SSO Subscription Concert: Mendelssohn Violin Concerto • Brahms Symphonies 22 Sep 2017

LAN SHUI Music Director

subscription concert

Mendelssohn Violin Concerto • Brahms Symphonies 22 September 2017 Esplanade Concert Hall Performing Home of the SSO Sponsored by

Lan Shui, conductor Daishin Kashimoto, violin Jon Paul Dante, trumpet

ME S S AG E F R OM S Y MP HON Y 924 It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s Subscription Concert, Mendelssohn Violin Concerto • Brahms Symphonies, proudly sponsored by Symphony 924.

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra has become an integral part of Singapore’s cultural calendar, delighting people of all ages with powerful musical experiences. This evening’s concert features SSO Conductor Lan Shui, Japanese violinist Daishin Kashimoto and SSO Principal Trumpet Jon Paul Dante.

Symphony 924 and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra have nearly four decades of partnership. As Singapore’s only cultural broadcast station, Symphony 924 keeps listeners informed and updated on the arts and classical music scene.

We are delighted that you share our passion and are thrilled to have you here with us this evening. We hope you have a wonderful time!

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22 Sep 2017, Fri

Mendelssohn Violin Concerto • Brahms Symphonies Singapore Symphony Orchestra Lan Shui, conductor

JOHANN HUMMEL

Trumpet Concerto in E-flat major, S. 49 21’00

1. Allegro con spirito 2. Andante 3. Rondo

Jon Paul Dante, trumpet FELIX MENDELSSOHN

Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 26’00

1. Allegro molto appassionato 2. Andante 3. Allegro non troppo – Allegro molto vivace

Daishin Kashimoto, violin Intermission 20’00

Daishin Kashimoto and Jon Paul Dante will sign autographs in the stalls foyer.

JOHANNES BRAHMS

Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 39’00

1. Allegro non troppo 2. Andante moderato 3. Allegro giocoso 4. Allegro energico e passionato

Concert duration: 2 hrs Go green. Digital programme booklets are available on www.sso.org.sg.

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

S ingapore S ymphony Or c hes t ra ‘A fine display of orchestral bravado for the SSO and Shui’ The Guardian

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 alltime favourites and orchestral masterpieces to exciting cutting-edge premieres. Bridging the musical traditions of East and West, Singaporean and Asian musicians and composers are regularly showcased in the concert season. 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.

Since Lan Shui assumed the position of Music Director in 1997, 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 Rachmaninov series, a Debussy disc, “Seascapes” featuring sea-themed music by Debussy, Frank Bridge, Glazunov and Zhou Long, 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, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos and Gil Shaham.

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L an SHui conductor

Lan Shui is renowned for his abilities as an orchestral builder and for his passion in commissioning, premiering and recording new works by leading Asian composers. As Music Director of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra since 1997, American Record Review noted that Shui has “turned a good regional orchestra into a world-class ensemble that plays its heart out at every concert”. Together they have made several acclaimed tours to Europe, Asia and the United States and appeared for the first time at the BBC Proms in September 2014.

Lan Shui held the position of Chief Conductor of the Copenhagen Phil from 2007 to 2015, and from 2016 he became their Conductor Laureate. He recently concluded a four-year period as Artistic Advisor of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. As a guest conductor, Shui has worked with many orchestras. In the United States he has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and Baltimore and Detroit symphony orchestras. In Europe he has performed with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Gothenburg Symphony, Tampere Philharmonic and Orchestre National de Lille. In Asia he has conducted the Hong Kong, Malaysian and Japan Philharmonic orchestras and maintains a close relationship with the China Philharmonic and Shanghai Symphony.

Since 1998 Shui has recorded over 20 CDs for BIS – including a Rachmaninov series, a “Seascapes” disc and the first-ever complete cycle of Tcherepnin’s symphonies with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra – and also music by Arnold and Hindemith with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, which has received two Grammy nominations.

Lan Shui is the recipient of several international awards from the Beijing Arts Festival and the New York Tcherepnin Society, the 37th Besançon Conductors’ Competition in France and Boston University (Distinguished Alumni Award) as well as the Cultural Medallion – Singapore’s highest accolade in the arts. Born in Hangzhou, China, Shui studied composition at the Shanghai Conservatory and graduated from The Beijing Central Conservatory. He continued his graduate studies at Boston University while at the same time working closely with Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Festival. He has worked together with David Zinman as Conducting Affiliate of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, as Associate Conductor to Neeme Järvi at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and with Kurt Masur at the New York Philharmonic and Pierre Boulez at The Cleveland Orchestra.

