Mark Suter Associate Principal Percussion
Concert Programmes
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and Beethoven’s Eroica
Fanfare: Brass, Percussion and Carmen
Mendelssohn Violin
Concerto and Beethoven’s Eroica dedicated to
Fanfare: Brass, Percussion and Carmen dedicated to the late Dr Goh Keng Swee, founding patron of the SSO
SPECIAL RECOGNITION
Quantedge Music Director
The SSO is delighted to announce the naming of the “Quantedge Music Director” position, currently held by Maestro Hans Graf.
With his spirit of musical exploration, innovative programming, and captivating stage presence, Maestro Graf has consistently inspired audiences and elevated orchestras to new heights. We are deeply grateful for his continued leadership as Chief Conductor in the 2020/21 season and Music Director since the 2022/23 season.
We extend our sincerest gratitude to our anonymous donor for this generous gift of $3 million to mark SG60.
Maestro Hans Graf
© BRYAN VAN DER BEEK
For the enjoyment of all patrons during the concert:
Please switch off or silence all electronic devices.
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and Beethoven’s Eroica
Fri & Sat, 24 & 25 Jan 2025
Victoria Concert Hall
Fanfare: Brass, Percussion and Carmen
Fri & Sat, 28 Feb & 1 Mar 2025
Victoria Concert Hall
Please minimise noises during performance. If unavoidable, wait for a loud section in the music.
No photography, video or audio recording is allowed when artists are performing.
Non-flash photography is allowed only during bows and applause when no performance is taking place.
Go green. Digital programme books are available on www.sso.org.sg.
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Cover photo: Mark Suter © Sloth Creatives
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 with its 44week calendar of events.
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 through its school programmes. 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 2021, the SSO clinched third place in the prestigious Orchestra of the Year Award by Gramophone. In 2022, BBC Music Magazine named the SSO as one of the 23 best orchestras in the world.
In July 2022, the SSO appointed renowned Austrian conductor Hans Graf as its Music Director, the third in the orchestra’s history after Lan Shui (1997-2019) and Choo Hoey (1979-1996). Prior to this, Hans Graf served as Chief Conductor from 2020.
The orchestra performs over 60 concerts a year, and its versatile repertoire spans alltime 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. The SSO makes its performing home at the 1,800-seat state-ofthe-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.
Beyond Singapore, 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 praise in major UK newspapers The Guardian and The Telegraph. The SSO has also performed in China on multiple occasions. In the 2024/25 season, the SSO performed in Kyoto as part of the Asia Orchestra Week, as well as a three-city tour of Australia.
The SSO has released more than 50 recordings, with over 30 on the BIS label. Recent critically acclaimed albums include Herrmann’s Wuthering Heights (Chandos) and Scriabin – Poems of Ecstasy and Fire (BIS). With Singaporean violinist Chloe Chua, the SSO has recorded the Four Seasons, as well as the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, and a Mozart Violin Concerto cycle with Hans Graf to be released by Pentatone Records in the 2024/25 season. The SSO also leads the revival and recording of significant works such as Kozłowski’s Requiem, Ogerman’s Symbiosis (after Bill Evans) and violin concertos by Robert Russell Bennett and Vernon Duke.
The SSO has collaborated with such great artists as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Joe Hisaishi, Neeme Järvi, Hannu Lintu, Lorin Maazel, Martha Argerich, Diana Damrau, Janine Jansen, Leonidas Kavakos, Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Mischa Maisky, Gil Shaham and Krystian Zimerman.
The SSO is part of the Singapore Symphony Group, which also manages the Singapore Symphony Choruses, the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, the Singapore International Piano Festival and the biennial National Piano & Violin Competition.
The Group’s vision is to be a leading arts organisation that engages, inspires and reflects Singapore through musical excellence. Our mission 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.
Julian Kuerti
conductor
Canadian conductor Julian Kuerti has led major symphony orchestras and appeared in renowned opera houses and concert halls on five continents, and enjoys close working relationships with many of the leading soloists and singers of today.
Kuerti is Music Director of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra in Kalamazoo, Michigan, a position he has held since 2018. He has enjoyed a strong relationship with the National Symphony Orchestra of Peru, where he was appointed principal guest in 2019.
In addition to his appearances in Singapore, Kuerti’s Asian and Australasian performances include tours with the Sydney Symphony, the Malaysian Philharmonic, and a five-concert tour with the New Zealand Symphony. He was described as the “Epitome of cool graciousness” by The New Zealand Herald for his interpretation of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.
