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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 with its 44week 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 23 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 alltime 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-ofthe-art 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 five-city 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. In the 2024/25 season, the SSO performed in Kyoto as part of the Asia Orchestra Week, as well as a three-city tour of Australia.
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). With Singaporean violinist Chloe Chua, the SSO has recorded the Four Seasons, as well as the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, and a Mozart Violin Concerto cycle with Hans Graf to be released by Pentatone Records in the 2024/25 season. 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.
The SSO has collaborated with such great artists as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Joe Hisaishi, Neeme Järvi, Hannu Lintu, Lorin Maazel, Martha Argerich, Diana Damrau, Janine Jansen, Leonidas Kavakos, Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Mischa Maisky, Gil Shaham and Krystian Zimerman.
The SSO is part of the Singapore Symphony Group, which also manages the Singapore Symphony Choruses, the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, the Singapore International Piano Festival and the biennial National Piano & Violin Competition.
The Group’s vision is to be a leading arts organisation 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.
Kahchun Wong
conductor
Highly sought after worldwide, Singaporeanborn Kahchun Wong is Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of The Hallé, Chief Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic.
Since winning the Mahler Competition in 2016, Wong has gained international recognition for his bold programming, advocacy for living composers, and ability to bridge Eastern and Western musical traditions. Notable engagements include the US premiere of Tan Dun’s Fire Ritual with the New York Philharmonic, the UK premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the world premiere of Reena Esmail’s Hindustani Violin Concerto with the Seattle Symphony.
In 2025, Wong will return to lead The Cleveland Orchestra on its Florida tour and release Britten’s The Prince of the Pagodas, Bruckner’s Ninth, and Mahler’s Second on the Hallé label. He will conduct the Japan Philharmonic’s 50th Anniversary Tour of Kyushu, record with Olivier Latry, chief organist at Notre-Dame, and make his debut with the China National Symphony Orchestra, alongside returning to the London Philharmonic, Osaka Philharmonic and Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
At the conclusion of his tenure as Chief Conductor of the Nürnberger Symphoniker, Wong premiered his orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition before 75,000 people at Klassik Open Air, featuring folk soloists from the Singapore Chinese Orchestra.
Beyond the concert hall, Wong is a champion of cultural diplomacy, using music to connect diverse traditions and audiences. He has been awarded Germany’s Federal Order of Merit and the Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship (Public Service Commission), with support from the National Arts Council.
Kahchun Wong and Gerhard Oppitz – Brahms and Shostakovich | 28
Gerhard Oppitz’s international career took off in 1977 when he became the first German to win the coveted Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv. Concert tours through Europe, Japan and the United States followed. In 1981 Oppitz was offered a professorship at the Musikhochschule in Munich, which he held until 2013.
In the course of his artistic life, Gerhard Oppitz has made music with legendary conductors such as Carlo Maria Giulini, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sir Colin Davis, Zubin Mehta and Riccardo Muti.
Oppitz has repeatedly played complete cycles of works in concert – Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, the sonatas of Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart, Grieg and, above all, the piano works of Johannes Brahms. He performed the complete Brahms sonata cycle in Europe, the USA and Japan.
At the Rheingau Music Festival, he performed all of Schubert’s solo works in eleven full-length programs. His 1990 recording of the complete piano works of Brahms was followed in 1993 by a recording of the two piano concertos with Sir Colin Davis. Oppitz also recorded the Beethoven piano concertos and the complete works for piano and orchestra by Carl Maria von Weber. Recent releases include Beethoven and Schubert sonatas, a CD of Japanese piano music and the complete recordings of Robert Schumann’s piano works.
In 2009, Gerhard Oppitz received the Brahms Prize of the Brahms Society Schleswig-Holstein, previously awarded to Leonard Bernstein and Lord Yehudi Menuhin. Since 2014 he has been a recipient of the Bavarian Order of Maximilian for Science and Art, the highest honor bestowed by the State of Bavaria on Johannes Brahms in 1873.
