Singapore Symphony Orchestra Sep-Oct 2022

CONCERT PROGRAMME

SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER 2022

PACHO FLORES – THRILL OF THE TRUMPET FANTASIA, FAREWELLS AND FAURÉ SOYOUNG YOON PLAYS SIBELIUS

Sep-Oct 2022

PACHO FLORES – THRILL OF THE TRUMPET

8 Sep 2022, Thu

Esplanade Concert Hall

FANTASIA, FAREWELLS AND FAURÉ

16 & 17 Sep 2022, Fri & Sat

Victoria Concert Hall

SOYOUNG YOON PLAYS SIBELIUS

6 Oct 2022, Thu

Esplanade Concert Hall

For the enjoyment of all patrons during the concert:

• Please switch off or silence all electronic devices.

• 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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Autograph sessionA

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 2021, the SSO clinched third place in the prestigious Orchestra of the Year Award by Gramophone.

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, leading the SSO in keeping music alive during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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. The SSO launched its digital concert hall, SSOLOUNGE, in 2021. Bridging the musical traditions of East and West, Singaporean and Asian musicians and composers are regularly showcased in the concert season.

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 critical acclaim in the major UK newspapers The Guardian and The Telegraph. The SSO has also performed in China on multiple occasions.

The SSO has released more than 50 recordings, with over 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”. A Four Seasons album and a complete Mozart Violin Concerto cycle with Chloe Chua and Hans Graf will be released in the near future.

The SSO has also collaborated with such great artists as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Joe Hisaishi, Neeme Järvi, Okko Kamu, Hannu Lintu, Andrew Litton, Lorin Maazel, Martha Argerich, Ray Chen, Diana Damrau, Stephen Hough, Janine Jansen, Leonidas Kavakos,

The SSO is part of the Singapore Symphony Group, which also manages the Singapore Symphony Choruses, the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, and the VCHpresents chamber music series, the Singapore International Piano Festival and the biennial National Piano & Violin Competition.

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.

HANS GRAF Music Director

Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham and Krystian Zimerman.

LEO MCFALL

conductor

Leo McFall is Chief Conductor of Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg since the 2020/21 season. Winner of the Deutsche Dirigentenpreis 2015 and a finalist in the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award 2014, this is his debut with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

His appearances as a guest conductor in recent seasons have included projects with English National Opera (La Traviata), Glyndebourne Festival and Glyndebourne on Tour (Vanessa and Così fan tutte, The Magic Flute), Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden

© JULIA LEIJOLA

(Otello and Falstaff) and Opera North (The Turn of the Screw) as well as appearances with the Alma Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Orchestre National de Lyon and Sinfonia Lahti, among many others. Leading instrumentalists with whom he has collaborated include Nicholas Angelich, David Fray, Jan Lisiecki, Nils Mönkemeyer, Kian Soltani and Antje Weithaas. Leo McFall enjoyed a close working relationship with Bernard Haitink, assisting him in the preparation of concerts with the Chicago Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and Vienna Philharmonic.

Leo McFall’s recording with the NDR Radiophilharmonie for the Label CPO (Emilie Mayer: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2) was received to great critical acclaim and has been awarded with the “Opus Klassik 2021” in the category “Symphonic Recording / Music 19th century”.

Born in the United Kingdom, Leo McFall studied conducting at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy, where his tuition from Leif Segerstam was complemented by classes with, among others, Hannu Lintu, Jorma Panula and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. He undertook further studies with Johannes Schlaefli at the Zurich University of the Arts.

PACHO FLORES

Pacho Flores was awarded First Prize in the Maurice André International Competition, as well as First Prize in the Philip Jones and Cittá di Porcia International Competitions. Trained in the marvellous Orchestra System for Youth and Children in Venezuela, he received top recognition for his performances, recitals, and recordings.

As a soloist, he has performed with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Kiev, Camerata from St. Petersburg, Orchestral Ensemble from Paris, NHK Orchestra from Japan, Symphony Orchestra of Tokyo, Philharmonic Orchestra of Osaka, Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, Liverpool Philharmonic and San Diego Symphony amongst many others. He has also given recitals in concert halls such as the Carnegie Hall in New York, Pleyel Hall in Paris, and the Opera City in Tokyo.

Flores is extremely keen on promoting Contemporary Music and does so providing important contributions by means of the performance and interpretation of his instrument. His repertoire includes commissions and premieres of works by composers such as Arturo Márquez, Roberto Sierra, Paquito D’Rivera, Daniel Freiberg, Christian Lindberg and Efraín Oscher.

Artist from the Stomvi family, he plays instruments that have been exclusively manufactured for him by this renowned firm, and he is actively involved in the developments and innovations of his instruments. Pacho Flores is a Deutsche Grammophon exclusive artist with already five recordings, Cantar, with Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin and Christian Vásquez; Entropía, Gold Medal of the Global Music Awards; Fractales, with Arctic Philharmonic and Christian Lindberg; the double CD-DVD Cantos y Revueltas with Real Filharmonía de Galicia and Manuel Hernández-Silva; and Estirpe with Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería y Carlos Miguel Prieto.

PACHO

STEPHEN LAYTON conductor

Awarded with an MBE for services to classical music in October 2020, Stephen Layton is one of the most sought-after conductors of his generation. Often described as the finest exponent of choral music in the world today, his groundbreaking approach has had a profound influence on choral music over the last 30 years. Fellow and Director of Music at Trinity College Cambridge, Layton is also Founder and Director of Polyphony and Music Director of Holst Singers.

© KEITH SAU

Layton is regularly invited to work with the world’s leading choirs, orchestras and composers. His interpretations have been heard from Sydney Opera House to the Concertgebouw, from Tallinn to São Paolo, and his recordings have won or been nominated for every major international recording award. He has two Gramophone Awards (and a further ten nominations), five Grammy nominations, the Diapason d’Or de l’Année in France, the Echo Klassik award in Germany, the Spanish CD compact award, and Australia’s Limelight Recording of the Year. Layton’s recordings have consistently broken new ground, creating a new sound world in British choral music.

Layton is constantly in demand to premiere new works by the greatest established and emerging composers of our age. Passionate in his exploration of new music, Layton has introduced a vast range of new choral works to the UK and the rest of the world, transforming the music into some of the most widely performed today. Longstanding composer partnerships include Arvo Pärt and Sir John Tavener; in the Baltic, Eriks Ešenvalds, Uģis Prauliņš and Veljo Tormis; and in America, Morten Lauridsen and Eric Whitacre, of whose music Layton made two Grammy-nominated recordings.

VICTORIA SONGWEI LI

soprano

London-based Singaporean soprano

Victoria Songwei Li is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with Jennifer Dakin and Yvonne Kenny.

Victoria made her operatic debut in 2012 with New Opera Singapore as Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore (Donizetti).

Since then, opera roles have included Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Britten), Blanche in Les Dialogue des Carmélites (Poulenc), Poppea in L’incoronazione di Poppea (Monteverdi), and Cupidon in Orpheus in the Underworld (Offenbach). For the English National Opera, she has sung the roles of Pepik and Woodpecker in The Cunning Little Vixen (Janáček), and A Handmaid in The Handmaid’s Tale (Poul Ruders).

