A Gift to the Universe - Celebrating Bach III

A G I F T TO TH E U N I V E RS E CELEBRATING BACH III 21 MAY 2021 WATCH THE STREAM ONLINE ON SISTIC LIVE

This concert is dedicated to the late Dr Goh Keng Swee, founding patron of the SSO

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A G I FT TO T H E U N I V ER SE CELEBRATING BACH III 21 May 2021, 8pm (Online premiere on SISTIC Live) Viewable from 21 May to 4 Jun 2021 with valid tickets.

Singapore Symphony Orchestra Darrell Ang conductor Chloe Chua* violin Ye Lin* violin

J .S . B ACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047

13 mins

Kong Xianlong violin Evgueni Brokmiller flute Pan Yun oboe Lau Wen Rong trumpet

Concerto in D minor for Two Violins and Orchestra, BWV 1043*

17 mins

Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major, BWV 1049

17 mins

Zhao Tian violin Evgueni Brokmiller flute Miao Shanshan flute Concert Duration: 50 mins This concert was recorded at the Esplanade Concert Hall on 4 Feb 2021.

T Watch our online Pre-Concert Talk on our Facebook page and YouTube channel.

This special concert is dedicated to the late and former Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, Dr Goh Keng Swee.

Dr Goh was the founding patron of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and was instrumental in establishing the SSO in 1979. 42 years on, the SSO pays tribute to Dr Goh’s vision of a national orchestra that engages, inspires and reflects Singapore through musical excellence.

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SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 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, as well as outreach and community performances take place at the 673seat 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. 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 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 The Telegraph. The SSO has also performed in China on multiple occasions.

In the 2020/21 concert season, the SSO welcomes renowned maestro Hans Graf as its Chief Conductor.

Notable SSO releases on the BIS label include a Rachmaninoff series, a “Seascapes” album, three Debussy discs “La Mer”, “Jeux” and “Nocturnes”, 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 our diverse communities.

H ANS G RAF Chief Conductor

Tote Board’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.

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.

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D A R R E L L AN G conductor

Born in Singapore, Ang studied composition with Leong Yoon Pin before studying in St. Petersburg with Leonid Korchmar, and Yale with Shinik Hahm. He became the Young Associate Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (2008–2013) under the guidance of Music Director Lan Shui and also served as Music Director of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra. He took all three top awards at the 50th Besançon International Young Conductors’ Competition in 2007, leading to the Music Directorship of the Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne (2012–2015). With support from the Allianz Cultural Foundation, he took on residencies with the London Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestra, under the tutelage of Lorin Maazel and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of The Sichuan Orchestra of China (Sichuan Symphony), Grammy-nominated Darrell Ang last year opened the London Philharmonic’s season at Eastbourne, conducted Paris’s Orchestre de Lamoureux at the Théâtre du Champs-Elysées and made his debut with the Japan Philharmonic. In addition, he conducted Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra and released several recordings on the Naxos label to rave reviews. Recent appearances include with The Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra, NHK Symphony 5

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One of Asia’s most sought-after conductors, Ang’s growing operatic profile includes performances of Don Giovanni and Rigoletto at the Mariinsky Theatre, Carmen at Estonian National Opera, Mozart operas in Bordeaux and Toulon, and Wagner in Singapore.

A G I F T T O T H E U NIV ER SE – C EL EBR ATING BAC H III

Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra and the Prague Chamber Orchestra.

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Competition (1st Prize, Junior 2017, 3rd Prize Junior 2015).

She has been enrolled in the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts School of Young Talents (NAFA) since she was four, and is currently under the tutelage of Yin Ke, leader of their Strings programme.

Her stunning maturity and musicality has captured the hearts of audience around the world, and her performances have taken her to concert halls across the U.K, Thailand, Italy, Germany, China, Saudi Arabia, USA and Singapore, and in festivals such as the New Virtuosi Queenswood Mastercourse, Atlanta Festival Academy and the Singapore Violin Festival.

C H LO E CH U A violin Young violinist Chloe Chua's meteoric rise on the classical music concert stage culminated in being awarded the joint 1st prize at the 2018 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists.