In Europe, Kuerti’s guest engagements have brought him to the Deutsches SymphonieOrchester Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and Stavanger Symphony of Norway on numerous occasions. He has also enjoyed concerts with the Vasteras Sinfonietta, Deustche Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony, Kristiansand Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, and RTE National Orchestra of Dublin.
In North America, Kuerti has appeared with all the major Canadian orchestras, and in the United States with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the symphonies of Houston, Dallas, Cincinnati, Seattle, New Jersey, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Utah and the St. Paul and Los Angeles chamber orchestras. Kuerti has enjoyed collaborations with soloists including Yo-Yo Ma, Leif Ove Andsnes, Leon Fleisher, Itzhak Perlman, Stephen Hough, Lynn Harrell and Peter Serkin.
Previous posts include Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montreal and Principal Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Concepción in Chile.
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and Beethoven’s Eroica | 24 & 25 Jan 2025
Yu-Chien (Benny) Tseng is rapidly building an international reputation as one of today’s most exciting and gifted young concert soloists of enormous promise praised for his “grace, poise, and blistering virtuosity.”
Yu-Chien has won the XV International Tchaikovsky Violin Competition in 2015. Besides, he previously won first prizes at the Singapore International Violin Competition, Sarasate Violin Competition and the Isang Yun Violin Competition in Korea.
After his German debut with the Saarbrucken Radio Orchestra, the critic praised his performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto: “Classically balanced without showing off; Sensitive and discreet nuances; Highly cultured sound; Graceful and playful, relaxed elegance without attitude — Exemplary!”
Yu-Chien has appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta and among many others. He has worked with Maestros such as Valery Gergiev, Jiří Bělohlávek, Mikhail Pletnev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Osmo Vänskä, Jacek Kaspszyk and Lan Shui.
Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Yu-Chien pursued his studies in the renowned Curtis Institute of Music from the age of 13 with eminent educator Aaron Rosand and Ida Kavafian. He plays on the “ex Jules Massenet” 1735 Nicolo Gagliano on generous loan from a private collector.
Yu-Chien Benny Tseng violin
Hans Graf conductor
Quantedge Music Director, Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Armed with a spirit of musical curiosity and discovery, creative programming and his commanding presence on stage, Austrian conductor Hans Graf has raised orchestras to new heights while winning audiences young and old alike. With Hans Graf, “a brave new world of music-making under inspired direction” (The Straits Times) began at the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, as Chief Conductor in the 2020/21 season, and Music Director since the 2022/23 season.
Graf was formerly Music Director of the Houston Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Basque National Orchestra and the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg. He is a frequent guest with major orchestras worldwide including the orchestras of Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Vienna, Leipzig Gewandhaus, DSO Berlin, Dresden, Royal Concertgebouw, Oslo, Hallé, London, Royal Philharmonic, Budapest Festival, St Petersburg, Russian National, Melbourne, Sydney, Seoul, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and the Bavarian, Danish and Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestras. Graf has led operas in
the Vienna State Opera, Munich, Berlin, Paris, Strasbourg, Rome and Zurich. In 2014 he was awarded the Österreichischer Musiktheaterpreis for Strauss’s Die Feuersnot at the famed Vienna Volksoper, where he returned in 2021 to lead Rosenkavalier
Hans Graf’s extensive discography includes all symphonies of Mozart and Schubert, the complete orchestral works of Dutilleux, and the world-premiere recording of Zemlinsky’s Es war einmal. Graf’s recording of Berg’s Wozzeck with the Houston Symphony won the GRAMMY and ECHO Klassik awards for best opera recording. With the Singapore Symphony, Graf has recorded the music of Paul von Klenau, Józef Kozłowski’s Requiem, an upcoming Mozart Violin Concerto cycle with Chloe Chua, and Stravinsky Concertos with violinist He Ziyu and pianist Alexei Volodin.
Hans Graf is Professor Emeritus for Orchestral Conducting at the Universität Mozarteum, Salzburg. For his services to music, he was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre de la Légion d'Honneur by the French government, and the Grand Decoration of Honour of the Republic of Austria.
© BRYAN VAN DER BEEK
Born in Cebu, Philippines, Albert Tiu has been called “an artist of uncommon abilities” by American Record Guide. His last Centaur recording, “Grand Russian”, pairing Tchaikovsky’s Grand Sonata and Rachmaninov’s 1st Sonata, was cited in ARG: “Even with some legendary competition in this repertoire, Tiu stands tall with his interpretations and technical accomplishment.” A previous disc, “The Classical Elements”, featuring twenty pieces grouped under Earth, Air, Water and Fire, was rated 5 Stars in International Piano and praised by Fanfare for a “fascinating recital containing some stunning playing.”
