Sibelius, Rautavaara and Stravinsky
Sun 8 Dec 2024, 7.30pm Victoria Concert Hall
Photo by Bryan van der Beek
Sun 8 Dec 2024
Victoria Concert Hall
Sibelius, Rautavaara and Stravinsky
Singapore National Youth Orchestra
Peter Stark Principal Guest Conductor
SIBELIUS
Finlandia 8 mins
RAUTAVAARA
Cantus Arcticus (Concerto for Birds and Orchestra) 18 mins
Intermission 20 mins
STRAVINSKY
Petrushka 34 mins
SIBELIUS
Valse triste 6 mins
Concert duration: 1 hr 40 mins (including 20 mins intermission)
Singapore National Youth Orchestra
The Singapore National Youth Orchestra showcases the extraordinary capability of our youth. It inspires them towards artistic excellence, nurtures them to reach beyond their potential and develops them through rigorous training within a vibrant, supportive, and diverse environment. Established formally in 1980, the Singapore National Youth Orchestra (SNYO) has welcomed generations of youths into the transformative world of orchestral music, performing locally and representing Singapore on prestigious international stages.
The SNYO family consists of a main orchestra and junior orchestra, with over 180 members aged 10 to 21 from more than 60 schools across Singapore, guided by professional musicians in rehearsals, sectionals, and masterclasses. Recognised by the Ministry of Education as a National Project of Excellence, members of the SNYO have their participation in the orchestra recognised as a Co-Curricular Activity.
Joshua Tan was appointed as the Principal Conductor of the SNYO in 2018, and Seow Yibin has held the position of Associate Conductor since 2022.
Over the years, the SNYO has performed in concert venues and music festivals across Australia, Austria, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom. Other musical endeavors include collaborations with the Singapore Ballet, TwoSetViolin and side-by-side concerts with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
The SNYO is part of the Singapore Symphony Group, which also manages the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Singapore Symphony Choruses, as well as the SSO Chamber and Organ Series, the Singapore International Piano Festival, and the biennial National Piano & Violin Competition.
Peter Stark
Principal Guest Conductor
Peter Stark’s performances as a conductor are exhilarating, imaginative and inspiring. At the heart of all his work lies a passion and commitment to the study and practice of music to profit humanity. Peter is Rehearsal Director to the European Union Youth Orchestra and Professor of Conducting at London’s Royal College of Music. He has taught over six hundred private students, and his acclaimed courses in conducting have taken him across the world. His reputation as a teacher and mentor is internationally renowned.
Whilst having performed with a number of the world’s leading ensembles such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Hallé, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Peter fosters a hunger to work with any orchestra that plays with spirit and enthusiasm.
Peter’s growing media profile includes his appointment as series consultant to the popular BBC television series ‘Maestro’ and regular screen appearances as a mentor. For this role, Peter was responsible for the training of eight ‘celebrity’ students as orchestral conductors. Peter has since made live ‘Maestro’ webcam commentaries for the BBC Proms and a subsequent TV series.
In addition to his work with the world’s finest students, Peter has conducted youth orchestras ranging from the Hertfordshire County Youth Orchestra (Principal Conductor since 1994) to the New South Wales Public Schools’ Symphony Orchestra in Australia, the Ung Filharmonie of Norway and the Toyota City Orchestra in Japan. Between 1985 and 2010, Peter was Conductor in Residence of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He was the Principal Conductor of the Arabian Youth Orchestra in Dubai and the Principal Guest Conductor of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra.
