SSO Pops: Tribute to Bill Evans / VCHpresents Chamber: Time Remembered

SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

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. The SSO is led by Music Director Hans Graf.

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, culminating in its 3rd place win in the prestigious Gramophone Orchestra of the Year Award 2021.

The SSO makes its performing home at the 1,800-seat state-of-the-art Esplanade Concert Hall. More intimate works and outreach and community performances take place at the 673seat Victoria Concert Hall, the home of the SSO. The orchestra performs over 60 concerts a year, and its versatile repertoire spans all-time favourites and orchestral masterpieces to exciting cutting-edge premieres. Through the beauty of classical music, we aim to touch the hearts and lives of everyone, regardless of age, culture or background.

JEAN THOREL conductor

Jean Thorel is an impassioned promoter of new works and rare music and has given 700 world premieres. Thorel’s unconventional interpretations of both contemporary and classical music have delighted many music critics in France and abroad. Jean Thorel is regularly invited to guest conduct at major festivals of contemporary music including Ars Musica Brussels, the Numus Festival and UNM Festival in Aarhus, the Composer’s Biennale, PULSAR Festival in Copenhagen and Musicarama in Hong Kong.

From 2008 to 2016 he was appointed Chief Conductor of the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong. He also conducted the Royal Philharmonic and Philharmonia in London, National RTE of Ireland, Copenhagen Royal Ballet, Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, EOS Orchestra Beijing, among many others. Jean Thorel’s extensive discography of more than 35 DVDs and CDs includes a recording of works by Louis Saguer with the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, which was winner of the 2002 Académie du Disque Lyrique “Orphée d’Or” prize. His recording of works by Sikora won a “special mention” by the Académie du Disque Lyrique in 2003. He is also the first French conductor to record with the Russian National Orchestra and the internationally acclaimed Hilliard Ensemble.

THOMAS CLAUSEN TRIO

The Thomas Clausen Trio have always been working with a mixture of Clausen’s melodic originals and standard jazz material, with idiomatic background found in the music of Bill Evans and Miles Davis. In other words, music that embodies the spirit of “Freedom with control”. The Trio’s 2021 album “Back2Basics” was chosen as album of the year by reviewers from the Danish jazz magazine Jazz Special. Besides Thomas Clausen, current members of the trio include Thomas Fonnesbæk and Karsten Bagge.

Thomas Fonnesbæk (b. 1977) has established himself as the leading young bass player in Denmark. He studied with NielsHenning Ørsted Pedersen, and performs on a regular basis with famous pianists like Justin Kauflin, Christian Sands, Lars Jansson, Enrico Pieranunzi and Clarice Assad. He also performs duo with Danish vocalist Sinne Eeg.

Karsten Bagge (b. 1971) is one of the leading drummers in Denmark, and a prolific composer and band leader himself. He has recorded his own music with Aaron Parks, Kevin Hays and Scott Colley, among others. His latest project is based on his arrangements of the music of Led Zeppelin for jazz quartet.

Thomas Clausen (b. 1949) is an established artist in the European jazz scene. He has played and recorded with many international jazz artists, including Miles Davis, Gary Burton, Steve Swallow, Billy Hart, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, and many others. As a leader, Clausen has recorded a long list of albums, with the latest being “Back2Basics”.

CHECK-IN TO THE CONCERTS

Scan this QR code with the Singapore Symphony Mobile App.

L-R: Thomas Fonnesbæk, Karsten Bagge, Thomas Clausen

TRIBUTE TO BILL EVANS I t ’s Feeling s’ No t Words

Bill Evans Suite

by Palle Mikkelborg

Asian Premiere 28 mins

I. Bill Evans – “Interlude”

II. Waltz for Debby II

III. Time Remembered

IIII. My Bells

V. Interlude

VI. Waltz for Debby I

VII. Walkin’ Up

The influential Danish jazz trumpeter and composer Palle Mikkelborg composed his Bill Evans Suite for the Bill Evans Trio in 1970, comprising themes from famous pieces by Bill Evans such as Waltz for Debby (takes 1 and 2), Time Remembered, My Bells and Walkin’ Up Originally recorded for a television programme, we will experience this delightful work live in concert today.

Symbiosis

by Claus Ogerman

Reconstructed by Ding Jian Han Asian Premiere

43 mins

Symbiosis marks the third collaboration between the decorated German composerarranger Claus Ogerman and American Jazz pianist and luminary Bill Evans, with the pair working together previously in 1963 and 1965 on two jazz albums with symphony orchestra. With a structure very similar to that of a piano concerto, Symbiosis is a two-movement work, with three sections in the first movement and two sections in the second movement.

