Singapore Symphony Orchestra Jan 2024

Hans Graf Music Director

RACHMANINOFF PIANO CONCERTO 2 AND SYMPHONY 2 RACHMANINOFF PIANO CONCERTO 3 AND SYMPHONY 3

RA CHMA NI NOF F P I ANO CO N CE RTO 2 AND SYM P H ONY 2 D EDIC ATE D TO

RACHMANINOFF PIANO CONCE RTO 3 AND SYMPHONY 3 DEDICATED T0 TH E LATE DR G OH KENG SWEE, F OU NDING PATRON OF TH E SSO

MOZART CONCERTO FOR FLUTE AND HARP

MAHLER SYMPHONY NO. 5

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Jan 2024 RACHMANINOFF PIANO CONCERTO 2 AND SYMPHONY 2

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Fri & Sat, 12 & 13 Jan 2024 Esplanade Concert Hall

RACHMANINOFF PIANO CONCERTO 3 AND SYMPHONY 3

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Thu & Fri, 18 & 19 Jan 2024 Esplanade Concert Hall

For the enjoyment of all patrons during the concert: • Please switch off or silence all electronic devices.

• Please minimise noises during performance.

If unavoidable, wait for a loud section in the music.

• No photography, video or audio recording is allowed when artists are performing.

• Non-flash photography is allowed only during bows and applause when no performance is taking place.

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

Photographs and videos will be taken at these events, in which you may appear. These may be published on the SSO’s publicity channels and materials. By attending the event, you consent to the use of these photographs and videos for the foregoing purposes.

Cover photo: Jack Yam 1

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SING APOR E SYM PH ONY O RCH ES T RA

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 with its 44-week calendar of events.

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 through its school programmes. The SSO has also earned an international reputation for its orchestral virtuosity, having garnered sterling reviews for its overseas tours and many successful recordings. In 2021, the SSO clinched third place in the prestigious Orchestra of the Year Award by Gramophone. In 2022, BBC Music Magazine named the SSO as one of the 21 best orchestras in the world.

In July 2022, the SSO appointed renowned Austrian conductor Hans Graf as its Music Director, the third in the orchestra’s history after Lan Shui (1997– 2019) and Choo Hoey (1979–1996). Prior to this, Hans Graf served as Chief Conductor from 2020.

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. The SSO makes its performing home at the 1,800-seat state-of-theart Esplanade Concert Hall. More intimate works, as well as outreach and community performances take place at the 673-seat Victoria Concert Hall, the Home of the SSO. Beyond Singapore, 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 fivecity tour of Germany and Prague also included the SSO’s second performance at the Berlin Philharmonie. In 2014, the SSO’s debut at the 120th BBC Proms in London received praise in major UK newspapers The Guardian and The Telegraph. The SSO has also performed in China on multiple occasions.

The SSO has released more than 50 recordings, with over 30 on the BIS label.

Recent critically acclaimed albums include Herrmann’s Wuthering Heights (Chandos) and Scriabin - Poems of Ecstasy and Fire (BIS). Following the Four Seasons album on Pentatone, a complete Mozart Violin Concerto cycle with Chloe Chua and Hans Graf will be released in 2024. The SSO also leads the revival and recording of significant works such as Kozłowski’s Requiem, Ogerman’s Symbiosis (after Bill Evans) and violin concertos by Robert Russell Bennett and Vernon Duke.

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The SSO has collaborated with such great artists as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Joe Hisaishi, Neeme Järvi, Okko Kamu, Hannu Lintu, Andrew Litton, Lorin Maazel, Martha Argerich, Ray Chen, Diana Damrau, Stephen Hough, Janine Jansen, Leonidas Kavakos, Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham and Krystian Zimerman.

The SSO is part of the Singapore Symphony Group, which also manages the Singapore Symphony Choruses, and the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, as well as the VCHpresents chamber music series, the Singapore International Piano Festival and the biennial National Piano & Violin Competition.

Our Story

Singapore Symphony Orchestra The Group’s vision is to be a leading arts organization that engages, inspires and reflects Singapore through musical excellence. Our mission 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.