Singapore National Youth Orchestra
Joshua Tan Principal Conductor
Seow Yibin Associate Conductor
Peter Stark Principal Guest Conductor
Lim Meng Keh Percussion Tutor
VIOLIN
Jacob Cheng Principal
Ng Zu Ni Principal
Keith Ong Principal
Samuel Soekarno Principal
Amanda Ang
Chloe Chee
Maximus Chia
Allison Chng
Kayli Choo
Hannah Chung
Fu Yu
Goh Shi Eun
Ethan Gu
Kaden Khew
Zoe Lam
Lee Seohyun
Lim Jing Rui
Joshua Lim
Yuto Lim
Annie Liu
Lum Kai Ying
Zanna Phua
Amelia Phuah
Aubrey Tan
Raphael Teng
Tong Xinran
Yeo See Kang
Liam Young
Janelle Yuen
VIOLA
Elliott Chan Principal
Skyler Goh Principal
Chang Zi Yi
Kuah Ying Ching
Jayden Kwan
Chloe Lee
Vernell Lim
Suah Zen Rong
Wang Qian Hui
CELLO
Zachary Lau Principal
Aidan Yeong Principal
Li Peilin
Lloyd Loh
Sean Park
Alexa Tan
Ephraim Tan
Shavaun Toh
Charlotte Tseng
DOUBLE BASS
Li Jiaying Principal
Samantha Ang
Lee Yan Yu
Lim Rui Yi
FLUTE
Justin Damhaut Principal
Chan Xingwei Principal
Carolynn Choo
Zhou Shijie
PICCOLO
Carolynn Choo Principal
OBOE
Cho Dong Min Principal
Matthew Chen
Linus Ng
COR ANGLAIS
Matthew Chen
CLARINET
Amelie Peh Principal
Darren Sim Principal
Low Xin
Ng Zhi Jian
BASS CLARINET
Low Xin Principal
BASSOON
Li Ruidan Principal
Emerald Tan*
Wang Xintong
CONTRABASSOON
Wang Xintong
HORN
Andrew Lee Principal
Chloe Lau Principal
Joshua Goutama
Amira Qistina
TRUMPET
Joshua Tan Principal
Tobias Tan Principal
Sara Han
Quentin Heng
Kieran Yeo
TROMBONE
Reema Chatterjee Principal
Trevor Wong
BASS TROMBONE
Benjamin Lim Principal
TUBA
Amos Ong
TIMPANI
Chen Wenyi
Sean Ling
Isaac Ng
Christian Tan
PERCUSSION
Chen Wenyi
Sean Ling
Kilian Muliady
Isaac Ng
Alon Simons
Christian Tan
HARP
Charmaine Teo*
PIANO
Nicholas Loh*
CELESTA
Isaac Ng
* Guest musician
Programme Notes
JEAN SIBELIUS (1865–1957)
Finlandia, Op. 26 (1899)
Jean Sibelius was born 159 years ago today, on 8 December 1865. The heartfelt and mighty “Finlandia Hymn” from this tone poem is widely acknowledged as Finland’s second national anthem. In its original form, Finlandia was called “Finland Awakes” – the finale of seven pieces performed as a musical backdrop to a series of tableaux depicting scenes from Finnish history. These were part of a “Press Celebrations” event – in fact, a thinly disguised nationalistic protest against increasingly authoritarian control from the Russian Empire, which Finland was subject to until her independence in 1917.
With slight revisions and subsequent performances the following year, this piece quickly became the musical symbol of Finnish nationalism. To avoid Russian crackdown, it was performed under alternative names at various concerts, from the inconspicuous “Impromptu” to an unpretentious “A Scandinavian Choral March” to the frivolous “Happy Feelings at the awakening of Finnish Spring”. In 1901, it was given its final name, Finlandia
A threatening chorale of brass oppresses the suffering strings and woodwinds. Finland struggles under the yoke of domination. But Finnish sisu – resilience, stoic determination, courage and grit – soon surge to the surface. The Finns cast aside their chains and Finlandia is born. The inspirational ardour of this galvanising music coupled with this magnificent central hymn ensured Sibelius’s fame for posterity.
Finlandia became a world favourite, much to the surprise of the composer, as he did not consider it representative of his art. The hymn continues to be sung in all manner of arrangements and words today. “It is not intended to be sung,” Sibelius lamented. “It is written for an orchestra. But if the world wants to sing it, it can’t be helped.” Sibelius did not have to worry, for today his music is a beacon of Finnish national identity. Oi Suomi, katso, sinun päiväs koittaa. Finland, behold –your day is dawning
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, triangle, strings
EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA (1928–2016)
Cantus Arcticus (Concerto for Birds and Orchestra, 1972)
I. The Bog
II. Melancholy
III. Swans Migrating
In 1955, when the Koussevitzky Foundation offered a scholarship in honour of Sibelius’s 90th birthday to enable a young composer to study in the USA, Sibelius himself chose the then 27-year-old Einojuhani Rautavaara to receive this award. His choice has since been proven right, for Rautavaara is still today widely recognised as the most important Finnish composer since Sibelius.
Rautavaara’s music has been described in as many terms as his many compositional phases – from neo-traditionalist to avant garde constructivism, from hyper-romanticism to Nordic mysticism. Like Sibelius, Rautavaara’s music belongs to that uniquely Nordic corner of the modern music world where an inventive aesthetic plus a reverence towards nature constantly reminds us of the profound connection we hold with the universe.
Cantus Arcticus, written in 1972, incorporates taped birdsong recorded by the composer himself in the bogs of Liminka and near the Arctic Circle in northern Finland. Each of the three movements in this 17-minute work depicts birdlife in various ways and moods.
Beginning in The Bog in spring, a pair of flutes meander mysteriously out of the mists, gradually joined by more wind instruments. Rautavaara’s score asks the orchestra to meld imperceptibly with his recording, and in the case of the oboe, to “imitate the staccato sound of the crane heard in the tape”. Harp and celesta sparkle sunlight over the water surface before “the strings enter with a broad melody that might be interpreted as the voice and mood of a person walking in the wilds,” as the composer writes.
