SSO Chamber Series

SSO CHAMBER SERIES Yang Zheng Yi, artistic administrator

WWW.PIANOFESTIVAL.COM.SG

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

SGPIANOFEST

SA CHEN RONAN OʼHORA KIRILL GERSTEIN INGRID FLITER

Death and the Maiden 17 may

FRANZ SCHUBERT Andante con moto from Piano Trio in E-flat major, D. 929

10’

Chen Da Wei, violin Wang Zihao, cello Yao Xiao Yun, piano String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810 "Death and the Maiden" 36’ I. Allegro II. Andante con moto III. Scherzo: Allegro - Trio IV. Presto - Prestissimo

ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 77 I. Allegro con fuoco II. Scherzo. Allegro vivace III. Poco Andante IV. Finale. Allegro Assai Chan Yoong-Han, violin Zhang Si Jing, violin Gu Bing Jie, viola Ng Pei-Sian, cello Yang Zheng Yi, double bass

Chen Da Wei, violin Nikolai Koval, violin Guan Qi, viola Wang Zihao, cello Intermission

20’

Go green. Digital programme booklets are available on www.sso.org.sg.

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

36’

Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828) Andante con moto from Piano Trio in E-flat major, D. 929 “Truly in Schubert there is a divine spark.” – Ludwig van Beethoven Dated November 1827, Schubert’s Piano Trio in E-flat major, D. 929 is a marvel of musical invention.

The second of his two great piano trios, it was a personal favourite of the composer.

It was featured as the centrepiece to an all-Schubert concert held before his death in 1828.

The Trio is set on colossal scale and outstrips even the length of most early Romantic symphonies. On an epic canvas Schubert creates near parity of all three instrumental parts. Its musical innovations include: brilliant musical inter-textuality, daring tonal shifts, cross-movement cyclicism, thematic unity, and two multi-subject expansions to sonata and sonata-rondo forms respectively, among others.

The second movement performed tonight is marked “Andante con moto”. It takes the form of a thoughtful theme and five variations upon a moving, almost funereal or halting melody - a sumptuous and ingenious expansion upon the Swedish folk song, The Sun is Setting.

String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810 “Death and the Maiden” Schubert’s transcendent and alluring String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, Death and the Maiden, is one of the greatest of all quartets ever written. It is one of only a handful of his chamber works to have a semi-programmatic aspect, with a name that reads like the title of a Gothic novel. It takes this title from the second movement, which was based on one of Schubert’s songs of the same name, and after the eponymous Matthias Claudius poem about a personified Death stalking a young maiden, who valiantly resists.

Effortlessly contrapuntal and gloriously song-like, the quartet also reflects a host of distinctly Schubertian traits, like a range of glittering references to his earlier works from “Der Erlkönig” to “Death and the Maiden”, “Skolie” and his German Dances D. 790.

Less, in fact, about death than shorthand for life, resistance, and uprising, it was written in 1824, the same year as the hauntingly poignant and lyrical Arpeggione Sonata.

The first movement opens with a striking unison opening. Clear and thundering, swift and stark, the bold declamatory melody features a somewhat asymmetric pattern of a three-beat dotted minim followed by three shorter ‘Fate’-like triplet quavers, whereafter the music races courageously into what seems an unending musical horizon.

The plodding, almost halting second movement takes the same opening pattern of long and short, this time in the form of a two-beat minim followed by a pair of crotchets, upon which Schubert unfolds a thoughtful theme and five variations.

A surprising interlude of trippingly syncopated rhythms, the third movement Scherzo is spirited and brisk.

The fourth movement Presto takes the form of a lively Italian tarantella – a dance meant to ward off death caused by the eponymous spider’s bite. Opening with a lively unison entry, it is joyous and races to a celebratory Prestissimo finish.