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© JACK YAM

Armed with a spirit of musical curiosity and discovery, creative programming and his commanding presence on stage, Austrian conductor Hans Graf has raised orchestras to new heights while winning audiences young and old alike. With Hans Graf, “a brave new world of music-making under inspired direction” (The Straits Times) began at the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, as Chief Conductor in the 2020/21 season, and Music Director since the 2022/23 season.

Strasbourg, Rome and Zurich. In 2014 he was awarded the Österreichischer Musiktheaterpreis for Strauss’s Die Feuersnot at the famed Vienna Volksoper, where he returned in 2021 to lead Rosenkavalier.

Hans Graf’s extensive discography includes all symphonies of Mozart and Schubert, the complete orchestral works of Dutilleux, and the world-premiere recording of Zemlinsky’s Es war einmal. Graf’s recording of Berg’s Wozzeck with the Houston Symphony won the GRAMMY and ECHO Klassik awards for best opera recording. With the Singapore Symphony, Graf has recorded the music of Paul von Klenau, Józef Koz owski’s Requiem, an upcoming Mozart Violin Concerto cycle with Chloe Chua, and Stravinsky Concertos with violinist He Ziyu and pianist Alexei Volodin.

Graf was formerly Music Director of the Houston Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Basque National Orchestra and the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg. He is a frequent guest with major orchestras worldwide including the orchestras of Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Vienna, Leipzig Gewandhaus, DSO Berlin, Dresden, Royal Concertgebouw, Oslo, Hallé, London, Royal Philharmonic, Budapest Festival, St Petersburg, Russian National, Melbourne, Sydney, Seoul, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and the Bavarian, Danish and Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestras. Graf has led operas in the Vienna State Opera, Munich, Berlin, Paris,

Hans Graf (b. 1949) is Professor Emeritus for Orchestral Conducting at the Universität Mozarteum, Salzburg. For his services to music, he was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre de la Légion d'Honneur by the French government, and the Grand Decoration of Honour of the Republic of Austria.

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RA CH MA N I N OFF PIANO C ONC ER TOS 2 & 3 AND SYM PH ONIES 2 & 3 | 12 & 13, 18 & 19 JA N 20 2 4

H A N S G RAF Music Director

R AC H M AN IN O F F PIANO C ONC ER TO 2 AND SYM PH ONY 2 | 12 & 1 3 JAN 2 0 2 4

© DARIOACOSTA

for a nine-city recital tour across Australia in June 2023 and opened the Nashville Symphony’s season in September, followed during the season by appearances with orchestras in Atlanta, Sarasota, Rhode Island, Singapore, Prague, Warsaw, Lyon and Oxford (UK). With recital programmes including works from Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin to Brahms and Scriabin, he can be heard in New York, Seattle, Baltimore, Prague, Katowice, Krakow and Wroc aw.

G A R RI CK O H L SS ON piano Pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Although long regarded as one of the world’s leading exponents of the music of Chopin, Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire ranging over the entire piano literature and he has been noted for his masterly performances of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, as well as the Romantic repertoire.

An avid chamber musician, Ohlsson has collaborated with the Cleveland, Emerson, Tokyo and Takacs string quartets. His recording with latter of the Amy Beach and Elgar quintets released by Hyperion in June 2020 received great press attention.

Passionate about singing and singers, Ohlsson has appeared in recitals with such legendary artists as Magda Olivero, Jessye Norman and Ewa Podles.

A native of White Plains, N.Y., Ohlsson began his piano studies at the age of 8, at the Westchester Conservatory of Music; at 13 he entered The Juilliard School. He has been awarded first prizes in the Busoni and Montreal Piano competitions, the Gold Medal at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw (1970), the Avery Fisher Prize (1994), among other awards.

A frequent guest with the orchestras in New Zealand and Australia, Ohlsson returned

garrickohlsson.com 6

RA CH MA N I N OFF PIANO C ONC ER TO 3 AND SYM PH ONY 3 | 18 & 19 JA N 2024

J A E- HY U CK CH O piano

As the winner of the Pro Piano New York Recital Series Auditions, Jae-Hyuck made his New York debut in 1993 at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. He has since been active as a recitalist, a soloist and a chamber musician throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. His interest in collaborating with artists of different mediums led to special projects with the Korean National Ballet and illusionist Lee Eun-gyeol, in creating new ways to merge different genres.

