Sabine Meyer · Mozart Clarinet Concerto

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SABINE MEYER • MOZART CLARINET CONCERTO 22 & 23 March 2019 Victoria Concert Hall Home of the SSO

Andrew Litton, conductor Sabine Meyer, basset clarinet

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SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL PIANO FESTIVAL 30 MAY - 3 JUNE 2019 Victoria Concert Hall

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SA CHEN RONAN OʼHORA KIRILL GERSTEIN INGRID FLITER

22 & 23 Mar 19, Fri & Sat

SABINE MEYER • MOZART CLARINET CONCERTO Singapore Symphony Orchestra Andrew Litton, conductor ROBERT CASTEELS

Ouverture spirituelle, Op. 120 7’ (SSO Commission / World Premiere)

WOLFGANG AMADEUS Clarinet Concerto in A major, K.622 25’ MOZART 1. Allegro 2. Adagio 3. Rondo. Allegro

Sabine Meyer, basset clarinet

Intermission 20’

Sabine Meyer will sign autographs in the stalls foyer

PYOTR ILYICH Suite No. 4, Op. 61 “Mozartiana” 25’ TCHAIKOVSKY 1. Gigue. Allegro 2. Menuet. Moderato 3. Preghiera (Prayer). Andante non tanto 4. Theme & Variations. Allegro giusto

Concert duration: 1 hr 35 mins Go green. Digital programme booklets are available on www.sso.org.sg.

Scan the QR code in the foyer to view a copy.

S ing a p or e S y mp hon y Or c he s t r a Since its founding in 1979, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) has been Singapore’s flagship orchestra, touching lives through classical music and providing the heartbeat of the cultural scene in the cosmopolitan city-state.

In addition to its subscription series concerts, the orchestra is well-loved for its outdoor and community appearances, and its significant role educating the young people of Singapore. The SSO has also earned an international reputation for its orchestral virtuosity, having garnered sterling reviews for its overseas tours and many successful recordings.

The SSO makes its performing home at the 1,800-seat state-of-the-art Esplanade Concert Hall. More intimate works and all

outreach and community performances take place at the 673-seat Victoria Concert Hall, the home of the SSO. The orchestra performs 100 concerts a year, and its versatile repertoire spans all-time favourites and orchestral masterpieces to exciting cutting-edge premieres. Bridging the musical traditions of East and West, Singaporean and Asian musicians and composers are regularly showcased in the concert season. This has been a core of the SSO’s programming philosophy from the very beginning under Choo Hoey, who was Music Director from 1979 to 1996.

Under the Music Directorship of Lan Shui from 1997 to January 2019, the SSO has performed in Europe, Asia and the United States. In May 2016 the SSO was invited to

perform at the Dresden Music Festival and the Prague Spring International Music Festival.

This successful five‑city tour of Germany and Prague also included the SSO’s return to the Berlin Philharmonie after six years. In 2014 the SSO’s debut at the 120th BBC Proms in London received critical acclaim in the major UK newspapers The Guardian and Telegraph.

The SSO has also performed in China on multiple occasions.

Notable SSO releases under BIS include a Rachmaninoff series, a “Seascapes” album, two Debussy discs “La Mer” and “Jeux”, and the first-ever cycle of Tcherepnin’s piano concertos and symphonies. The SSO has also collaborated with such great artists as Lorin Maazel, Charles Dutoit, Gennady

Rozhdestvensky, Neeme Järvi, Gustavo Dudamel, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Diana Damrau, Martha Argerich, Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Janine Jansen, Leonidas Kavakos and Gil Shaham.

The SSO is part of the Singapore Symphony Group, which also manages the Singapore Symphony Choruses, and the Singapore National Youth Orchestra.

The mission of the Group is to create memorable shared experiences with music. Through the SSO and its affiliated performing groups, we spread the love for music, nurture talent and enrich Singapore’s diverse communities.

ANDREW LITTON conductor Named Principal Guest Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in 2017, Andrew Litton is also Music Director of the New York City Ballet, where he recently extended his contract through 2022.

Litton was Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony from 19881994, producing 14 recordings, including the Grammy-winning Belshazzar’s Feast.