Gerhard Oppitz piano
Japanese violinist Akiko Suwanai has established herself as one of the most soughtafter artists of her generation. Since winning the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1990 she has enjoyed a flourishing career, performing chamber music internationally and engaging at the highest level with orchestras and conductors.
Suwanai begins the 2024/25 season with a return to National Symphony Orchestra Taiwan/ Jun Märkl for Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, a concerto she will reprise further ahead in the season with Gürzenich-Orchester Köln/Sakari Oramo on tour in Japan. In other highlights, she joins NHK Symphony Orchestra/Fabio Luisi on tour both in Asia and Europe with performances of Berg’s Violin Concerto and will visit the Swedish Chamber Orchestra/Downey-Dear and Sydney Symphony Orchestra/Dmitry Matvienko to perform Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5. Known for her breadth of repertoire, Suwanai will premiere Dai Fujikura’s Double Concerto for Flute and Violin with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic/Karina Canellakis, perform Hosokawa’s Genesis with GürzenichOrchester and visit the St Louis Symphony for Connesson’s Lost Horizons conducted by Stephane Deneve. Another prominent work of the season is Dvořák’s Violin Concerto, which she will perform with both the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen/Paavo Järvi and Singapore Symphony Orchestra/Kahchun Wong.
In 2012, Akiko launched the Tokyo-based International Music Festival NIPPON as Artistic Director. At the festival, Akiko has premiered new works including Karol Beffa’s Violin Concerto alongside Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Dai Fujikura’s Pitter-Patter with Boris Berezovsky.
Suwanai performs on the Charles Reade Guarneri del Gesu violin, generously loaned to her by the Japanese-American collector and philanthropist, Dr. Ryuji Ueno.
Akiko Suwanai violin
Akiko Suwanai and Kahchun Wong – Dvořák and Elgar
The Orchestra
Hans Graf
Quantedge Music Director
Rodolfo Barráez
Associate Conductor
Choo Hoey
Conductor Emeritus
Lan Shui
Conductor Laureate
Eudenice Palaruan
Choral Director
Wong Lai Foon Choirmaster
Ellissa Sayampanathan
Assistant Choral Conductor
First Violin
(Position vacant) Concertmaster, GK Goh Chair
David Coucheron Co-Principal Guest Concertmaster
Kevin Lin Co-Principal Guest Concertmaster
Kong Zhao Hui1 Associate Concertmaster
Chan Yoong-Han2 Assistant Principal
Cao Can*
Duan Yu Ling
Foo Say Ming
Jin Li
Kong Xianlong
Cindy Lee
Karen Tan
William Tan
Wei Zhe
Ye Lin*
Zhang Si Jing
Second Violin
Nikolai Koval*
Sayuri Kuru
Hai-Won Kwok
Renyu Martin Peh^
Margit Saur
Shao Tao Tao
Wu Man Yun*
Xu Jueyi*
Yin Shu Zhan*
Zhao Tian
Viola
Manchin Zhang Principal, Tan Jiew Cheng Chair
Guan Qi Associate Principal
Gu Bing Jie* Assistant Principal
Marietta Ku
Luo Biao
Julia Park
Shui Bing
Janice Tsai
Dandan Wang
Yang Shi Li
Cello
Ng Pei-Sian Principal, The HEAD Foundation Chair
Yu Jing Associate Principal
Guo Hao Assistant Principal
Chan Wei Shing
Christopher Mui
Jamshid Saydikarimov
Song Woon Teng
Wang Yan
Wu Dai Dai
Zhao Yu Er
Double Bass
Yang Zheng Yi Acting Principal
Karen Yeo Assistant Principal
Jacek Mirucki
Guennadi Mouzyka
Wang Xu
Flute
Jin Ta Principal, Stephen Riady Chair
Evgueni Brokmiller Associate Principal
Roberto Alvarez
Miao Shanshan
Piccolo
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
Bass Clarinet
Tang Xiao Ping Assistant Principal
Bassoon
Guo Siping Principal
Liu Chang Associate Principal
Christoph Wichert
Zhao Ying Xue
Contrabassoon
Zhao Ying Xue Assistant Principal
Horn
Austin Larson Principal
Gao Jian Associate Principal
Jamie Hersch Associate Principal
Marc-Antoine Robillard Associate Principal
Bryan Chong^
Hoang Van Hoc
Trumpet
Jon Paul Dante Principal
David Smith Associate Principal
Lau Wen Rong
Nuttakamon Supattranont
Trombone
Allen Meek Principal
Damian Patti Associate Principal
Samuel Armstrong
Bass Trombone
Wang Wei Assistant Principal
Tuba
Tomoki Natsume Principal
Timpani
Christian Schiøler Principal
Mario Choo
Percussion
Jonathan Fox Principal
Mark Suter Associate Principal
Mario Choo
Lim Meng Keh
Harp
Gulnara Mashurova Principal
With deep appreciation to the Rin Collection for their generous loan of string instruments. Musician on annual contract.