Antonín Dvořák (1841 – 1904) String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 77 Scored ambitiously for violin, viola, cello, and double-bass – the complete string section of the symphony orchestra – Dvořák’s String Quintet No. 2 brings to the already rare five-member grouping an even rarer orchestral dimension to sound. In addition to providing expansive sonorities, Dvořák also tests the string quintet’s colours and limits at all ends. Freeing the cello for new singing, melodic work in the upper and tenor registers - a later characteristic of much of Dvořák’s symphonic sound Dvořák also creates acoustic experiments, like the vivid contrast of extremes in the staggered opening of the first movement to sharp and sudden contrasts of ff and pp in the quicksilver Scherzo.

Composed in 1875, the quintet was written at an unusually beatific time in Dvořák’s life – a year after the birth of his firstborn son, Otakar.

Filled with vibrant Czech and nationalistic sentiment, the first movement, Allegro con fuoco (“lively, with fire”), opens with a bit of a musical surprise – at first rumbling and mysteriously, then into an exuberantly sunny melody of joy, optimism, hope, and élan.

Whirling and spirited, the intoxicating folk-like second movement Scherzo takes the form of a triplet patterning that steps away from and then towards you. Observe unusual octave and unison dialogues between violin and cello as well as between the violins.

The third movement, Poco andante, is warm, gentle, and prayerful. Lullaby-like, it canonically unfolds over a mix of bowed and pizzicato double-bass.

The rousing Finale: Allegro assai, is filled with all manner of decorated and virtuosic melodic writing, bristling with folk-like flair.

Programme notes by Duana Chan

Temptation of the Saintly Pot 18 may BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ La Revue de Cuisine, H.161

20’

I. Prologue II. Introduction III. Danse du moulinet autour du caudron IV. Danse du chaudron et du couvercle V. Tango VI. Duel VII. Entracte VIII. Marche funèbre IX. Danse radieuse X. Fin du drame Zhao Tian, violin Chan Wei Shing, cello Liu Yoko, clarinet Zhao Ying Xue, bassoon Lau Wen Rong, trumpet Liu Jia, piano

JEAN FRANÇAIX Dixtuor for Wind Quintet and String Quintet 18’ I. Larghetto Tranquillo – Allegro II. Andante III. Scherzando IV. Allegro Moderato 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

LOUISE FARRENC Sextet for Piano and Winds, Op. 40 26’ I. Allegro II. Andante sostenuto III. Allegro vivace Miao Shanshan, flute Elaine Yeo, oboe Tang Xiao Ping, clarinet Christoph Wichert, bassoon Gao Jian, horn Liu Jia, piano

Intermission 20’

Go green. Digital programme booklets are available on www.sso.org.sg.

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

Bohuslav Martinů (1890 - 1959) La Revue de Cuisine (Kitchen Revue) Ballet for clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, violin, cello & piano, H.161 The wit and sparkle of La Revue de Cuisine seems far removed from the small town in Bohemia were Martinů was born. (He always kept a postcard of it in his room.) His father was a cobbler, who took on extra duties as the Town Keeper, maintaining watch both day and night for any sign of fire from the church tower where his son was born. The young violinist’s move to Prague in 1907 was liberating, but his years at the Prague Conservatory were a disaster due to poor attendance and what school officials deemed incorrigible negligence.

Martinů arrived in Paris in 1923 when the Jazz Age, known in France as the Années folles (or "crazy years"), was in full swing. The explosion of pentup artistic energy and passions after years of war was fueled by the large number of American soldiers present in the city, as well as emigres such as composer Igor Stravinsky, whose music had a tremendous impact on the young Czech composer. Within a few short, albeit very lean years, Martinů had forged his own distinct style combining the sensibilities of Dixieland jazz, Czech folk music, Stravinsky’s Neo-classicism, and many other influences.

His music for the ballet The Temptation of the Saintly Pot, to a libretto by the pioneering Czech dancer and choreographer Jarmila Kröschlová, premiered in Prague in 1927 and was an immediate success. The FrenchSwiss pianist composer Alfred Cortot asked Martinů prepare a concert suite from it, and the resulting four-movement work, entitled La Revue de Cuisine was a huge hit at its Paris premiere in 1930.