Opera aside, Victoria has also performed in the Philharmonie de Paris, Barbican Hall, Wigmore Hall, and the LSO St. Luke’s. She has also sung with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo

Dudamel, Southbank Symphonia, Daegu Opera Orchestra, and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

She was also the winner of the Opera category in the David Clover Festival of Singing (UK) and the recipient of the Cyril Greaves Bursary. In 2019, she was awarded First Prize and the Osaka Governor Award at the 20th International Osaka Music Competition (Japan).

MARTIN NG baritone

Born in Singapore and graduated in Voice at the Conservatorio dall’Abaco di Verona, Martin Ng made his debut with the Florence Maggio Fiorentino as Sleep and Corydon in Purcell's The Fairy Queen. He subsequently sang Don Bartolo (Barber of Seville) with the Teatro Comunale di Guastalla, First Soldier (Salome) and Bauer (Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder) for National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra (NTSO), the title role in Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis at Teatro Rosetum in Milan, Silvio (I Pagliacci) with the Teatro Sociale di Trento and Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte) with Taiwan’s Creation Opera.

Other career highlights include Holländer (Der Fliegende Holländer) with the Richard Wagner Association of Singapore, Dulcamara (L’elisir d’amore), Amonasro (Aida) and Escamillio (Carmen) with the Lyric Opera of Singapore, Klingsor (Parsifal) and Scarpia (Tosca) for NTSO.

In 2020 and 2021, for the National Weiwuying Performing Arts Centre, he sang the baritone solo in the English National Opera staging of Britten’s War Requiem, as well as Germont in La Traviata and Ping in Puccini’s Turandot. He also sang Nick Shadow in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress with New Opera Singapore, Marcello (La bohème) with the Singapore Musician’s Initiative and Bartolo (The Barber of Seville) with the National Taichung Theatre.

In 2022, he will sing Batone in Rossini’s L’inganno Felice with Lirica Arts Singapore, and Junius in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia with the Opera People, amongst others.

His concert performances include soloist in Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with Singapore’s Wayfarer Sinfonietta, Bach’s Magnificat and Saint John’s Passion, Buxtenhude’s Membri Jesu Nostri, Mozart’s Coronation Mass with the Orchestra of the Virtuosi Italiani, Mozart and Fauré’s Requiem and the Mozart C minor Mass notably with the Accademia Filarmonica di Verona.

WONG LAI FOON Choirmaster

Armed with a passion to inspire choral excellence in children and youth, Wong Lai Foon has been a driving force behind the development and growth of the Singapore Symphony Children’s and Youth Choirs. A founding conductor of the Children’s Choir (SSCC) at its inception in 2006, Wong was appointed Choirmaster in 2015, and led in the formation of the Youth Choir (SSYC) in 2016.

She has prepared both ensembles in a wide range of performances that have drawn praise for the choirs’ beautiful tone and polished delivery. Highlights of past collaborations with the SSO include Britten’s War Requiem, Bizet’s Carmen, Puccini’s La bohème and Mahler’s Second and Third symphonies. In addition, the SSCC has shared the stage with the celebrated ensemble, The King’s Singers, the Maîtrise de Radio France at the Philharmonie de Paris, and has performed for local and world heads of states at state functions. The SSYC is featured on the SSO’s CD, Russian Spectacular.

Wong has commissioned and premiered works by local composers in an effort to grow the body of local compositions for treble choirs. Her efforts to educate and

inspire extend into the community through workshops, talks, as well as adjudicator, chorus-master and guest-conductor roles. Some ensembles that she has worked with include The Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Singapore Symphony Chorus, Singapore Lyric Opera, Hallelujah Singers, and Methodist Festival Choir. She holds a master’s degree in choral conducting from Westminster Choir College, USA.

SINGAPORE SYMPHONY YOUTH CHOIR

Inspiring Choral Passion

Comprised of Singapore’s finest young choristers aged 17 to 28, the Singapore Symphony Youth Choir is an energetic ensemble inaugurated in 2016 to complement the SSO with a chorus of vibrant voices.

Exploring the best of different musical worlds and styles, the Youth Choir has performed Scriabin’s Prometheus, Puccini’s La bohème, as well as recorded Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. Within the last seasons, the Youth Choir has had opportunities to perform with world renowned conductors and tour with the SSC and SSO, to present at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas in Kuala Lumpur. In 2021, at the height of the pandemic, the Youth Choir continually challenged and overcame performing limitations to produce a digital production of its own, “Where I Belong”.

Wong Lai Foon Choirmaster Evelyn Handrisanto rehearsal pianist

SINGAPORE SYMPHONY CHILDREN'S CHOIR

Nurturing Choral Brilliance

Formed in 2006, the Singapore Symphony Children’s Choir has established itself as the leading children’s choir in Singapore. With over 200 members aged 9 to 18, the choir enriches young singers through holistic choral training that nurtures artistic growth and personal development.

The Children’s Choir has performed great choral masterpieces with the SSO and with distinguished conductors such as Lim Yau, Claus Peter Flor, Sofi Jeannin, François-Xavier Roth and Julie Desbordes. It has toured and performed at the Philharmonie de Paris in collaboration with Maîtrise de Radio France, as well as at Dewan Filharmonik Petronas in Kuala Lumpur with the Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra in concert.

In Singapore, the Children’s Choir has an active performing calendar. It has sung at the Istana, shared the stage with critically acclaimed The King’s Singers, and presented at the 33rd ASEAN Summit. The choir actively commissions and performs works by Darius Lim, Zechariah Goh, and Cultural Medallion winner Kelly Tang, amongst many others.

Wong Lai Foon Choirmaster

Gabriel Hoe rehearsal pianist

The Choruses

SINGAPORE SYMPHONY YOUTH CHOIR

SOPRANO

Hana Kasai

Laura Lee Janice Lim Ivanna Pasaribu Desiree Seng Samyukta Sounderamann Tiffany Tam Carine Tan Tan Yuqing Naddy Teo Jasmine Towndrow Raeanne Wong

TENOR

Cris Bautro Chng Chin Han* Alfonso Cortez Kuek Jing* Lim Enhui* Loy Sheng Rui Seifer Ong

Tan Hee Wong Zhen Wei Ian Yee* Caleb Yeo

^Choral Fellow

*Guest singers

ALTO Anne-Sophie Cazaubon Chan Li Ting Goh Chen Xi Elizabeth Goh Trinetra Kumarasan Trixi Lim Zachary Lim Kerris Loh Ong Sherlyn Ellissa Sayampanathan^ Tan Yulin

BASS

Leonard Buescher Bryan Carmichael David Cho Andy Jatmiko* Aaron Koh Jermyn Leong* Jon Loh Kenneth Tay* Zhang Xidong

SINGAPORE SYMPHONY CHILDREN'S CHOIR

Riyan Ballesteros-Pattanayak

Halyn Cho

Dylan Francis Naomi Heng Emily Hia Abigail Ho Isabelle Ho Rachael Jong Emma Lee-Goh Melina Leong Zoe Li Liu Felix Lu Huaiyao Lu Kaixuan Megan Montefrio Hayley Ng Ng Yi Poh Violet Ong Suri Rao Evangeline Sim Navya Singh Sun Jia Tong Emily Tan Tan Pin Fei Tan Caewyn Stanley Yuan Zhang Haoran Zhang Yixuan Chloe Zhou

JULIAN KUERTI conductor

With a strong international reputation for his interpretations of both orchestral and operatic music, Canadian conductor Julian Kuerti combines a confident style, artistic integrity and passion for collaboration bringing him to the forefront of the music scene.