Head of Piano Studies at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore, he holds the Madeline Goh Professorship in Piano. He studied with Jerome Lowenthal at the Juilliard School, with Michael Lewin at Boston Conservatory, and with Nita Abrogar-Quinto and Nelly Castro in the Philippines. He is a recipient of Juilliard’s William Petschek Award and a prizewinner of competitions in Pretoria (UNISA), Calgary (Honens), Helsinki (Maj Lind) and Santander (Paloma O’Shea).
Known for his innovative programming, he has presented thought-provoking thematic recitals, like “Chopin: Before & Beyond” (works that influenced Chopin and works inspired by Chopin), and “Bee Flat” (the two Sonatas in B-flat by Beethoven). He has performed with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Hamburg Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Winnipeg Symphony, and Philippine Philharmonic. In 2005, he gave the Singapore premiere of Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto with the Singapore Symphony and Tang Muhai. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto K. 488 with the SSO and Hans Graf in their first concert in January 2021.
Fanfare: Brass, Percussion and Carmen |
Albert Tiu piano
The Orchestra
Hans Graf
Quantedge Music Director
Rodolfo Barráez
Associate Conductor
Choo Hoey
Conductor Emeritus
Lan Shui
Conductor Laureate
Eudenice Palaruan
Choral Director
Wong Lai Foon Choirmaster
Ellissa Sayampanathan
Assistant Choral Conductor
First Violin
(Position vacant) Concertmaster, GK Goh Chair
David Coucheron Co-Principal Guest Concertmaster
Kevin Lin Co-Principal Guest Concertmaster
Kong Zhao Hui1 Associate Concertmaster
Chan Yoong-Han2 Fixed Chair
Cao Can*
Duan Yu Ling
Foo Say Ming
Jin Li
Kong Xianlong
Cindy Lee
Karen Tan
William Tan
Wei Zhe
Ye Lin*
Zhang Si Jing
Second Violin
Nikolai Koval*
Sayuri Kuru
Hai-Won Kwok
Margit Saur
Shao Tao Tao
Tseng Chieh-An
Wu Man Yun*
Xu Jueyi*
Yin Shu Zhan*
Zhao Tian
Viola
Manchin Zhang Principal, Tan Jiew Cheng Chair
Guan Qi Associate Principal
Gu Bing Jie* Fixed Chair
Marietta Ku
Luo Biao
Julia Park
Shui Bing
Janice Tsai
Dandan Wang
Yang Shi Li
Cello
Ng Pei-Sian Principal, The HEAD Foundation Chair
Yu Jing Associate Principal
Guo Hao Fixed Chair
Chan Wei Shing
Christopher Mui
Jamshid Saydikarimov
Song Woon Teng
Wang Yan
Wu Dai Dai
Zhao Yu Er
Double Bass
Yang Zheng Yi Associate Principal
Karen Yeo Fixed Chair
Jacek Mirucki
Guennadi Mouzyka
Wang Xu
Flute
Jin Ta Principal, Stephen Riady Chair
Evgueni Brokmiller Associate Principal
Roberto Alvarez
Miao Shanshan
Piccolo
Roberto Alvarez Assistant Principal
Oboe
Rachel Walker Principal
Pan Yun Associate Principal
Carolyn Hollier
Elaine Yeo
Cor Anglais
Elaine Yeo Associate Principal
Clarinet
Ma Yue Principal
Li Xin Associate Principal
Liu Yoko
Tang Xiao Ping
Bass Clarinet
Tang Xiao Ping Assistant Principal
Bassoon
Guo Siping Principal
Liu Chang Associate Principal
Christoph Wichert
Zhao Ying Xue
Contrabassoon
Zhao Ying Xue Assistant Principal
Horn
Austin Larson Principal
Gao Jian Associate Principal
Jamie Hersch Associate Principal
Marc-Antoine Robillard Associate Principal
Bryan Chong^
Hoang Van Hoc
Trumpet
Jon Paul Dante Principal
David Smith Associate Principal
Lau Wen Rong
Nuttakamon Supattranont
Trombone
Allen Meek Principal
Damian Patti Associate Principal
Samuel Armstrong
Bass Trombone
Wang Wei Assistant Principal
Tuba
Tomoki Natsume Principal
Timpani
Christian Schiøler Principal
Mario Choo
Percussion
Jonathan Fox Principal
Mark Suter Associate Principal
Mario Choo
Lim Meng Keh
Harp
Gulnara Mashurova Principal
With deep appreciation to the Rin Collection for their generous loan of string instruments. Musician on annual contract.
