PRESIDENT’S YOUNG PERFORMERS CONCERT A CONCORD OF STRINGS 5 & 6 AUG 2021 ESPLANADE CONCERT HALL
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PRES IDENT’S YO UNG P ERF O R M ERS C O N C E R T 5 & 6 Aug 2021 Esplanade Concert Hall Singapore Symphony Orchestra Joshua Tan conductor Charmaine Teo harp
A R EN SK Y
Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky, Op. 35a
D EB USSY
Danses sacrée et profane for harp and strings
T C H A I K O V SK Y
Serenade for Strings, Op. 48
16 mins 9 mins 28 mins
Concert Duration: 1 hr 15 mins (with no intermission)
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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P RES I D EN T 'S YOU NG PER FOR M ER S C ONC ER T | 5 & 6 A U G 2021
J O S H U A T AN conductor A graduate of The Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music, Joshua Tan was Second Prize winner of the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Competition and an awardee of numerous scholarships and awards, including the Young Artist Award – Singapore, Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Award, NAC-Shell Scholarship, and the SSO/MOE Scholarship. He was the first conductor to be presented the Charles Schiff prize from The Juilliard School. His performances of Bernstein’s Mass and the opera Don Pasquale were selected as the best classical concerts of the year 2018 and 2019 by The Straits Times.
and multimedia, having worked for Disney’s Fantasia and Pixar, BBC’s Blue Planet series, West Side Story, Jurassic Park and more.
Joshua has conducted orchestras all around the world. He has studied with various eminent conductors —James DePreist, Charles Dutoit, David Zinman and Kurt Masur — and worked with many others, such as Michael Tilson Thomas, Ingo Metzmacher and George Manahan.
Presently 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 Center for the Performing Arts (China) Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Guiyang Symphony Orchestra and Associate Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Season 21/22 sees return engagements with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Singapore Dance Theatre as well as debuts with the Gunma Symphony and a new opera premiere in Hong Kong.
A versatile conductor, Joshua is at home with symphonic, operatic and ballet works. His repertoire for opera includes La Traviata, Rigoletto, Der Fliegende Holländer, Lohengrin, Carmen, Don Giovanni, Madama Butterfly, Così fan tutte, and Turandot. He is equally adept with music for ballet, film 5
P RES I D EN T 'S YOU NG PER FOR M ER S C ONC ER T | 5 & 6 A U G 2021
C HA R M AI N E T E O harp Charmaine Teo is a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral harpist. A prizewinner of international harp competitions, Charmaine was awarded top prizes at the Camac Harp Taiwan Competition, Asia Harp Chamber Competition, Enkor International Chamber Competition, and New England Conservatory Concerto Competition. Charmaine graduated from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in 2018 with a Bachelor of Harp Performance and went on to pursue a Masters of Harp Performance at the New England Conservatory (Boston, USA). Since then, she has performed internationally at events such as the Asia Harp Festival in Seoul (Korea), World Harp Congress (Sydney), PGVIM 4th International Symposium (Thailand) and Acenis International Harp Festival (France). In 2018, she was featured as soloist performing Debussy’s Sacred and Profane Dances in a collaborative concert between the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory and Suntory Hall Chamber Music Academy (Japan). Currently, she freelances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Sichuan Symphony Orchestra (China).
Outside of performance, Charmaine plays an active role in Southeast Asia’s music scene. She is a founding member of Vivarave, a professional harp ensemble in Singapore, and also continually strives to push the boundaries and diversity of harp repertoire as a music arranger. She has arranged music for the world premiere of the first harp musical production, Pluck, by RaveHarps, and her arrangement of Malaysian songs was featured in the World Harp Congress by the Penang Harpers. With her love for chamber music, Charmaine has also organised various concerts such as “ABC chamber” and “Memories of Distant Shores”, which performed works by Bax, Sarasate, Piazzolla and Shostakovich. 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.
PR E SIDENT'S YOU NG PER FOR M ER S C ONC ER T | 5 & 6 AUG 2 0 2 1
Musicians PR ES ID EN T'S YO UN G PE RFORM E RS CONCE RT | 5 & 6 A U G 2021
FIRST VIOLIN Kong Zhao Hui Acting Concertmaster/ Associate Concertmaster Kong Xianlong Duan Yu Ling Karen Tan William Tan Wei Zhe Zhang Si Jing Cao Can Chen Da Wei Jin Li SECOND VIOLIN Xu Jueyi Shao Tao Tao Margit Saur Hai-Won Kwok Yin Shu Zhan Yeo Teow Meng Lim Shue Churn* Yew Shan*
VIOLA Guan Qi Gu Bing Jie Dandan Wang Janice Tsai Luo Biao Shui Bing CELLO Yu Jing Guo Hao Chan Wei Shing Wang Yan Song Woon Teng Zhao Yu Er DOUBLE BASS Yang Zheng Yi Jacek Mirucki Wang Xu
* Guest musician 10
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PR E SIDENT'S YOU NG PER FOR M ER S C ONC ER T | 5 & 6 AUG 2 0 2 1
ANTON ARENSKY (1861–1906) Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky, Op. 35a (1894) I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX
Theme. Moderato Variation I. Un poco più mosso Variation II. Allegro non troppo Variation III. Andantino tranquillo Variation IV. Vivace Variation V. Andante Variation VI. Allegro con spirito Variation VII. Andante con moto Coda. Moderato
2021 marks the 160th anniversary of Anton Arensky’s birth. He was a figure that, while lauded in his time, has fallen by the wayside somewhat, overshadowed by the giants around him, especially by his pupil Rachmaninoff and by the great Tchaikovsky. Arensky and Tchaikovsky became friends in the middle of their careers. Arensky even set one of Tchaikovsky’s poems to music (Lily of the Valley, Op. 38 No. 2) and both were criticised for being “too Western” at a time when musical nationalism in Russia was at a high, with the Mighty Five group of composers wanting to look inward and Eastward for musical inspiration.