© NIKOLAJLUND

Acclaimed pianist and organist Jae-Hyuck Cho is one of the most active concert artists in Korea. He has been described as “a musician who is nearing perfection with an extraordinary breadth of expression, flawless technique, and composition, sensitivity, and intelligence, insightful and detailed playing without exaggeration.”

Jae-Hyuck has been the guest artist in over two hundred episodes of ‘With Piano’, a radio programme on KBS Classic FM, where he shared commentaries and gave performances on the live radio broadcast.

He also served as the programme director, the host and the performer of concert series including Stradium’s ‘Jae-Hyuck’s Music Box,’ and Suwon SK Artrium’s ‘Cho JaeHyuck’s Morning Classic.’ From 2017 for two years, he was the host and performer for Seoul Arts Center’s concert series ‘The Eleven O’Clock Concert’.

Born in Chuncheon, South Korea, Jae-Hyuck began piano studies at age five. He moved to New York to continue his piano studies at the Manhattan School of Music PreCollege Division with Solomon Mikowsky.

He was awarded Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, under the tutelage of Herbert Stessin and Jerome Lowenthal. He received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Manhattan School of Music, studying with Nina Svetlanova.

grunau-paulus.com/reader-en/jaehyuckchoEN.html

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TH E O RCH ES T RA

The Orchestra

SEC O N D V IOL IN Michael Loh Associate Principal Nikolai Koval* Sayuri Kuru Hai-Won Kwok Chikako Sasaki* Margit Saur Shao Tao Tao Tseng Chieh-An Wu Man Yun* Xu Jueyi* Yeo Teow Meng Yin Shu Zhan* Zhao Tian

HANS GRAF Music Director RODOLFO BARRÁEZ Associate Conductor CHOO HOEY Conductor Emeritus LAN SHUI Conductor Laureate

VIO L A

EUDENICE PALARUAN Choral Director

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

WONG LAI FOON Choirmaster 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

C EL L O Ng Pei-Sian Principal, The HEAD Foundation Chair Yu Jing Associate Principal Guo Hao Fixed Chair Chan Wei Shing Christopher Mui Jamshid Saydikarimov Song Woon Teng Wang Yan Wu Dai Dai Zhao Yu Er D O U B LE BAS S Yang Zheng Yi Associate Principal Karen Yeo Fixed Chair Olga Alexandrova Jacek Mirucki Guennadi Mouzyka Wang Xu 8

FLUTE

H O RN

Jin Ta Principal, Stephen Riady Chair Evgueni Brokmiller Associate Principal Roberto Alvarez Miao Shanshan

Austin Larson Principal Gao Jian Associate Principal Jamie Hersch Associate Principal Marc-Antoine Robillard Associate Principal Bryan Chong^ Hoang Van Hoc

PICCOLO Roberto Alvarez Assistant Principal

TR U M P ET Jon Paul Dante Principal David Smith Associate Principal Lau Wen Rong Nuttakamon Supattranont

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

TR O M B O N E Allen Meek Principal Damian Patti Associate Principal Samuel Armstrong

COR ANGL AI S Elaine Yeo Associate Principal CLARINET

B A SS T R O MBONE

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

Wang Wei Assistant Principal TU B A Tomoki Natsume Principal

BAS S CL AR I NE T Tang Xiao Ping Assistant Principal

TIM P A N I

BAS S OON

Christian Schiøler Principal Mario Choo

Marcelo Padilla^ Principal Liu Chang Associate Principal Christoph Wichert Zhao Ying Xue

P ER CU SSIO N Jonathan Fox Principal Mark Suter Associate Principal Mario Choo Lim Meng Keh

CONTRAB AS S OON Zhao Ying Xue Assistant Principal

H A RP Gulnara Mashurova Principal

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T H E O RC HE ST RA

* With deep appreciation to the Rin Collection for their generous loan of string instruments. ^ Musician on temporary contract 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, courtesy of Mr G K Goh. Musicians listed alphabetically by family name rotate their seats on a per programme basis.