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.
Chan Yoong-Han performs on a David Tecchler, Fecit Roma An. D. 1700, courtesy of Mr G K Goh. Musicians listed alphabetically by family name rotate their seats on a per programme basis.
Guest
Musicians
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and Beethoven’s Eroica 24 & 25 Jan 2025
First Violin Andrew Beer Guest Concertmaster
Fanfare: Brass, Percussion and Carmen 28 Feb & 1 Mar 2025
Tuba Brett Stemple
Percussion
Harp Charity Kiew
Lee Yu Ru
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and Beethoven’s Eroica
Yu-Chien Benny Tseng and Julian Kuerti
Fri & Sat, 24 & 25 Jan 2025
Victoria Concert Hall
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Julian Kuerti conductor
Yu-Chien Benny Tseng violin*
Andrew Beer Guest Concertmaster
Dedicated to
Ligeti
Concert Românesc 14 mins
SSO PREMIERE
Mendelssohn
Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64*
26 mins
Intermission 20 mins
Beethoven
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 “Eroica” 47 mins
Concert Duration: approximately 2 hrs (including 20 mins intermission)
György Ligeti
1923 – 2006
Concert Românesc (1951)
Andantino
Allegro vivace
Adagio ma non troppo
Molto vivace – Presto
The “Romanian Concerto”, an early piece written at the tail end of Ligeti’s twenties, gets its name from the fact that it is a concerto for orchestra based on real Romanian folk tunes. As a Hungarian interested in folk music, the obvious model to look up to was Bartók, although the opening looks to another great Hungarian’s music (Kodály’s Háry János suite starts with a single string line as well). Throughout, the harmony and rhythms used are firmly on well-trodden territory, with very little curiosity to venture outside the terrain explored by these two greats of the previous generation.
To modern ears, the music is charming, colourful, and filled with clever orchestral touches. In 1951, when the piece was first rehearsed, the Soviet-controlled government banned the piece after a single session, thanks to its “modernism”. The most obvious of these is a curious microtonal inflection in the horn solo near the beginning of the 3rd movement, which is actually just a natural harmonic (the “natural” 7th, a little flatter than a minor 7th). In fact, the official reason given was that Ligeti’s re-harmonisations of folk tunes was too daring: an F-sharp against F major… This flimsy reason was enough to cause the premiere to be delayed by a whole twenty years!
The exciting final movement, weighing in at just under half the length of the whole piece, is a huge showcase of Roma fiddling, remembered from Ligeti’s youth in the Transylvania and reconfirmed during his studies spent recording and transcribing folk music. Ligeti also invented music in the spirit of village bands to bring his own musical ideas into the mix. It is near the end of this movement that the infamous “F-sharp” moment happens, coupled with the violin chirping away in its highest range. Another horn call moment, bringing us back into the mountains… before a final triumphant crash ends the piece.
Instrumentation
2 flutes (1 doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes (1 doubling on cor anglais), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 3 horns, 2 trumpets, cymbals, suspended cymbal, snare drum, bass drum, strings
World Premiere 21 Aug 1971, Wisconsin
Notes by Thomas Ang
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and Beethoven’s Eroica | 24 & 25 Jan 2025
Felix Mendelssohn
1809 – 1847
Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (1844)
Allegro molto appassionato
II III
Andante
Allegretto non troppo – Allegro molto vivace
Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto was the result of a strong friendship between the composer and Ferdinand David (1810-1873). They first met in their teens and David became one of the foremost violin virtuosos of his day. When Mendelssohn was appointed Music Director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, he appointed David as concertmaster. Later, when Mendelssohn founded the Leipzig Conservatory, David was one of the first he appointed to his faculty.
Mendelssohn wrote to David in 1838, “I would like to write a violin concerto for you next winter, there’s one in E minor in my head, and its opening won’t leave me in peace”, but it took Mendelssohn until 1844 to find the time and inspiration to complete the concerto. Although he had previously written another Violin Concerto (in D minor) in his youth, he worked closely with David to mould the solo violin part for this concerto. He regularly wrote to David to find out how playable the parts were, whether it was “written correctly and smoothly”, and about balance between the soloist and the various orchestral instruments. This composing-in-partnership style was later repeated by many composers for their violin concertos, including Brahms, Elgar, Stravinsky, Bartók, and Shostakovich, all seeking technical advice from their violin virtuoso friends.