In 2018, Kuerti was named Music Director of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra and in 2019, he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Peru. Kuerti was the founding Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Berlin’s Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, and

© DARIO ACOSTA

also the Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montreal and Principal Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Concepción in Chile.

In Europe, Kuerti’s guest engagements have brought him to the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and Stavanger Symphony of Norway on numerous occasions. He also enjoyed concerts with the Vasteras Sinfonietta, Deustche Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony, Kristiansand Symphony, and many others.

Closer to home, Kuerti has appeared with all the major Canadian orchestras, and in the United States has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the symphonies of Houston, Dallas, Cincinnati, Seattle, New Jersey, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Utah, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and the St. Paul and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestras. Kuerti has also worked with many artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Leif Ove Andsnes, Leon Fleisher, Itzhak Perlman, Lynn Harrell and Peter Serkin.

In Asia and Australasia, Kuerti has worked with the Sydney Symphony and pianist Stephen Hough, the Malaysian Philharmonic and led a five-concert tour with the New Zealand Symphony.

Born in Toronto into one of Canada’s most distinguished musical families, his father is famed pianist Anton Kuerti. He began his instrumental training on the violin, studying with some of Canada’s finest teachers.

SOYOUNG YOON violin

Violinist Soyoung Yoon has garnered acclaim for her ‘meticulous… highly disciplined’ (Gramophone) and ‘suave’ performances whose ‘technical perfection… is always placed at the service of the music’ (The Guardian). Prize winner of major competitions including the Yehudi Menuhin (First prize), Henryk Wieniawski (First prize), and Indianapolis (silver medallist)

Violin Competitions, Soyoung has earned the respect of her peers as a violinist and chamber musician of the highest calibre.

Soyoung is increasingly in demand on the international stage, having performed as soloist with a number of leading orchestras including the Czech National Symphony, Prague Philharmonia, Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Geneva Chamber Orchestra and Belgian National Orchestra, among many others. Her growing list of collaborators includes Krzysztof Penderecki, Ivor Bolton, Krzysztof Urbanski, Muhai Tang, Maxim Vengerov, Eiji Oue, and Michał Nesterowicz. In Spring 2021, Soyoung was featured as a panel judge in the Menuhin Competition in Richmond, Virginia, as well as in a performance in the opening concert.

Soyoung frequently collaborates with the Korean Chamber Orchestra, having recorded Piazzolla’s Four Seasons and Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Violin and Piano with them,

touring through Asia, Europe, and North America in the process. Along with Veit Hertenstein and Benjamin Gregor-Smith, she founded the ORION String Trio in 2012, winning both First prize and the Audience prize at the 2016 Migros Kulturprozent Chamber Music Competition in Zurich.

Based between Barcelona and Seoul, Soyoung studied at the National University of the Arts in South Korea, with Zakhar Bron at the Cologne University of Music and Dance, and at the Zurich University of the Arts. She plays the J. B. Guadagnini violin (ex-Bückeburg) made in Turin in 1773.

SOYOUNG YOON

© LUKASZ RAJCHERT

The Orchestra

HANS GRAF

Music Director

RODOLFO BARRÁEZ Associate Conductor

CHOO HOEY Conductor Emeritus

LAN SHUI

Conductor Laureate

EUDENICE PALARUAN

Choral Director

WONG LAI FOON

Choirmaster

FIRST VIOLIN

(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*

SECOND VIOLIN

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*

VIOLA

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

CELLO

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

DOUBLE BASS

Yang Zheng Yi Associate Principal Karen Yeo Fixed Chair Olga Alexandrova 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

Liu Chang Associate Principal Christoph Wichert

Zhao Ying Xue

CONTRABASSOON

Zhao Ying Xue Assistant Principal

*

HORN

Gao Jian Associate Principal Jamie Hersch Associate Principal Marc-Antoine Robillard Associate Principal Hoang Van Hoc

TRUMPET

Jon Paul Dante Principal David Smith Associate Principal Lau Wen Rong

TROMBONE

Allen Meek Principal Damian Patti Associate Principal Samuel Armstrong BASS TROMBONE Wang Wei Assistant Principal

TUBA Tomoki Natsume Principal

TIMPANI Christian Schiøler Principal

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. 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

PACHO FLORES – THRILL OF THE TRUMPET | 8 SEP 2022

FIRST VIOLIN

Igor Yuzefovich Guest Concertmaster

SECOND VIOLIN

Lim Shue Churn

Helena Dawn Yah

BASSOON

Marcelo Padilla Guest Principal

HORN Bryan Chong Alexander Oon

TRUMPET Nuttakamon Supattranont

FANTASIA, FAREWELLS AND FAURÉ | 16 & 17 SEP 2022

FIRST VIOLIN

Igor Yuzefovich Guest Concertmaster

ORGAN

Isaac Lee

SOYOUNG YOON PLAYS SIBELIUS | 6 OCT 2022

FIRST VIOLIN

Yusuke Hayashi Guest Concertmaster

Wilford Goh

Lim Shue Churn

Yew Shan

SECOND VIOLIN

Sherzod Abdiev

Lee Shi Mei

Ye Tian

VIOLA

Joelle Hsu

Yeo Jan Wea

DOUBLE BASS

Julian Li

Ma Li Ming

BASSOON

Max Feyertag Guest Principal

HORN Alexander Oon

TRUMPET Nuttakamon Supattranont

PERCUSSION

Lee Yuru Sng Yiang Shan

Tan Pei Jie

HARP Charmaine Teo

PIANO/CELESTE

Beatrice Lin

As a broad-based grantmaking organisation, Tote Board works closely with stakeholders and partners to support broad and diverse worthy projects in the sectors of Arts & Culture, Community Development, Education, Health, Social Service and Sports. Through these projects, Tote Board helps to uplift the community by giving hope to vulnerable groups and improving the lives of all in Singapore.

’s goal is to help build a flourishing society. We want to inspire positive change and contribute towards building an inclusive, resilient and vibrant community, while fostering a caring and compassionate nation.

PACHO FLORES –THRILL OF THE TRUMPET

PACHO FLORES THRILL OF THE TRUMPET

8 Sep 2022, Thu

Esplanade Concert Hall

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Leo McFall conductor

Pacho Flores trumpet*

RUDI STEPHAN HAYDN ARTURO MÁRQUEZ

Music for Orchestra (1912) SSO Premiere

Trumpet Concerto in E-flat major*

Concierto de Otoño for Trumpet and Orchestra* SSO Premiere Intermission

DVO Ř ÁK

Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88

19 mins 13 mins 19 mins 20 mins 34 mins

Concert Duration: approximately 2 hrs (with 20 mins intermission)

Intermission autograph signing with Pacho Flores at the Foyer, Level 1.A

CHECK-IN TO TONIGHT'S CONCERT Scan this QR code with the Singapore Symphony Mobile App.

