Kahchun Wong Conducts Debussy, Wagner and Shostakovich

K AHC HU N WONG C ONDU C TS

DEBUSSY, WAGNER AND SHOSTAKOVICH 26 SEPTEMBER 2020 WATCH THE STREAM ONLIN E ON S I S T I C L I V E

PRE SIDENT ’S YOUNG PE RFORM ERS CONCERT MADE FOR THE MARIMBA S A T 1 0 O CT 2 0 2 0 8 P M

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The marimba takes centrestage at this year’s President’s Young Performers Concert with young Singaporean percussionist Julia Tan. An award-winning graduate of the Mannes School of Music, New York, and recipient of the Best Graduate Award, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore, she will play the Marimba Concerto by prominent French composer-percussionist Emmanuel Séjourné. Join the SSO and Associate Conductor Joshua Tan in this annual showcase of Singapore’s finest musical talent.

T I CK E T S F RO M $ 1 0 BARBER ADAGI O FO R STR ING S EMMANU EL SÉJ O URN É CONCERTO F OR MARIMBA A ND STRING ORCH ESTRA SUK SE R E N A D E I N E - FL A T MAJOR, OP . 6

K AHCHUN W ONG C O N D U CT S D E B US S Y , WAGNER A N D SH O STAK OV I C H FANTASY AND FURY 26 Sep 2020, 8pm (Online premiere on SISTIC Live) Viewable from 26 Sep to 10 Oct with valid tickets.

Singapore Symphony Orchestra Kahchun Wong conductor

D EB USSY

Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (arr. Sachs)

10 mins

W A GN E R

Siegfried Idyll

18 mins

S HO ST AK O V I CH

Chamber Symphony, Op. 110a (String Quartet No. 8, arr. Barshai)

22 mins

Concert Duration: 1 hr

T Watch our online Pre-Concert Talk hosted by Kahchun Wong on our Facebook page and YouTube channel.

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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.

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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.

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H ANS G RAF Chief Conductor

© ANGIE KREMER

| 26 SEP 2020 K AHC H U N W O N G C O N D U C TS DEBU SSY, W AG NER AND SH OSTAKOV IC H

Czech Philharmonic, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, Japan Philharmonic, Konzerthausorchester Berlin and Shanghai Symphony. His orchestral engagements in the 2020/21 season include debuts with the Hallé Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony and Slovenian Philharmonic, as well as return appearances with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Staatsphilharmonie Rhineland-Pfalz, Staatskapelle Weimar, Kyushu Symphony and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony.

Born in Singapore, Wong became the first Asian winner of the Mahler Competition in 2016, following in the footsteps of Gustavo Dudamel, who immediately invited him to the Dudamel Fellowship programme with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2016/17.

Wong is a protégé of the late Kurt Masur and had the privilege of sharing the podium with him on multiple occasions in his final years.

K A H CH U N W O N G conductor “Clearly one to keep an eye on” (Financial Times), Kahchun Wong is Chief Conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra from the 2018/19 season. In addition to leading his orchestra in international touring projects and subscription concerts at the Meistersingerhalle, he also conducts annually at Klassik Open Air, one of the largest outdoor events of Classical music in Europe.

As the youngest and also the first artist from Singapore, Wong was conferred the Order of Merit by the Federal President of Germany in December 2019 for his dedicated service and outstanding achievements in Singaporean-German cultural relations.

Wong has conducted some of the most distinguished international orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, 4

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SEC O N D V IOL IN

T HE ORC HE S T R A

Michael Loh Associate Principal Hai-Won Kwok Fixed Chair Nikolai Koval* Chikako Sasaki* Margit Saur Shao Tao Tao Wu Man Yun* Xu Jue Yi* 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

Zhang Manchin Principal Guan Qi Associate Principal Gu Bing Jie* Fixed Chair Marietta Ku Luo Biao Julia Park Shui Bing Janice Tsai Wang Dandan 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 Kong Zhao Hui# Associate Concertmaster Chan Yoong-Han Acting Concertmaster / 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

P IA N O Shane Thio^

CONTRAB AS S OON Zhao Ying Xue Assistant Principal

CELEST E Aya Sakou^

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. # 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. ^ Musician on temporary contract.

