SSO Discovering Music!: Go Fourth with Brahms!

Singa pore Sy mphon y orchestra

DISCOVERING MUSIC!

GO FOURTH WITH BRAHMS! 24 September 2017 Victoria Concert Hall

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.

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 Prague Spring International Music Festival. 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.

‘A fine display of orchestral bravado for the SSO and Shui’ The Guardian

J a S on L a i conductor Jason Lai has been the Associate Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra since 2013 and also the Principal Conductor of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra since 2010.

Intent on broadening the appeal of classical music, Jason is also building a unique reputation as a communicator with mass appeal through his television appearances. He has frequently appeared on BBC television as a judge in both the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition and the classical talent show Classical Star. He reached his widest audience as a conducting mentor in the series Maestro.

Since settling in Singapore he has continued with his television work. He was presenter and conductor for Project Symphony, an eight-part series for Okto where he was filmed setting up a community orchestra. This year he has been involved filming for a BBC series called Heart of Asia which explores the contemporary arts and culture scene in Thailand, Indonesia, Korea and the Philippines, and a series for BBC World called Tales from Modern China.

Jason’s roots lie in Hong Kong but he was born in the UK and was a pupil at the prestigious specialist music school in Manchester, Chetham’s, where he studied cello. At Oxford University he studied both cello and composition, and went on to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where he was awarded a Fellowship in Conducting. Jason won the BBC Young Conductors Workshop in 2002 and was appointed the Assistant Conductor to the BBC Philharmonic with whom he made his BBC Proms début in 2003.

SSO Mu sic i 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 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 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

BASS CLARINET

Zhang Manchin Principal Guan Qi Associate Principal Gu Bing Jie* Fixed Chair Marietta Ku Lim Chun^ Luo Biao Shui Bing Tan Wee-Hsin Janice Tsai^ Yang Shi Li

Tang Xiao Ping Assistant Principal

CELLO

HORN

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

Han Chang Chou Principal Gao Jian Associate Principal Jamie Hersch Associate Principal Marc-Antoine Robillard Associate Principal Kartik Alan Jairamin

DOUBLE BASS Guennadi Mouzyka Principal Yang Zheng Yi Associate Principal Karen Yeo Fixed Chair Olga Alexandrova Jacek Mirucki Wang Xu

BASSOON Liu Chang Associate Principal Christoph Wichert Zhao Ying Xue CONTRA BASSOON Zhao Ying Xue Assistant Principal

TRUMPET Jon Paul Dante Principal David Smith Associate Principal Lau Wen Rong Sergey Tyuteykin TROMBONE Allen Meek Principal Damian Patti Associate Principal Samuel Armstrong BASS TROMBONE

FLUTE

Wang Wei Assistant Principal

Jin Ta Principal Evgueni Brokmiller Associate Principal Roberto Alvarez Miao Shanshan

TUBA

PICCOLO

Christian Schiøler Principal Jonathan Fox Associate Principal

Roberto Alvarez Assistant Principal 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

* 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 ^ Musician on temporary contract Musicians listed alphabetically by family name rotate their seats on a per programme basis.

Hidehiro Fujita Principal TIMPANI

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

J OHANNE S B RAHMS (1833–1897 ) Symphony No. 4, Op. 96 I. II. III. IV.

Allegro non troppo Andante moderato Allegro giocoso Allegro energico e passionato

Brahms wrote his Fourth Symphony in the alpine town of Mürzzuschlag, Austria, where autumn comes early and spring arrives late each year. He introduced the completed Fourth Symphony in an arrangement for two pianos to his close circle of friends.

The critic Eduard Hanslick, who was the page turner, remarked at the end of the first movement, “I had the feeling that I was being given a beating by two incredibly intelligent people!”

Brahms found a champion of the work in conductor Hans von Bülow, who acknowledged its musical and technical challenges, and proceeded to prepare his Meniningen Orchestra so well that its premiere – conducted by Brahms in October 1885 – was a resounding success. It has been performed by orchestras worldwide since.

The First Movement opens with a series of falling and rising two-note sighs. It is this sighing ebb and flow from which Brahms develops the musical ideas for this movement.

Brahms lets the music 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, recalling a old-fashioned procession. It gives way to some 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.

The Third Movement is heroic, muscular, and boisterous, with the piccolo and triangle adding a splash of brilliance, and a short cheerful dance-like theme, before the return of the first theme brings the movement to a forceful close.

The symphony culminates in the construction of a massive chaconne, or passacaglia.

This is essentially a series of variations over a recurring bass line. It is presented at the start of the Fourth Movement by way of eight impactful chords.This bass line resembles Cantata No. 150, Nach Dir, Herr, verlanget mich (“I long to be near you, Lord�) by J. S. Bach, whom Brahms admired greatly. Through this, Brahms drew from the past (the passacaglia was predominantly used in the baroque period) to signal the future, revitalising it, with many major composers of the 20th and 21st centuries writing or incorporating passacaglias in key works.

Here, Brahms wrote thirty-two variations on that opening bass line, united by a sense of tragedy. The concluding pages recall the opening chords with added brass while strings slash ahead, the Symphony passing on to its inevitable end.

Notes by Christopher Cheong

Have a burning question for Jason or the Orchestra?

Or an opinion on Brahms’ Fourth Symphony?

Send your questions to https://answergarden.ch/516936 or use the QR code below for an opportunity for them to be answered!

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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SSO.ORG.SG/VCHORGAN