G U EST MU S I CI A N S

Guest Musicians RAC HMA N IN O FF P IA N O CONCE RT O 2 A ND S YM P HONY 2 | 12 & 13 JA N 2024

FIRST VIOLIN David Coucheron Guest Concertmaster Lim Shue Churn SECOND VIOLIN Wilford Goh Ikuko Takahashi VIOLA Erlene Koh Yeo Jan Wea DOUBLE BASS Joan Perarnau Garriga Guest Principal Julian Li

RAC HMA N IN O FF P IA N O CONCE RT O 3 A ND S YM P HONY 3 | 18 & 19 JA N 2024

FIRST VIOLIN Andrew Haveron Guest Concertmaster Lim Shue Churn SECOND VIOLIN Wilford Goh Ikuko Takahashi VIOLA Erlene Koh Yeo Jan Wea DOUBLE BASS Joan Perarnau Garriga Guest Principal Julian Li PERCUSSION Lee Yu Ru Michael Tan CELESTA Nicholas Loh 10

S IN G A P OR E SY MP HON Y ORC HE S T R A

26 & 27 Jan 2024, 7.30pm Esplanade Concert Hall

Singapore Symphony Orchestra Joshua Tan, conductor Tickets from $20 E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is a trademark and copyright of Universal Studios.

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BU TTER FL Y L OV ER S V IOL IN C ONC ER TO | 10 & 1 1 N O V 2 0 2 3

R ACHMA NIN OF F PI ANO CO N C E R T O 2 AND S YMP H O N Y 2 ROMA N TI C V I R T U O S I T Y Fri & Sat, 12 & 13 Jan 2024 Esplanade Concert Hall Singapore Symphony Orchestra Hans Graf Music Director Garrick Ohlsson piano*

R AC H M AN I N OF F Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18* Intermission Autograph session with Garrick Ohlsson

33 mins 20 mins

R AC H M AN I N OF F Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27

60 mins Concert Duration: approximately 2 hrs 10 mins (including 20 mins intermission)

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Dedicated to

R AC H M AN IN O F F PIANO C ONC ER TO 2 AND SYM PH ONY 2 | 12 & 1 3 JAN 2 0 2 4

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873–1943) Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 (1901) I II III

Moderato Adagio sostenuto Allegro scherzando

Rachmaninoff needs no introduction as one of the greatest pianists who ever lived, and his compositions will always guarantee that his reputation as a composer is never forgotten. Yet at one point in his life all might have gone to waste: his First Symphony, composed after many years of struggle, was destroyed by critics after a disastrous premiere, which included a drunk Alexander Glazunov conducting an underrehearsed orchestra.

Therapy helped Rachmaninoff regain his confidence again, and the resulting C minor Piano Concerto firmly established the pianist-composer as one of the leading figures of the late Romantic. Its relative lack of substance has not impacted its popularity at all; Rachmaninoff had found an audiencewinning formula, and would stick to it for the great “Rach 3”.

Rachmaninoff at the piano, in early 1900s.

Piano concertos by the time of Rachmaninoff had long ceased to begin with the Classical orchestral tutti, but such a slow and mysterious opening was new — let alone one not in the key of the theme! Brooding chords in F minor set up a big crescendo before the violins enter with their big tune — only one of many throughout this work.

Piano filigree is immediately on display for the audience, and the glittering fingerwork cedes to a gorgeous relative-major theme.

With very little development, these two themes alternate for the rest of the movement in increasingly frenetic guise, but

their energy almost peters out completely before a final surge.

A string chorale modulates from C minor to E major at the start of the second movement, introducing the piano with its poly-rhythmic accompaniment to the flute melody. The soaring, irregularly-phrased woodwind melody would later become a firm Rachmaninoff trope, as evidenced in the Second Symphony — more on that later — 16

RA CH MA N I N OFF PIANO C ONC ER TO 2 AND SYM PH ONY 2 | 12 & 13 JA N 2024

and the Symphonic Dances. The piano does not tarry long before introducing more fistfuls of notes, moving the music into darker territory and churning the orchestra into a momentous climax. After a piano cadenza, during which the solo piano looks over the preceding material with an improvisatory eye, the opening calmness returns.

