3 OCTOBER 2024
7.30pm, Victoria Concert Hall
SSO CHAMBER SERIES
A LOVE OF FRENCH MUSIC
PROGRAMME
Saint-Saëns
Fantaisie
for Violin and Harp, Op. 124 (13 mins)
Zhao Tian violin
Gulnara Mashurova harp
Andrès
Chants d'arrière-saison for French Horn and Harp (17 mins)
Austin Larson French horn
Gulnara Mashurova harp
Intermission (20 mins)
Ravel
String Quartet in F major (29 mins)
Zhao Tian violin
Zhang Si Jing violin
Janice Tsai viola
Christopher Mui cello
CONCERT DURATION: 1 hr 30 min (including 20 mins intermission)
Programme Notes
Fantaisie for Violin and Harp, Op. 124
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835–1921)
The Eissler Sisters were four musical siblings who were born in Moravia (modern-day Czechia) who moved to Vienna in the 1870s. They seemed to know everyone in the musical society then, and had several works written specially for them.
Saint-Saëns had met the two youngest sisters, violinist Marianne and harpist Clara sometime in the 1890s, and promised to write them a duet, a promise which he fulfilled a decade later in 1907. At 72, Saint-Saëns had been globetrotting, feeling more at home abroad than back in France, where the musical fascination with Impressionism was not to his liking. The for Violin and Harp was written while on a trip to Bordighera in the Italian Riviera in March. SaintSaëns had been fascinated with the harp, conducting extensive research into the instrument from its beginnings in Greco-Roman antiquity. Wanting to write for the instrument, he remembered his promise to the Eissler sisters, resulting in this single-movement duo.
Fantaisie
Fantaisie for Violin and Harp, Op. 124
The bowed and plucked strings complement each other, the timbres delicate and airy as the music moves through a series of scenes. Opening with a melody from the violin accompanied by the harp, the violin takes the melody for most of the work, but on occasion supports the harp in virtuosic passages. The music is characteristic of Saint-Saëns's style: Romantic, always charming, elegantly crafted, and well-received at its premiere by the Eissler sisters in July 1907.
In gratitude, Marianne wrote to Saint-Saëns:
My sister and I owe one of the biggest successes of our career to you. Your famous name gave us a full room with a musical and educated audience, we were inspired in our task, and I would venture to say that we have played your divine works well.
Chants d'arrière-saison for French Horn and Harp
BERNARD ANDRÈS (b. 1941)
I.
II. III. IV. Andantino Allegro Larghetto Adagietto
V.
VI. VII. Andante Allegretto Moderato
French harpist and composer Bernard Andrès encountered music when he was five, when he started learning the piano after his elder sister. He started composing aged eight, and thereafter discovered the harp at the age of 19. After being trained in conservatories as a harpist, he followed through with a career as an orchestral harpist from 1969 until his retirement in 2005, only to realise that he had an unfulfilled dream of exploring the mysteries of composition.
He wrote primarily for harp and later on for bigger combinations, chamber ensembles and orchestra. In composing, Andrès states that he has few influences; above all, the guiding thread of his compositional thought is melody, and he hopes that his music will be seen as a continuation of the French tradition, with its mellifluous poetry and sense of restraint.
Chants d'arrière-saison for French Horn and Harp
Chants d’arriere-saison, sons xylophoniques
whose title can be translated as “Songs of a Season Past” or "Songs of Late Autumn”, was written for a harp and a tenor-voiced instrument closest to the expression of the human voice “that weeps, despairs, rejoices in beauty, or exhales and exults in divine trembling” (the French Horn, bassoon or cello may all try to stake their claim). Andrės claims to work with “traditional music and contemporary exploration” in his music; the conventional melodies by the French Horn coexisting alongside the harp part, which utilises modern techniques such as pedal glissandi, or play (making xylophone-like sounds).
The music is structured in seven vignettes, steeped in melancholy and introspection with a mood that evokes memories past, as if a Renaissance lute song.
I.
String Quartet in F major
MAURICE RAVEL (1875–1937)
II. Allegro moderato – très doux
Assez vif – très rythmé
III. IV. Très lent Vif et agité
While Saint-Saëns made known his dislike for Impressionism, the latest and most fashionable movement in French music, the young Maurice Ravel was completely charmed by Debussy’s new composition styles. On hearing Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Ravel was reportedly reduced to tears, saying that he only then “understood what music is”.
String Quartet in F major
His String Quartet, which he began work on in 1902, was dedicated to “mon cher maître Gabriel Fauré”. According to a note in the autograph score, he had completed the first two movements by December, submitting the first movement for a Composition Prize at the Paris Conservatoire where he was studying with Fauré. The jury was unimpressed, and the Conservatoire’s director criticised the movement, saying that it was “lacking in simplicity”. Nevertheless, Ravel persisted in his efforts, completing it in April of 1903. It is probable that he revised it throughout the year; before its premiere in 1904 his insecurity over some matters were still showing. After attending the final rehearsal, Debussy, whose own string quartet written 10 years earlier was a clear influence on Ravel, reached out to allay them on 4 March 1904:
Cher ami, [Raoul] Bardac has just told me of your intention to have your quartet and especially the slow movement played less loudly. In the name of all the gods, and mine, please, don’t do that. Think of the difference in sonority between a hall that’s full and one that’s empty. It’s only the viola that slightly drowns the others and perhaps that could be toned down? Otherwise, don’t touch anything and all will be well.
String Quartet in F major
first movement
second movement
The music of the quartet is cyclical, material from the returns in various guises throughout the work. The Scherzo utilises cross-rhythms and the timbre of plucked strings, giving the music a Spanish flavour. It slows down into the trio, with themes of the scherzo still present but fragmented in the background.
third movement
The is a dreamy nocturne, a slow, sensuous melody growing from the lower strings but interrupted by short and isolated recurrences of themes from the previous two movements. Out of the interruptions, the melody swells into a passionate declaration, before the initial calm is restored.
finale
The has a rhythmic drive that is unpredictable yet compelling, due to Ravel’s use of irregular time signatures that move freely from 5/8 to 5/4 and 3/4. With rich sonorities of the strings and rhythmic dissonances, the music is brought full circle as the languorous theme from the first movement is transformed into a playful character, athletic and nimble. By the time the coda arrives it expresses pure joy, bringing the work to a euphoric ending.
Programme Notes by Natalie Ng
SSO Chamber Series: Enchanting Ravel
4 Oct, 7.30pm
Fire, Fantasia and Pulcinella
11 & 12 Oct, 7.30pm
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Stefan Blunier conductor
Moritz Ernst piano
A Midsummer Night's Dream
25 & 26 Oct, 7.30pm
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Treble Voices of the Singapore Symphony Chorus & Youth Choir
Hans Graf
Eudenice Palaruan
Ingrid Fliter Music Director piano
Choral Director
Maureen Thomas actress/narrator
Musicians of the SSO and more
For more details, visit sso.org.sg/whats-on.
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