RUDI STEPHAN (1887–1915)

Music for Orchestra (1912) SSO Premiere

Working at the end of “the long 19th century”, Rudi Stephan was a composer of the generation who not only grew up on the big German High Romantic works of Bruckner and Mahler, but also the lateRomantic Richard Strauss and the modernist tendencies of Stravinsky and Schoenberg’s circle. He was born the same year Liszt died and was killed by a Russian sniper in the First World War less than thirty years later, and with his death Germany lost one of its most promising composers.

The title “Music for Orchestra” betrays nothing, and this was by choice: Stephan wrote to his publisher than even his earliest work should have no title, and no description. When pressed in return, he agreed his first work should have the non-description “Opus 1”, and later pieces had non-titles like “Music for Seven String Instruments”. In fact, this particular “Music for Orchestra” is the second piece he composed to have the same title, and due to its much bigger fame compared to the earlier piece, has avoided being tacked with the descriptor “No. 2”.

At its heart, this piece is brooding and dark, with heavy tilt towards the low instruments of the orchestra. In this manner he resembles the later work of Mahler (even though he could not have heard the groundbreaking Adagio from the incomplete Tenth Symphony); the sense of tonal attachment, already very weak at the mysterious opening, is thrown into real confusion in the fugue section in the second half of the piece. There are things for the listener to watch out for and draw parallels to: pulsing

brass chorales and use of brass in triplet accompaniments are very Brucknerian, and a soaring violin solo is especially Straussian.

A particularly operatic climax arrives with great fanfare and left hanging in the air, only for the solo violin to return. As things build up once again, the audience is treated to an opera-style finale, with a huge tutti and rushing upward semiquavers in many instruments. After the melancholy and struggle of the past minutes, the music arrives at a brilliant C major — but is it a real closure? Stephan must have heard the brutal finale of Strauss’s Elektra, only recently premiered; in that opera, the final C major is as good as a guillotine blade falling. Here, the C major is equally glorious, if not quite as violent: it feels more like a question instead.

Instrumentation

3 flutes (2 doubling on piccolos),

2 oboes, cor anglais,

3 clarinets (1 doubling on bass clarinet),

2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, snare drum, suspended cymbal, tam-tam, triangle, harp, strings World Premiere 1913

JOSEPH HAYDN (1732–1809)

Trumpet Concerto in E-flat major (1796)

I II III

OF THE

Allegro Andante Finale. Allegro

This great trumpet concerto heralded the arrival of the 19th century: a new musical age, with a new trumpet to match, and a famous composer carrying the torch of new expressive and compositional techniques into the Romantic era. First performed in 1800, Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto is the second of the greatest Classical wind concerti, the other being Mozart’s essay for clarinet from a few years before.

him: soon after the trumpet’s triumphant entrance, it is given brilliant scalic passages and sultry chromatics which would have wowed the audiences of the time.

The concerto itself is constructed very Classically: three movements arrayed in fast-slow-fast order, with the first movement starting off via orchestral tutti and the solo trumpet taking the theme from the very opening. The second movement allowed Haydn to demonstrate something the new trumpets could do: play in new keys on the same trumpet, and additionally in a smooth lyrical manner. The expressiveness of Haydn’s slow movement here is the equal of any of the symphonies he wrote, and the trumpet is allowed lots of space to shine before launching headfirst into the joyous finale: a rondo of light proportions, and a vehicle for the trumpet to truly take flight.

Both these concerti came at the culmination of newly-developed instruments with greater ranges and ground-breaking improvements in chromatic playing and pitch stability, and, in the case of the later one, the ability to play fully chromatically due to the invention of the keyed trumpet. This innovation made writing melodies much more feasible. Haydn, as was expected, produced a showy and virtuosic work making use of the full range of possibilities this availed to

Instrumentation

2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings

World Premiere 28 Mar 1800, Vienna

First performed by SSO 21 May 1979 (Mark Cantrell, trumpet solo)

soon after the trumpet’s triumphant entrance, it is given brilliant scalic passages and sultry chromatics

ARTURO MÁRQUEZ (b. 1950) Concierto de Otoño for Trumpet and Orchestra (“Autumn Concerto”, 2018) SSO Premiere

I II III

Son de luz Balada de Floripondios Conga de Flores

With this piece, Márquez has provided a concerto to rival his great Mexican forerunner. While Manuel Ponce’s concerto for guitar (Concierto del Sud, “Concerto of the South”) is perhaps the best-known classical work out of Mexico, Márquez’s trumpet concerto is rapidly gaining favour on the concert stage.

The dance rhythms of the first movement are undeniable, and instead of using a sonata form like traditional concerto composers do, Márquez shuffles through a series of styles, each as intriguing in its own right as the other. The different rhythmic profiles of each dance is punctuated by key chances, while the tambourine punctuates the overall groove with a folky flavour. The soloist is not given any moment to rest, however; instructed to switch to the flugelhorn, the second movement starts out in its lowest reaches, accompanied by a sparse orchestral texture and accented by maracas. This sustained song slowly rises in passion and the orchestra speeds up to usher in yet another instrument switch, this time to a smaller trumpet-like instrument called the hornet. The accompanying percussion instrument changes too, and the güiro can now be heard providing a backing rhythm.

The orchestra starts the last movement with a strongly-syncopated theme, and the soloist is finally given a breather: the orchestra is

allowed a tutti passage to shine, before booming drums bring in yet another dance pattern, and Márquez here makes his first nod toward “classical” composing with a deliberately academic circle-of-fifths section featuring extended sequences. Everything grinds to a sudden halt as the trumpeter takes a cadenza — and with a final cadence, the piece comes to a brilliant end.

Instrumentation

2 flutes (1 doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, suspended cymbal, tambourine, chimes, claves, güiro, maracas, congas, cymbals, xylophone, strings

PACHO FLORES –THRILL OF THE TRUMPET | 8 SEP 2022 World Premiere 7 Sep 2018 (Pacho Flores, trumpet solo)

ANTONÍN DVOŘ ÁK (1841–1904)

Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88 (1889)

I II III IV

THE

PACHO

Allegro con brio Adagio

Allegretto grazioso – Molto vivace Allegro ma non troppo

Dvořák began work on his Eighth Symphony  during the summer of 1889 and finished  it in a matter of weeks. Most of it was  composed at his summer residence in  Vysoka. There he was content to be with  his family and as he stated at the time, the  “melodies simply poured out of me”. The   music also reflects his love of the natural  beauty of the region and his deep affection  for Czech folk music. It is all the more ironic  then that this symphony has been referred  to as his “English” symphony, but that has  nothing to do with the music.

Dvořák’s publisher, Simrock had paid him  3,000 marks for his Seventh Symphony but  offered him just one-third of that amount for  his next one. This reflected the economic  reality that large-scale works were more   expensive to publish and harder to market,  as opposed to smaller-scaled ones such as  piano collections and songs. Dvořák was  nonetheless insulted and wrote to Simrock  stating “I shall simply do what beloved God  tells me to do. That will surely be the best  thing”. Apparently God told him to have the  symphony published by Novello in London  for much more money.