The peace in which the second movement ends is quickly broken by the creeping movement of the orchestra as it re-enters, using fragments of melody from the first movement to prod the pianist into another cadenza. The technical wizardry on display in this third movement helps disguise the rather repetitive nature of the melodic material, and Rachmaninoff deftly segues into the final big tune. A fugal section right in the middle of this movement helps stretch the opening theme a little further, and several minutes pass before the glorious final turn to C major arrives like sunlight breaking through stormy clouds. Listen out for Rachmaninoff signing his name on the final cadence: the rhythm of the orchestra sounds like “Rach-mani-noff”!

Instrumentation 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, strings World Premiere 9 Nov 1901, Moscow First performed by SSO 23 Aug 1979 (Seow Yit Kin, piano) 17

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SERGEI RACHMANINOFF Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27 (1907) I II III IV

Largo – Allegro moderato Allegro molto Adagio Allegro vivace

Concerning symphonic writing, Rachmaninoff’s second attempt was not without some difficulty. His overwhelming success with the Second Piano Concerto aside, he had not regained full confidence in his skills as a composer. Even though he had won a Glinka Prize for that piece, which had some money attached to it, he spent two seasons working as a conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre and felt that the job was robbing him of composing time. Escaping for Dresden shortly after the birth of his daughter, he managed to avoid increasing political turmoil in Russia, and in the three years he spent in Germany, the Second Symphony took shape.

the sinuous, weaving lines that permeate the whole symphony. As the music heats up into the Allegro moderato, the trembling strings set the scene as one filled with nervous energy, and indeed, Rachmaninoff’s obsessive use of the long, winding lines proves to be the masterstroke here: the whole development is a continuous buildup to an explosive climax, with a new melody being born out of that moment. A lush moment in E major follows, but the music is not allowed peace, as a final ending in the minor key wrests that bit of rest away from the listener.

The abrupt rush that opens the Scherzo is a much more forward-looking Rachmaninoff: the aggressive open-string sound coupled with horns almost sounds like Shostakovich at times, although the fundamentally Romantic impulse cannot be shaken off, and the contrast to the opening comes in the form of a gorgeous Hollywoodian tune.

The music tilts from one mood to another, justifying the title of scherzo, though, unlike earlier symphonic models, it is in a firm 2/2 rather than in triple time. There is humour to be found, surely, even if it is dark and devilish and hidden behind crowds of chattering string chords.

But early drafts left him frustrated and he spent a long time revising the work over and over, finally settling for a premiere in 1908.

All things considered, it was probable that the ensuing success of the symphony took him by surprise, though the second Glinka Prize he received for it was very welcome. In light of this he felt that he had fully restored his confidence in his own composing.

This is a long symphony, weighing in at approximately an hour. Rachmaninoff took pains over the formal structure in each movement and ended up with a piece that is much more well-balanced than the Second Piano Concerto, with the first movement feeling truly organic in its nearly 20-minute span. A slow introduction dominated by low instruments introduces the audience to

One of the most famous clarinet melodies ever written now comes to the fore: after a passionate introduction, the third movement settles down into chambermusic territory, allowing the lone wind 18

The Bolshoi Theatre in 1905, during Rachmaninoff's time as conductor.

(Photo: Bolshoi Theatre)

The rest of the movement is a long unwinding of this new mixture, a real demonstration of how far Rachmaninoff had progressed as a composer in just a handful of years, and from here on all is light: the finale is a joyous romp, full of life, full of hope. With scuttling triplet rhythms and horn calls, along with all sections of the orchestra chipping in throughout, this feels like a huge dance, and well it might be!

Instrumentation 3 flutes (1 doubling on piccolo), 3 oboes (1 doubling on cor anglais), 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, glockenspiel, strings World Premiere 8 Feb 1908, St Petersburg

Programme notes by Thomas Ang

First performed by SSO 5 Jun 1987 19

RA CH MA N I N OFF PIANO C ONC ER TO 2 AND SYM PH ONY 2 | 12 & 13 JA N 2024

instrument to emerge and tell its tale over a plush string accompaniment. After more than half an hour of fast music, this moment of rest is sorely needed, and the music really stretches out for a breath, with Rachmaninoff airing out all manner of variations of the theme. It almost feels like he wants to bask in the sunlight after the serious mood of the previous movements, and the climax here is truly resplendent: a full-orchestra restatement of the introduction of this movement, with the winding lines mixed in as a counterpoint.