As Music Director of the Dallas Symphony from 1994-2006, he hired over one third of the players, led the orchestra on three major European tours, appeared four times at Carnegie Hall, created a children’s television series broadcast nationally and used in school curricula, produced 28 recordings, and helped raise the orchestra’s endowment from $19 million to $100 million. He regularly guest conducts leading orchestras and opera companies around the globe and adds to his discography of over 130 recordings, which have garnered America’s Grammy Award, France’s Diapason d’Or and other honours.

This season, besides conducting over 30 ballets at the New York City Ballet, Litton returns to the Singapore Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra,

Bergen Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, and the Utah Symphony among others. He will also make his debut with the Norwegian Opera and Ballet.

Litton’s work with New York City Ballet has earned praise from critics, dancers, and audiences. An accomplished pianist, he often performs as a piano soloist, conducting from the keyboard, most recently Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in Singapore. An acknowledged expert on Gershwin, Litton has performed and recorded Gershwin widely as both pianist and conductor and serves as Advisor to the University of Michigan Gershwin Archives.

Born in New York City, Litton has Bachelor’s and Masters degrees from the Juilliard School in piano and conducting.

His many honours include Norway’s Order of Merit, Yale’s Sanford Medal, the Elgar Society Medal, and an honorary Doctorate from the University of Bournemouth.

SABINE MEYER basset clarinet Sabine Meyer is one of the world’s most renowned instrumental soloists. It is partly due to her that the clarinet, a solo instrument previously underestimated, recaptured the attention of the concert platform.

Born in Crailsheim, she studied with Otto Hermann in Stuttgart and Hans Deinzer in Hanover, then embarked on a career as an orchestral musician and became member of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. This was followed by an engagement as solo clarinettist at the Berliner Philharmoniker which she abandoned, as she was more and more in demand as a soloist. For almost a quarter of a century, numerous concerts and broadcast engagements led her to all musical centres of Europe, North America, Japan, China and Australia.

Meyer has been a much-celebrated soloist with more than 300 orchestras internationally. She has performed with all the top-level orchestras in Germany and has been engaged by the world’s leading orchestras such as the Wiener Philharmoniker, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic

Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, the Radio Orchestras of Vienna, Basel, Warsaw, Prague and Budapest, among others.

In the summer of 2018, Sabine Meyer was artist-in-residence at the SchleswigHolstein Music Festival.

Meyer is particularly interested in the field of chamber music, where she has formed much long-lasting collaboration and explored a wide range of chamber repertoire. She is also a prominent champion for contemporary music – works by Jean Françaix, Edison Denissov, Toshio Hosokawa, Niccolo Castiglioni, Manfred Trojahn, Aribert Reimann and Peter Eötvös are written for her. In 2015 she premiered a concerto by Marton llles at the Lucerne Festival.

Meyer received eight Echo Classic Awards and is a member of the Academy of Arts Hamburg. In 2010 she received the decoration “Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres” from the French government. Meyer has been appointed a professorship at the Hochschule für Musik in Lübeck in 1993.

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, 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.

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

www.toteboard.gov.sg @ToteBoardSG

THE SAKURA AFTERNOON TEA AT LOBBY LOUNGE Inspired by the celebration of springtime and the blooming of cherry blossoms in Japan, our chefs have perfected an array of exquisite delights including Cherry Blossom Panna Cotta with Sakura Jelly, Lychee Sakura Mousse Cake and Sakura Scones for you to savour with your favourite tea.

Available between 1 March and 12 May 2019 For reservations, visit www.connoisseur.sg or call 6432 7483.

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SSO MU SICIAN S joshua tan Associate Conductor andrew litton Principal Guest Conductor Choo Hoey Conductor Emeritus Lan Shui Conductor Laureate Eudenice Palaruan Choral Director WONG LAI FOON Choirmaster

Shao Tao Tao Wu Man Yun* Xu Jue Yi* Ye Lin* Yeo Teow Meng Yin Shu Zhan* Zhang Si Jing* Zhao Tian* VIOLA Zhang Manchin Principal Guan Qi Associate Principal Gu Bing Jie* Fixed Chair Marietta Ku Luo Biao Julia Park Shui Bing Tan Wee-Hsin Janice Tsai Wang Dandan Yang Shi Li CELLO