After just one and a half bars of E minor, anchored by pulsating timpani and bass, the
solo violin swoops in with the main subject of the first movement. Mendelssohn wrote to David, “you ask that it should be brilliant… the whole of the first solo is to be for the E string.” This brilliantly passionate melody soars high. The solo violin descends over three octaves, gently settling into its lowest note – G – which forms the base for the tranquil second subject, introduced by the flutes and clarinets.
Mendelssohn placed the solo cadenza right before the reprise of the main theme, or the recapitulation. This was at an earlier point than the audience members of his day would have expected it to be placed, and later inspired the cadenza placement of Tchaikovsky’s own Violin Concerto.
The cadenza owes much to David’s influence, both in length and in clarifying Mendelssohn’s denser original – “so short that it barely made an impression”, according to reviewer
“you ask that it should be brilliant… the whole of the first solo is to be for the E string.”
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and Beethoven’s Eroica | 24 & 25 Jan 2025
Ivan Hewett writing in response to Daniel Hope’s recording of the “original” cadenza. The cadenza’s positioning allows the violin to continue spinning its arpeggios when the orchestra returns with the main theme.
A few years earlier, Mendelssohn had experimented with having his Scottish Symphony performed without a break between movements, no doubt inspired by Schumann’s D minor Symphony. In this concerto, Mendelssohn linked the first two movements together, with a bassoon holding onto one note from the final chord of the first movement. Slowly, other instruments join in, as the music transitions and coalesces into the “song without words” of the second movement. Its simplicity and beauty bely its lyricism; this melody was later set to words by Andrew Lloyd Webber in Jesus Christ Superstar, as “I don’t know how to love him”. A passionate middle section recalls the surge of the preceding movement, before a reprise of the song brings the movement to an almost religious close.
Another bridge passage mulls on and recalls the middle section of the second movement, before a fanfare announces the arrival of the third movement. The fairy lights and puckish music of A Midsummer Night’s Dream are recalled in a delightful and sparkling dance for the violin. There is still space for Mendelssohn’s trademark broad, swinging tunes to make an appearance, and these alternate and combine with the dancing fairies to bring the concerto to a spirited end.
Instrumentation
solo violin, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings
World Premiere
13 Mar 1845, Leipzig
First performed by SSO 28 Jun 1979 (Lee Pan Hon, violin)
Notes by Christopher Cheong | Christopher performs as a violist, worked as a lawyer, and recently moved into the arts.
Lithograph of Ferdinand David, 1846
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and Beethoven’s Eroica | 24 & 25 Jan 2025
Ludwig van Beethoven
1770 – 1827
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 “Eroica” (1803)
Allegro con brio
Marcia funebre. Adagio assai
III IV
Scherzo. Allegro vivace
Finale. Allegro molto
The Eroica Symphony was first performed to extremely mixed reviews. Contemporaneous accounts showed audiences divided into two clear camps, with Beethoven’s friends on one side trumpeting the work’s genius and calling it a masterpiece, and the other denying it had any artistic value. What was agreed upon was that the whole symphony, lasting around 50 minutes, was far longer than symphonies were expected to be at that point in time. More than 200 years on, with audiences now familiar with the gigantic works of Bruckner and Mahler, that charge seems faintly ridiculous, but it is undeniable that Beethoven broke new ground when writing his Third Symphony, with innovations in instrumentation, form, and content.
Mozart’s own famous E-flat major symphony (No. 39) was only 15 years in the past, and the Eroica’s first movement shows Beethoven’s familiarity with that particular work, being constructed along largely similar lines. However, the devil is in the details, and Beethoven’s confidence in his compositional prowess allowed him to come up with several unexpected turns of harmony and interpolate additional passages, including the famous “early return” of the main theme in the horn that confused many of the first listeners.
The second movement is a long and stately funeral march, justifiably celebrated for its Beethovenian touches: a suddenly dramatic climax after a turn towards a fugue passage, where the instruments imitate one another in succession. The long, drawn-out return to the original mood is very thoughtfully composed, and the movement peters out into nothingness.
The orchestra chugs back into life with the super-fast Scherzo, a third movement of relative brevity. Beethoven shows admirable restraint in keeping the volume low for a while, projecting bubbling excitement before a full fanfare. This lighter mood continues throughout and eventually spills into the optimistic final movement, which is a happy set of variations on a dance-like theme.