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.
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.
Guest Musicians
Kahchun Wong and Gerhard Oppitz – Brahms and Shostakovich
28 Mar 2025
First Violin
Erik Heide Guest Concertmaster
Bobur Eshpulatov
Lim Shue Churn
Second Violin
Yvonne Lee
Ikuko Takahashi
Sherwin Thia
Tian Ye Wan Fangyuan
Viola
Patcharaphan Khumprakob Yeo Jan Wea
Cello
James Ng Wang Zihao
Double Bass
Olga Alexandrova Hibiki Otomo
Ma Li Ming
Akiko Suwanai and Kahchun Wong – Dvořák and Elgar 4 & 5 Apr 2025
First Violin
Seohee Min Guest Concertmaster
Second Violin
Yvonne Lee
Cello
Hyung Suk Bae Guest Principal
Clarinet Zhang Feng Guest Principal
Horn
Eric Yen
Horn Grzegorz Curyla
Harp
Charmaine Teo
Piano/Celesta
Beatrice Lin
Harp Charity Kiew
Organ Joanna Paul
TANGLIN TRUST SCHOOL PRESENTS
A BRIDGE ACROSS THE SEA
A WORLD PREMIERE BY JONATHAN DOVE
IN COLLABORATION WITH RESOUND COLLECTIVE & RAFFLES SINGERS
Soloists
Victoria Songwei Li: Soprano
Jonathan Tay: Tenor
Conductor
Boon Hua Lien
Also featuring Ensembles from Tanglin Trust School
ESPLANADE CONCERT HALL
23 April 2025, 7.30pm
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Kahchun Wong and Gerhard Oppitz –Brahms and Shostakovich
Fri, 28 Mar 2025
Esplanade Concert Hall
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Kahchun Wong conductor
Gerhard Oppitz piano*
Erik Heide Guest Concertmaster
Brahms
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83*
46 mins
Shostakovich
Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47 44 mins
Concert Duration: approximately 2 hrs (including 20 mins intermission)
Kahchun Wong and Gerhard Oppitz – Brahms and Shostakovich
Johannes Brahms
1833 – 1897
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83 (1881)
Allegro non troppo
Allegro appassionato
Andante
Allegretto grazioso
The Leipzig premiere of Johannes Brahms’s First Piano Concerto was famously disastrous at best. Brahms determined in the wake of that 1859 concert that “a second one will sound very different,” in his letter to his good friend and violinist, Joseph Joachim. It took Brahms a good twenty or so years before he attempted to write his second piano concerto. During these two decades, his output included the variations on themes by Handel, Haydn and Paganini; numerous chamber works; and over a hundred songs and some largescale choral pieces. In this time, he also underwent a few personal breakthroughs, finally finding the confidence to step out of the great Beethoven’s shadow and write a second symphony, as well as the Violin Concerto in D major in collaboration with Joachim.