FIRST VIOLIN Igor Yuzefovich1 Concertmaster, The GK Goh Chair Lynnette Seah2 Co-Concertmaster Kong Zhao Hui* Associate Concertmaster Chan Yoong-Han Fixed Chair Cao Can* Chen Da Wei Duan Yu Ling Foo Say Ming Gu Wen Li Jin Li Cindy Lee Karen Tan William Tan Wei Zhe SECOND VIOLIN Anne Søe^ Principal Michael Loh Associate Principal Hai-Won Kwok Fixed Chair Nikolai Koval* Chikako Sasaki* Margit Saur

Ng Pei-Sian Principal Yu Jing Associate Principal Guo Hao Fixed Chair Chan Wei Shing Song Woon Teng Wang Yan Wang Zihao* Wu Dai Dai Zhao Yu Er DOUBLE BASS Janne Johansson^ Principal Yang Zheng Yi Associate Principal Karen Yeo Fixed Chair Olga Alexandrova Jacek Mirucki Guennadi Mouzyka Wang Xu FLUTE Jin Ta Principal Evgueni Brokmiller Associate Principal Roberto Alvarez Miao Shanshan

PICCOLO

TRUMPET

Roberto Alvarez Assistant Principal

Jon Paul Dante Principal David Smith Associate Principal Lau Wen Rong Sergey Tyuteykin

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

TROMBONE Allen Meek Principal Damian Patti Associate Principal Samuel Armstrong BASS TROMBONE Wang Wei Assistant Principal TIMPANI Christian Schiøler Principal Jonathan Fox Associate Principal

BASS CLARINET

PERCUSSION

Tang Xiao Ping Assistant Principal

Jonathan Fox Principal Mark Suter Associate Principal Lim Meng Keh Zhu Zheng Yi

BASSOON Wang Xiaoke Principal Liu Chang Associate Principal Christoph Wichert Zhao Ying Xue

HARP Gulnara Mashurova Principal

CONTRABASSOON Zhao Ying Xue Assistant Principal HORN Han Chang Chou Principal Gao Jian Associate Principal Jamie Hersch Associate Principal Marc-Antoine Robillard Associate Principal Hoang Van Hoc

*With deep appreciation to the Rin Collection for their generous loan of string instruments.

Igor Yuzefovich plays an instrument generously loaned by Mr & Mrs G K Goh Lynnette Seah 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. ^Musician on temporary contract Musicians listed alphabetically by family name rotate their seats on a per programme basis.

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HEART F E LT THANK S TO S S O CORPORATE PATRON S AND SPON S OR S We would like to express our deepest appreciation to the following companies and organisations that support our mission to create memorable shared experiences with music.

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For more information on donations and sponsorships, please write to director_development@sso.org.sg

A S ta nding Ovat ion to o ur Donor s a nd Sp on s or s PATRON SPONSOR

Tote Board Group (Tote Board, Singapore Pools & Singapore Turf Club) $500,000 AND ABOVE

Temasek Foundation Nurtures CLG Limited Mr & Mrs Goh Yew Lin $100,000 and above

Christopher Ho & Rosy Ho Butterfield Trust $50,000 and above

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Thank you for attending Sabine Meyer • Mozart Clarinet Concerto

Another leading lady of music, our very own first lady of jazz, Rani Singam takes the stage this April as vocalist and narrator. In this music movie concept, enter a world of musical stories filled with life’s loves and curveballs.

MY MUSE•RANI SINGAM VICTORIA CONCERT HALL 6 APR 2019 Rani Singam, vocals Ang Shao Wen, conductor Chok Kerong, piano Chan Yoong-Han, violin Christina Zhou, violin

Edward Tan, viola Wang Zihao, cello Ben Poh, double bass Andrew Lim, guitar Shawn Kelley, drums

This very hall you sit in is full of memories for the SSO and our founding conductor, Choo Hoey. However, this April at the Esplanade, our pioneering Maestro returns to conduct a colourful programme, including Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4 with the fast-rising young violinist He Ziyu.

MAESTRO CHOO HOEY ESPLANADE CONCERT HALL 18 APR 2019 He Ziyu, violin Choo Hoey, conductor

Come back to the VCH in May to catch a zany troupe of kitchen utensils narrate a canteen cantilena in this chamber recital featuring the woodwinds of the SSO. A whistling and warbling treat to relish!

