In 1954 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, and in 1970 became a People’s Artist of the USSR. Arutiunian’s catalogue includes many works inspired by Armenian subjects (Cantata on My Native Land, Tale of the Armenian People, From My Fatherland, and Armenian Rhapsodies), but he is also known for an impressive number of concertos, including for all four principal brass instruments (horn, trumpet, trombone and tuba), flute, oboe, piano, violin, and woodwind quintet (a very rare case). The trumpet concerto, written in 1950, is his best-known composition abroad and is a mainstay of every trumpet player’s repertory.
concerto. The work is, properly speaking, a concertino rather than a true concerto, as revealed in its formal outlines: a single sonata-form movement with a slow episode inserted between the development and recapitulation sections. A series of flourishes for the soloist gets the concerto underway. The first main theme (trumpet) bubbles along merrily. After this has run its course, the clarinet presents the more lyrical second theme. All this material is developed before a quietly reflective new idea is introduced by the muted trumpet. The frisky main theme then returns, the soloist is given an opportunity for a cadenza, and with a final flourish, the concerto comes to a brilliant conclusion. The first performance was given in Moscow in 1950 with soloist Haykaz Mesiayan and the USSR State Orchestra, Karl Eliasberg conducting. RECOMMENDED LISTENING TINE Tine Thing Helseth (EMI Classics, 2013)
Instrumentation 2 flutes, 1 doubling on piccolo 2 oboes 2 clarinets 2 bassoons 4 horns 2 trumpets 3 trombones tuba timpani bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, triangle harp strings World Premiere c.1950, Moscow First performed by SSO 14 May 2004 (Laurance Gargan, trumpet)
MANUEL DE FALLA (1876 –194 6) The Three-Cornered Hat — Suite No. 2 12’
The new title became The Three-Cornered Hat, the hat being the corregidor’s symbol of office. To help achieve the air of total authenticity, Massine studied flamenco dancing with a master Diaghilev found for him in a café in Madrid. The production was hailed as one of Diaghilev’s most brilliant achievements. The music is Spanish to the core but the plot is familiar everywhere — the pretty wife of a young miller is pursued by an amorous, elderly corregidor who is thwarted and humiliated in his advances.
World Premiere (Ballet) 22 Jul 1919, London First performed by SSO 25 May 1984
The Second Suite comprises most of the second and final scene of the ballet. The Miller, his Wife, and the neighbours are celebrating St. John’s Eve. They dance the seguidillas (“The Neighbours’ Dance”), full of sinuous melodies and evocative of the starlit, perfumed Andalusian night. The melody is an authentic gypsy song from Granada. This is followed by the
PROGRAMME NOTES
For his ballet score The Three-Cornered Hat, Manuel de Falla drew upon Pedro de Alarcón’s short novel El sombrero de tres picos, which had already served Hugo Wolf as the libretto for his opera Der Corregidor. De Falla first created a pantomime entitled The Corregidor and the Miller’s Wife, which was produced with great success in Madrid in 1917. Shortly afterwards, the impresario Serge Diaghilev asked de Falla to arrange a ballet for his Ballets russes, based on the pantomime music. The composer revised the score and added two new numbers, the “Miller’s Dance” and the “Final Dance”. With choreography by Léonide Massine, who also danced the role of the Miller, the first performance of the ballet took place at the Alhambra Theater in London on 22 July 1919, with Ernest Ansermet conducting.
Instrumentation 2 flutes piccolo 2 oboes cor anglais 2 clarinets 2 bassoons 4 horns 3 trumpets 3 trombones tuba timpani bass drum, cymbals, suspended cymbals, snare drum, triangle, tamtam, xylophone, castanets harp piano celesta strings
Miller’s Dance, a farruca, which opens with brilliant solos for the horn and English horn in turn. Languorous melodic phrases are punctuated by heavy, ferocious outbursts from the strings. After the story’s myriad misunderstandings are cleared up, everyone joins in the Final Dance, a jota, characterised by abruptly shifting moods and rhythms. This builds to a sensational conclusion amidst some of de Falla’s most resplendent orchestration.