Musicians listed alphabetically by family name rotate their seats on a per programme basis.

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| 26 SE P 2 020

‘Was it a dream I loved?’

A dream-like flute welcomes the listener in to Debussy’s fantastical world where tonality is a hazy memory and time floa- ts away on the hot summer breeze. What key is the music in? Is it in a key? Debussy and the flute of the faun lead us through a dizzying ma- ze of lush chromaticism – a glimpse of traditional tonality here and there, but never certain – seen only through the fog of your afternoon drow- siness.

In the poem which inspired Debussy’s m- asterpiece, Stéphane Mallarmé writes: ‘Ouvrir ma bouche à l’astre efficace des vins’, ‘Open my mouth to wine’s potent star’. You are drunk on chromaticism, as unsteady on your feet as a young faun. This faun is an agent of chaos, his harmonically ambiguous music hints at the endless possibilities of music unanchored from traditional tonality...But the warm summer air will help you forget the terrors of chaos as you sink into an enchanted sleep. It was Mallarmé’s dream, come true.

KA H CH U N W ONG C ONDU C TS DEBU SSY, W AG NER AND SH OSTAK O V IC H

CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862–1918) Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (1894/arr. Sachs, 1921)

K AHC H U N W O N G C O N D U C TS DEBU SSY, W AG SSO NER NATIONAL AND SH OSTAKOV DAY C ONC ICER H T | 21 65 SAUG E P 22002200

Debussy’s Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune opens with a now-iconic solo flute melody, a melody which prompted the 20th-century composer Pierre Boulez to say: “the flute of the faun brought new breath to the art of music”.

The Prelude was written in 1894 and was inspired by a poem by the French symbolist poet, Stephane Mallarmé. Almost impossible to translate, Mallarmé’s poem attempts to capture the thoughts, feelings and desires of a faun – a mythical creature – on a hot afternoon on a Sicilian hillside.

From the very beginning, Debussy’s piece denies the structures of traditional tonality.

The opening flute melody moves between the notes C-sharp and G, creating a tritone, the interval which Leonard Bernstein called ‘the most unstable interval there is, the absolute negation of tonality’. A tritone has no ‘home key’, it can’t resolve and doesn’t fit comfortably into the Western system of tonality: for that reason it was named diabolus in musica by the early Christian church and banned from use in music.

Above: Debussy at the beach

110 lines in Mallarme’s poem). The version in tonight’s concert is an arrangement for chamber ensemble by Benno Sachs – a pupil of Schoenberg – who created this version to be performed at Schoenberg’s Society for Private Musical Performances.

The most notable differences are the absence of harps and horns, and the addition of parts for piano and harmonium (played tonight on celesta).

Only in the final moments does Debussy reveal that the home piece of the key is E major. But as Bernstein said: ‘It’s an essay in E major, actually. [But] the faun was pointing… toward total ambiguity, one more step and you’re there, in senseless chromaticism.’

The tritone was the perfect musical symbol, and Mallarmé’s poem the perfect setting for Debussy to push the boundaries of traditional tonality further than ever before.

The famous opening is followed by a pause – six beats of silence, perhaps for the audience to wonder which key the music is in!

The melody moves between different woodwind instruments as the accompaniment travels through an array of different tonalities, just as Mallarmé’s poem provides fleeting glimpses of the thoughts of the faun (it is interesting to note that Debussy’s piece contains 110 bars of music, corresponding exactly to the

Instrumentation Flute, oboe, clarinet, crotales, piano, celesta, first violin, second violin, viola, cello, double bass World Premiere 22 Dec 1894, Paris First performed by SSO 26 Sep 1980 16

to soothe their children to sleep. And the full title on the manuscript of the work is: Triebschen Idyll with Fidi's birdsong and the orange sunrise, as symphonic birthday greeting. Presented to his Cosima by her Richard. Fidi was the family’s nickname for 18-month-old Siegfried and ‘the orange sunrise’ is likely a reference to the colour of the wallpaper in the house as it was struck by the morning sun.