TEMPTATION OF THE SAINTLY POT VICTORIA CONCERT HALL 18 MAY 2019 Kong Zhao Hui, violin Cindy Lee, violin Shui Bing, viola Guo Hao, cello Wang Xu, double bass

Miao Shanshan, flute Pan Yun, oboe Li Xin, clarinet Wang Xiaoke, bassoon Gao Jian, horn

Our recommendations today end with another famed lady of song, the legendary Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. She arrives with the trailblazing quartet Brooklyn Rider, in an offering of specially arranged songs by such names as Caroline Shaw, Bjรถrk, Elvis Costello and Kate Bush.

ANNE SOFIE VON OTTER & BROOKLYN RIDER VICTORIA CONCERT HALL 5 JUN 2019 Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano Brooklyn Rider

$20,000 and above BinjaiTree Clarinda Tjia-Dharmadi-Martin & Christopher Martin European Union Delegation to Singapore Kingsmen Group Kris Foundation Maisy Koh & Dr Beh Swan Gin Dr André Klein Dr Julie Lo Leong Wai Leng Christina Ong

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Lek Lee Yong Leong Keng Hong Adam & Brittany Levinson Alvin Liew Lim Swee Lin Mavis Lim Geck Chin Lim Hong Eng Janet Candice Ling Tony & Serene Liok Stuart Liventals Low Boon Hon Benjamin Ma Andre Maniam Vanessa Martin Gillian Metzger Oscar Mico Million Lighting Co Pte Ltd Kathleen Moroney Pauline Chan & Jean Nasr Dr Agnes Ng Hunter Nield Zack Ong Kong Hong Monique Ong Herve Pauze Timothy Pitrelli Vihari Poddar Quek Boon Hui Robert Khan & Co Pte Ltd Bernard Jean Sabrier Arend Schumacher Winifred Dente degli Scrovegni Seah & Siak See Tho Kai Yin Caroline Seow Retno Setyaningsih Serene Tan & Carol Shieh Naoyoshi Nick Shimoda Siah Geok Wah Susan Sim Lee Koon Taizo Son Stanley Lim Leong Thian Ron & Janet Stride Dr Tan Chin Nam Ivan Tan Meng Cheng Tan Kok Kiong Gordon H.L. Tan Tan Kok Huan Tan Yee Deng Giles Tan Ming Yee Daniel Tando Teo Ee Peng Eddie Teo Fatima Terrill Alicia Thian Jamie Thomas Kennie Ting Guru Vishwanath Zhang Weihua

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MAKE A GIFT OF MUSIC The SSO has turned 40 and we hope that you're still enjoying our music.

If you’ve loved our concerts, please do consider making a donation for our birthday.

Your gift to our national orchestra will give less well-off students and other underserved communities the chance to come to our concerts for free, or on discounted tickets.

Did you know?

Our free concerts and events delight over 45,000 people every year Ticket revenue accounts for less than 10% of our total budget To keep our concerts accessible, we keep ticket prices as low as $10

The government and the Tote Board together provide more than half of our funding needs, but a large part of it is in the form of matching funds, where the money will only get to us if we raise funds from the public.

And that’s you.

So won’t you join us to make a gift of music please?

Ways You Can Donate: Visit www.sso.org.sg/donate Scan the QR code in PayLah! or PayNow (provide your email under 'Reference No.') Contact Ms Nikki Chuang at nikki@sso.org.sg or 6602 4238

From all of us at the SSO, thank you for your generous support! *Singapore tax-payers may qualify for 250% tax deduction for donations above $50.

HEART F E LT APPRECIATION TO S S O 4 0 t h A nni v e r s a r y A p p e a l Donor s We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all our patrons who have responded to the SSO's 40th Anniversary Appeal so far. It would be impossible for our national orchestra to continue to strive for artistic excellence, touch the hearts of Singaporeans with our music, and make Singapore proud, if we didn't have ardent patrons like you.

Thank you for your generosity!

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$2,500 to $5,000 Prof Kanti Bajpai Chang Hwee Nee Chng Hak-Peng Lionel Choi Hartley Clay Prof Arnoud De Meyer Warren Fernandez Goh Sze Wei Heinrich Grafe

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$1,000 to $2,499 Aznan Bin Abu Bakar Aloha Dental Pte Ltd Dr Brenda Ang Jocelyn Aw Bryan Carmichael Cham Gee Len Chan Ah Khim Vivian Chandran Dr Faith Chia Pamela Chong Sally Chy Winifred Dente degli Scrovegni Maureen Derooij

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We would like to express our sincere thanks to donors whose names were inadvertently left out at print time.