MAURICE RAVEL (1875 –1937 ) Alborada del gracioso 8’ Ravel too was one of the great masters of orchestration. He wrote so idiomatically that it is difficult to imagine his orchestral works as having been conceived for any other medium. Yet such is the case with Alborada del gracioso, one of his most brilliant evocations of Spain. Originally a virtuoso work for solo piano, it is more often heard in the concert hall in the composer’s own orchestral transcription. The title is impossible to translate precisely; it implies something along the lines of a court jester singing to his ladylove at dawn, and perhaps dancing a bit as well. In 1905, Ravel composed a set of five piano pieces, collectively entitled Miroirs, of which Alborada is the fourth. Not until 1918 did he find the time to create his orchestral version. The first performance in this form was given on 17 May 1919 in Paris by the Pasdeloup Orchestra under Rhené-Baton. The work is laid out in three connected sections. The brilliantly scored outer parts are characterised by vibrant rhythms set to the simulated strumming of a guitar and the clack of castanets (at first simulated, later actual). Boston Symphony annotator Steven Ledbetter refers to this music as “a glorious racket. As a real ‘dawn song’, the work would be catastrophic; in addition to waking the lovers, it would arouse
the entire neighbourhood.” The more meditative central section (beginning with the improvisatory bassoon solo) evokes more the clownish aspect of the work’s title.
World Premiere 17 May 1919, Paris First performed by SSO 21 Oct 1995
Ever since its premiere performance on 22 November 1928 in Paris, Ravel’s Boléro has exerted a hypnotic power on listeners, achieving its effect through the repetition of a pair of sensuous melodies repeated over and over in a carefully gauged crescendo of passion culminating in a feverish orgy of sound. Each repetition of one of the themes is played by a different solo instrument or combination of instruments, all in the key of C major until the final, wrenching modulation to E major. Each theme is played twice in succession in alternating pairs (AABBAABB etc.). Throughout the 15-minute work is heard the steady, characteristic bolero rhythm in the snare drum, beginning almost inaudibly, and working up to terrifying volume while hammered out by multiple drummers. According to the Harvard Dictionary of Music, a bolero is “danced by one dancer or a couple [and] includes many brilliant and intricate steps, quick movements such as the entrechat of classical ballet, and a sudden stop in a characteristic position with one arm held arched over the head (bien parado). The music is in moderate triple time, with accompaniment of the castanets and [characteristic] rhythms.” Such is the popularity of “Ravel’s bolero” that it is easy to forget this composer has no proprietary rights to the dance, said to have been invented by Sebastian Cerezo about 1780. Among other composers who have written a bolero, one can cite Beethoven (two songs from WoO 158), Chopin (Op. 19), Auber (one each from
PROGRAMME NOTES
Instrumentation 3 flutes, 1 doubling on piccolo 2 oboes cor anglais 2 clarinets 2 bassoons contrabassoon 4 horns 2 trumpets 3 trombones tuba timpani bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, triangle, tambourine, xylophone, crotales, castanets 2 harps strings
Boléro 13’
the operas La Muette de Portici and Le Domino noir), Weber (incidental music to Preciosa), Gounod (a song), Britten (the fourth of the Soirées musicales, Op. 9) and George Crumb (the third song of the cycle Ancient Voices of Children). It has been used in films from the 1934 Bolero with Carole Lombard and George Raft to the Bo Derek vehicle 10. There is even a biography of the composer entitled Bolero (by Madeline Goss, published by Henry Holt in 1940). Ravel did not think that his Boléro would survive beyond the world of the dance, but it quickly established itself as an orchestral tour de force and has become not only his most famous work but one of the bestknown compositions in the entire classical repertory. Programme notes by Robert Markow
Instrumentation 2 flutes, 1 doubling on 2nd piccolo 1st piccolo 2 oboes, 1 doubling on oboe d’amore cor anglais 2 clarinets, 1 doubling on E-flat clarinet bass clarinet tenor saxophone, doubling on soprano saxophone 2 bassoons contrabassoon 4 horns 3 trumpets piccolo trumpet 3 trombones tuba timpani bass drum, cymbals, 2 snare drums, tam-tam harp celesta strings World Premiere 22 Nov 1928, Paris First performed by SSO 11 Jan 1985
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