In Melancholy, the main character is the shore lark, a sparrow-like bird that breeds in the arctic tundra. For this short movement, Rautavaara has brought down the lark’s bright twitter by two octaves, transforming it into a ghostly warble. You’ll hear this before muted strings begin their ethereal tune.
Finland’s national bird is the whooper swan. Swans Migrating, the last movement of Cantus Arcticus, is scored for four groups of instruments that are directed to play (mostly) independently of each other. The effect is of evergrowing textures of complexity, as if swans are taking off in turn and forming in numbers on their migratory flight. Above shimmering strings, woodwinds recall the opening flute duet while the brass intone a soaring hymn, and they are finally joined by scintillating celesta and harp. The array of instruments merges into a glowing climax as the entire flock fades into the distance, ending with a twilit twinkle from the celesta.
Despite the apparent chaos of four groups of musicians playing independently of each other – five if you count the tape - nature ultimately finds them a way to coexist in harmony.
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, trombone, timpani, cymbals, tam-tam, harp, celesta, audio playback, strings
IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882–1971)
Petrushka (1947 version)
I. The Shrovetide Fair
II. Petrushka’s Room
III. The Moor's Room
IV. The Shrovetide Fair (Towards Evening)
Overnight success came to the twenty-eight year-old Igor Stravinsky with the 1910 premiere of The Firebird in Paris. His father, Fyodor Stravinsky had been a star of the Imperial Opera in St. Petersburg and his mother, Anna Kholodovsky,
a pianist. Nonetheless, the family wanted their third son to be a lawyer and so he became a dutiful, albeit indifferent student at the university, while simultaneously studying composition with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the father of one of his classmates. Stravinsky thrived under his light-handed touch and belief that talented students needed little formal instruction, but rather brief grounding in harmony, counterpoint and orchestration with exercises to refine their technique. Sergei Diaghilev first heard Stravinsky’s music in February 1909. Diaghilev was an influential Russian art critic and impresario, whose star had begun to dim in St. Petersburg, but was shining brightly in Paris. There his Ballets Russes was not only revolutionising the world of dance, but also transforming the early twentieth-century cultural landscape. Diaghilev had been searching for someone to compose music for a ballet based on tale of the Firebird, a magical bird with golden feathers and crystal eyes that appears in many Russian folk stories, with which he planned to open his 1910 season. Impressed by what he heard, and not having much luck elsewhere, Diaghilev commissioned Stravinsky to compose the score. The gamble paid off, as The Firebird was greeted rapturously by the Parisian elite and Stravinsky became the toast of the town.
Stravinsky would next turn to the tale of Petrushka, a hand puppet popular during Russian pre-Lenten fairs. Originally intended as a work for piano and orchestra, Diaghilev immediately sensed its theatrical appeal and persuaded Stravinsky to recast it as a ballet. Adapted by Stravinsky, with considerable assistance from the Ballets Russes’ scenery and costume designer Alexandre Benois, the story of Petrushka is a love triangle played out amongst three puppets brought to life by a sinister magician. Choreographer Mikhail Fokine included merrymakers, street dancers, peddlers and a dancing bear in the crowd that witness Petrushka’s rejection by the beautiful ballerina whom he loves. Petrushka then challenges his rival, a dashing Moor, to a duel, only to be pierced by his scimitar. The crowd is shocked by the violence, and to calm them, the magician shows that Petrushka was but a mere puppet made of straw. Petrushka’s spirit rises from the dead and threatens the magician who flees in terror.
The ballet’s premiere on 13 June 1911 with Pierre Monteux conducting was another triumph for the Ballets Russes and Stravinsky. Its success can be attributed to many factors, including the composer’s willingness to adapt his music to his collaborators’ needs and Vaslav Nijinsky’s moving performance as the title character. The music has never lost its appeal, in part due to the actual folk melodies that Stravinsky wove into the score and the rhythms and orchestral colours that blur the distinction between fantasy and reality. This duality in the puppets’ nature is best depicted by the ‘Petrushka chord’ – the C major (all white keys) and F-sharp major (all black keys) triads sounding simultaneously – that is heard whenever he appears.
In 1947, Stravinsky revised the score for a smaller ensemble, making changes in the orchestration and simplifying some of its most difficult rhythmic passages. His motivation was due in part to wanting to reap the profit from its popularity, as his works for the Ballets Russes did not receive international copyright protection. In the intervening years, he had also become a bit more conservative. The outcome reflects the middle-aged Stravinsky’s view of his youthful masterpiece, and thus Petrushka found a home in the concert hall for which it was originally destined.