ROB ERT CA S TEE L S (b. 1959) Ouverture spirituelle, Op. 120 7’ (SSO Commission / World Premiere)

Casteels became a Singapore citizen in 2007.

This short composition, opus 120, bears the title of “overture”, as it means exactly what it does, that is to “open” a symphonic concert.

The French title pays homage to French being the international language in the 18th century, the period of the Age of Enlightenment in Europe. Every musical style has its own code.

In this composition I follow the codes of musical classicism in terms of instrumentation, structure, bar phrases, bithematism and most importantly in the manner of expressing emotions.

Horizontally the music unfolds within periods of eight bars punctuated by the timpani. If you place a mirror horizontally on pitch middle D, the music evolving above or under that pitch D is an exact reflection of each other.

PROGRAMME NOTES

Composer, researcher, conductor, pianist and educator Dr Robert Casteels has written a growing corpus of 125 compositions that defy classification by defiantly crossing cultures and genres.

His compositional language was at first atonal, then gradually became modal in South-East Asia. His works have been performed in Australia, Belgium, China, England, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the Philippines and Singapore. The Asia Composers League selected his compositions for their festivals in Singapore, Tokyo, Manila and Hanoi. The festival i Light Singapore-Bicentennial Edition featured his most recent creation, The Floating Lighthouse. His new electroacoustic tone poem entitled Nine Dragons will be premiered next month. Casteels is the recipient of several awards, including the prestigious Christoffel Plantin Prize, Flander’s highest award for cultural achievements, in recognition of his contribution to cross-cultural research.

Instrumentation 2 flutes 2 oboes 2 clarinets 2 bassoons 2 horns 2 trumpets timpani strings

In French the adjective “spirituel” relates to human spirit, to the religious belief of the soul, to all that what the human brain conceives and to fine humour.

I have endeavoured to express these characteristics in this overture. May the sonic pirouettes elicit a smile on the listeners’ face :-) Programme note by Robert Casteels

WOL F GANG AMA DE U S MOZ ART (175 6 –1791) Clarinet Concerto in A major, K.622 25’ The Clarinet Concerto was the last instrumental work Mozart completed before his death. In addition, it is the culmination of his career as “The Prince of Concerto Writers”. That it was a concerto for clarinet was doubly fitting, for this was the wind instrument Mozart had loved above all others. The Concerto occupied him from late September to mid-October, 1791, and was written for the virtuoso clarinettist Anton Stadler, Mozart’s friend, fellow Freemason, and member of the court orchestra. Mozart’s love affair with the clarinet goes back a long way. His awakening to the beauty of the instrument began probably in 1777/78, when he was visiting Mannheim and heard clarinets in the orchestra there. “You cannot imagine the glorious effect of a symphony with flutes, oboes and clarinets”, he wrote to his father.

This sublimely beautiful work has enchanted generations of listeners, yet few realise that the form in which they know is a significantly altered version of Mozart’s original. Stadler had in his possession an instrument now called the basset clarinet (not the same as the basset horn, an alto member of the clarinet family required in the Requiem, among other works). This basset clarinet could play four semitones

But whether the concerto is heard on a modern or a period instrument, connoisseurs and neophytes alike will appreciate the qualities that have raised this concerto not only to the summit of the repertory for this instrument, but to the pantheon of Mozart’s very greatest masterpieces: the enormous variety of tone colours, the subtle dynamic shadings, the liquid smooth lines, the beguiling melodies, the way Mozart exploits all registers of the solo instrument, and the air

of tenderness and serenity that suffuses the work.

The Concerto opens with a theme of utmost simplicity and gentle sentiment.

The sense of airy lightness that pervades the movement, even in moments of melancholy, can be attributed in part to the exquisite refinements of the scoring. Cellos often play without the supporting double basses, and flutes play a prominent role while oboes are absent altogether. The ravishingly beautiful slow movement, in the words of Alec Hyatt King, “seems to reflect the timeless and beatific vision of a mind at peace with itself”. The finale is a rondo based on a dancelike theme that seems to transcend joy, as if smiling through the tears.

