The Straits Times Concert in the Gardens

symphony in the gardens the straits times concert in the gardens

21 JUL 2019

SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Founded in 1979, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is Singapore’s flagship orchestra. We play a hundred concerts a year showcasing a wide range of music: from Baroque to modern, to cutting-edge world premieres by contemporary composers Singaporean and international.

The SSO has performed to acclaim in Europe, Asia and the USA, including at the Dresden Music Festival, the Berlin Philharmonie and the BBC Proms in London. Some of the great artistes we have collaborated with include renowned conductors Vladimir Ashkenazy and Lorin Maazel, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Martha Argerich, soprano Diana Damrau, and violinists Janine Jansen and Gil Shaham.

The SSO’s performing home is the 1,800-seat Esplanade Concert Hall. For a more intimate experience, we return to the place of our beginnings, the 673-seat Victoria Concert Hall – the Home of the SSO. The VCH is host to our popular Children’s, Family and Christmas concerts, the SSO Chamber Series and our biannual free Lunchtime Concerts. In addition, we travel to various outreach locations in Singapore for our community and outdoor performances. Through the beauty of classical music, we aim to touch the hearts and lives of everyone, regardless of age, culture or background.

JOSHUA TAN conductor Singaporean conductor Joshua Tan’s rise to prominence on the international scene has been marked by successful debuts in Carnegie Hall, Philharmonie Berlin, Mariinsky Hall, Bunkamura, Shanghai, Beijing and Taiwan. He was featured as the top Singaporean musical talent in 2009 by Lianhe Zaobao. Joshua has also won numerous awards and scholarships, including the Second Prize of the 2008 Dimitris Mitropoulos International Competition, Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Award, NAC-Shell Scholarship, SSO/MOE Scholarship and he is the first-ever recipient of the Charles Schiff Conducting Prize from The Juilliard School for outstanding achievement. In 2011, Joshua received the Young Artist Award of Singapore.

Adept with film/multimedia, he is a Disney-approved conductor and gave the Asian premiere of Fantasia.

Joshua has also conducted for the BBC’s Planet Earth Series. In opera and ballet, Joshua has conducted La traviata, Tosca, Rigoletto, Der fliegende Holländer, Lohengrin, Carmen, Don Giovanni, Manon Lescaut, Madama Butterfly, Così fan tutte, Swan Lake, Giselle and was also cover conductor for Christoph Eschenbach and Lorin Maazel.

Joshua is presently Associate Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra.

Joshua has studied with leading conductors James DePreist, Charles Dutoit, David Zinman and Kurt Masur and is a graduate of The Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music (High Distinction).

PROGRAMME NOTES Overture to The Barber of Seville

by Gioachino Rossini (1792 - 1868) One of the most celebrated Italian composers of all time, Rossini is the epitome of 19th century Italian opera.

Renown for his opera seria (serious opera) and opera buffa (comic opera), Rossini’s gift for melody, drama and peerless writing for musical theatre has ensured his popularity for over 200 years. The overtures to his operas are curtain-raisers designed to set the mood and the stage as the story begins.

The Barber of Seville (Italian: Il barbiere di Siviglia) is the comic tale of a damsel and her multiple suitors, bluffs and disguises, bluster and rendezvous, ending happily.

The titular character, Figaro the barber, is the one who knows all the secrets and scandals in town, thanks to his particular profession. Listen as Rossini encapsulates all these into a musical summary, full of wit, drama and charm. (8 mins) Selections from The Golden Age Ballet Suite

by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975) I Introduction IV Danse Shostakovich, one of the most important Soviet composers of the 20th century, is best known for his distinct blend of dark, bold music laced with astringent wit and wry humour. A great orchestrator, he wrote pieces in every scale, from gigantic fearsome symphonies to witty ballet miniatures. The music to The Golden Age is his first for ballet, written in the late 1920s. The story tells of a Soviet football team that travels to a western city where they fall victim to the undesirable manners of the decadent West - match-rigging, police harassment and such politically incorrect villains as the Diva and the Fascist. The team finally emerge victorious, overthrowing the evil capitalists with the help of the local working class - and they celebrate with a final dance of solidarity.

