NIGHT OF THE SAXOPHONE SERENADE IN STYLE 19 & 20 AUG 2021 VICTORIA CONCERT HALL
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MO Z A RT I N M AJOR | 14 & 15 MA Y 2021
N IGHT OF TH E SAXO PH ONE 19 & 20 Aug 2021 Victoria Concert Hall Singapore Symphony Orchestra Hans Graf Chief Conductor Samuel Phua alto saxophone
MO ZART
Serenata notturna, K.239
13 mins
G LA ZU N O V
Alto Saxophone Concerto in E-flat major, Op. 109 Cadenza by Jonathan Shin
13 mins
MO ZART
A Musical Joke, K.522
18 mins Concert Duration: 1 hr (with no intermission)
T Watch our online Pre-Concert Talk on our Facebook page and YouTube channel.
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. 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. In July 2021, the SSO was nominated for the prestigious Orchestra of the Year Award by Gramophone. The SSO makes its performing home at the 1,800-seat state-of-the-art Esplanade Concert Hall. More intimate works, as well as outreach and community performances take place at the 673-seat 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. 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.
Under the Music Directorship of Lan Shui from 1997 to 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 second performance at the Berlin Philharmonie. In 2014 the SSO’s debut at the 120th BBC Proms in London received critical acclaim in the major UK newspapers The Guardian and The Telegraph. The SSO has also performed in China on multiple occasions. In 2020, the SSO appointed renowned Austrian conductor Hans Graf as its Chief Conductor. In a time greatly disrupted by COVID-19, the SSO continued to keep music alive and lift spirits up through a multitude of digital concerts and videos, which crossed a million views in six months. The SSO has released more than 50 recordings in its 40-year history, with more than 30 on the BIS label. The most recent critically acclaimed albums include a Rachmaninoff box set (2021), Richard Strauss’ “Rosenkavalier and Other Works” (2020), and three Debussy discs “La Mer”, “Jeux” and “Nocturnes”. The orchestra has also released albums of contemporary works linked to East Asia, including works by Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Bright Sheng, Alexander Tcherepnin, and others. The SSO has also collaborated with such great artists as Lorin Maazel, Charles Dutoit, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Neeme Järvi, Gustavo Dudamel, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Diana Damrau, Martha Argerich, Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Janine Jansen, Leonidas Kavakos and Gil Shaham.
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N I G H T O F T H E SAXOPH ONE | 19 & 20 A U G 2021
H A N S G RAF Chief Conductor The Austrian conductor Hans Graf is the Chief Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra from the 2020/21 concert season.
© BRYAN VAN DER BEEK
He held the role of Music Director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra 2001–2013, making him the longest-serving Music Director in the orchestra’s 100 year history. Prior to this, he was Music Director of the Calgary Philharmonic and of the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine. He has also held the post of Music Director at the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg and the Basque National Orchestra.
Hans Graf’s discography includes all symphonies of Mozart and Schubert, the complete orchestral works by Henri Dutilleux and the world premiere recording of Zemlinsky’s opera Es war einmal. His recording of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck with the Houston Symphony won the ECHO Klassik 2017 award and the Grammy 2018 for Best Opera Recording.
Hans Graf is a frequent guest with major orchestras around the world including with the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestras, the London Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, the Seoul, Hong Kong and Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestras.
Hans Graf has been made Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur by the French Government (2002) and was awarded the Grand Decoration of Honour of the Republic of Austria (2007). He is also Professor Emeritus for Orchestral Conducting at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg. 5
N I G H T O F T H E SAXOPH ONE | 19 & 20 A U G 2021
S A MU E L PH U A alto saxophone
© SUJARI BRITT
Samuel Phua 潘培铭 is a recipient of the Singapore National Arts Council Arts Scholarship (Undergraduate) 2017. He graduated from the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, with a Bachelor of Music Degree with secondary subject studies in Performance Coaching, Chamber Music, and Pedagogy under the tutelage of Joonatan Rautiola. Samuel has performed as a soloist with Singapore’s top orchestras and bands, including the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (President’s Young Performer Concert 2014 and National Day Concert 2019), Orchestra of the Music Makers, Braddell Heights Orchestra, The Philharmonic Winds and Singapore Wind Symphony. He has performed with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra as a finalist in the 2020 “Classic Winds” International Saxophone and Clarinet Competition and clinched 4th place in the Asia Pacific Saxophone Competition 2019.
Helsinki Saxophone Orchestra (2018– 2019). He has also performed with the Laivaston soittokunta – The Finnish Navy Band, Asian Contemporary Ensemble and Windstars Ensemble Singapore. He has been a regular performer at the annual Singapore Saxophone Symposium since its inception in 2011. As an educator, he works as a freelance saxophone teacher in Singapore and was the saxophone instructor in the International School of Music in Helsinki (2018–2020). He organised the 1st Xin Saxophone Quartet Virtual Saxophone Camp 2020 that comprised of lectures and masterclasses culminating in a virtual concert presented by the students and faculty.
