PRES IDENT’S YOUNG P ERF OR M ERS CON C E R T MADE FOR THE MARIMBA 10 OCTOBER 2020 W A T CH THE S TR EAM O N L IN E ON S I S TI C L I VE
PRE S I DE NT’ S YOU N G P E R F O R M E R S CON C E R T AU D IT IO N IT’ S T I M E FO R Y O U TO S H I NE .
If you are a Singaporean instrumentalist performing on Western classical instruments such as strings, woodwind, brass and percussion, audition now to perform with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra at our President’s Young Performers Concert 2021.
Joshua Tan SSO Associate Conductor and conductor of the President's Young Performers Concert
EL I GI BILITY Applicants should be Singapore citizens of no more than 25 years of age, as of 1 July 2021. A PP L I CATION INSTRUCTIONS: Please prepare and submit the following: 1. Applicant’s biography 2. A high-quality video featuring applicant’s recent performance of a concerto written for chamber-sized orchestra. 3. The composer’s name, title of work, duration of each movement and edition (if applicable). Submission and Application form: ssoperfor.ms/PYPC2021audition < SCAN TO APPLY APPLICATION DEADLINE 30 December 2020 For enquiries, please email to pypc@sso.org.sg. Shortlisted applicants will be notified by email in January 2021 to participate in a live audition scheduled to take place in February 2021. Shortlisted applicants should be prepared to play the concerto in full and should arrange for their own piano accompanist to play the orchestral part.
PRES IDENT’S YO UNG P ERF O R M ERS C O N C E R T MAD E FOR THE MARIMBA 10 Oct 2020, 8pm (Online premiere on SISTIC Live) Viewable from 10 Oct to 24 Oct with valid tickets.
Singapore Symphony Orchestra Joshua Tan Associate Conductor Julia Tan marimba
B A R BE R
Adagio for Strings
S ÉJ O U RN É
Concerto for Marimba and String Orchestra SSO PREMIERE
16 mins
S UK
Serenade in E-flat major, Op. 6
30 mins
8 mins
Concert Duration: 1 hr T Watch our online Pre-Concert Talk on our Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Participate in our survey for a chance to win complimentary tickets to our upcoming online concerts. www.surveymonkey.com/r/TSV99LX
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. 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 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. 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 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 The Telegraph. The SSO has also performed in China on multiple occasions.
In the 2020/21 concert season, the SSO welcomes renowned maestro Hans Graf as its Chief Conductor. Notable SSO releases on the BIS label include a Rachmaninoff series, a “Seascapes” album, three Debussy discs “La Mer”, “Jeux” and “Nocturnes”, 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, Gustavo Dudamel, 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 our diverse communities.
H ANS G RAF Chief Conductor
| 10 OCT 2020 PR ESIDENT’ S YOU NG PER FOR M ER S C ONC ER T
Joshua has conducted orchestras all around the world. These orchestras include the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Beethoven Bonn Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, amongst others. He has studied with various eminent conductors such as James DePreist, Charles Dutoit, David Zinman and Kurt Masur. A versatile conductor, Joshua is at home with both symphonic and operatic works. His substantial repertoire for opera includes La Traviata, Rigoletto, Der Fliegende Holländer, Lohengrin, Carmen, Don Giovanni, Madama Butterfly, Così fan tutte, and Turandot, among others. He has also served as cover conductor for Christoph Eschenbach and Lorin Maazel. He is also equally adept with ballet productions and music for film/ multimedia.
J O S H U A T AN Associate Conductor Second Prize-winner of the 2008 Dimitri Mitropoulos International Competition, Singaporean conductor Joshua Kangming Tan’s rise to prominence on the international scene has been marked by successful debuts in Carnegie Hall, Philharmonie Berlin, Mariinsky Hall and Bunkamura.
Joshua is presently Associate Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra and Director of the Asia Virtuosi. He has served successful stints as Resident Conductor of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (China) Orchestra, and as Principal Conductor of the Guiyang Symphony Orchestra.
A graduate of The Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music (High Distinction), he is an awardee of numerous scholarships and awards, such as the Young Artist Award, Singapore (2011), Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Award, NAC-Shell Scholarship, and the SSO/MOE Scholarship. 4
P RES I D EN T ’S YOU NG PER FOR M ER S C ONC ER T
J ULI A T AN marimba
| 10 OCT 2020
Born in Singapore, Julia Tan began her musical journey at age eleven on the piano. She was introduced to percussion in Secondary school, and completed her Diploma studies as the Best Graduate from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). Julia then received her Bachelor’s degree in Percussion Performance from the Mannes School of Music (New York) on a full scholarship. Upon graduation, Julia was awarded the George and Elizabeth Gregory Award for Excellence in Performance and the Mannes Dean’s Award. Her teachers include Eriko Daimo, Maya Gunji, Joseph Tompkins, Michael Werner, Mark Suter, Christian Schiøler and Glen Velez.