Instrumentation: 3 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, cor anglais, 3 clarinets (1 doubling bass clarinet), 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, xylophone, cymbals, tam-tam, tambourine, bass drum, snare drum, suspended cymbals, harp, celesta, piano, strings
JEAN SIBELIUS
Valse triste (1904)
Valse triste means “sad waltz”. This short piece was originally the opener of the incidental music Sibelius composed for Kuolema (“Death”), a play of decidedly Gothic sensibilities written by his brother-in-law Arvid Järnefelt. Today, Valse triste is far more often heard in its individual form for the concert hall. It is also infamous for the fact that Sibelius sold all the rights of the work to his publisher for a paltry sum – and it subsequently became an enormous worldwide hit, for which he would receive no royalties. Sad waltz indeed.
An ill woman lies in bed, her son asleep by her bedside. A pale light enters the room along with the sound of distant music. Slowly, a waltz melody becomes recognisable, as if stirring from slumber. The sleeping mother rises from her bed and begins to sway silently with the music. Dancers begin to materialise amongst her, as all dance to the languorous waltz. The woman tries to look at them, but her ghostly guests avoid her eyes. The shadows begin to withdraw as she tires. She drops onto her bed, exhausted. But a renewed burst of energy seizes her - she springs into dance again, frantically grasping at life. The dancers return but now distort her excitement into a frenzy. A chill takes over the music as Death appears at the door – in the form of her dead husband.
The protagonist of the play, her son Paavali, continues to live his life as a man of good deeds, by turns blessed and cursed. He dies tragically, seeing his mother as Death come to claim him. But all is not lost, for in the end, the many people whom he helped during his life pay him tribute, and the play ends on a bittersweet note. Likewise, Sibelius’s financial mistake with Valse triste may have cost him a fortune (he lived for decades saddled with enormous debts), but ultimately, he became and still is Finland’s greatest composer, a name made immortal through his music.
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, 2 horns, timpani, strings
Programme notes by Leon Chia (Sibelius, Rautavaara) and Rick Perdian (Stravinsky).
Schools represented in the Singapore National Youth Orchestra
Ai Tong School
Anderson Secondary School
Anderson Serangoon Junior College
Ang Mo Kio Secondary School
Anglican High School
Anglo-Chinese Junior College
Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road)
Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) (Junior College)
Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) (Secondary)
Anglo-Chinese School (International)
Bukit Panjang Government High School
Bukit Timah Primary School
Catholic High School (Secondary)
Changkat Primary School
CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls’ School (Secondary)
Chung Cheng High School (Main)
Chung Cheng High School (Yishun)
Clementi Town Secondary School
Crescent Girls’ School
Damai Primary School
Dover Court International School
Dulwich College (Singapore)
Dunman High School (Junior College)
Dunman High School (Secondary)
Dunman Secondary School
Edgefield Secondary School
Eunoia Junior College
Fairfield Methodist School (Secondary)
Gan Eng Seng School
Hai Sing Catholic School
Hwa Chong Institution (Junior College)
Jurong Pioneer Junior College
Mayflower Secondary School
Methodist Girls’ School (Secondary)
Nan Hua High School
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
Nanyang Girls’ High School
Nanyang Junior College
Nanyang Primary School
Nanyang Technological University
National Junior College
National Junior College (Secondary)
National University of Singapore
NUS High School of Mathematics and Science
Pasir Ris Secondary School
Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School (Primary)
Raffles Girls’ Primary School
Raffles Girls’ School (Secondary)
Raffles Institution (Junior College)
Raffles Institution (Secondary)
River Valley High School (Secondary)
School of the Arts, Singapore
Singapore American School
Singapore Chinese Girls’ Primary School
Singapore Chinese Girls’ School
Singapore Institute of Technology
Singapore Management University
Singapore Polytechnic
Springfield Secondary School
St. Gabriel’s Secondary School
St. Joseph’s Institution (Junior College)
St. Joseph’s Institution (Secondary)
St. Joseph’s Institution Junior
St. Margaret’s School (Secondary)
St. Patrick’s School
Tanglin Trust School
Tanjong Katong Girls’ School
Tanjong Katong Secondary School
Tao Nan School
Temasek Junior College
Temasek Junior College (Secondary)
Temasek Polytechnic
Victoria School
Woodgrove Primary School
Singapore Symphony Group Administration
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Acknowledgements
WITH SUPPORT FROM MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, ARTS EDUCATION BRANCH
Mrs Clara Lim-Tan Director, Arts Education
Mr Low Ying Ning Deputy Director, Music & Drama
Ms Chek Yui Hong Assistant Director, Visual and Performing Arts CCA & Singapore Youth Festival
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THE SINGAPORE NATIONAL YOUTH ORCHESTRA WISHES TO THANK
National Arts Council
Tutors of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra
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Principals of the participating schools
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