The plot is absurd. Twirling Stick flirts with Pot, when her husband Lid is not around. Pot is taken in by Twirling Stick's sweet talk, but soon Dishcloth is also making eyes at her also. Broom challenges Dishcloth to a duel. Pot is soon pining for Lid, who is suddenly kicked back into their midst by a giant foot. Pot and Lid kiss and make up, and Twirling Stick runs off with Dish Cloth.

Jean Françaix (1912 - 1997) Dixtuor for Wind Quintet and String Quintet Recalling Françaix as a boy, Maurice Ravel wrote that he possessed the most important gift an artist can have — curiosity — and cautioned his parents not to stifle it. They themselves were creative types, his father a composer, pianist and musicologist and his mother a singer and voice teacher. They submitted his first composition, a piano suite, to a publisher when he was just nine years old.

Françaix studied composition with Nadia Boulanger, a strict task master, who taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the twentieth century. His compositional style was cheerful, light and elegant, which belies its technical demands. He often revisited the musical forms and genres of earlier eras, but infused them with an eclectic, modern touch. An excellent pianist, Françaix performed his own works in Europe and the United States, toured in chamber music ensembles, and played piano duos with his daughter, Claude.

Dixtuor was commissioned by The Linos Ensemble, a chamber music group from Cologne, Germany and premiered by them in 1987. It takes its name from the Greek god of rhythm and melody, which inspired a work rich in both for the unusual combination of string and wind quintets.

The piece begins with a brief introduction played by the woodwinds that quickly gives way to a tranquil, pastoral-like melody in the strings that is developed by the unison ensemble, which eventually gives way to a much livelier section that ends abruptly.

In the second movement, gentle melodies are tossed about between the instruments until the music just gradually fades away. A lively scherzo follows with particularly charming passages for the solo flute accompanied by pizzicato strings. The jaunty finale features solos for the trio of violins and viola, with a few flashy interjections from the horn, before a few tweets from the piccolo brings Dixtuor to a quick and flashy conclusion.

Louise Farrenc (1804 - 1875) Sextet in C minor for Piano and Winds, Op. 40 Descended from a long line of artists that had been in the service of the French monarchy, including several women painters, Louise Dumont’s musical talent was evident from an early age. She commenced her studies at the Paris Conservatoire when she was 15, although her marriage two years later interrupted them for a brief spell. Unlike so many other women composers who struggled to find a publisher who would even consider issuing their works, she married one, Aristride Farrenc.

Farrenc was one of the few nineteenth-century female musicians to gain renown as a composer, scholar and performer. She was highly esteemed by her contemporaries, including Robert Schumann who took notice of her work. In the words of one, “When Mme. Farrenc gives herself up to her inspiration, she rises to the level of the great masters.� Her 30 Etudes, Op. 26 became required studies for all piano classes at the Conservatoire in 1845 and remained so for decades. Emboldened by her successes, in 1850 she demanded pay parity with her male peers at the Conservatoire and prevailed.

The Sextet in C minor for Piano and Winds is one of two works that Farrenc composed for larger ensembles, apart from her two overtures and three symphonies. (A piano concerto was begun but never finished.) It was the first work composed for the thennew combination of piano and wind quintet. Adhering to the Classical three-movement form, it shows Farrenc to be clearly rooted in stylistic linage of German composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven and Felix Mendelssohn. It is a flow of melodic invention, in some ways a small-scale concerto for piano and winds, due to the predominance of the piano.