Instrumentation 2 flutes 2 bassoons 2 horns strings World Premiere 16 Oct 1791, Prague First performed by SSO 14 & 15 Jul 1979 (David Lewis)

PROGRAMME NOTES

lower than the conventional clarinet in A, and Mozart exploited this extended low register to the fullest. But the instrument quickly went out of fashion, and by the time the first printed editions appeared (first decade of the 19th century), the solo part had already been adapted for the standard instrument. Numerous passages had to be altered (mostly moved up an octave) ranging from single notes to entire phrases. Moreover, Mozart’s manuscript was lost, and it was not until well into the 20th century that musicologists began the attempt to reconstruct the solo part as Mozart probably wrote it. In 1951, an instrument was built to accommodate the reconstructed version, and a performance was given in Prague. In 1957, the working title of “basset clarinet” was assigned by the Czech scholar Jirí Kratochvil.

Alan Hacker has given a highly detailed account of the situation, including a list of 43 proposed changes from the familiar score to the putative original, in the April, 1969 issue of The Musical Quarterly.

An increasing number of clarinettists, including tonight’s soloist, Sabine Meyer, are now performing Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto on the basset clarinet.

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOV SK Y (18 4 0 –18 93) Suite No. 4, Op. 61 “Mozartiana” 25’ Tchaikovsky, like so many other composers before and since, adored Mozart: “I love Mozart as the musical Christ”, he once wrote. “Mozart was as pure as an angel, and his music is full of divine beauty.”

Tchaikovsky’s deep reverence for his predecessor took tangible form in an orchestral suite he entitled Mozartiana.

It dates from 1887, the centenary year of Don Giovanni, the Mozart opera through which Tchaikovsky claimed that he “learned to know what music is”. He composed the suite during the summer months at the home of his brother Anatol in Russia and at Aix-la-Chapelle in France.

Chronologically, it falls between the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies.

As in his Rococo Variations written a decade earlier, Tchaikovsky pays homage to a bygone era. However, the lighthearted sentimentality and graceful charm of the Rococo Variations are less consciously in evidence in Mozartiana, where Tchaikovsky recasts Mozart’s originals in his own distinctive style: orchestral textures, articulations and phrase structures reflect the late 19th century, not the 18th, and Tchaikovsky incorporates instruments Mozart would not have dreamed of using in a suite, namely harp, cymbals and glockenspiel, as well as a separate part for double basses and a flamboyant cadenza

for clarinet. Tchaikovsky conducted the orchestra of the Russian Musical Society at the premiere in November 1887 in Moscow. His own title for the work was Mozartiana, but it is today called Suite No. 4 as well.

The first movement is based on a stand-alone little piano piece, the Gigue in G major, K.574, written in 1789.

Strangely enough for a dance number, it is contrapuntal in style, which suggests it might be a tribute to Bach. Indeed, it sounds more like Bach than like Mozart.

In addition, its pervasive chromaticism, audacious harmony, and quirky rhythmic distortions look many years into the future.

The second movement sounds more like the Mozart we know. It too is derived from a short, stand-alone dance number, the Minuet in D major, originally numbered K.355 but revised to 594a and still later to 576b. Stylistically it is obviously a late work, and like the previous movement of the Suite, highly chromatic and harmonically advanced.

The third movement is derived from Liszt’s piano transcription of Mozart’s motet Ave verum corpus, K.618 for chorus and strings, one of his very last compositions.

Andrew Raeburn describes it as “a piece of wonderful simplicity, a pure distillation of heartfelt devotion.”

The last movement is an orchestration of Mozart’s variations on a tune from Gluck’s comic opera Die Pilger von Mecca (La rencontre imprévue in its French version – “The Unexpected Encounter”). One of the characters sings the aria, Unser

dummer Pöbel meint (“Our foolish rabble thinks”), to which Mozart presumably improvised, in Gluck’s presence, a series of variations as an encore to a concert given on 29 March 1783. The following year he developed the tune into a set of ten variations, K.455. This is by far the longest movement of Tchaikovsky’s Suite, longer than the previous three combined, and the closest in style to the Tchaikovsky we are familiar with.

RECOMMENDED LISTENING Mozart: Clarinet Concerto Sabine Meyer (EMI Records, 2010)

Programme notes (Mozart, Tchaikovsky) by Robert Markow

World Premiere c. Nov 1887, Moscow First performed by SSO 2 & 3 Aug 2002

PROGRAMME NOTES

Instrumentation 2 flutes 2 oboes 2 clarinets 2 bassoons 4 horns 2 trumpets timpani glockenspiel, cymbals, suspended cymbals harp strings

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