Da ishin K ashimoto violin

Daishin Kashimoto was First Prize winner of such renowned competitions as the International Competition for Violinists in Cologne in 1994, and in 1996, both the International Fritz Kreisler Violin Competition in Vienna and the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud International Competition for Piano and Violin in Paris.

A Japanese national born in London, Kashimoto began studying violin in Tokyo at the age of three. He moved to New York in 1985, and then was accepted as the youngest student in the pre-college division of The Juilliard School. In 1990 he moved to Lübeck, Germany, to accept an invitation to study under Zakhar Bron. From age 20 he studied under Rainer Kussmaul at Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg.

Kashimoto has been recognized internationally for performing under renowned Maestros such as Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Maazel, Yuri Temirkanov, Mariss Jansons, Myung-Whun Chung and others. He is also active in the field of chamber music, and has performed with noted musicians such as Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer, Mischa Maisky, Emmanuel Pahud, and others. Since 2007, he has served as Music Director at the annual chamber music festival “Le Pont” in Japan.

Kashimoto was appointed as First Concertmaster of the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2010 where he has also performed as a soloist.

Kashimoto has received a number of prestigious awards, such as the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists in Japan (1998); and the Steigenberger and Davidov Awards in Germany. He plays on a violin made by Andrea Guarneri, 1674.

JON PA UL DA N T E trumpet

Currently one of Asia’s most sought-after trumpet artists and brass clinicians, native Bostonian Jon Paul Dante was appointed as Principal Trumpet of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in May 2013. Previously, he served as Principal Trumpet of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Wellington. He is also a member of the Artist Faculty at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.

Jon has served as Principal Trumpet for many of Asia’s premier symphony orchestras, including the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra and the Malaysian Philharmonic where he was hailed by the American Record Guide as being “one of the stars of the MPO”.

Before moving to the Orient, Jon served as Principal Trumpet of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra as well as the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra. During his tenure with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Jon was a frequent featured soloist and served on the Board of Directors.

Throughout his career, Jon has performed with distinguished artists such as Pavoratti, Van Cliburn, Joshua Bell, Victor Borge, Yanni, James Morrison and Nestor Torrez. Jon has also performed with the Colorado Music Festival, the Bellingham Music Festival, the Santa Fe Opera and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

Jon is a music educator and guest clinician at various conservatories, colleges and universities worldwide. He is a recording artist and active both as an arranger and composer. He has arranged and composed works for both piano and brass quintet, many of which have been recorded by the Paramount Brass. Away from the trumpet, Jon enjoys golf, photography, boating, everything electronic and fast motorcycles.

For more information, visit Jon’s website at www.jondante.com.

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SSO MU S ICI A N S Lan Shui Music Director joshua tan Associate Conductor jason lai Associate Conductor andrew litton Principal Guest Conductor Choo Hoey Conductor Emeritus Eudenice Palaruan Choral Director

FIRST VIOLIN Igor Yuzefovich° Concertmaster, The GK Goh Chair Lynnette Seah 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 Sui Jing Jing Karen Tan William Tan Wei Zhe SECOND VIOLIN Wu Haixin^ Principal Michael Loh Associate Principal Hai-Won Kwok Fixed Chair

Nikolai Koval* Chikako Sasaki* Margit Saur Shao Tao Tao Lillian Wang Wu Man Yun* Xu Jue Yi* Ye Lin* Yeo Teow Meng Yin Shu Zhan* Zhang Si Jing* VIOLA Zhang Manchin Principal Guan Qi Associate Principal Gu Bing Jie* Fixed Chair Marietta Ku Lim Chun^ Luo Biao Julia Park^ Shui Bing Tan Wee-Hsin Janice Tsai^ Wang Dandan^ Yang Shi Li Yi Ching Yuan^ CELLO Ng Pei-Sian Principal Yu Jing Associate Principal Guo Hao Fixed Chair Chan Wei Shing Song Woon Teng Wang Yan Wang Zihao* Peter Wilson Wu Dai Dai Zhao Yu Er DOUBLE BASS Guennadi Mouzyka Principal Yang Zheng Yi Associate Principal Karen Yeo Fixed Chair Olga Alexandrova Ma Li Ming^ Jacek Mirucki Wang Xu