Returning to the genre after four years,  Dvořák was eager to compose something  different from his other symphonies with the  “individual thoughts worked out in a new  way”. The first movement opens  unexpectedly in G minor with a beautiful

melody played on the cellos and winds that  reoccurs throughout the movement. Tension  builds as the theme develops, until it is  released in a stormy climax played by  blazing trumpets to the accompaniment of  chromatic scales in the strings.

Although the second movement opens  solemnly, the movement grows in strength  and grandeur to a magnificent climax.

A brief dark, stormy passage is quickly  dispelled by the return of the opening theme  in the woodwinds. The third movement is  an elegant intermezzo, which begins with a  waltz in the violins and flute, followed by a  folk-like tune in the oboe and bassoon. The  rustic dance also serves as the basis for the  coda, which ends in a sweet, cheerful note.

A trumpet fanfare announces the final  movement. The cellos introduce the main  theme, as they did in the opening  movement. A series of variations follow in  moods that range from sadly reflective to  wildly exuberant. The composer yielded  to audience expectations however, as the  symphony ends with an exuberant coda  brimming with energy.

Dvořák conducted the premiere of his Eighth  Symphony in Prague on 2 February 1890.  Two years later, he would depart for the New  World.

Programme notes by Thomas Ang and Rick Perdian (Dvořák)

Dvořák at Vysoka © antonin-dvorak.cz

Instrumentation

2 flutes (1 doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes (1 doubling on cor anglais), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, strings

World Premiere 2 Feb 1890, Prague

First performed by SSO 26 & 27 Jul 1979

PACHO

OF THE

| 16 &

FANTASIA, FAREWELLS AND FAURÉ

FANTASIA, FAREWELLS AND FAURÉ

16 & 17 Sep 2022, Fri & Sat

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Singapore Symphony Children’s Choir1

Singapore Symphony Youth Choir2

Stephen Layton conductor Wong Lai Foon Choirmaster

Victoria Songwei Li soprano* Martin Ng baritone*

TALLIS

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

WALTON

FAURÉ (arr. Layton)

FAURÉ (ed. Rutter & Layton)

Why fumeth in fight2 SSO Premiere

Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis

Two Pieces from Henry V Pavane, Op. 502

Cantique de Jean Racine2 SSO Premiere

Intermission

Victoria Concert Hall 4 mins 15 mins 4 mins 6 mins 6 mins 20 mins 35 mins

FAURÉ (ed. Rutter & Layton)

Requiem (1893 version)*1 2

Concert Duration: approximately 1 hr 45 mins (with 20 mins intermission)

CHECK-IN TO TONIGHT'S CONCERT Scan this QR code with the Singapore Symphony Mobile App.

THOMAS TALLIS (1505–1585)

Why fumeth in fight (published 1567) SSO Premiere

The English composer Thomas Tallis lived during one of the greatest periods of upheaval and social instability in European history – the Protestant Reformation. Born in 1505 into Catholic England under Henry VIII, his lifetime saw his beloved religion banned, revived, and banned once again. As a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, he served as organist, composer, and singer in the choir that followed the monarch of England and sang daily services wherever the monarch travelled. Though a devoted Catholic, his employment meant that he had to compose music for the new Englishlanguage Protestant services – a task he performed dutifully, resulting in music that continues to be beloved and still sung in Anglican services today. One of these is his Nine Tunes for Archbishop Parker’s Psalter –a set of nine melodies suitable for singing to various metrical translations of the Psalms of David. The second of these was written for Psalm 2, which begins ‘Why fumeth in fight’.

Tallis’s arrangement is sometimes titled (and sung as) “Why fumeth in sight“. This discrepancy is due to the use of the long-S typography of the period, which looks like an F to modern eyes.

Engraving of Tallis by Niccolò Haym after a portrait by Gerard van der Gucht

From the manuscript, showing a typography quirk of the early modern age. Note ‘f’ in ‘fumeth’ (line 1), ‘fury’ (line 2), and ‘fond’ have a little horizontal line, while ‘s’ in ‘sight’ is the long s that appears in ‘spite’ (line 1) and ‘stout’ (line 2).

1. Why fumeth in fight: the Gentiles spite, In fury raging stout? Why taketh in hand: the people fond, Vain things to bring about?

2. The kings arise: the lords devise, in counsels met thereto: Against the Lord: with false accord, against his Christ they go.

3. Let us they say: break down their ray, of all their bonds and cords: We will renounce: that they pronounce, their lures as stately lords.

4. But God of might: in heaven so bright, Shall laugh them all to scorn: The Lord on high: shall them defy, they shall be once forlorn.

5. Then shall his ire: speak all in fire, to them again therefore: He shall with threat: their malice beat, in his displeasure sore.

6. Yet am I set: a king so great, on Sion hill full fast: Though me they kill: yet will that hill, my law and word outcast.

7. Gods words decreed: I (Christ) will spread for God thus said to me: My son I say: thou art, this day, I have begotten thee.

8. Ask thou of me: I will give thee, to rule all Gentiles lands: Thou shalt possess: in sureness, the world how wide it stands.

9. With iron rod: as mighty God, all rebels shalt thou bruise: And break them all: in pieces small, as shards the potters use.

10. Be wise therefore: ye kings the more, Receive ye wisdom's lore: Ye judges strong: of right and wrong, advise you now before.

11. The Lord in fear: your service bear, with dread to him rejoice: Let rages be: resist not ye, him serve with joyful voice.

12. The son kiss ye: lest wroth he be, lose not the way of rest: For when his ire: is set on fire, who trust in him be blest.

Choir soprano, alto, tenor, bass World Premiere Unknown

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872–1958)

Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis (1910)

‘Retro’ or the repurposing of elements from a bygone age is not a new thing, as composers have been doing this from the beginnings of music – the earliest Mediæval polyphonic pieces of the Western tradition are based on Gregorian Chant. The English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was greatly interested in Renaissance music, and when the Three Choirs Festival commissioned a work from him in 1910 to be premiered at Gloucester Cathedral, his thoughts turned to a melody he encountered while editing the English Hymnal – Thomas Tallis’ setting of Psalm 2 “Why fumeth in fight”.

Even his use of the term ‘fantasia’ harks back to the Renaissance, when the term meant primarily a musical development of ideas, whether freely improvisatory or strictly contrapuntal, rather than a particular compositional genre. The Renaissance taste for writing music in double (or triple) choirs may have influenced his decision to score the work for double string orchestra with a string quartet. Starting in B-flat major, wandering to C major, then back to B-flat major and ending in G major, the music explores various developments of the modal Tallis theme as the three ensembles play variously together, antiphonally, and independently. Both then and now, the music sounds variously very old and very new at the same time – Vaughan Williams took the retro and made it quite timeless.