“When I woke up I heard a sound, it grew ever louder, I could no longer imagine myself in a dream, music was sounding, and what music!”

Tribschen was the name of the couple’s home (the piece was renamed when it was published in 1878) and the five children were: Blandine and Daniela (both from Cosima’s first marriage to the conductor Hans von Bülow), Isolde, Eva and Siegfried (all three of whom were born before Cosima and Richard Wagner were married).

Perhaps the most striking detail, though, is the instrumentation: the Idyll was originally written for just 13 players, because that was as many as could fit on the staircase of the couple’s house!

Instrumentation Flute, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 horns, trumpet, first violin, second violin, viola, cello, double bass

The piece is perhaps the most personal piece Wagner wrote – the main theme would later appear in Act 3 of his opera Siegfried, sung by Brünnhilde with the text ‘I always was, I always am, always in sweet yearning bliss’ (‘Ewig war ich’). There is also a reference to the lullaby ‘Schlaf, kindlein, schlaf’ – which the couple perhaps sang

World Premiere 25 Dec 1870 First performed by SSO 28 Jun 1979 17

| 26 SE P 2 020

On Christmas morning, 1870, Cosima Wagner was woken by a piece of music she has never heard before. It had been a particularly eventful couple of years for the Wagners: in 1869 Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde had been triumphantly premiered and the couple’s youngest son – Siegfried – was born; in 1870 Wagner returned to work on the third opera in his Ring cycle and Richard and Cosima were married in Lucerne. On top of these reasons to celebrate, Christmas Eve was also Cosima’s birthday. To mark the occasion and to celebrate the couple’s happiness, Wagner composed this piece. Cosima wrote in her diary: “After [the music] had died away, R. came in to me with the five children and put into my hands the score of his ‘symphonic birthday greeting’. I was in tears, but so, too, was the whole household; R. had set up his orchestra on the stairs and thus consecrated our Tribschen forever! The Tribscen Idyll – so the work is called.”

SKA S OH N CH A TUINO NWAONG L DAYC ONDU C ONCCER TST DEBU | 15 SSY, A U G 2020 W AG NER AND SH OSTAK O V IC H

RICHARD WAGNER (1813–1883) Siegfried Idyll (1870)

K AH C H U N W O N G C O N D U C TS DEBU SSY, W AG SSO NER NATIONAL AND SH OSTAKOV DAY C ONC ICER H T | 21 65 SAUG E P 22002200

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–1975) Chamber Symphony, Op. 110a (String Quartet No. 8, 1960/arr. Barshai, 1974) I II III IV V

Largo Allegro molto Allegretto Largo Largo

On the night of 13 February 1945, 773 Lancaster bombers from Great Britain’s Royal Air Force dropped 1,181.6 tons of incendiary bombs and 1,477.7 tons of high explosive bombs on the German city of Dresden. The bombers came in waves designed to cause maximum damage: explosives to create space for the fires caused by the incendiary bombs, and raids timed to coincide with the rescue teams’ attempts to put out the fires.

which will be performed in an arrangement for chamber ensemble by Rudolf Barshai.

The work is deeply personal: Shostakovich’s musical monogram – DSCH, taken from the letters of his name – appears in each of its five movements. The pattern of four notes, which can be found throughout Shostakovich’s output, is made up of the notes D, E-flat, C, B which in German notation are: D, Es, C, H. The opening Largo sets the funereal tone of the piece before it is interrupted by the brutal opening of the second movement, which recalls some of the composer’s most tortured writing, such as his Eighth Symphony or Second Piano Trio. The third movement comes as something of a surprise: a waltz, albeit a grim perversion of the lively dance. In Shostakovich’s hands this waltz sounds like a dance of death.

The fourth movement is another Largo, with references to the Dies Irae chant, Shostakovich’s own opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and a popular Russian dirge. Shostakovich closes in a quieter mood, with another Largo, disarming in its desolation.

By the time the last bomb of the BritishAmerican attack fell on 15 February, 90 per cent of the city had been destroyed and between 22,700 and 25,000 people had been killed.