An avid collaborator and educator, Julia seeks to inspire others and connect people together through music. She also has a profound interest in pedagogy and hopes to inspire future youths and promote percussion literature.
As a soloist, Julia made her debut performing Anders Koppel’s Marimba Concerto No. 1 after winning the Mannes Concerto Competition 2019. She has also appeared as guest percussionist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Ding Yi Music Company, Singapore Lyric Opera and The Philharmonic Orchestra in Singapore. She also performed with the Martha Graham Dance Company in New York in collaboration with the Mannes Orchestra, as well as the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra in Chengdu. 5
SEC O N D V IOL IN
T HE ORC HE S T R A
Michael Loh Associate Principal Hai-Won Kwok Fixed Chair Nikolai Koval* Chikako Sasaki* Margit Saur Shao Tao Tao Wu Man Yun* Xu Jue Yi* Yeo Teow Meng Yin Shu Zhan* Zhao Tian*
HANS GRAF Chief Conductor JOSHUA TAN Associate Conductor ANDREW LITTON Principal Guest Conductor
VIO L A
CHOO HOEY Conductor Emeritus
Zhang Manchin Principal Guan Qi Associate Principal Gu Bing Jie* Fixed Chair Marietta Ku Luo Biao Julia Park Shui Bing Janice Tsai Wang Dandan Yang Shi Li
LAN SHUI Conductor Laureate EUDENICE PALARUAN Choral Director WONG LAI FOON Choirmaster
C EL L O 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 Wang Zihao* Wu Dai Dai Zhao Yu Er
FIRS T VI OL I N Kong Zhao Hui# Acting/Associate Concertmaster Chan Yoong-Han 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*
D O U B LE BAS S Yang Zheng Yi Associate Principal Karen Yeo Fixed Chair Olga Alexandrova Jacek Mirucki Guennadi Mouzyka Wang Xu
6
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 Sergey Tyuteykin
PICCOLO
TR O M B O N E
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
B A SS T R O MBONE Wang Wei Assistant Principal TU B A
COR ANGL AI S
Tomoki Natsume Principal
Elaine Yeo Associate Principal TIM P A N I CLARINET
Christian Schiøler Principal Jonathan Fox Associate Principal
Ma Yue Principal Li Xin Associate Principal Liu Yoko Tang Xiao Ping
P ER CU SSIO N
Tang Xiao Ping Assistant Principal
Jonathan Fox Principal Mark Suter Associate Principal Mario Choo Lim Meng Keh
BAS S OON
H A RP
Liu Chang Associate Principal Christoph Wichert Zhao Ying Xue
Gulnara Mashurova Principal
BAS S CL AR I NE T
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. # 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. Musicians listed alphabetically by family name rotate their seats on a per programme basis. 7
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KA H CH U N W ONG C ONDU C TS DEBU SSY, W AG NER AND SH OSTAK O V IC H | 26 SE P 2 020
ONLY THE FINEST MUSIC
K A H CH U N W O N G C O N D UPR C TS ESIDENT’ DEBU SSY, S YOU W AG SSO NGNER PER NATIONAL AND FOR M SHER OSTAKOV DAY S C ONC C ONC ER ICER HT T | 2 16 0 5 S O AUG ECPT 22002200
SAMUEL BARBER (1910–1981) Adagio for Strings (1936) Barber’s Adagio for Strings is arguably the most famous piece of 20th-century classical music. As well as featuring in countless films and television programmes, it has also become the go-to piece for moments of national mourning, particularly in America. This was the piece the United States turned to when Franklin D Roosevelt and John F Kennedy died, it was the piece Leonard Slatkin chose to perform at the BBC Proms just four days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
The work opens with a sustained note from which the long melody emerges in the violins. This melody is passed to the violas, then cellos, all the time building to an enormous climax. Then everything falls away and there is a silence which Leonard Slatkin has described as seemingly ‘interminable’, as if the orchestra and audience are all holding their breath. The music re-emerges from this silence and we hear the main theme one more time before it ends, as Slatkin says, with ‘two chords that might as well be saying “Amen”.’ A fitting end to a piece which will surely be providing consolation to people around the world for many years to come.
Barber had “achieved something as perfect in mass and detail as his craftsmanship permits” Barber wrote his Adagio not as a standalone piece for string orchestra – as it is best-known today – but as the second movement of his String Quartet Op. 11. It was the conductor Arturo Toscanini who suggested Barber create an arrangement for string orchestra. Toscanini gave the premiere of the work in 1938 when it was broadcast to millions on the radio from Rockefeller Center. The critic for the New York Times wrote that Barber had “achieved something as perfect in mass and detail as his craftsmanship permits”.