Instrumentation strings

World Premiere 6 Sep 1910, Gloucester

First performed by SSO 28 Feb 2009

FANTASIA, FAREWELLS AND

WILLIAM WALTON (1902–1983)

Two Pieces from Henry V (1944)

Touch her soft lips and part I II

Passacaglia – Death of Falstaff

Towards the end of World War 2, as the war dragged on, the morale of the British was flagging. One of the ideas to boost morale was a Technicolour epic film version of Shakespeare’s play Henry V – the theme of an English army victorious against a numerically superior foe was thought to be eminently suitable, and the film, directed by and starring Sir Laurence Olivier, was partially funded by the British government.

The score was provided by William Walton, who had previously written nine sets of incidental music for films, and Olivier called it “the most wonderful score I’ve ever heard on a film”. While Walton himself felt that “film is not good film music if it can be used for any other purpose”, his music for Henry V has been arranged into concert suites that have become concert staples.

The Passacaglia – Death of Falstaff, takes its melody from ‘Watkin’s Ale’, a late Renaissance English bawdy ballad, albeit in a slowed down form and with its tonality changed from major to minor. Touch her soft lips and part features a melancholy violin theme that is taken up by the rest of the strings. Intended to accompany a scene of soldiers departing for the war in France and saying goodbye to their women, the powerful yet delicate music’s dotted rhythms evoke a sense of poignant yearning.

Instrumentation strings

World Premiere 22 Nov 1944, London (Film Premiere)

First performed by SSO 11 Sep 2016

GABRIEL FAURÉ (1845–1924)

Pavane, Op. 50 (1887) (arr. Layton)

Gabriel Urbain Fauré was an influential French composer, pianist, organist, and teacher. Born into a cultured but not particularly musical family, he was talentspotted at the age of nine and enrolled into the School of Classical and Religious Music in Paris, where he boarded for the next eleven years, counting Saint-Saëns among his teachers. This friendship was to last sixty years till the latter’s death.

In the late 1880s, Fauré composed a version of the Pavane for piano and chorus, which was then turned into an orchestral version (with invisible chorus) in 1887, dedicated to his patron, the Countess Élisabeth Greffulhe, and to be played at a series of summer concerts. The text is a poem in the decadent fin-de-siecle style by a cousin of the countess, Robert de Montesquiou. The slightly melancholy character could be explained by the fact that 1887, the year in which he also wrote his Requiem, was also the year of his father’s passing. The light airy scoring shows the influence of Saint-Saëns rather than the fashionable thicker scoring à la Wagner, and the creative use of pizzicato strings suggests the plucking of a lute, appropriate for a work based on a slow renaissance dance. All three sections of the music develop the haunting melody introduced by the flute, playing in its seductive low register. Unsurprisingly, this elegant piece has turned out to be one of Fauré’s best-known and best-loved.

Fauré and his eldest son, Emmanuel Fauré-Fremiet (1887)

16 & 17 SEP 2022

|

FANTASIA, FAREWELLS AND FAURÉ

C'est Lindor, c'est Tircis et c'est tous nos vainqueurs!

C'est Myrtille, c'est Lydé!

Les reines de nos cœurs!

Comme ils sont provocants!

Comme ils sont fiers toujours! Comme on ose régner sur nos sorts et nos jours!

Faites attention! Observez la mesure! Ô la mortelle injure!

La cadence est moins lente!

Et la chute plus sûre!

Nous rabattrons bien leur caquets!

Nous serons bientôt leurs laquais!

Qu'ils sont laids! Chers minois! Qu'ils sont fols! (Airs coquets!)

Et c'est toujours de même, et c'est ainsi toujours!

On s'adore!

On se hait!

On maudit ses amours!

Adieu Myrtille, Eglé, Chloé, démons moqueurs!

Adieu donc et bons jours aux tyrans de nos cœurs!

It's Lindor! it's Tircis! and all our conquerors! It's Myrtil! It's Lydé! the queens of our hearts! How provocative they are, how proud they are always! How they dare reign over our fates and our days!

Pay attention! Observe the measure! O the deadly insult! The pace is slower! And the fall more certain!

We'll tone down their chatter! Soon we'll be their lackeys! How ugly they are! Sweet faces! How crazy they are! Coquettish airs!

And it's always the same! And will be so always! They love one another! They hate one another! They curse their lovers! Farewell, Myrtil! Eglé! Chloe! Mocking demons! Farewell and good days to the tyrants of our hearts!

Instrumentation flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, harp, strings Choir soprano, alto, tenor, bass World Premiere 25 Nov 1888, Paris First performed by SSO 5 May 2000

GABRIEL FAURÉ

Cantique de Jean Racine (1865) SSO Premiere (ed. Rutter & Layton)

While at the school, at the age of 19, Fauré wrote the Cantique de Jean Racine, which won a first prize. The first performance occurred on 4th August 1866, with the dedicatee César Franck conducting.

The text is by the French baroque poet Jean Racine, and is a French paraphrase of Consors paterni luminis (“Coëqual of the Father’s Light”), a Mediæval Latin hymn. Restrained and subtle, the Cantique de Jean Racine radiates serenity in its long flowing melodies, and looks forward to Fauré’s mature style as seen in his later Requiem.

Instrumentation harp, strings

Choir soprano, alto, tenor, bass

World Premiere 4 Aug 1866

Verbe égal au Très-Haut, notre unique espérance, Jour éternel de la terre et des cieux, De la paisible nuit nous rompons le silence: Divin Sauveur, jette sur nous les yeux.

Répands sur nous le feu de ta grâce puissante, Que tout l’enfer fuie au son de ta voix; Dissipe le sommeil d’une âme languissante Qui la conduit à l’oubli de tes lois.

Ô Christ, sois favorable à ce peuple fidèle, Pour te bénir maintenant rassemblé; Reçois les chants qu’il offre à ta gloire immortelle, Et de tes dons qu’il retourne comblé.

Words Medieval Latin Breviary hymn

O Word, equal of the Most High, Our sole hope, eternal day of earth and the heavens, We break the silence of the peaceful night. Divine Saviour, cast Your eyes upon us!

Shed the light of Your mighty grace upon us. Let all Hell flee at the sound of Your voice. Dispel the slumber of a languishing soul That leads it to the forgetting of Your laws!

O Christ, be favourable unto this faithful people Now gathered to bless You. Receive the hymns it offers unto Your immortal glory And may it return laden with Your gifts.

Tr: Anonymous

GABRIEL FAURÉ

Requiem (1893 version) (ed. Rutter & Layton for SSAA)

I II III IV

V VI VII

Introit and Kyrie

Offertorium

Sanctus

Pie Jesu

Angus Dei

Libera me

In paradisum

Continuing with Fauré, but in his mature form, we have his Requiem in D minor, Op. 48. This work was written in 1888, while Faure was in his 40s, shortly after the death of his father, and the subsequent death of his mother shortly after the premiere must have given the work an additional poignancy.

The text is taken from the standard Roman Catholic Latin Mass for the Departed. Fauré chose to omit certain sections of the mass which speak of judgement and damnation, notably the Dies Irae (Day of wrath), which provides other composers a chance for some dramatic fire and brimstone. Although he served for many years as organist at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris, the composer was openly agnostic. His skepticism inclined him toward the more generally spiritual aspects of the Mass — whose expression best suited his art. The result is marked by a prevailing impression of intimate tenderness and lyrical serenity, and great solace, emphasizing the blessed repose and peace of those who have gone before us. In comments to the violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, Fauré describes it as “Elle est d’un caractère doux comme moi-meme” (“It is gentle in character, like myself”).