Fifteen years later, the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich was in the city to write a film score – but he found himself unable to work on the project. The film’s director, Lev Arnshtam said: “he walked among the ruins of Dresden, shaken by the scenes of devastation.”

In a letter to a friend, Shostakovich said: “Everything there was very well set up for me to work. Conditions for composing were ideal… However, try as I might I was unable to compose the film music, even in rough.

And instead I wrote a quartet that’s of no use to anybody and full of ideological flaws.”

When the famous Borodin Quartet played the piece for the composer at his Moscow home, they were hoping to hear his thoughts on their performance. Instead, the composer was “overwhelmed by this beautiful realisation of this most personal

The piece was his String Quartet No. 8 – 18

KA H CH U N W ONG C ONDU C TS DEBU SSY, W AG NER AND SH OSTAK O V IC H

Above: Frauenkirche ruins with a figure of Martin Luther that survived the bombings

Programme notes by Elizabeth Davis

Instrumentation 4 first violins, 4 second violins, 4 violas, 3 cellos, 2 double basses World Premiere 2 Oct 1960 (String Quartet No. 8) First performed by SSO 2 Mar 2014 19

| 26 SE P 2 020

feelings, buried his head in his hands and wept. When they had finished playing, the four musicians quietly packed up their instruments and stole out of the room.�

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Ms Lillian Yin (Head)

Programmes (SSO) Ms Kua Li Leng Ms Teo Chew Yen Ms Jodie Chiang Community Outreach Ms Vanessa Lee Ms Samantha Lim Choral Programmes Ms Regina Lee Ms Whitney Tan Programmes (VCH) Ms Erin Tan Ms Lynnette Chng ORCHESTR A MANAGEMENT Mr Ernest Khoo (Head) Orchestra Mr Chia Jit Min Ms Karis Ong Concert Operations Ms Kimberly Kwa Ms Chin Rosherna Mr Ramayah Elango Mr Md Fariz bin Samsuri Library Mr Lim Lip Hua Ms Wong Yi Wen Mr Avik Chari

Customer Experience Mr Randy Teo Ms Dacia Cheang Ms Nur Shafiqah bte Othman DE VELOPMENT & PA R T N E R S H I P S Corporate Communications Ms Haslina Hassan Development Ms Chelsea Zhao Ms Nikki Chuang Ms Charmaine Fong MARKE TING C O M M U N I C AT I O N S Ms Cindy Lim (Head) Mr Chia Han-Leon Ms Elizabeth Davis Ms Myrtle Lee Ms Jana Loh Ms Hong Shu Hui Ms Sherilyn Lim Ms Melissa Tan D I G I TA L S S O Ms Cindy Lim (Lead) Mr Chia Jit Min (Asst Lead) Mr Chia Han-Leon Mr Lim Yeow Siang Mr Hans Sørensen

Finance, IT & Facilities Mr Rick Ong Mr Alan Ong Ms Goh Hoey Fen Mr Md Zailani bin Md Said Human Resources & Administration Mr Desmen Low Ms Melissa Lee Ms Evelyn Siew Legal Mr Edward Loh S I N G A P O R E N AT I O N A L YOUTH ORCHES TR A Ms Pang Siu Yuin (Head) Ms Tang Ya Yun Ms Tan Sing Yee ABRSM Ms Hay Su-San (Head) Ms Patricia Yee Ms Lai Li-Yng Mr Joong Siow Chong C O V I D -1 9 R E S P O N S E C O O R D I N AT I O N Ms Lillian Yin (Lead) Mr Rick Ong (Asst Lead)

S UP POR T E D BY

PAT RO N S P ON S OR

MATCHE D BY

M A JO R D ON OR S

Mr & Mrs Goh Yew Lin

S EA S O N PA R TN ER S Official Radio Station

Official Community Partner

Official Outdoor Media Partner

Official Airline

S E A S O N PATRO NS

Christopher & Rosy Ho

Aquilus Pte Ltd

The mission of the Singapore Symphony 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.

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra is a charity and not-for-profit organisation. You can support us by donating at www.sso.org.sg/donate.