Arensky (middle) with his students. Rachmaninoff sits far right.
But Tchaikovsky’s theme is full of Russian feeling, written in a quasi-Orthodox style. Legend, from his Op. 54 set of songs, has a religious text about the Christ child, and was immediately popular — so much so that Tchaikovsky orchestrated the accompaniment, and later arranged it for chorus.
written for string orchestra, and it is in this form that it has become Arensky’s most wellknown composition. Instrumentation strings World Premiere 20 Jan 1894, Moscow
Arensky chose to recast the music as a quartet for violin, viola, and two cellos, which was first performed on 20 January 1894. This set of variations was then re-
First performed by SSO 7 Sep 2005 18
I II
Danse sacrée Danse profane
Debussy’s two dances for harp present a strange story in the history of music. He was a composer who had great skill at orchestration and an acute sense of harmony, but in writing these two pieces, chose to use neither. Commissioned to provide musical material for a new kind of harp (fully chromatic by dint of extra strings, it got rid of the seven-pedal mechanism), Debussy wrote two tiny concertante pieces, featuring a harp part that could absolutely still be played on the standard harp and featured nothing revolutionary. He continued not to care about the pieces after their composition, and when Manuel de Falla wrote to him to ask for advice about a Spanish performance, Debussy replied rather laconically and with little detail. Despite this, they have remained a firm favourite on the concert stage, and a core part of the harp repertoire. Debussy’s ineffable manner for functionally pretty music shines through here with elegance and poise.
Dance Of The Seven Veils (1926) by Gaston Bussière
second dance is a much more lively waltz, alluding to the ballroom and the pleasures of human life.
While the work is nominally two dances, they run into each other without a break, and the French adjectives sacrée and profane suggest a contrast between the spirit and the body. In English they are better interpreted as “spiritual” and “earthly” respectively. The first dance, featuring a largely pentatonic melody contrasted with block chords moving in parallel, harks back to the popular idea of The Ancient, while the
Instrumentation harp, strings World Premiere 6 Nov 1904, Paris First performed by SSO 3 Dec 2004 (SSO Principal Harp, Gulnara Mashurova) 19
P RES I D EN T 'S YOU NG PER FOR M ER S C ONC ER T | 5 & 6 A U G 2021
CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862–1918) Danses sacrée et profane for harp and strings (1904)
PR E SIDENT'S YOU NG PER FOR M ER S C ONC ER T | 5 & 6 AUG 2 0 2 1
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840–1893) Serenade for Strings, Op. 48 (1880) I II III IV
Piece in the form of a sonatina Valse Élégie Finale (Tema Russo) deeply heartfelt elegy in a very modal idiom, and the finale is a rollicking peasant dance in the purest Slavic manner.
Tchaikovsky needs no introduction as the composer of Swan Lake, the famous Piano Concerto (actually the first of three he wrote), and the Nutcracker ballet. His music remains a firm favourite, from teaching material (Children’s Album) to being used as the theme music for the UEFA Champions’ League.
Programme notes by Thomas Ang
Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings is a big work with symphonic dimensions. The composer wished for as many players as possible, and in so doing, broke from the tradition of string symphonies being “lighter” than their full-orchestral counterparts. It is not clear if Tchaikovsky knew of Dvořák’s Serenade from a few years prior, which, though longer than Tchaikovsky’s, was written to be “more entertaining” — a divertimento, in other words. Tchaikovsky’s own weightier essay was first performed on 3 December 1880, to a private audience of Muscovites. The first movement starts with a grand introduction before passing on to the main sonata form. Tchaikovsky had intended this to be a homage to Mozart’s style, and indeed, Mozart was a musical hero of his, whom he turned to in other orchestral works (especially the Mozartiana of three years before). The waltz that follows is one of Tchaikovsky’s finest melodies, and has earned a place in the concert repertory as a separate piece. The third movement is a
Instrumentation strings World Premiere 3 Dec 1880, Moscow (private performance) First performed by SSO 15 Mar 2009 20
Masterpiece Motion In
33rd Anniversary Season
24- 26 September 2021 Esplanade Theatre
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All Information is correct at time of printing. Photo: Bernie Ng
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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.