As a chamber musician, Samuel has organised seven solo recitals and cofounded the Xin Saxophone Quartet. He was the artistic director of the Protégé Saxophone Ensemble (2015– 2017) and served on the artistic committee for the 7
SEC O N D V IOL IN
T HE ORC HE S T R A HANS GRAF Chief Conductor ANDREW LITTON Principal Guest Conductor CHOO HOEY Conductor Emeritus LAN SHUI Conductor Laureate EUDENICE PALARUAN Choral Director WONG LAI FOON Choirmaster
Michael Loh Associate Principal Nikolai Koval* Hai-Won Kwok Chikako Sasaki* Margit Saur Shao Tao Tao Wu Man Yun* Xu Jueyi* Yeo Teow Meng Yin Shu Zhan* Zhao Tian* VIO L A Manchin Zhang Principal Guan Qi Associate Principal Gu Bing Jie* Fixed Chair Marietta Ku Luo Biao Julia Park Shui Bing Janice Tsai Dandan Wang Yang Shi Li
FIRS T VI OL I N
C EL L O
(Position vacant) Concertmaster, GK Goh Chair Kong Zhao Hui1 Associate Concertmaster Chan Yoong-Han2 Fixed Chair Cao Can* Chen Da Wei Duan Yu Ling Foo Say Ming Jin Li Kong Xianlong Cindy Lee Karen Tan William Tan Wei Zhe Ye Lin* Zhang Si Jing*
Ng Pei-Sian Principal, The HEAD Foundation Chair Yu Jing Associate Principal Guo Hao Fixed Chair Chan Wei Shing Jamshid Saydikarimov* Song Woon Teng Wang Yan Wu Dai Dai Zhao Yu Er D O U B LE BAS S Yang Zheng Yi Associate Principal Karen Yeo Fixed Chair Olga Alexandrova Jacek Mirucki Guennadi Mouzyka Wang Xu
FLUTE
TR U M P ET
Jin Ta Principal Evgueni Brokmiller Associate Principal Roberto Alvarez Miao Shanshan
Jon Paul Dante Principal David Smith Associate Principal Lau Wen Rong TR O M B O N E
PICCOLO Roberto Alvarez Assistant Principal
Allen Meek Principal Damian Patti Associate Principal Samuel Armstrong
OBOE Rachel Walker Principal Pan Yun Associate Principal Carolyn Hollier Elaine Yeo COR ANGL AI S Elaine Yeo Associate Principal CLARINET Ma Yue Principal Li Xin Associate Principal Liu Yoko Tang Xiao Ping BAS S CL AR I NE T Tang Xiao Ping Assistant Principal BAS S OON
B A SS T R O MBONE Wang Wei Assistant Principal TU B A Tomoki Natsume Principal TIM P A N I Christian Schiøler Principal P ER CU SSIO N Jonathan Fox Principal Mark Suter Associate Principal Mario Choo Lim Meng Keh H A RP Gulnara Mashurova Principal
Liu Chang Associate Principal Christoph Wichert Zhao Ying Xue CONTRAB AS S OON Zhao Ying Xue Assistant Principal HORN 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. 1 Kong Zhao Hui 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. 2 Chan Yoong-Han performs on a David Tecchler, Fecit Roma An. D. 1700 donated by Mr Goh Yew Lin. Musicians listed alphabetically by family name rotate their seats on a per programme basis.
NIG H T OF TH E SAXOPH ONE | 19 & 20 AUG 2 0 2 1
Musicians NI G H T O F THE S A XO P H ONE | 1 9 & 2 0 A UG 2 0 2 1
FIRST VIOLIN Chan Yoong-Han Acting Concertmaster/Fixed Chair Cindy Lee Zhang Si Jing Foo Say Ming Karen Tan Wei Zhe
CELLO Ng Pei-Sian Wu Dai Dai Zhao Yu Er
SECOND VIOLIN Xu Jueyi Nikolai Koval Shao Tao Tao Margit Saur Yin Shu Zhan Yeo Teow Meng
HORN Marc-Antoine Robillard Jamie Hersch
DOUBLE BASS Yang Zheng Yi Wang Xu
TIMPANI Christian Schiøler
VIOLA Guan Qi Marietta Ku Dandan Wang Luo Biao
10
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NIG H T OF TH E SAXOPH ONE | 19 & 20 AUG 2 0 2 1
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) Serenata notturna, K.239 (1776) I II III
Marcia Menuetto Rondeau
The Serenata notturna (the appellation is in the hand of his father Leopold) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is dated January 1776 from his manuscript and was probably performed soon afterwards. This was a period Mozart dubbed his ‘Salzburg Captivity’ – he was reaching the end of his employment as part of the court orchestra of Prince-Archbishop Colloredo of Salzburg, fuming at having to dine with valets, cooks, and other uniformed servants for a decade.
phrases, as if to emphasise the amorous aspect of a serenade. The final Rondeau is pure joy, and the catchy movement has two interpolations: a gentle adagio and then an allegro. Were these melodies known to his audience and hence functioned as inside jokes? Alas, we shall never know.