Symbiosis starts with four haunting sets of chords, using four alto saxophones to create a unique sound colour. These sets of chords would also turn out to be important structural markers later on in the movement. After a brief upright bass solo, accompanied by the saxophones, we are presented with long soli by the jazz trio. This highlights an essential characteristic Symbiosis – it consists of both improvised soli parts by the trio, as well as written out or ‘through-composed’ parts for the orchestra and soloists. Renowned Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould, an avid admirer of Bill Evans and Symbiosis, remarked in 1977 that “… the through-composed sections are really quite marvellous; Ogerman has a staggeringly inventive harmonic imagination and the first of Symbiosis’s two movements, in particular, is possessed of enormous sweep and drive.”

The slower second movement is introduced by the solo piano, which plays an alluring theme with a tinge of nostalgia. These subtle emotions then swell immensely with the emergence of a lush texture consisting of flute and strings, reinstating the theme in a much higher register.

After another extended jazz soli section, the music continuously grows in terms of dynamics, textural density and orchestration, eventually culminating in a majestic passage by the whole orchestra.

Symbiosis was originally composed solely for an album recording, and the full orchestral score was unfortunately not preserved for performance. In 2019, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) commissioned Singaporean composer Ding Jian Han to re-construct the orchestral score, under the guidance of its Director of Artistic Planning, Hans Sørensen. Like the Bill Evans Suite, Symbiosis will finally receive its inaugural live performance in today’s concert by the SSO.

A note about the reconstruction by Ding Jian Han

I started this long process (which lasted nine months) of re-constructing the orchestral score by listening to the album recording of Symbiosis repeatedly. This was to familiarise myself with the arranging and orchestration style of the great Claus Ogerman, understanding his Jazz-classical fusion style of writing, as well as internalising important structural markers in the piece. Mr Sørensen, with his vast knowledge of Ogerman, provided me with important references from his other musical output. Albums like his Two Concertos

quoted specific sections from Symbiosis, which gave me important clues to particular instrumentation. We were fortunate to have found a piano reduction of the piece, which I used extensively to identify pitches in the harmony. I then referred to the album recording to determine the orchestrations and chord voicings in the music, as well as to transcribe certain rhythms and counter-melodies which were not present in the piano reduction (sometimes resorting to slowing down the recording by several factors in complicated parts of the piece).

In some instances, I had to make educated guesses based on this musical idiom, as certain instrumental timbres in the background were very hard to discern. This was especially true for the dense and fast-changing second section of the first movement and the third section of the first movement, where the very prominent fender rhodes sound covered up much of the instrumental timbres in the background (this could have been due to the track’s mix as well). Mr Sørensen and I also had several insightful email discussions across months about the instrumental combinations for more ambiguous parts in the music. Overall, I enjoyed the whole re-construction process very much and learnt a lot compositionally from this vibrant and unique work. Looking at the completed orchestral score now makes me feel delighted and proud, and I cannot wait to hear it live with the SSO! — Ding Jian Han

Ding Jian Han (b. 1994) is a Singaporean composer and currently composer-in-residence of Ensemble INprogRES from Düsseldorf, Germany.

Duration of concert is approximately 2 hrs (with 20 mins intermission)

8 Jan 2023, Sun Victoria Concert Hall

This homage to one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time and his legendary trio is brought to you by the Thomas Clausen Trio, led by the prolific composer-pianist himself. The programme includes his own compositions, such as “For Pi”, a one-of-a-kind ballad echoing Evans’s art, plus pieces from the Trio’s latest release, Back2Basics – “Edelweiss”, “Nature Boy”, Billy Strayhorn’s “Blood Count” and more.

When you begin to teach jazz, the most dangerous thing is that you tend to teach style. I had eleven piano students, and I would say eight of them didn’t even want to know about chords or anything – they didn’t even want to do anything that anybody had ever done, because they didn’t want to be imitators. Well, of course, this is pretty naive but nevertheless it does bring to light the fact that if you’re going to try to teach jazz you must abstract the principles of music which have nothing to do with style, and this is exceedingly difficult. So there, the teaching of jazz is a very touchy point. It ends up where the jazz player, ultimately, if he’s going to be a serious jazz player, teaches himself. — Bill Evans

Duration of concert is approximately 2 hrs (with 20 mins intermission)

Mr & Mrs

Riady Group of Foundations

The mission of the Singapore Symphony Group is to create memorable shared experiences with music. Through the SSO and its affiliated per forming groups, we spread the love for music, nur ture talent and enrich our diverse communities. The Singapore Symphony Orchestra is a charity and not-for-profit organisation. You can suppor t us by donating at www.sso.org.sg/donate.

Stephen