By the time he wrote the Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83, Brahms was a middleaged, bearded introvert who had matured in his composition style and was known for writing poignant, emotional works. In a letter to close friend and musical confidante Elisabeth von Herzogenberg, he described in jest that he had just finished “a tiny, tiny piano concerto with a tiny, tiny wisp of a scherzo”. His confidence of success in the work is shown in his dedication of it to “dear friend and teacher Eduard Marxsen”, with whom he had studied when he was seven years of age.
“a tiny, tiny piano concerto with a tiny, tiny wisp of a scherzo”
A single, solo horn innocently opens the Allegro non troppo first movement, overlapped by the piano from the depths, echoing the last few notes poetically. After a short commentary by the woodwinds and strings in this chorale style, the solo piano asserts itself with a long passage while the orchestra remains silent. A dramatic cadenza is followed by the opening theme returning triumphantly via the orchestra. The movement unfurls with thoughtful musical conversations between the piano and the orchestra; whenever things are getting too heated, the opening theme presents itself in various guises to soothe and placate. When the horn call returns for the final section, the piano tinkles above it mysteriously and picks up where the conversation left off at the beginning. Where there was an outburst before, the piano and orchestra continue civilly and lyrically instead. The movement ends in a celebratory mood: trills in the piano while the orchestra restates the theme for the final time, and three strong chords.
Kahchun Wong and Gerhard Oppitz – Brahms and Shostakovich
From the first few seconds of the Allegro appassionata scherzo, it is clear that Brahms’s “tiny, tiny wisp of a scherzo” is anything but. Set in the key of D minor, the mood is tempestuous and dramatic, full of a pent-up energy that is wild and almost relentless. The violins introduce a yearning theme before the drama returns. Suddenly, we are in the key of D major and seem to have time-travelled back to the Baroque period for a while in the trio section. When the D minor section returns, the roles reverse: orchestra takes the lead and the piano follows.
The spirit of chamber music is most apparent in the Andante. Not unlike the long oboe solo in the slow movement of his Violin Concerto, Brahms bestows a solo cello the privilege this time, with a charming melody that he later turned into a lied with an equally charming title Immer leise wird mein Schlummer (“My Sleep Grows Ever More Gentle”). The piano never tries to steal the melody from the cello, and when it enters, it creates an obscure, dreamy sound world with shifting harmonies. Brahms achieves an ethereal, otherworldly quality with transparent scoring until the solo cello brings the music back into home territory, continuing the conversation in an intimate setting.
The Allegretto grazioso finale is a playful rondo that has the piano and orchestra tossing out memorable themes with a Mozartian wit. Brahms throws in Hungarian melodies and touches of Gypsy music, ending the movement with a brilliant tarantella based on the rondo’s opening theme.
With this concerto, Brahms opened up a new possibility of a symphonic concerto: a hybrid between both genres where the orchestra and soloist are so closely integrated that it is impossible for one part to do without the other.
Instrumentation
solo piano, 2 flutes (1 doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings
World Premiere 9 Nov 1881, Budapest
First performed by SSO 1 Feb 1980 (Bernard Ringeissen, piano)
Brahms in 1882. Portrait by Hermann Dröhmer
Dmitri Shostakovich
1906 – 1975
Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47 (1937)
Moderato
Allegretto
Largo
Allegro non troppo I I III IV
In an apt description of Dmitri Shostakovich’s situation for most of his life, the lyrics to British anarcho-pop band Chumbawamba’s song Hammer, Stirrup and Anvil read:
An operetta for our leader
A quartet for the drawer
He gets the rank cantatas
And I keep the score
A libretto for the death camps
Some day you'll hear them all Hammer, Stirrup and Anvil under state control
At a performance of his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in the Bolshoi Theatre in 1936, none other than Joseph Stalin came to watch, possibly wondering what the reviews were raving on about. The only problem was that he upped and left before the final scene: and Shostakovich rightly had a bad feeling about this. Two days later, a review in the newspapers (possibly contributed by Stalin himself) commented that it was “muddle instead of music… an ugly flood of confusing sound ... a pandemonium of creaking, shrieking and crashes” with the decree that “it might end very badly”.