The opening Requiem aeternam (“Eternal rest”) begins with a fortissimo, which dies away as the chorus begins, sad and hopeful, building up to a crest of serenity amidst the darkness of D minor (the same key as Mozart’s Requiem and the Overture to Don Giovanni. The Kyrie (“Lord, have mercy”) continues the waves of serenity, slightly battered by stormy interjections.

The Offertorium (“Offertory”) starts with an expressive string introduction followed by the sopranos and altos who begin an a cappella section reminiscent of Bruckner. The strings join in before long. The next section is a major-key baritone solo with long lines accompanied by strings, a sustained prayer mirroring the priest at the altar preparing the offerings of bread and wine. The chorus returns with their original material but now in the major key, with an atmosphere of light sweetness. At the final “amen”, the strings drop out and the voices float up in a sublime moment of prayer.

The Sanctus (“Holy”), the hymn of the angels, is overwhelmingly optimistic. An undulating harp line flows while the chorus engage in angelic dialogue, and the violins float about sprinkling sparkling gossamer threads, building to a triumphant climax

of affirmation at “Hosanna in excelsis” (“Hosanna in the highest”).

The Pie Jesu (“Merciful Jesus”) is perhaps the most famous movement, and is often performed as a standalone soprano piece in concerts. Heartfelt in its simple sincerity, it combines a genuine feeling of loss with a confidence in eternal happiness.

The relative major of F major appears at the Agnus Dei (“Lamb of God”). Once again, a melody of serene hope is buffeted by threatening minor-key interjections, and the delayed resolution builds up tension. These doubts are dispelled by the glowing D major ending.

A baritone solo starts the Libera me (“Deliver me”) as an earnest prayer, with the chorus joining in at “tremens” (“trembling”). Suddenly the horns enter at the mention of the day of judgement, spreading an atmosphere of worry and fear, but the chorus returns with the original melodic material, and the soloist returns at the end with a touch of resignation.

The final movement In paradisum (“Into paradise”) dispels any remaining gloom, and we are transported to the bliss of heaven. As the chorus comes in, the sonorities in gentle waves remind us of the circles and clouds of heaven, enfolded by peaceful love, the love which Dante in his Paradiso calls “l’amor che move il sole ed altre stele” (“the love which moves the sun and other stars”).

Programme notes by Edward C. Yong

Pipe organ in L'église de la Madeleine built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll in 1845. Fauré served as titular organist at this church from 1896–1905. photo: commons.wikimedia.org

I. lntroitus - Kyrie

Requiem æternam dona eis Domine et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Te decet hymnus, Deus in Sion et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem.

Exaudi orationem meam ad te omnis caro veniet.

Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison.

II. Offertorium

O Domine, Jesu Christe, rex gloriæ libera animas defunctorum de pœnis inferni et de profundo lacu.

O Domine, Jesu Christe, rex gloriæ libera animas defunctorum de ore leonis ne absorbeat eus Tartarus ne cadant in obscurum.

O Domine, Jesu Christe, rex gloriæ ne cadant in obscurum.

Hostias et preces tibi Domine, laudis offerimus tu suscipe pro animabus illis quarum hodie memoriam facimus. Fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam Quam olim Abrahæ promisisti et semini eius.

Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon them.

You, O God, are praised in Sion, and unto You shall the vow be performed in Jerusalem.

Hear my prayer, unto You shall all flesh come.

Lord, have mercy, Christ, have mercy, Lord, have mercy.

Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory, deliver the souls of all the faithful departed from the pains of hells and from the bottomless pit.

Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory, deliver them from the lion's mouth, neither let them fall into darkness, nor Hell swallow them up.

Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory, let not them fall into darkness.

We offer unto You this sacrifice of prayer and praise Receive it for those souls whom today we commemorate. Allow them, O Lord, to cross from death into the life which once You promised to Abraham and his seed.

O Domine, Jesu Christe, rex gloriæ libera animas defunctorum de pœnis inferni et de profundo lacu ne cadant in obscurum.

Amen.

III. Sanctus

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt cæli et terra gloria tua. Hosanna in excelsis.

IV. Pie Jesu

Pie Jesu, Domine, dona eis requiem dona eis requiem sempiternam requiem.

V. Agnus Dei

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi dona eis requiem.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi dona eis requiem.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi dona eis requiem, sempiternam requiem.

Lux æterna luceat eis, Domine Cum sanctis tuis in aeternum, quia pius es.

Requiem æternam dona eis Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory, deliver the souls of all the faithful departed from the pains of hells and from the bottomless pit. lest they fall into darkness.

Amen Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts Heaven and earth are full of Your glory. Hosanna in the highest.

Merciful Jesus, Lord, grant them rest, grant them rest, eternal rest.

O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant them rest.

O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant them rest.

O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant them rest, everlasting rest.

May eternal light shine on them, O Lord, with Your saints forever, for You are merciful.

Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine on them.

VI. Libera me

Libera me, Domine, de morte æterna in die illa tremenda, Quando cæli movendi sunt et terra Dum veneris judicare sæculum per ignem.

Tremens factus sum ego et timeo dum discussio venerit atque ventura ira

Dies illa dies iræ calamitatis et miseriæ dies illa, dies magna et amara valde

Requiem æternam dona eis Domine et lux perpetua luceat eis

Libera me, Domine, de morte æterna in die illa tremenda, Quando cæli movendi sunt et terra Dum veneris judicare sæculum per ignem.

Deliver me, O Lord, from everlasting death on that dreadful day, when the heavens and the earth shall be moved when You shall come to judge the world by fire.

I quake with fear and tremble awaiting the day of account and the wrath to come.

That day, the day of anger, of calamity, of misery, that day, the great day, and most bitter.

Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and may perpertual light shine upon them.

Deliver me, O Lord, from everlasting death on that dreadful day, when the heavens and the earth shall be moved, when You shall come to judge the world by fire.

Ceiling of L'église de la Madeleine. Fauré served as titular organist at this church from 1896–1905. photo: commons.wikimedia.org

VII. In Paradisum

In Paradisum deducant angeli in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem.

Jerusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem.

Æternam habeas requiem.

Text: Roman Catholic Missal

May the angels receive you into Paradise, at your coming, may the martyrs receive you and bring you into the holy city Jerusalem.

Jerusalem.

There may the chorus of angels receive you, and with Lazarus, once a beggar, may you have eternal rest.

May you have eternal rest.

Instrumentation

(Tr. Edward C. Yong)

2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, harp, organ, strings

Choir soprano, alto

World Premiere 21 Jan 1893

First performed by SSO 1 Mar 1996

SOYOUNG YOON PLAYS SIBELIUS

OCT

6 Oct 2022, Thu

Esplanade Concert Hall

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Julian Kuerti conductor

Soyoung Yoon violin*

YOON

SIBELIUS

Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47*

Intermission

RAVEL

La Valse Daphnis et Chloé – Suite No. 2

31 mins 20 mins 12 mins 18 mins

Concert Duration: approximately 1 hr 40 mins (with 20 mins intermission)

Intermission autograph signing with Soyoung Yoon at the Foyer, Level 1.A

CHECK-IN TO TONIGHT'S CONCERT Scan this QR code with the Singapore Symphony Mobile App.