FOR A CARING & RESILIENT

Singapore

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RACHMA NI N O F F PI AN O C O N C E R T O 3 AN D S YMP HONY 3 FIRE A N D L Y R IC I S M This concert is dedicated to the late Dr Goh Keng Swee, founding patron of the SSO. Thu & Fri, 18 & 19 Jan 2024 Esplanade Concert Hall Singapore Symphony Orchestra Hans Graf Music Director Jae-Hyuck Cho piano*

R AC H M AN I N OF F Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor. Op. 30*

39 mins

Intermission

20 mins

R AC H M AN I N OF F Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44

39 mins Concert Duration: approximately 1 hr 55 mins (including 20 mins intermission)

A Post-concert meet-and-greet with Jae-Hyuck Cho and Hans Graf at Foyer, Level 1 (Fri, 19 Jan)

CHECK-IN TO TONIGHT'S CONCERT Scan this QR code with the Singapore Symphony Mobile App.

POST-CONCERT SURVEY (FOR 19 JAN CONCERT) To help us improve your concert experience, we invite you to participate in our survey. Be the first 120 to show up at the foyer on level 1 with proof of completing the survey, and you'll receive a gift.

— Bernard T. G. Tan From Goh Keng Swee: A Legacy of Public Service (edited by Emrys Chew & Chong Guan Kwa)

Studying the rich history of the SSO inevitably draws one to the important role played by our founding patron, Dr Goh Keng Swee.

In 1977, when Dr Goh was Deputy Prime Minister, he championed setting up a professional symphony orchestra in Singapore. For a nation to truly be whole, Dr Goh understood from the very beginning that economic power had to be balanced by cultural wealth.1 The Singapore Symphonia Company Limited was formed, and the SSO held its inaugural concert with just over 40 musicians taking the stage in January 1979.

One year later, the SSO moved into the Victoria Concert Hall, which was leased to the SSO for 99 years as its home.

Dr Goh did much more than just start an orchestra. He arranged for young, talented Singaporeans to pursue their musical aspirations abroad through scholarships. On their return, many of these students joined the SSO, and a number remain with the orchestra today.

Dr Goh Keng Swee Photo: Russel Wong

The SSO has achieved much international acclaim and is an integral part of Singapore’s artistic identity and landscape today. For this, and for much else, we have Dr Goh Keng Swee’s vision and determination to thank.

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Bernard T G Tan: Goh Keng Swee’s Cultural Contributions and the Making of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Goh Keng Swee: A Legacy of Public Service

RA CH MA N I N OFF PIANO C ONC ER TO 3 AND SYM PH ONY 3 | 18 & 19 JA N 2024

“The SSO is indeed a fitting legacy of Goh’s efforts which forever transformed the nation’s artistic and cultural scene. All of us who now enjoy the music of the SSO and the vibrant cultural life of Singapore owe an immense debt to Goh Keng Swee, who understood from the very beginning that economic strength must be balanced by cultural wealth for a nation to be truly whole.”

R AC H M AN IN O F F PIANO C ONC ER TO 3 AND SYM PH ONY 3 | 18 & 1 9 JAN 2 0 2 4

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873–1943) Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor. Op. 30 (1909) I II III

Allegro ma non tanto Intermezzo Finale

In 1909, the 36-year-old Rachmaninoff was at the height of his career as composer and pianist. It was time to conquer America, and for this important visit he composed his Third Piano Concerto, which he wrote during the summer months at his country estate, Ivanovka. In October, he set sail for the New World, but not having had time to learn the piano part, he resorted to practising on a “dumb” (silent) piano he took on board with his baggage. The concerto was greeted warmly, though not rapturously, at its premiere on 28 November, 1909, with Walter Damrosch conducting the Symphony Society of New York. As soloist, Rachmaninoff also performed the concerto with Gustav Mahler conducting the New York Philharmonic, on which occasion Rachmaninoff was enormously impressed with Mahler’s abilities as a conductor.