What followed was a slew of renunciations in the form of articles and criticisms by
fair-weathered ‘friends’ who, terrified of persecution by the regime and the association with Shostakovich, proceeded to unfriend him. Only a few stood by him, and in a response of rebellion, he composed his Fourth Symphony, a highly volatile and dissonant work, meant ‘for the drawer’. It remained unperformed until years after Stalin’s death, in 1961.
Then he wrote his Fifth Symphony in an attempt to redeem himself and get into the Soviet Union’s good graces again.
“My new composition can be called a lyrical heroic symphony. Its basic idea revolves around human suffering in which jubilant optimism hold sway. I wanted to show how optimism is affirmed as a state of mind by means of various tragic conflicts during the course of a great inner spiritual struggle.” — Dmitri Shostakovich
Written between April and July 1937, the symphony is modelled after the classical 4-movement form, specifically Beethoven’s symphonies, which were considered kosher when most other music was forbidden. The first movement Moderato opens with a jagged motif in the lower strings imitated closely by the violins, and then the music tentatively moves downwards in steps. These form the basis of the motifs for the
Kahchun Wong and Gerhard Oppitz – Brahms and Shostakovich
Kahchun Wong and Gerhard Oppitz – Brahms and Shostakovich | 28 Mar 2025
first movement, at times menacing, sometimes lyrical, but always recognisable whatever the guise. Dark undertones pervade this movement, especially in the middle where we hear the menacing brasses in counterpoint, taken over by the winds. Later, the entry of the snare drum along with the brasses and winds turns the music into a demonic march, full of evil and foreboding, channelling totalitarian oppression. The strings appear again, pleading, and in response the lower brasses and timpani hammer out the opening motif ominously. The movement ends quietly, the trumpet sounding out the unifying interval of a fourth, over a little chromatic scale from the celesta.
The Allegretto second movement starts, again, with unison basses, and soon we hear a grotesque parody of a waltz that sounds like a cross between Berlioz and Mahler, made to sound as crude as it possibly can. We hear the stomping boots of the peasants in the dance, then a light, twirling, swaying solo violin followed by a solo flute, before the theme is taken and tossed around, its character transformed yet again.
Whether a reference to music of the Russian Orthodox church in the beginning, an outcry of grief in response to the terror, lost lives and human suffering, or everything rolled into one, the Largo third movement is unabashedly emotionally wrought. A flute sings a plaintive melody, accompanied by the harp, and the strings’ lament return. Later, above trembling strings, the oboe, clarinet, then flute take turns to sound their plea. The lament builds into full force as the double basses shriek. The music dies as if out of sheer exhaustion.
Up until now, there has been no sign of the “jubilant optimism” that Shostakovich
mentioned. He had to turn the tide or his life would be in danger. Brasses and drums: a series of swaggering march-themes begin the Allegro non troppo finale. The music builds up, swirling, until it reaches a dead end, marked by insistent thumps on the timpani and emphatic stabs. A quiet section of reflection, spacious and gentle, and then a plodding march begins – a reference to Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov where crowds are forced to praise the Tsar; the parallels to the situation and irony here cannot be more obvious. With much effort, Shostakovich leads the music to a triumphant ending in D major, but throwing in the occasional B-flat to make it sound ‘minor’, perhaps a small gesture of rebellion against the larger powers-that-be.
At the premiere of the Fifth Symphony, the audience shed tears during the third movement (publicly crying was a punishable offence!) and the thunderous applause at the end of the symphony lasted over 30 minutes. This marked a significant turning point in Shostakovich’s life – with this tribute to the Soviet Union, he was safe again, at least for the next few years.