FLUTE Jin Ta Principal 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

Marc-Antoine Robillard Associate Principal Hoang Van Hoc^ Kartik Alan Jairamin TRUMPET Jon Paul Dante Principal David Smith Associate Principal Lau Wen Rong Sergey Tyuteykin TROMBONE Allen Meek Principal Damian Patti Associate Principal Samuel Armstrong

COR ANGLAIS

BASS TROMBONE

Elaine Yeo Associate Principal

Wang Wei Assistant Principal

CLARINET

TUBA

Ma Yue Principal Li Xin Associate Principal Liu Yoko Tang Xiao Ping

Hidehiro Fujita Principal TIMPANI Christian Schiøler Principal Jonathan Fox Associate Principal

BASS CLARINET Tang Xiao Ping Assistant Principal BASSOON Liu Chang Associate Principal Christoph Wichert Zhao Ying Xue CONTRA BASSOON

PERCUSSION Jonathan Fox Principal Mark Suter Associate Principal Lim Meng Keh Zhu Zheng Yi HARP Gulnara Mashurova Principal

Zhao Ying Xue Assistant Principal HORN Han Chang Chou Principal Gao Jian Associate Principal Jamie Hersch Associate Principal

*With deep appreciation to the Rin Collection for their generous loan of string instruments. °Igor Yuzefovich, Concertmaster, The GK Goh Chair, plays an instrument generously loaned by Mr & Mrs G K Goh. ^Musician on temporary contract Musicians listed alphabetically by family name rotate their seats on a per programme basis.

u p comi ng con c ert s

29 September 2017 Fri | 7.30pm Victoria Concert Hall Subscription Concert

PRESIDENT’S YOUNG PERFORMERS CONCERT ER YENN CHWEN Symphonia Anamneseos PHILIP WILBY Euphonium Concerto (Singapore Premiere) BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 “Eroica” Joshua Tan, conductor Kang Chun Meng, euphonium Sponsored by

5 October 2017

Thu | 7.30pm Esplanade Concert Hall Subscription Concert

STEVEN ISSERLIS • ELGAR CELLO CONCERTO SUK Scherzo Fantastique, Op. 25 ELGAR Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 GLAZUNOV Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 55 Darrell Ang, conductor Steven Isserlis, cello Pre-concert Talk 6.30pm | Esplanade Concert Hall Foyer

mu s ic i an c ha irs

Igor Yuzefovich Concertmaster The GK Goh Chair The GK Goh Chair is endowed by the Family and Friends of Mr Goh Geok Khim

GUO HAO Fixed Chair Cello The Fixed Chair Cello is supported by

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hear t felt t hanks to t he family and F R IE NDS of mr goh geok khim In appreciation of a major gift from the Family and Friends of Mr Goh Geok Khim on the occasion of his 85th birthday on 17 July 2017, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra is pleased to announce the naming of the SSO Concertmaster position, the GK Goh Chair.

Igor Yuzefovich Concertmaster The GK Goh Chair Endowed by the Family and Friends of Mr Goh Geok Khim

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JOH A NN HUMME L (1778 -18 37 ) Trumpet Concerto in E-flat major, S. 49

21’00

The earliest trumpets were used for military or religious purposes, before technological improvements allowed it to be used more as a musical instrument in the renaissance and baroque eras. The natural trumpets of this period could only play a limited number of notes in a single overtone series, many of which were clustered in the upper extent of the instrument’s range.

This limitation resulted in many fanfares as well as brilliant melodic passages written for the natural trumpet’s highest registers.

Over time, this playing style fell out of favour, and composers in the 1700s primarily used the trumpet to signal key structural points, as it could only play a very limited number of notes – a huge drawback as music became more chromatic. The Viennese trumpeter, Anton Weidinger, is said to have invented the keyed trumpet around 1770. With this revolutionary invention, the trumpet could then play scales and chromatic passages over the entire range of the instrument. The keyed trumpet however did not last for long. It had a poor tone – described as sounding like a “demented oboe” – and by 1818, the valved trumpet, still in use today, had taken over.