The Third Concerto proudly carries a reputation for being one of the most difficult, expansive, brilliant and romantic in the repertory of piano concertos. It is also one of Rachmaninoff’s longest and structurally most complex orchestral works. Like the Second Symphony, many of the concerto’s melodic ideas have their seeds in the opening motif.

Also like the symphony, there is a strong interrelation between the movements, as material in each movement recurs in varied form in succeeding movements. In mood and style, the music is thoroughly grounded in the 19th-century Russian romantic tradition. Nicolas Slonimsky’s assessment of Rachmaninoff in general

Rachmaninoff in Ivanovka, 1910 (Photo: Staatlicher Musikverlag, Moskau) serves to underscore the concerto’s qualities in particular: “… melancholy moods prevail, and minor keys predominate … there is an unmistakable stamp of Rachmaninoff’s own individuality in the broad rhapsodic sweep of the melodic line, and particularly in the fully expanded sonorities and fine resonant harmonies of his piano writing.”

The Concerto opens with a disarmingly simple theme. Rachmaninoff said that it “wrote itself … I wanted to ‘sing’ the 24

alike, although Rachmaninoff does not fail to include a characteristically lyric, soaring theme as well. The long coda provides a fitting conclusion to a grandiose concerto, “growing gradually in intensity,” writes Herbert Elwell, “to sonorous heights in a lofty peroration.”

The slow movement reveals Rachmaninoff at his most melancholic, rhapsodic and nostalgic. The languid principal theme is reworked though a series of variations, a simple enough procedure in view of the structural complexities of the outer movements. This fact, as well as the generally more relaxed mood, may well have been responsible for the movement’s title “Intermezzo.” Near the end is a faster, scherzando passage whose woodwind lines are melodically related to the first theme of the first movement. The darkly melancholic mood of the closing pages is abruptly banished by a brilliant flourish, and the third movement is launched without pause.

Instrumentation 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, suspended cymbal, snare drum, strings

Themes as well as rhythmic patterns of this expansive finale are largely derived from or related to material of the first movement.

The finale abounds in energetic rhythms, bravura flourishes, scintillating passage work and brilliant effects for soloist and orchestra

World Premiere 28 Nov 1909, New York First performed by SSO 25 Jul 1980 (Eteri Andjaparidze, piano) 25

RA CH MA N I N OFF PIANO C ONC ER TO 3 AND SYM PH ONY 3 | 18 & 19 JA N 2024

melody on the piano, as a singer would sing it.” However, a musicologist-friend of the composer, Joseph Yasser, believed the theme was derived from an ancient monastic chant of the Russian Orthodox Church, a claim Rachmaninoff denied. The second subject consists of a gently playful staccato idea for the orchestra answered by the soloist, from which evolves a broadly lyrical theme in the piano. The development section begins as did the opening, with the soloist becoming increasingly predominant.

A cadenza of prodigious difficulty and enormous proportions contains within it the movement’s recapitulation, a most unorthodox procedure. An alternate view holds that the recapitulation consists only of the brief epilogue beginning with the restatement of the opening bars of the movement, shared by piano and orchestra.

R AC H M AN IN O F F PIANO C ONC ER TO 3 AND SYM PH ONY 3 | 18 & 1 9 JAN 2 0 2 4

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44 (1936) I II III

Lento. Allegro moderato Adagio ma non troppo Allegro

Rachmaninoff’s three symphonies span nearly his entire creative life. The First was premiered in 1895 when the composer was 22. It was such a dismal failure that he forbade further performances during his lifetime. The Second was written ten years later and became an instant success whose popularity has never waned. Rachmaninoff vowed this would be his last symphony, but near the end of his life he produced a Third, whose public acceptance lies somewhere between the general rejection of the First and the enthusiastic embrace of the Second.

Rachmaninoff wrote his Third Symphony in 1935 and 1936 while living in Switzerland.

It had been nearly two decades since he left his native Russia in 1917, and many of his works written during the years abroad are said to lack that quality of “Russianness” found in earlier works. But the Third Symphony was an exception. Lawrence Gilman, the distinguished New York critic, wrote of it: “This Symphony is characterized by a profusion of those sweeping cantabile phrases, darkened by moods of melancholy brooding, and impassioned stress, which are typical of Rachmaninoff’s instrumental creations. Sombre, lyrical, defiant, it is a work wholly representative of the Slavic genius and of Mr. Rachmaninoff in particular.”