More recently, she has performed with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, China Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, AFA Festival Orchestra, Salzburg Chamber Soloists, Russian National Youth Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Yuri Bashmet, Kammerorchester Basel conducted by Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli and the China Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Maestro Xia Xiaotang.

The 14-year-old from Singapore had also garnered the top prize at the 24th Andrea Postacchini Violin Competition, and the 3rd prize at the 2017 Zhuhai International Mozart Competition. She has also been awarded prizes at Thailand International Strings Competition (Junior Category Grand Prize), Singapore National Piano and Violin

She performs on a Peter Guarneri, Mantua 1729, on generous loan from the Rin Collection.

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A G I F T T O T H E U NIV ER SE – C EL EBR ATING BAC H III

YE LI N violin

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Ye Lin started learning the violin at the age of five. She attended primary and middle schools attached to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she studied with renowned violinists Professor Shi-Xiang Zhang and Fang Lei. Ye Lin made her solo debut with the Shanghai Opera Symphony Orchestra when she was 12.

Ye Lin was a prize winner in the 1998 China National Violin Competition, and in the 9th International Competition for Young Violinists in Lublin, Poland in 2003. A National Arts Council-Conservatory music scholar, Ye Lin graduated from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore, where she studied violin performance with Qian Zhou. At the conservatory, she became the first winner of the inaugural Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concerto Competition in 2004. The following year, she won First Prize in the Violin Open Category of the Singapore National Piano and Violin Competition. In 2006, she was selected to study at the Peabody Institute at John Hopkins University as an exchange student where she studied with Victor Danchenko.

After joining the SSO in 2008, Ye Lin continues to be an active chamber musician. She performs frequently with her string quartet and piano trio at the Esplanade Recital Studio and the Victoria Concert Hall. Ye Lin has collaborated in chamber performances with pianist Albert Tiu, the Stradivari Quartet, and violinists Thomas Zehetmair, Peter Hanson, Alina Ibragimova, and many others. Since 2003 she has been the acting concertmaster of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra.

Ye Lin plays on an 1862 Enrico Ceruti from the Rin collection.

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K O N G X I AN L O N G violin

ZHAO TIAN violin

In 2007, Kong Xianlong won the Second Prize, Junior Category at the National Piano & Violin Competition, Singapore and subsequently the First Prize in both Intermediate (2009) and Senior (2011) categories. He won the First Prize in the senior category and the best Chinese work prize at the 2012 Hong Kong International Violin Competition. He was selected to join the Young Artist Programme at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at age 15. Xianlong graduated in 2019, and has been under the tutelage of Qian Zhou since 2009. He was the soloist in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 at the President’s Young Performers Concert 2018, with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, where he subsequently became a member. He performs on a 1972 Bisiach, Leandro.

Born in Sichuan, China, Zhao Tian entered the Sichuan Conservatory of Music at age 8. At 18, he was awarded a full scholarship to study at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Singapore. In 2014, he received a full scholarship from the Manhattan School of Music to pursue his double Master’s degree in violin solo and orchestral performance. An active chamber musician, Zhao Tian has participated in many music festivals including Aspen Music Festival and Texas Music Festival and has collaborated with many distinguished musicians. Zhao Tian has appeared as soloist with the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Orchestra and Penang Philharmonic, performing concertos

by Bruch and Tchaikovsky. He plays a 1864 Derazey Justin violin generously loaned by Mr and Mrs Rin Kei Mei. 8

A G I F T T O T H E U NIV ER SE – C EL EBR ATING BAC H III

MIAO SH ANSH AN flute

Russian flutist Evgueni Brokmiller was a student of the legendary Professor of the Moscow State Conservatory, Yuri Dolzhikov.

Evgueni's career was launched at the age of 17 when he won First Prize in the all-Soviet Union Woodwind Competition in 1987. As a soloist, he has played with such orchestras as the State Cinematography Symphony Orchestra (USSR), Noordhollands Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Evgueni has been the Associate Principal Flutist of the SSO since 1993 and is active in Singapore as a soloist, orchestral musician, chamber musician and teacher.

As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with such prominent musicians as Sviatoslav Richter, Yuri Bashmet and Yo-Yo Ma.