While the keyed trumpet was still being regarded as a revolutionary instrument, both Haydn and Hummel wrote concertos to allow trumpeters to demonstrate its increased capabilities. A student of Mozart and contemporary of Beethoven and Schubert, Johann Nepomuk Hummel was more popular – and can be said to have been more successful – than any of them during their lifetimes. Perhaps forewarned by Mozart’s impoverished demise, Hummel pushed for copyright protection in music publishing and made several well-judged investments to ensure that he would never encounter a similar fate.

After the immense success of Haydn’s trumpet concerto, Weidinger commissioned Hummel in 1803 to write one. Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto was duly premiered on New Year’s Day 1804 by Weidinger at the Esterházy estate, where the composer had just been appointed Konzertmeister (Concertmaster) and taken over most of the aged Haydn’s duties as Kapellmeister (Music Director).

Premiered only a year before Beethoven’s epoch-defining Eroica Symphony, Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto recalls much of Mozart’s classical poise and style. The first movement evokes the rococo majesty of Mozart’s Haffner Symphony, with a more energetic first theme and a somewhat playful second theme. Hummel thoroughly explores the possibilities of the keyed trumpet, with many lyrical passages scored in the instrument’s lower register.

The brief second movement features the trumpet singing a long-breathed melody over a pulsating string accompaniment. Rapid-fire repeated notes herald the lively third movement, with many flourishes and trills to highlight the soloist’s virtuosity.

F E L I X ME NDE L S S OHN (18 0 9 -18 47 ) Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64

26’00

“The Germans have four violin concertos … the most inward, the heart’s jewel, is Mendelssohn’s.” – Violinist Joseph Joachim The “Mendelssohn Violin Concerto”, as it is commonly known today, was the result of a friendship between Felix Mendelssohn and Ferdinand David.

They first met in their teens and struck up a strong friendship over the years.

David became one of the foremost violin virtuosos of his day, and when Mendelssohn was appointed director of the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, he appointed David as concertmaster. Later, when Mendelssohn founded the Leipzig conservatory, David was one of the first he appointed to his faculty.

Mendelssohn wrote to David in 1838, “I would like to write a violin concerto for you next winter, there’s one in E minor in my head, and its opening won’t leave me in peace.” The in-demand composer-conductor then went on to write a series of other masterpieces, including two symphonies, Lobgesang and Scottish, incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the Piano Trio in D minor.

In the summer of 1844, Mendelssohn finally returned to the Violin Concerto, and although he had previously written another Violin Concerto (in D minor) in his youth, he worked closely with David to mould the solo violin part for this Concerto. He regularly wrote to David to find out how playable the parts were, whether it was “written correctly and smoothly”, and about balance between the soloist and the various orchestral instruments. This composingin-partnership style was later repeated by many composers for their Violin Concertos, including Brahms, Elgar, Stravinsky, Bartók and Shostakovich, all seeking technical advice from their violin virtuoso friends.

After just one and a half bars of E minor, anchored by pulsating timpani and bass, the solo violin swoops in with the main subject of the first movement.

Mendelssohn wrote to David, “you ask that it should be brilliant … the whole of the first solo is to be for the E string.” This brilliantly passionate melody soars high. The solo violin descends over three octaves, gently settling into its lowest note – G – which forms the base for the tranquil second subject, introduced by the flutes and clarinets.

Mendelssohn places the solo cadenza right before the reprise of the main theme, or the recapitulation. This was at an earlier point than the audience members of his day would have expected it to be placed, and later inspired the cadenza placement of Tchaikovsky’s own Violin Concerto.

The cadenza owes much to David’s influence, both in length and in clarifying Mendelssohn’s denser original – “so short that it barely made an impression”, according to reviewer Ivan Hewett writing in response to Daniel Hope’s recording of the “original” cadenza. The cadenza’s positioning allows the violin to continue spinning its arpeggios when the orchestra returns with the main theme.

A few years earlier, Mendelssohn had experimented with having his Scottish Symphony performed without a break between movements, no doubt inspired by Schumann’s D minor Symphony. In this Concerto, Mendelssohn links the first two movements together, with a bassoon holding onto one note from the final chord of the first movement. Slowly, other instruments join in, as the music transitions and coalesces into the song without words of the second movement. Its simplicity and beauty belies its lyricism; this melody was later set to words by Andrew Lloyd Webber in Jesus Christ Superstar, as “I don’t know how to love him”. A passionate middle section recalls the surge of the preceding movement, before a reprise of the song brings the movement to an almost religious close.