Rachmaninoff conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra in a rehearsal in 1939.

Photo: Adrian Siegel Collection/ Philadelphia Orchestra Archives

favourite – The Philadelphia Orchestra, where he had made his American conducting debut in 1909 and where scarcely a year went by without his appearing there either at the piano or on the podium. No fewer than four world premieres and several American premieres of his works went to that orchestra. Leopold Stokowski

The first performance went to the orchestra Rachmaninoff had come to think of as his 26

used in only a few brief passages but to great effect. A rhythmically vigorous central section serves as a scherzo, after which the nostalgic, lushly romantic material of the opening returns to end the movement quietly.

Lento – Allegro moderato The symphony opens with a motto idea – scarcely a theme as it merely oscillates gently among three notes – but Rachmaninoff’s mastery of orchestral colour throughout the symphony is manifest in these very opening bars: the unison combination of a single clarinet, a single cello muted and a single horn handstopped. This motto serves, in the words of biographer Patrick Piggott, “not so much to make dramatic, brassy intrusions, (though on occasion it can do this to good effect), as to remind us sometimes by no more than a quietly hinted reference, that our destiny is inescapable and that however persuasive human eloquence may be, fate will have the last, inevitable word. All very much in the Russian tradition.” The two principal subjects of the movement are both lyrical and flowing in Rachmaninoff’s characteristic idiom, the first presented by woodwinds, the second by cellos in broadly sweeping phrases. The whole symphony is replete with examples of Rachmaninoff’s orchestral mastery, but one more passage must be singled out: midway through the first movement we hear a new sonority, that of the xylophone, which is combined in its initial entry with piccolo and bassoon in a most striking blend of instrumental hues.

Allegro The finale is a long, brash and vivacious movement packed with surprises.

Among the interesting formal elements here are an extended fugal section based on the movement’s opening material, and a long coda containing additional ideas not used before in this symphony, including Rachmaninoff’s old favourite, the medieval Dies irae motif. Rhythmic vitality, instrumental flamboyance, and memorable effects are found throughout; the symphony ends in a veritable riot of orchestral virtuosity.

Programme notes by Robert Markow

Instrumentation 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, alto trumpet, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, triangle, tam-tam, xylophone, tambourine, harp, celesta, strings

Adagio ma non troppo The second movement combines elements of slow movement and scherzo. The motto (solo horn) introduces the movement, which contains a wealth of melodic ideas and passages clothed in magical colours.

Another new sonority is heard in this movement, that of the celesta, which is

World Premiere 6 Nov 1936, Philadelphia First performed by SSO 7 Dec 1990

27

RA CH MA N I N OFF PIANO C ONC ER TO 3 AND SYM PH ONY 3 | 18 & 19 JA N 2024

conducted the first performance of the Third Symphony on 6 November 1936.

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S S O P RI N CI P A L FLU T E S TEP H E N RI AD Y C HAIR In recognition of a generous gift from Dr Stephen Riady, we announced in May 2022 the naming of our Principal Flute, “Stephen Riady Chair”. The position is currently held by our Principal Flutist Jin Ta.

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2023/24 SEASON UPCOMING CONCERTS

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FIGARO IN A POCKET 3 Feb 2024, 7.30pm 4 Feb 2024, 4pm Benjamin Molonfalean Figaro, Damian Whiteley Bartolo Sun Ting Susanna, Justyna Bluj Countess Xiaoming Wang violin/leader, Musicians of the SSO Singers from the Singapore Symphony Choruses

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SUNDAY AFTERNOON FANCIES 25 Feb 2024, 4pm Singapore Symphony Youth Choir Wong Lai Foon Choirmaster Musicians of the SSO

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SMETANA, MOZART AND BARBER 14 Mar 2024, 7.30pm Musicians of the SSO

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CREATION DANCE – RICHARD BRASIER 23 Mar 2024, 7.30pm Richard Brasier organ

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The vision of the Singapore Symphony Group is to be a leading arts organization that engages, inspires and reflects Singapore through musical excellence.

Our mission 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.