Beethoven in 1803, portrait by Christian Horneman
Beethoven had used this theme before on several occasions, including a similar set of variations for the piano, and it proved to be the only theme he would reuse so many times in his life. Other than serving as a piano piece, it had its origins in a set of orchestral dances before being co-opted to function as the finale to a ballet. The symphony takes a much more dramatic approach, however, and even though the piano variations are longer than this finale movement, the formal weight of the symphony had to be balanced accordingly. To this end, Beethoven employed wide-ranging modulations, two fugues, a slower section in a completely different tempo, and several different kinds of dances before sweeping up the full force of the orchestra in a rousing ending, with punchy E-flat major chords tying the package up neatly.
Instrumentation
2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 3 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings
World Premiere
7 Apr 1805, Vienna
First performed by SSO 28 Jun 1979
Notes by Thomas Ang | Thomas Ang is a pianist at the Royal Opera House, where he rehearses and plays for operas and ballets. He also specialises in the music of Medtner and Kapustin. www.thomasang.com
Fanfare: Brass, Percussion and Carmen
Fri & Sat, 28 Feb & 1 Mar 2025
Victoria Concert Hall
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Hans Graf Quantedge Music Director
Albert Tiu piano*
Dedicated to the late
Dr Goh Keng Swee, founding patron of the SSO
Dukas
Fanfare pour précéder La Péri
3 mins
Barber
Barber
Mutations from Bach
6 mins SSO PREMIERE
Hindemith
Konzertmusik for Piano, Brass and Two Harps, Op. 49*
21 mins
SSO PREMIERE
Intermission
20 mins
Bizet/Shchedrin
Carmen Suite
44 mins
Concert Duration: approximately 1 hr 50 mins (including 20 mins intermission)
“The SSO is indeed a fitting legacy of Goh’s efforts which forever transformed the nation’s artistic and cultural scene. All of us who now enjoy the music of the SSO and the vibrant cultural life of Singapore owe an immense debt to Goh Keng Swee, who understood from the very beginning that economic strength must be balanced by cultural wealth for a nation to be truly whole.”
— Bernard T. G. Tan
Studying the rich history of the SSO inevitably draws one to the important role played by our founding patron, Dr Goh Keng Swee.
In 1977, when Dr Goh was Deputy Prime Minister, he championed setting up a professional symphony orchestra in Singapore. For a nation to truly be whole, Dr Goh understood from the very beginning that economic power had to be balanced by cultural wealth.1 The Singapore Symphonia Company Limited was formed, and the SSO held its inaugural concert with just over 40 musicians taking the stage in January 1979. One year later, the SSO moved into the Victoria Concert Hall, which was leased to the SSO for 99 years as its home.
Dr Goh did much more than just start an orchestra. He arranged for young, talented Singaporeans to pursue their musical aspirations abroad through scholarships. On their return, many of these students joined the SSO, and a number remain with the orchestra today.
The SSO has achieved much international acclaim and is an integral part of Singapore’s artistic identity and landscape today. For this, and for much else, we have Dr Goh Keng Swee’s vision and determination to thank.
T G Tan: Goh Keng Swee’s Cultural Contributions and the Making of the Singapore
A Legacy of Public Service 1
Goh Keng
Bernard
Symphony Orchestra,
Swee:
From Goh Keng Swee: A Legacy of Public Service (edited by Emrys Chew & Chong Guan Kwa)
Dr Goh Keng Swee. Photo: Russel Wong
Fanfare: Brass, Percussion and Carmen | 28 Feb & 1 Mar 2025
Paul Dukas
1865 – 1935
Fanfare pour précéder La Péri (1912)
Dukas, a French composer and critic, is best known for the symphonic poem The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1897), which was famously featured in Disney’s Fantasia (1940) during Mickey Mouse’s enchanted broom scene. His second most-performed work, the Fanfare pour précéder La Péri (1912), serves as a prelude to the one-movement ballet La Péri. In the ballet, the young Persian prince Iskender journeys to the Ends of the Earth in search of the Flower of Immortality, encountering its guardian, the Péri (a fairy). Written with no thematic link to the ballet, the energetic brass fanfare functioned as a call to order, allowing the typically noisy early 20th century French audiences time to settle into their seats before the ballet’s quiet opening.