Another bridge passage mulls on and recalls the middle section of the second movement, before a fanfare announces the arrival of the third movement. The fairy lights and puckish music of A Midsummer Night’s Dream are recalled in a delightful and sparkling dance for the violin. There is still space for Mendelssohn’s trademark broad, swinging tunes to make an appearance, and these alternate and combine with the dancing fairies to bring the Concerto to a spirited end.

J OH A NNE S B R A HM S (18 3 3 -18 97 ) Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98

39’00

“Difficult. Very difficult… gigantic, altogether a law unto itself, quite new, steely individuality. Exudes unparalleled energy from first note to last.” – Conductor Hans von Bülow after the first rehearsal of Brahms’ 4th Symphony.

Brahms wrote his Fourth Symphony in the alpine town of Mürzzuschlag, Austria, between 1884 and 1885. When he introduced the completed Fourth Symphony to his close circle of friends in the form of an arrangement for two pianos, they expressed their reservations. The acid-penned critic, Eduard Hanslick, remarked at the end of the first movement, “I had the feeling that I was being given a beating by two incredibly intelligent people!” Max Kalbeck urged him to replace the middle movements and convert the final movement into a standalone piece, and Elizabeth von Herogenberg cautioned that the Symphony was too “cerebral … its beauties are not accessible to every normal music lover.”

Despite this cautious reaction from his friends, Brahms nonetheless found a champion of the work in Hans von Bülow, who acknowledged its musical and technical challenges, and proceeded to prepare the Meniningen Orchestra so well that its premiere – which Brahms conducted in October 1885 – was a huge success with its audience. It has since become a mainstay of orchestras worldwide.

The first movement opens with a series of falling and rising two-note sighs.

Brahms develops a whole series of musical ideas from this sighing ebb and flow. Long, grand musical lines are spun throughout the movement, as Brahms’ favoured cross-rhythms supply propulsive energy, enabling the music to transition through beauty, yearning and mystery, gather momentum, and erupt in an overwhelmingly shattering climax.

A horn call sets up the second movement, forceful declamations fading into a passage where the winds sing a melody over plucked strings. Brahms uses the renaissance-era Phrygian mode to colour proceedings, evoking an antiquated procession. Antiquity gives way to forceful bursts before a warm, lush string-led song takes centre stage, as Brahms provides the soothing, consoling balm to the tragedy of the first movement, in perhaps one of the most beautifully ravishing passages in his symphonic output.

The third movement is Brahms’ first symphonic scherzo – which Beethoven had established, but Brahms thrice sidestepped. Heroic, muscular, and boisterous, the piccolo and triangle assist in adding a splash of brilliance, and a short dance-like theme supplies additional levity to what follows. There is no trio (contrasting section) here; the broken chords transition through the disguised sonata form, as Brahms sows the seeds of the finale’s ultimate tragedy beneath its tumultuous veneer.

The summation of Brahms’ symphonic career culminates in the construction of a massive baroque edifice: the chaconne, or passacaglia. Essentially a series of variations over a recurring bass line presented at the onset of the fourth movement by way of eight impactful chords, this “theme”, as it were, resembles one in Bach’s Cantata No. 150, Nach Dir, Herr, verlanget mich (“I long to be near you, Lord”). In doing so, Brahms drew from the past to signal the future, revitalising the passacaglia, with many major composers of the subsequent century writing or incorporating it into key works.

Thirty-two variations are organised with elements of sonata form, with the cyclical repetitions of the chaconne and driving force of the classical sonata form generating a dramatic clash of musical elements all bound by a sense of tragedy. Brahms provides significant opportunities for individual or groups of instruments to come to the forefront, most notably the flute and trombone chorale, in which Brahms tips his hat to Wagner’s Tannhäuser. The concluding pages recall the opening chords with added brass while strings slash ahead, the Symphony passing on to its inevitable end.

Programme notes by Christopher Cheong

26 October 2017 7.30pm I Victoria Concert Hall A renowned international organist popular for her sold-out silent film programmes, Dorothy Papadakos brings the Phantom of the Opera film’s raw terror to justice on the magnificent organ with an imaginatively improvised score that is sure to frighten even the Concert Hall’s resident Phantom.

We invite you to dress in your best Halloween costume!

Film screening of the 1929 Phantom of the Opera silent film - “The 1929 silent horror film classic THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA starring Lon Chaney, the Man of a Thousand Faces”

Tickets: $20 Concessions: $15 I Family of 4 package: 20%

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