Programme notes by Rick Perdian

BRASS ENSEMBLE OF THE SSO 19 may

WILLIAM BYRD arr. ELGAR HOWARTH The Earl of Oxford's March 5’ GIOVANNI GABRIELI Canzon septimi toni No. 2

3’

ANTON BRUCKNER arr. ENRIQUE CRESPO Bruckner Etüde für das tiefe Blech 6’ feat. trombone ensemble HIERONYMUS PRAETORIUS arr. GARY OLSON Cantate Domino 3’ EUGÈNE BOZZA Suite for Four Horns in F

9’

HORN Han Chang Chou Principal Gao Jian Associate Principal Jamie Hersch Associate Principal Marc-Antoine Robillard Associate Principal Hoang Van Hoc TRUMPET Jon Paul Dante Principal David Smith Associate Principal Lau Wen Rong Sergey Tyuteykin TROMBONE Allen Meek Principal Damian Patti Associate Principal Samuel Armstrong Danilo Contreras^

I. Prélude II. La Chasse III. Chanson Ancienne IV. Danse

BASS TROMBONE Wang Wei Assistant Principal

feat. horn ensemble

ORGAN Isaac Lee^

MARCEL DUPRÉ Poème héroïque, for organ, brass & percussion, Op. 33 8’

TUBA Brett Stemple^

HENRI TOMASI Fanfares Liturgiques 19’

^Musician on temporary contract.

Go green. Digital programme booklets are available on www.sso.org.sg.

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

From the Middle Ages, instruments were divided into two categories: ‘haut’ (French ‘high’) and ‘bas’ (French ‘low’). Haut instruments were loud, suitable for outdoor occasions: shawms, bagpipes, trumpets, drums etc. Bas instruments were soft, best played indoors: recorders, flutes, harps, lutes, bowed and plucked strings. Haut instruments were always played by professionals, such as the town band, and were considered lower in status as they required facial contortions considered unseemly for ladies and noblemen, who only ever played the gentle bas instruments.

The brass band, however, occupied a middle ground between haut and bas groups.

With a cornetto on the top line and various sizes of sackbuts (trombones), the brass band was capable of playing both soft and loud, a versatile ensemble for everything from processions to court dances to accompanying choirs in great cathedrals.

The Earl of Oxford’s March by William Byrd (1538 – 1623) is an arrangement of The Marche before the Battell from his 1591 keyboard book My Lady Nevells Book, and is a rare example of programmatic music in Byrd’s output.

Perhaps the first notable composer for brass ensemble was the Venetian Giovanni Gabrieli (1557 – 1612). The Venetian style, centred around St Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, was flashy and splendid. The Canzon septimi toni, No. 2, with its contrasts of volume and textures was likely used as filler accompaniment for processions, church services, and civic occasions.

The Austrian composer Anton Bruckner (1824 – 1896) often gave prominence to the lower brass instruments in his orchestra compositions. The Uruguayan composer Enrique Crespo's Bruckner Etüde für das tiefe Blech (German: Bruckner Etude for the deep metal sheet) takes material from Bruckner, and reworks it for trombone sextet.

Brass ensembles often play music written for other instruments. Cantate Domino (Latin: Praise the Lord) by Hieronymus Praetorius (1560 – 1629) is one such example.

Originally a church motet written for two four-part choirs of contrasting higher and lower voices, it works very well for brass, contrasting the playful upper lines with the lower lines which come in as accents and underscore the main theme and mark sections.

Eugène Bozza (1905 – 1991) was a French composer and violinist who wrote much for brass and woodwind ensembles. Firmly in the Neo-Classicist genre, and sometimes compared with Milhaud and Stravinsky, his works also show the influence of jazz, which no doubt was the result of two million American soldiers during and after World War II. The Suite for Four Horns in F has an almost cinematic quality about it, and the opening Prélude could almost set the scene for a Hollywood science-fiction movie.

The second movement La Chasse (the Hunt) reminds us of one of the original purpose of horns - for giving signals during the hunt. The final movement Danse (Dance) has a distinctly rustic feel to it, conjuring up images of country peasants dancing after a harvest.