Instrumentation
4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba
World Premiere (Ballet) 22 Apr 1912, Paris
First performed by SSO 24 Feb 2002
Costume design for Dukas's La Péri by Léon Bakst, 1922
Samuel Barber
1910 – 1981
Mutations from Bach (1968)
Despite Barber’s prodigious interest in music, his family hoped he would become the ideal extroverted, athletic American boy. At the age of 9, he wrote a letter to his mother declaring that he was “meant to be a composer” and pleading, “don’t cry when you read this”. He would indeed become one of the most celebrated composers of the mid-20th century. In this sequence of musical transformations, Barber takes a historical approach to the Lutheran hymn Christe, du Lamm Gotten (“Christ, you Lamb of God”). Despite its title, Mutations does not begin with Bach but with an earlier setting of the melody by the Hamburg organist Joachim Decker (c.1575–1611). Then, at the first entrance of the trumpets, we hear Bach’s richer harmonisation of the melody from his Cantata No. 23, Du wahrer Gott and Davids Sohn (“You true God and Son of David”).
The timpani roll ushers in a descending bell motif and a rousing canon—shared between trombones and trumpets—based on Bach’s chorale prelude from the Orgelbüchlein BWV 619 (Little Organ Book). As the chorale tapers off, Barber borrows a particularly beautiful recitative from Bach’s Cantata No. 23, transforming it into an ornate horn solo accompanied by trombones. Bringing the work full circle, Mutations concludes with a gentle reminder of Decker’s chorale on muted horns. The spacious nobility of this work reflects Barber’s admiration for Bach; Bach’s chorale harmonisation and prelude on this theme were among the music Barber requested to be performed at his funeral.
Fanfare: Brass, Percussion and Carmen | 28 Feb & 1
Instrumentation
4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani
World Premiere 7 Oct 1968, New York
Paul Hindemith
1895 – 1963
Konzertmusik for Piano, Brass and Two Harps, Op. 49 (1930)
Ruhig gehende Viertel
Lebhaft
Sehr ruhig. Variationen
Mäßig schnell, kraftvoll
“A musician who produces music as a tree bears fruit, without further philosophical purpose”. Einstein’s famous assessment of Hindemith captures the composer’s workmanlike credo and his close identification with the concept of Gebrauchsmusik: utility music composed with a specific purpose in mind. A German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, and conductor, Hindemith left few musical mediums untouched. While his use of form and texture honours the Baroque and Classical traditions, his harmonic language is much more modern. Yet, the “atonal” label is often incorrectly attached to his style—tonality is as essential to Hindemith’s music as the gravitational pull beneath our feet. His music is based on tonal centres, and from these centres, the music takes on tension or repose depending on the tonal distance involved.
“It seems as if the wave of serious and great music is now gradually coming again”, Hindemith wrote to his publisher in 1931. Hindemith himself was a key figure in this stylistic change and distanced himself from the supposed garishness of the 1920s with his series of three Konzertmusik in 1929 and 1930. Unlike the solo concerto, which is prevalent in concert halls today, Hindemith’s Konzertmusik for Piano, Brass and Two Harps offers a visionary take on the Baroque concerto grosso form, where musical
“It seems as if the wave of serious and great music is now gradually coming again”
material is passed between a small group of soloists and the full orchestra. This music is bitonal, meaning that it simultaneously exists between two different tonal centres— listeners encountering this kind of intentional dissonance for the first time might wonder if they are accidentally streaming two different works. It is this richly layered complexity, and its potential to express conflict, that defines Hindemith’s voice.
The work opens with a solemn tuba solo accompanied by a horn choir. Marked Ruhig gehende Viertel (calmly walking quarter-notes), the first movement never quite sheds its morose, funereal character, but the tendril-like contrapuntal lines from the pianist—who only plays in the treble register—offer crystalline lyricism to counter the dark procession of the brass. The second movement, Lebhaft (Lively),
begins with a solo piano fugue in an angular, toccata style. Hindemith’s austere sense of humour comes through in the raucous brass outbursts, the first of which is almost absurd in its sudden roughness—these engage with the pianist’s strident chords and scampering figures in a chaotic dialogue.
The third movement, Sehr ruhig (very calm), is a set of variations with only piano and two harps. The reduced instrumentation evokes an enigmatic, intimate soundworld, and at times, the piano and harps blend so seamlessly that they sound like one instrument. As a wakeup call from this hazy dream, a heroic brass statement opens the final movement, Mäßig schnell, kraftvoll (moderately fast, powerful). In this, Hindemith quotes a folk tune for the first time in his career: So wünsch ich ihr ein’ gute Nacht (“So I Wish Her a Good Night”).