Miao Shanshan started learning the flute under Professor Wang Yongxin of the Central Conservatory of Music. In 2000, she won the Third Prize and the Chinese Works Award in the Second National Flute Competition in China. During her studies in Austria, she was awarded her Bachelor’s & Master’s Degrees with honours at the University Mozarteum Salzburg. She has taught flute since 2006 and has been invited to perform solo and in chamber music concerts. In 2010, she won the Salzburg Government Art Foundation Award and performed as part of the Salzburg International Festival Series. In 2011, her thesis “Instrumente im Vergleich der Kulturen, die europaeische Querfloete und die chinesische Bambusfloete” was published by Verlag Dr Mueller in Germany.

She joined the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in 2014.

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EVGUE N I B RO K MIL L E R flute

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PAN YUN oboe

L AU WEN RONG trumpet

Pan Yun grew up in a musical family and began piano lessons at the age of 6 with his parents, who were piano professors at Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

He started to learn the oboe at the age of 13 with Professor Zhu Dun, continuing his studies with Professor Bai Yu at the Central Conservatory of Music, China from 1980 to 1984, where he attained his Bachelor’s Degree. Pan Yun went on to the Northern Illinois University, USA on a full scholarship for his Master’s Degree under Professor Carl Sonic. He joined the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in 1985 as Associate Principal Oboist.

Prizewinner of the International Trumpet Guild Solo Competition in 2013, Lau Wen Rong completed his Master’s Degree with Raymond Mase at The Juilliard School under the Frieda and Harry Aronson Scholarship.

He was awarded a full merit scholarship and received his Bachelor's Degree from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, where he is currently a faculty member. His competition successes include a 1st place at the Singapore International Band Festival. Wen Rong was selected as a Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, 2015, and has performed with the award-winning Brass Polish and other brass quintets in Singapore. He is a recipient of the 2015 RI-Darrell Ang Young Musicians’ Foundation Scholarship, Trailblazer Foundation Study Grant and National Arts Council Capability Development Grant. Wen Rong is a Yamaha Artist.

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SEC O N D V IOL IN

T HE ORC HE S T R A

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*

HANS GRAF Chief Conductor JOSHUA TAN Associate Conductor ANDREW LITTON Principal Guest Conductor

VIO L A

CHOO HOEY Conductor Emeritus

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

LAN SHUI Conductor Laureate EUDENICE PALARUAN Choral Director WONG LAI FOON Choirmaster

C EL L O 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 Wang Zihao* Wu Dai Dai Zhao Yu Er

FIRS T VI OL I N (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*

D O U B LE BAS S Yang Zheng Yi Associate Principal Karen Yeo Fixed Chair Olga Alexandrova Jacek Mirucki Guennadi Mouzyka Wang Xu

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FLUTE

TR U M P ET

Jin Ta Principal Evgueni Brokmiller Associate Principal Roberto Alvarez Miao Shanshan

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

PICCOLO

TR O M B O N E

Roberto Alvarez Assistant Principal

Allen Meek Principal Damian Patti Associate Principal Samuel Armstrong

OBOE Rachel Walker Principal Pan Yun Associate Principal Carolyn Hollier Elaine Yeo

B A SS T R O MBONE Wang Wei Assistant Principal TU B A

COR ANGL AI S

Tomoki Natsume Principal

Elaine Yeo Associate Principal TIM P A N I CLARINET

Christian Schiøler Principal Jonathan Fox Associate Principal

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

P ER CU SSIO N

Tang Xiao Ping Assistant Principal

Jonathan Fox Principal Mark Suter Associate Principal Mario Choo Lim Meng Keh

BAS S OON

H A RP

Liu Chang Associate Principal Christoph Wichert Zhao Ying Xue

Gulnara Mashurova Principal

BAS S CL AR I NE T

CONTRAB AS S OON Zhao Ying Xue Assistant Principal HORN 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.

1 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.

2 Chan Yoong-Han performs on a David Tecchler, Fecit Roma An. D. 1700 donated by Mr Goh Yew Lin. Musicians listed alphabetically by family name rotate their seats on a per programme basis.