A serenata (serenade), much like the divertimento, the cassation, or notturno (nocturne), is difficult to define, being a loose suite of movements to be performed in the evenings at social events, and perhaps the best-known example is his Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (“A Little Night Music”). They were not meant to be concert music for serious attentive ears, but rather to function as background music to dining and conversation – an early example of muzak. No records of a commission or first performance have been found, so we may assume this was written for his employer. Unusually, this is scored for strings and timpani, and begins with a humorously pompous Marcia (march) that alternates quartet of soloists with punctuation from the tutti with drums, perhaps to accompany the entrance of his employer? The next movement is in the standard D major minuet layout with a contrasting G major trio, but Mozart writes memorable yearning
Instrumentation timpani, strings World Premiere Unknown First performed by SSO 8 Dec 2020 18
N I G H T O F T H E SAXOPH ONE | 19 & 20 A U G 2021
Concert in the palace Johann Georg Platzer (1704–1761)
ALEXANDER GLAZUNOV (1865–1936) Alto Saxophone Concerto in E-flat major, Op. 109 (1934) Cadenza by Jonathan Shin I
Allegro moderato – Andante sostenuto – Allegro touring the USA and Europe. Possibly having been exposed to more of the saxophone in the ‘West’, where it was an essential part of the new musical form of jazz, he accepted the repeated entreaties of the German saxophonist Sigurd Raschèr (Glazunov called them ‘attacks’) to write a concerto, which was completed in June 1934. Raschèr premiered it in Nyköping, Sweden, on 25 November 1934, but it was never publicly performed in Paris, where Glazunov had settled, until after the latter’s death.
While more commonly associated with marching bands and smokey jazz clubs, the saxophone was invented by Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in the mid1800s to combine the agility of a woodwind instrument with the projection of a brass, and was considered at one point a classical instrument, having its own programme at the Paris Conservatoire. The Russian composer Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov, a student of Rimsky-Korsakov, had left the Soviet Union in 1928 ‘for reasons of ill health’ (although he remained head of the Moscow Conservatory till 1930), and spent 1928
Scored for string ensemble and solo saxophone, the work is a single movement in three sections, in Glazunov’s usual lush 19
NIG H T OF TH E SAXOPH ONE | 19 & 2 0 AUG 2 0 2 1
Romantic style, with much divisi and double notes in the strings. The Allegro first section is in G minor, with the strings introducing a rather melancholic initial theme which is taken up by the soloist, developing it and others. A brief swirling passage is reminiscent of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee – is this a small act of homage to Glazunov’s teacher? The second Andante section in C-flat major is shorter than expected, ending with a cadenza. Tonight's performance features a new cadenza written by Singapore composer Jonathan Shin (b. 1992). The final C-minor Allegro section is quick and decisive, before leading back to a coda. Instrumentation solo saxophone, strings World Premiere 25 Nov 1934, Sweden
Adolphe Sax (1850s)
First performed by SSO 24 Feb 1984 (Felix Slovacek, saxophone)
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART A Musical Joke, K.522 (1787) I II III IV
Allegro Menuetto & Trio. Maestoso Adagio cantabile Presto
Mozart had a reputation for his sense of humour, often puerile and crude, but he had some moments of subtle humour, and his Ein Musikalischer Spaß (“A Musical Joke”) K.522 is one of them. While Mozart never did explain the spaß (fun/joke) in Ein Musikalischer Spaß, it appears to mock the work of incompetent composers, both in their gaffes breaking compositional rules as well as sticking too strictly to convention.
The instrumentation itself is awkward, two ungainly horns with a string ensemble, giving a feel of clunkiness. The opening Allegro starts with a conventional but slightly vapid theme which repeats, followed by filler material devoid of musical interest, then a strange attempt to modulate to the dominant key, which ends up jumping there ungracefully. The sonata form is fulfilled but without meaningful content, while the horns 20
N I G H T O F T H E SAXOPH ONE | 19 & 20 A U G 2021
fanfare away like in Handel’s Water Music of half a century ago. The second movement Maestoso is full of unexpected chromatic notes – was this Mozart parodying horn players he heard in real life? The trio features a plethora of outof-place forte notes in the strings, and the horns playing in a ridiculously too-high range for accompaniment. The third movement is the highlight (lowlight?), with an extended solo in the wrong key for the violin, which then attempts to migrate keys through a series of virtuoso displays disguised as ornamentation, then climbs upwards and goes ever more out of tune, followed by a comically disastrous pizzicato and cadential trill to the wrong note. The final Presto features a fugato which seems to be based on an actual fugato by one of Mozart’s less gifted pupils. Not only does the countersubject lack any real substance, the bass drops out before the last voice appears. The music then seems to wind down, as if the players were dozing off, but then returns energetically as they are jolted awake. The work ends with an example of ‘accidental’ polytonality where each of the strings goes into a different key while the horns remain stolidly in F major. While Mozart may have meant this as a joke, he could not have seen how polytonality would become a feature in future, so perhaps in a way, the joke turned out eventually to be on him!
Title page of Ein Musikalischer Spaß (Vienna: André, 1797)
Programme notes by Edward C. Yong
Instrumentation 2 horns, strings World Premiere Unknown First performed by SSO 6 Sep 1985 21
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