SSO In Your Community: Lunchtime Concert

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SSO IN YOUR COMMUNITY - CENTRAL SINGAPORE

LUNCHTIME CONCERT 6 Mar 2019 | Victoria Concert Hall

SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Founded in 1979, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is Singapore’s flagship orchestra. We play a hundred concerts a year showcasing a wide range of music: from Baroque to modern, to cutting-edge world premieres by contemporary composers Singaporean and international. The SSO has performed to acclaim in Europe, Asia and the USA, including at the Dresden Music Festival, the Berlin Philharmonie and the BBC Proms in London. Some of the great artistes we have collaborated with include renowned conductors Vladimir Ashkenazy and Lorin Maazel, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Martha Argerich, soprano Diana Damrau, and violinists Janine Jansen and Gil Shaham. The SSO’s performing home is the 1,800-seat Esplanade Concert Hall. For a more intimate experience, we return to the place of our beginnings, the 673-seat Victoria Concert Hall – the home of the SSO. The VCH is host to our popular Children’s, Family and Christmas concerts, the SSO Chamber Series and our biannual free Lunchtime Concerts. In addition, we travel to various outreach locations in Singapore for our community and outdoor performances. Through the beauty of classical music, we aim to touch the hearts and lives of everyone, regardless of age, culture or background.

JOSHUA TAN conductor Singaporean conductor Joshua Tan’s rise to prominence on the international scene has been marked by successful debuts in Carnegie Hall, Philharmonie Berlin, Mariinsky Hall, Bunkamura, Shanghai, Beijing and Taiwan. He was featured as the top Singaporean musical talent in 2009 by Lianhe Zaobao. Joshua has also won numerous awards and scholarships, including the Second Prize of the 2008 Dimitris Mitropoulos International Competition, Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Award, NACShell Scholarship, SSO/MOE Scholarship and he is the firstever recipient of the Charles Schiff Conducting Prize from The Juilliard School for outstanding achievement. In 2011, Joshua received the Young Artist Award of Singapore. Adept with film/multimedia, he is a Disney-approved conductor and gave the Asian premiere of Fantasia. Joshua has also conducted for the BBC’s Planet Earth Series. In opera and ballet, Joshua has conducted La traviata, Tosca, Rigoletto, Der fliegende Holländer, Lohengrin, Carmen, Don Giovanni, Manon Lescaut, Madama Butterfly, Così fan tutte, Swan Lake, Giselle and was also cover conductor for Christoph Eschenbach and Lorin Maazel. Joshua is presently Associate Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra. Joshua has studied with leading conductors James DePreist, Charles Dutoit, David Zinman and Kurt Masur and is a graduate of The Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music (High Distinction).

PROGRAMME NOTES Mother Goose: Five Pieces for Children 16’ by Ravel

Adagio in G minor - “Albinoni’s Adagio” 10’ by Giazotto

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) is one of the 20th century’s most famous French composers, known for his exceptional gift in coaxing wonderful colours and timbres from instruments and orchestras. He wrote this suite of pieces based on the French fairy tale collection, Mother Goose, as a piano duet for children. It was premiered in 1910, and Ravel subsequently arranged it for orchestra in 1911. The five pieces, or movements, are:

This beautifully sombre tune has appeared on many occasions in film, tv and popular culture, and for a long time was believed to be written by 18th century Italian Baroque composer, Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751). It is now attributed to the 20th century musicologist and Albinoni biographer Remo Giazotto (1910-1998), who claimed to have found a fragment of music by Albinoni and subsequently wrote it out in full for string orchestra. Although scholars continue to debate the authenticity of this claim, the work has been credited for reviving the name and music of Albinoni, and it continues to be known popularly as “Albinoni’s Adagio”.

1. Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty The “pavane” is a type of slow dance from 16th century Europe, here playing the role of a lullaby. 2. Little Tom Thumb / Hop o’ My Thumb The music wanders hesitantly and hopefully, mirroring Tom Thumb’s journey through the woods as he drops his trail of breadcrumbs - which are eaten by tweeting birds. 3. Laideronette, Empress of the Pagodas An oriental picture of the Empress from the French fairy tale, The Green Serpent, being attended to by her pagodas, or fairies. 4. Conversations of Beauty and the Beast Listen to the gentle Beauty on sweet woodwinds, while the Beast speaks through the contrabassoon’s gruff bass. 5. The Fairy Garden Ravel ends the fairy tale with his own picture of Eden-esque enchantment and beauty.

Morning Mood 4’ In the Hall of the Mountain King 3’ from Peer Gynt, by Grieg Even more well-known are these two classics from Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907), which he wrote as music to accompany Ibsen’s play, Peer Gynt.

Morning Mood is the instantly recognisable tune we all imagine waking up to on a perfect weekend morning, bringing to mind a peaceful dawn over a rustic nature scene. But the piece is actually set in a desert! It begins with its signature flute and oboe solos, culminating in a glorious sunrise and giving way to a wonderful picture of serenity. In the Hall of the Mountain King, another well-known tune, depicts Peer Gynt entering the hall of the Troll King, full of trolls and goblins. The music begins slowly in tip-toe anxiety, and gathers pace and volume as Peer Gynt makes his frenetic escape.

Capriccio Espagnol 15’ by Rimsky-Korsakov We end the concert with the exuberant Capriccio Espagnol by late 19th century Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908). Its original Russian title translates more specifically to “Capriccio on Spanish Themes”. A “capriccio” or caprice is a piece of music that has no specific form, usually lively in character. You will hear five parts: 1. Alborada, a festive and exhilarating dance from the Asturias region of northwestern Spain, joyously welcoming the rising sun. Listen for the solos by clarinet and violin. 2. Variazioni, or “variations” begins with a melody on the French horns. This very Spanish tune is then passed around the orchestra. 3. The Alborada returns, same tune but differently scored, with a distinct dance for solo violin. 4. This Scene and Gypsy Song opens with five individual showcases. A fanfare by the horns and trumpets is followed by a dramatic violin solo. Then, with strings strumming like guitars, you will hear the flute, the warbling clarinet and oboe, and finally the harp. The whole orchestra takes up the fiery dance, connecting directly to the final movement. 5. Fandango asturiano, an energetic dance in Asturian style, with distinctive castanets. Various tunes from earlier take their turn on the stage again, concluding in triumph with the jubilant Alborada theme.

Programme Notes by Chia Han-Leon