Instrumentation 4 first violins, 4 second violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos, 2 double basses World Premiere 5 Nov 1938 First performed by SSO 3 Sep 1982 16
I II
SPSRES O NIADTEN I OTN’S YOU A L DAYNG C ONC PERER FOR T |M ER 15SA CU ONC G 2020 ER T
EMMANUEL SÉJOURNÉ (b. 1961) SSO PREMIERE Concerto for Marimba and String Orchestra (2005) Tempo souple Rythmique, énergique
| 10 OCT 2020
Emmanuel Séjourné is a contemporary French composer and percussionist who has made a name for himself with his rhythmic, energetic music that draws freely on the worlds of Western classical music and popular culture. Head of Percussion at the Strasbourg Superior Academy of Music & Arts, his music has been performed and recorded by orchestras including Orchestra de la Suisse Romande, Sinfonia Toronto and the Osaka Philharmonic. This concerto was commissioned by the percussionist Bogdan Bacanu and first performed in 2005. It has since become one of the most popular pieces for the marimba and has been performed with orchestras around the world over 600 times. The concerto you will hear in this performance is the original two-movement version of the piece (Séjourné added a new first movement in 2015).
Above: Emmanuel Séjourné on the marimba
Source: emmanuelsejourne.com tapping rhythms. It is no wonder this has become one of the most popular percussion concertos ever written, and it is the perfect vehicle to celebrate this year’s brilliant President’s Young Performer.
After a brief introduction from the strings the spotlight turns to the soloist and there is a beautiful opening cadenza to set the scene. The first movement mixes Romanticism in its melody with jazz influences in the rhythms, something the Canadian percussionist, Anne-Julie Caron, picked up on when she said the concerto is ‘unique because it is one of the rare pieces to put the marimba in a romantic context.’ Next comes the second movement, ‘Rythmique, énergique’, which is packed with virtuoso playing and irresistibly toe-
Instrumentation 4 first violins, 4 second violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos, 2 double basses 17
| 10 OCT 2020 PR ESIDENT’ S YOU NG PER FOR M ER S C ONC ER T
JOSEF SUK (1874–1935) Serenade in E-flat major, Op. 6 (1892) I II III IV
Andante con moto Allegro ma non troppo e grazioso Adagio Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo presto
Josef Suk’s Serenade for Strings came about as a sort-of homework assignment. In 1892 he was a student under the great Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, who had noticed that his student’s work was often stern and melancholy. Dvořák told the 18-year-old Suk: “It’s summertime now, so go and make something lively for a change, to compensate for all those pomposities in minor.” This delightful Serenade was the result.
Josef Suk III would go on to become a world-famous virtuoso). As with the third movement, there are moments when threatening dark clouds appear on the horizon, but a rousing ending dispels all gloomy thoughts. The Serenade met with Dvořák’s approval. It was the piece that launched Suk’s career and is still one of his best-known works. Programme notes by Elizabeth Davis
In the late 19th century, orchestras had been getting larger and larger: in reaction composers such as Suk began to turn to the smaller forces of the string orchestras and to chamber music forms such as serenades that had fallen out of vogue. The work opens with a nostalgia-tinted first movement Andante that boasts a beautiful song-like melody. Following this, the second movement begins with a gentle waltz suggestive of a rural dance. There is a brief dramatic interruption in the middle, but order is restored before we reach the longest movement and emotional heart of the piece – the Adagio. The section opens with a tearjerking cello melody before building to a climax which manages to hint at Suk’s more customary melancholy mind-set, without letting it overwhelm the piece.
Instrumentation 4 first violins, 4 second violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos, 2 double basses World Premiere 25 Feb 1895 (complete work)
Finally, the closing Allegro is a charming piece of string writing (Suk was also an accomplished violinist and his grandson
First performed by SSO 7 Dec 1984 18
MUSIC F OR A LL TI M E CE LE BR A T I N G BA C H I SAT 24 OCT 2020 8PM
WA TC H T H E ST RE A M O N LI N E O N SI ST I C LI V E
SI NG APO RE S YMP HO N Y O RCHE S T RA DAR RELL A N G C O N D UC TO R
Bach wrote some of the most famous music in all human history – from the dazzling Brandenburg Concertos to the pinnacles of the Baroque suite. Our celebration of the Master of Baroque begins with the splendour of strings in his Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, followed by two of his magnificent Orchestral Suites, home to his universally beloved “Air on the G String”, the epitome of music for all time. BACH BR ANDE N B URG C O N C ERTO NO. 3 I N G M A J OR , B WV 1 0 4 8 ORCH E S TR AL S UITE N O . 1 I N C M A J OR , B WV 1 0 6 6 ORCH E S TR AL S UITE N O . 3 I N D M A J OR , B WV 1 0 6 8
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The mission of the Singapore Symphony 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 our diverse communities. The Singapore Symphony Orchestra is a charity and not-for-profit organisation. You can support us by donating at www.sso.org.sg/donate.