“Football is the ballet of the masses”, so said Shostakovich. It turns out he was also a keen football fan. (5 mins)

Tea for Two (Tahiti Trot)

by Vincent Youmans (1898 - 1946 / arr. Shostakovich) The Tahiti Trot is Shostakovich’s orchestral arrangement of the classic song “Tea for Two” from the musical, No, No Nanette, by American Broadway composer, Vincent Youmans. In 1927, the conductor Nikolai Malko put on a record of the song in his house while Shostakovich was visiting - and challenged the latter to arrange it for orchestra. The bet: 100 rubles if Shostakovich could do it in an hour. He did in 45 minutes - after listening to it once.

Shostakovich named his arrangement Tahiti Trot, a piece which was later added to the ballet, The Golden Age. (4 mins) Selections from The Limpid Stream Ballet Suite

by Dmitri Shostakovich I Waltz II Russian Lubok III Galop

The Limpid Stream was the third and last ballet that Shostakovich wrote. The plot centres around a group of artistes from the city who are sent to a Soviet collective farm to entertain the farmers. Entertain they did - but the Soviet authorities in the real world, namely Stalin, were not amused by the sights of dancing farmers, cycling dogs and men in tutus. The ballet was banned, and the careers of the composer and choreographer derailed - a frightening situation in mid-1930s Soviet Union. That the music is so cheery, energetic and sunny gives no small a hint as to what constituted as “acceptable” then. In any case, Shostakovich has the last laugh - the ballet was finally revived from oblivion in 2003 and its music now amuses and entertains audiences - from Moscow to here in Singapore. Today, you will hear three extracts from the complete ballet music, from a carefree Waltz to a happy little Russian Lubok, and a fast-paced scampering Galop. (7 mins)

Sketches of Singapore

by Kelly Tang (b. 1961)

Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop

by Hans Christian Lumbye (1810 - 1874)

Singaporean composer Kelly Tang’s Sketches of Singapore explores four well-loved Singapore tunes. The work begins with the triumphantly energetic Stand Up for Singapore. Next, the folk tune Rasa Sayang is presented in the comic style of a scherzo. Cast in a passionate yet elegant orchestral glow, the deeply Romantic essence of the third tune, Where I Belong, is fully unveiled. In the grand finale, the venerable Di Tanjong Katong, is symphonically expanded, as never before, to radiate in all its innate glory. (Notes adapted from the composer)

Danish composer Hans Christian Lumbye, the “Johann Strauss of the North”, was a contemporary of the great Waltz King of the 19th century. Like Leroy Anderson, he is best known for his light orchestral music, such as the faithfully atmospheric recreation of a chugging steam train in the Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop. The work was written in 1847 to celebrate the opening of the first railway in Denmark between Copenhagen and Roskilde. Very little effort is needed to imagine the train: listen as morning arises serenely over the station, and amidst bold bells and whistles, the train sets off on its tracks, chugging steam and gathering speed across the countryside, finally settling with relief at its destination. (4 mins)

Bugler’s Holiday

by Leroy Anderson (1908 - 1975) Leroy Anderson is a name synonymous with light-hearted, fun-filled orchestral “pop” pieces. Originally composed for a trio of trumpets with orchestra, Bugler’s Holiday is filled with skittering merriment and sheer joy, a classic example of the whimsical and humorous capabilities of an orchestra. So popular is this work that it has been arranged for a multitude of other instruments, from brass bands to violins, handbells to choirs. (3 mins)

Fiddle-Faddle

by Leroy Anderson As the name suggests, Fiddle-Faddle has its focus very much on the string instruments, who spend much of the piece scurrying away with melodic pizzazz and spirited zest. Listen carefully for the threenote figure referencing the nursery song “Three Blind Mice”, although Anderson’s version is far more child-friendly than the original! Premiered by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the famed American pops conductor Arthur Fiedler in 1947, FiddleFaddle became such a favourite with audiences and conductor that it gained the nickname “Fiedler-Faddle”. (4 mins)

Champagne Galop

by Hans Christian Lumbye In case you were wondering, the word “galop” not only refers to the fastest running pace of a horse, but also to the galoppade, a lively country dance in duple time. The galop is related to the polka as well as the can-can, all inhabiting the world of popular dance. One of the most famous examples in light orchestral music is Lumbye’s Champagne Galop. It was written to celebrate the 1845 second anniversary of the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, where the composer worked as music director and composer-in-residence.

Boisterous festivities and lively celebrations in the orchestra are punctuated by the unmistakable sound of the cork popping.

Bottoms up! (3 mins)

Programme Notes by Chia Han-Leon

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