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Musicians A G I FT TO T HE UN IVERS E – CE L E BRA T I NG BA CH I I I

FIRST VIOLIN Chan Yoong-Han Acting Concertmaster/Fixed Chair Cao Can Duan Yu Ling Foo Say Ming SECOND VIOLIN Xu Jueyi Wu Man Yun Yin Shu Zhan Yeo Teow Meng VIOLA Manchin Zhang Dandan Wang Julia Park CELLO Wang Yan Jamshid Saydikarimov Wang Zihao DOUBLE BASS Karen Yeo Wang Xu FLUTE Evgueni Brokmiller Miao Shanshan OBOE Pan Yun TRUMPET Lau Wen Rong HARPSICHORD Shane Thio*

* Guest musician 14

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2020/21 Season Patrons Our story began just over four decades ago when we played our first concert in January 1979.

This journey would not have been possible without patrons who believe in sharing the gift of music.

Thank you for your generosity.

PATR ON SPONSOR Tote Board Group (Tote Board, Singapore Pools & Singapore Turf Club)

MAE STR O C IR C L E Mr & Mrs Goh Yew Lin Temasek Foundation Nurtures The HEAD Foundation

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JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750) Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti, while written over a long period in his Cöthen and Weimar years, were only assembled as a set in 1721 and dedicated to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt. As a set of chamber works, they are highly unusual in that they specify instrumentations that were not used in those combinations before.

Some scholars have considered this an attempt by Bach to tickle the patronal ear by experimenting with novel combinations of sound, but in an age where rhetoric and allegory were taken seriously, an examination of numbers and the symbolic associations of the instrumentation yields interesting results.

Six concerti – the number 6 was considered a signum perfectionis, the number of perfection by musical theorists, and triumphal processions in Classical Rome had six tableaux or spectacles (much like the floats in a National Day Parade), thus Bach was honouring the margrave as an ancient hero with a musical triumph, with signs and allusions easily understood by those with an education in classical rhetoric (much more common in those days).

Johann Sebastian Bach (1740) 3D sculpture by Hadi Karimi Source: hadikarimi.com

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I II III

[no tempo indication; usually played at] Allegro Andante Allegro assai

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The Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major is scored for trumpet, recorder (performed on flute in tonight’s concert), oboe, and violin, in addition to strings and continuo.

The trumpet in paintings represents Fame, heralding the arrival of the three great poets of the pre-Modern age: Homer represented by the violin (he was depicted in Renaissance art with a violin), Virgil by the oboe (reed instruments had pastoral associations, and Virgil was the master of Roman bucolics), and Dante by the recorder (a symbol of passion in Baroque art, and Dante’s Divine Comedy is motivated by his love for the departed Beatrice). Strings and winds symbolise reason and passion, and thus the entire tableau is clear: Fame, Homer, Virgil, and Dante on Mount Parnassus, the home of the Muses.

A G I F T T O T H E U NIV ER SE – C EL EBR ATING BAC H III

Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047 (1721)

Leopold von Anhalt-Köthen (1694-1728) employed Bach as his Kapellmeister between 1717 and 1723

The opening movement, with its soliloquies and echoing conversations between the various characters, featuring the trumpet prominently in the highest clarino register (extremely difficult on Baroque trumpet), sets the stage with Fame leading the way up to Parnassus. The slow movement gives Fame a break, while the three poets pay their flattering respects to the listener in an endless series of falling figures. The last movement brings Fame back, and it should be noted that the high F trumpet for which Bach wrote was a straight trumpet, not the usual coiled baroque trumpet. The straight trumpet was a standard accessory for the figure of Fame in paintings – no

contemporary listener would have missed the associations. By uniting the three poets and Fame, what better way to glorify and praise a ruler?

Instrumentation flute, oboe, trumpet, harpsichord, strings, solo violin First performed by SSO 18 Apr 1987 21

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The two Voyager space probes launched

by NASA in 1977 each carry a copy of the "Golden Record", two phonograph records containing sounds and images depicting life and culture on Earth. Among the 90 minutes’ worth of music on board is Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 performed by the Munich Bach Orchestra conducted by Karl Richter.