Instrumentation
solo piano, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, 2 harps
World Premiere 10 Dec 1930, Chicago
Notes by See Ning Hui | See Ning Hui is a pianist, researcher, and educator passionate about integrating underrepresented composers’ music. She is an adjunct lecturer at UAS-NAFA. Upcoming engagements can be found on www.ninghuisee.com.
Paul Hindemith, around 1930
Rodion Shchedrin
b. 1932
Carmen Suite (1967, after Bizet’s opera)
Introduction
Dance
First Intermezzo
Changing of the Guard
Carmen’s Entrance and Habañera
Scene
Second Intermezzo
Bizet’s opera Carmen is full of melodies recognisable even by people not otherwise familiar with classical music. The tale of Carmen, immoral gypsy seductress, and her lover Don José has captivated the creative imaginations of composers and Broadway producers alike. In 1967, Carmen fever hit the Russian composer Rodion Konstaninovich Shchedrin.
Shchedrin attended the Moscow Choral School and the Moscow Conservatory and wrote his Carmen Suite as a one-act ballet for his wife, prima ballerina assoluta Maya Plisetskaya, who had been previously turned down by Shostakovich and Khachaturian. Shchedrin reorchestrates with generous use of percussion, particularly South American percussion, possibly a nod to the ballet’s Cuban choreographer Alberto Alonso, giving a radical take on Bizet’s tunes, one that might perhaps be nicknamed “Carmen in the Caribbean”. Yet, given how Carmen’s quintessential Habañera (the dance of Havana) has its roots in a Cuban dance, it is also curiously appropriate—as the Spanish would say ida y vuelta (“there and back”).
Shchedrin scores for a standard string orchestra supplemented by timpani and four
Bolero
Torero
Torero and Carmen
Adagio
Fortune-Telling Finale
percussionists who play a dizzying variety of instruments – a deliberate move to ensure distance from Bizet’s scoring. After the premiere, the ballet was banned by the Soviet Minister of Culture as it was seen as insulting to Bizet’s opera. “We cannot allow them to make a whore out of Carmen” – ironic given Carmen’s unabashed sexpot character. It took a personal intervention by Shostakovich to
Carmen costume designs by Fyodor Fedorovsky, c. 1907
save it.
The work begins with an Introduction wherein the tubular bells evocatively play one of the themes supported by mysterious strings. The vibrant Dance that follows is based on Bizet’s overture. The First Intermezzo gives a pastoral mood but ominous drum strokes bring in the ‘Fate’ motif. The Changing of the Guard makes ample use of percussion, playing around with Bizet’s rhythms before Carmen’s Entrance and Habañera, in which the strings carry the sultry melody of seduction. Bubbling seduction boils over in the Scene, the longest in the Suite, where Carmen seduces Don José, followed by the Second Intermezzo.
The bullfighter Escamillo enters in the Bolero and Torero sections, and Shchedrin cheekily has the melody drop out occasionally, with just the accompaniment playing – allowing the famous Toreador Song melody to play in the minds of the listeners. Torero and Carmen depict the couple together, before Don José’s Flower Song appears in the Adagio to plead for her return. The intense Fortune-Telling recounts Carmen’s Tarot-card reading wherein her death is foretold. The Suite concludes with the Finale, where melodies are twisted, given unexpectedly to exotic percussion, mercilessly crushed and juxtaposing the busy bullfight arena with Carmen’s death, with a result that is much like Carmen herself – a hot mess.
Fanfare: Brass, Percussion and Carmen | 28 Feb & 1 Mar 2025
Instrumentation timpani, strings
Percussion 1: marimba, vibraphone, castanets, 3 cowbells, 4 bongos, wind chimes, snare drum, güiro
Percussion 2: xylophone, marimba, field drum, tambourine, 2 wood blocks, claves, triangle, güiro
Percussion 3: glockenspiel, crotales, maracas, whip, snare drum, cabasa, güiro, 3 temple blocks, bass drum, tam-tam, tenor drum, triangle
Percussion 4: cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, hi-hat, triangle, tambourine, 5 tom-toms
World Premiere
20 Apr 1967, Moscow
First performed by SSO 19 Sep 1986
Notes by Edward C. Yong | A writer, editor, and teacher of dead languages, Edward plays lute and early guitars, sings bass, and runs an early music group. Like his dog, he is very much food-motivated.
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The vision of the Singapore Symphony Group is to be a leading arts organisation that engages, inspires and reflects Singapore through musical excellence. Our mission 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
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