Fanfares Liturgiques (French: Liturgical Fanfares) by the French composer Henri Tomasi (1901 – 1971) began life as musical extracts from his opera Don Juan de Mañara. While the opera itself was not premiered until 1956 (in Munich), the Fanfares Liturgiques were premiered in 1947 in Monte Carlo as Fanfares Concertantes and later published in 1952. The opera tells the story of a Miguel Mañara, a Spanish nobleman who through the innocence and love of a woman, turns his back on a life of depravity. She dies shortly after marriage and he becomes a saintly monk dedicated to the poor, even healing a paralytic beggar.

This work has been described as a brass oratorio, an instrumental equivalent of a sacred choral work. The first fanfare, entitled Annonciation (Annunciation), depicting Miguel’s renunciation of his past life, is a meditation which begins brilliantly with the horns, leading into a more sombre and pensive lyrical section, and ending with a recapitulation of the opening theme. The second fanfare Evangelie (Gospel) shows Miguel as he reads the scriptures in Act II, and opens with trumpets and timpani depicting the opening of the gospel, and the solo trombone recitative representing his reading, with the other instruments giving the solemn response at the end of the reading.

The third fanfare Apocalypse depicts the Four Horsemen (Pestilence/Disease, War, Famine, Death) as they gallop terrifyingly and menacingly across the sky, confident and aggressive. The fourth fanfare Procession du Vendredi-Saint (Good Friday Procession) is the longest, and is based on a scene in the opera, depicting a Good Friday procession of penitents in Seville. The music, with an ostinato based on the Dies Iræ plainchant begins slowly, growing louder and more intense as the procession draws near, and the protagonist Miguel hears a heavenly voice singing to him and consoling him after the death of his wife on the previous day. It ends with an ardent Corsican hymn symbolizing Miguel’s ultimate redemption and also reminds us of the composer’s long and abiding interest in mediæval sacred music.

The French composer Marcel Dupré (1886 – 1971) is usually thought of in conjunction with the organ. His father Albert was an organist and a friend of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll who built an organ in the family house when Marcel was only fourteen. Marcel studied with organists Louis Vierne and Charles-Marie Widor at the Paris Conservatoire, and performed over 2,000 organ recitals through Europe, North America, and Australia, including 10 concert series of the complete organ works of J.S. Bach performed entirely from memory. His Poème Héroïque, for organ, brass & percussion, Op. 33 is dedicated to the town of Verdun in Lorraine, in north-eastern France. Verdun was the scene of the longest and bloodiest battle of WWI, and a million died there in 1916.

The entire city, battlefields, military cemeteries and countless monuments are a national sanctuary.

The opening trumpet fanfare leads into a crisp, martial theme on organ, which is imitated by the brass instruments, followed by the fanfare again. A slower tempo follows with two magnificent legato themes. The first is a heroic one begun by the brass, followed by an interlude leading into the second even slower elegiac theme on the organ lamenting the war dead. Each of the themes - martial, heroic, and elegiac - receives its own development. The martial and heroic themes are recapitulated and the work concludes with an extended presto. New jubilant thanksgiving motifs appear and eventually combine with the elegiac theme in a splendid major-key conclusion.

Programme notes by Edward C. Yong

12th EDITION VICTORIA CONCERT HALL ESPLANADE RECITAL STUDIO

30 Nov – 8 Dec 2019

N AT I O N A L

PIANO & VIOLIN COMPETITION 2019 APPLY NOW!

www.sso.org.sg/npvc Registration closes: 12 July 2019 • Open to ages 25 years and below.

• The Artist category is open to Singapore citizens, Permanent Residents (PRs) and foreigners studying, working or residing in Singapore.

• The Senior, Intermediate and Junior categories are open to Singapore citizens and PRs only.

NATIONAL PIANO & VIOLIN COMPETITION ORGANISED BY THE SINGAPORE SYMPHONY GROUP

SUPPORTED BY

What’s Next at the Victoria Concert Hall?

if with all your hearts 20 May VCH OPEN HOUSE 21 May Anne Sofie Von Otter & Brooklyn Rider 5 Jun

the story of babar 15 Jun

Background photos: Alexander Popov, Victor Rodriguez, Alexandru Acea, Steven Ramon