JEAN SIBELIUS (1865–1957)

Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 (1903)

I II III

Allegro moderato

Adagio di molto

Allegro, ma non tanto

Sibelius’s Violin Concerto was the silver lining that came from his decision to give up his violin career. He had picked up the instrument as a teenager, and in a handful of years became good enough to play Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in the capital. The glittering success of instrumental fame did not appeal much to him, however, and he turned to compositional studies, absorbing such diverse influences as Busoni, Goldmark, Bruckner, and the seeds of Finnish music which he would go on to revolutionise.

The massive scope of this concerto has ensured its place in the core repertoire. From the timid opening melody to the specifically bass-weighted orchestral writing, the concerto seems to attempt to circumscribe the world. Sibelius was already famous as a composer by this point, with two symphonies under his belt, the second of which had met with rapturous praise by critics and audiences alike. The Violin Concerto is a symphony in all but name, with a huge first movement covering unusual rhythmic ground (the opening and recapitulation are “spelled” differently, with tiny differences in performance), and giving the violinist a massive cadenza full of extremely difficult techniques.

Predictably enough, the violinist at the premiere was not up to scratch, and the event was practically a disaster. A long process of revisions began, with the result

Caricature of Jean Sibelius celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth in 2015

one year later being the glorious D minor concerto audiences today know and love.

A darkly brooding second movement is shot through with the violinist soaring into the stratosphere, and a pulsing finale challenges the soloist with even more difficulties. Sibelius might have given up his violin career, but he certainly still knew the instrument well!

Instrumentation

2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, strings

World Premiere

8 Feb 1904, Helsinki (original version)

First performed by SSO

7 Oct 1983 (Stephanie Chase, violin)

MAURICE RAVEL (1875–1937)

La Valse (1919)

Ravel was no stranger to dance forms in his music. Boléro, his most famous work by far, is based on a Spanish dance, and many of his early piano pieces were also based on Baroque dances. La Valse is no exception, similarly taking inspiration from the ballroom.

An earlier set of waltzes, the Valses nobles et sentimentales, used Schubert as the starting point. This grand orchestral waltz was originally conceptualised as a ballet called Vienne, and was intended as a homage to Johann Strauss II. However, there is more than a shade of Edgar Allan Poe, with its much darker overall mood, its atmosphere of uneasy sensuality, and its varied outbursts of increasing violence.

The low rumble of the opening sets the tone, and the orchestra struggles to really get going. Low strings and bassoons, coupled with violas, present the first fragments of the waltz, but the harp finally provides the impetus for the melodies to start coalescing into a theme. Following this, we get a Straussian series of waltzes, contrasting loud and soft and each featuring different combinations of instruments.

The ballet character of the piece is immediately apparent: Ravel’s mastery of orchestral contrast and colour means that the audience can almost see dancers before their eyes. Indeed, although Vienne never came to fruition, the music was irresistible to horeographers; Georges Balanchine created his own dance to it, as did the Englishman Frederick Ashton a few years later.

Sometimes sweet and sometimes sarcastic, the waltz carries on, with surprising interruptions by the brass and cymbals. Pairs of instruments, groups, and solos wander off in unexpected directions. Ravel then reprises the whole waltz once over, but in strange harmonies and keys. Things that are familiar become touched with something unclean, almost like Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death. The music keeps up the whirling, ever faster, ever more frenziedly, and then…

“

Through whirling clouds, waltzing couples may be faintly distinguished. The clouds gradually scatter: one sees at letter A an immense hall peopled with a whirling crowd. The scene is gradually illuminated. The light of the chandeliers bursts forth at the fortissimo letter B. Set in an imperial court, about 1855.” – Maurice Ravel

Instrumentation

3 flutes (1 doubling on piccolo),

3 oboes (1 doubling on cor anglais), 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, triangle, tambourine, tam-tam, glockenspiel, crotales, castanets, 2 harps, strings

World Premiere

12 Dec 1920, Paris

First performed by SSO 18 Jan 2013

MAURICE RAVEL

Daphnis et Chloé – Suite No. 2 (1912)

I II III

Lever du jour Pantomime Danse générale

Stravinsky thought Daphnis et Chloé was Ravel’s best work, and even one of the real beauties of all French music. Despite his own celebrated collaboration with the popular Ballets Russes of impresario Sergei Diaghilev, Ravel’s “beautiful product” (Stravinsky’s words) had no such luck with Diaghilev, who clashed with Ravel endlessly after wanting to renege on their contract once Ravel had submitted his music. The first performance was not a success, despite the lasting legacy of Ravel’s impeccable score.

This suite, the second of two that Ravel extracted from the 50-minute ballet, comprises three highlights from the third act, and, in this abridged form, is one of the shining peaks of what is commonly known as Impressionism. The rustling winds and strings of the opening Lever du jour (“Daybreak”) are Ravel’s way of painting the rustling of leaves and wind anticipating the sunrise: Daphnis et Chloé is based on an ancient Greek play about a goatherd and his shepherdess belle, and Ravel’s sunrise is so fresh and perfectly judged that, even without dancers, set, and lighting, the audience can almost see the brightening of the sky from within the concert hall.

The slightly exotic dance that follows is a prime example of French orientalism, though Ravel did have a bit of Basque blood through from his mother’s side, and that Basque ancestry perhaps informed the five-in-a-bar of the final section. However,

in this earlier dance, the plucked strings accompanying a high flute solo lend an air of faraway mystery, though the return of swelling horn chords bring a more locally European flavour into the Pantomime section. The unusual choice of an alto flute solo brings back some of the richness of full-orchestra chords, recalling the earlier sunrise, but all is suddenly launched into a mischievous Danse générale. The snare drum keeps everyone in line, and the shrill sound of the E-flat clarinet is used to bring excitement to increasingly agitated flurries from horns and strings.

The triplet rhythm keeps the orchestra hurtling forward as a brass chorale proclaims the sunrise theme here, and after a brief surge, the orchestra is set in full gear for the final climax, as chattering wind solos whip everyone into a huge frenzy.

Programme notes by Thomas Ang

Instrumentation

2 flutes (1 doubling on 2nd piccolo), piccolo, alto flute, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, field drum, triangle, tambourine, castanets, glockenspiel, 2 harps, celesta, strings

World Premiere of the Ballet 8 Jun 1912, Paris

First performed by SSO 2 Sep 1988

Season

CHAMBER

Remembering Schubert IV: After Beethoven

Wed, 26 Oct, 7:30pm

Musicians of the SSO

Sat, 29 Oct, 8pm Halloween Night ORGAN

Loraine Muthiah, organ

CHAMBER

Captivated by the RoseEvelina Dobračeva in Recital

Sun, 16 Oct, 4pm

Evelina Dobračeva, soprano Alexander Fleischer, piano

Sun, 23 Oct, 4pm James Ehnes in Recital CHAMBER

James Ehnes, violin

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