43 years into their mission, the Voyager probes continue their journey, carrying humankind's gift to the universe.

WHERE IS THE VOYAGER NOW?

Voyager Golden Record The Sounds of the Earth (1976)

Concerto in D minor for Two Violins and Orchestra, BWV 1043 (c. 1730) I II III

Vivace Largo, ma non tanto Allegro

Johann Sebastian Bach is now regarded as one of the greatest composers – if not the greatest – who ever lived. He was born in 1685 and spent his life writing music for the Protestant church and the powerful aristocratic courts of present-day Germany.

By the time of his death in 1750 he had written a vast repertoire of music including choral cantatas, organ music, keyboard suites and orchestral music.

piece for two talented violinists – Joseph Speiss and Martin Friedrich Marcus. He had worked with the pair a few years earlier, in his role as Kapellmeister or director of music for Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen.

This is the only concerto Bach wrote for two violins – and it’s one of very few written throughout history for a pair of violin soloists. The great Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi wrote his own Double Violin Concerto some years earlier, in 1711.

And we can be sure that Bach knew this work because he created his own organ

The Double Violin Concerto was probably written around 1730, when Bach was working in Leipzig. He may have written the 22

A G I F T T O T H E U NIV ER SE – C EL EBR ATING BAC H III

transcription of the piece (in a time before recorded music, this was the best way to hear a new work).

The outer two movements (Vivace and Allegro) show Vivaldi’s influence, with highspirited fugal writing, while the unusual addition of a second soloist dials up the excitement. The lively first movement gives way to a more delicate counterpoint between the two soloists in the beautiful central Largo.

| 21 MA Y 2021

Here, the second violin opens with a beautiful, song-like melody, which is then passed between the two violins. As the dreamy melody seamlessly unfurls over the course of the five-minute movement, Bach strips back the string orchestra accompaniment to simple chords which gently propel the music forward.

The concerto closes with a return to the bracing counterpoint of the opening with a thrilling Allegro.

Robert Schumann once said: “In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune no one else has thought of.” In the work’s most famous movement, the Largo, Bach managed to create just that: a melody that feels like something half-recalled from childhood and a balm for the soul in uncertain times.

Engraving of St Thomas Leipzig

by Johann Krügner (1723).

Bach worked here as a Kapellmeister from 1723 until his death in 1750.

Programme note by Elizabeth Davis

Instrumentation harpsichord, strings First performed by SSO 28 Mar 1991 (Vasko Vassilev & Vanessa-Mae Nicholson, violins) 23

| 2 1 MAY 2 0 2 1 A G IF T TO TH E U NIV ER SE – C EL EBR ATING BAC H III

Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major, BWV 1049 (1719–1720) I II III

Allegro Andante Presto

Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G is scored for violin, two recorders, strings and continuo. A violin and recorder(s) were frequently included in paintings to represent the opposing forces of Reason and Passion.

Triumphal spectacles often had scenes of legendary competitions. Seen through this lens, we see the Musical Contest between Apollo (inventor of the lyre, and hence stringed instruments in general) and the satyr Marsyas (satyrs played the diaulos pipes, a double shawm, here represented by the double recorders).

flourishes make for rhetorical tour de force and true contest between virtuoso soloists.

Apollo’s violin definitely wins in the end, and as an image of the ruler, Apollo is always victorious.

Programme notes by Edward C. Yong

In the opening movement, the contest warms up with Marsyas and Apollo trying to outdo each other with fountain-like figures and self-indulgent episodes to impress the judging Muses, who favour Marsyas (with his pipes made by Athena herself). Note that the recorders often play passages and trilling in thirds or unisons, or with scales in one part against drones in the other, strongly evoking a double pipe. The parts are played on flute for tonight’s performance.

The slow movement brings the passionate pastoral and countryside evocations of the double recorders (flutes) to the front, showing the favour of the Muses. In the final movement, the violin shows great moments of virtuosity, reminding us that Apollo had to resort to outrageous tricks – playing his instrument upside down, singing to his own accompaniment, and finally flattering the Muses with praise. The echoes and

Instrumentation 2 flutes (substituting recorders), harpsichord, strings, solo violin First performed by SSO 21 May 1979 24

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