Notes by Natalie Ng | Natalie Ng is a music history geek who plays music, dances to music, and tells stories about composers and their music in her writing.
Akiko Suwanai and Kahchun Wong – Dvořák and Elgar
Fri & Sat, 4 & 5 Apr 2025
Victoria Concert Hall
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Kahchun Wong conductor
Akiko Suwanai violin*
Seohee Min Guest Concertmaster
Arnold
Four Scottish Dances, Op. 59 10 mins
Dvořák
Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53* 32 mins
Intermission 20 mins
Elgar
Enigma Variations, Op. 36 31 mins
Concert Duration: approximately 1 hr 50 mins (including 20 mins intermission)
Supported By
Japanese Chamber of Commerce & Industry Singapore Foundation
Malcolm Arnold
1921 – 2006
Four Scottish Dances, Op. 59 (1957)
Pesante
Vivace
Allegretto Con brio I I III IV
English composer Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold was born into a family of shoemakers in Northampton, the shoemaking capital of the world for nearly a thousand years. In his home, after work, the rhythms of the shoemaker’s hammer and needles gave way to music – both his parents were pianists, his aunt was a violinist, and he was a descendant of William Hawes, a choirmaster at the Chapel Royal, England’s premier musical institution, under King George III. As a child hearing Louis Armstrong play the trumpet, he was inspired to take up the instrument, eventually choosing music as his path. Arnold attended the Royal College of Music and played with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, before going full time into composition in 1948.
His output was prolific, tonal, brash, but always memorably tuneful, and spanned multiple genres from concerti to ballets, popular dances. He is perhaps best known for his soundtrack to the 1957 film Bridge over the River Kwai, for which he won an Oscar. In that same year, he wrote Four Scottish Dances (Op. 59) for the BBC Light Music Festival, a suite of four orchestral dances following the success of his English Dances (Op. 27 and 33).
While inspired by traditional Scottish melodies, Arnold did not use any actual traditional
Scottish material, preferring instead to compose new tunes, evoking Scotland though droned winds imitating bagpipes, modal melodies, and the rhythms of folk music. The Pesante is in the style of a slow strathspey, a reel in a slightly slower 4/4, featuring a Scotch snap rhythm, a very short, accented note followed by a longer one. The Vivace is a faster reel, the lively winds encouraging us to tap our toes while listening out for the comical good-natured bassoon that perhaps has had too much good Scotch whisky. The Allegretto depicts a scene of mountains and seas on a calm summer’s day, with a gentle song-like melody. The Con brio ends the suite, giving us the traditional Highland fling, a vigorous and showy solo dance, originally danced at victories.
Czech composer Antonín Dvořák began his musical life on the violin, which may explain why so much of his heart and soul seem vested in his works for the violin family. Immensely interested in traditional folk music, he utilised the melodies and rhythms of Moravia and his native Bohemia, absorbing them into the symphonic tradition, as a local manifestation of a wider trend across Europe, that of composers emphasising nationalistic elements. This phase of his compositional life is often termed his Slavic phase, birthing works such as his Moravian Dances and Slavonic Dances.
Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in A minor began life when the Jewish-Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim heard one of Dvořák’s string quartets, took a shine to the music, and began communicating with Dvořák. Joachim was something of a big deal, having made his debut in London in 1844 playing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, with Felix Mendelssohn conducting. It was with him in mind that Brahms, Bruch, and Schumann wrote violin concerti. So it was that on the urging of Joachim (and Dvořák’s publisher Simrock), Dvořák began work on a violin concerto in 1879, with frequent input from Joachim until it was completed. Although Joachim played it for Dvořák in a private rehearsal in November 1882, he never performed it publicly, and the world premiere happened in October 1883 in Prague with a young Czech violinist František Ondřiček as soloist.
The Allegro, ma non troppo opens boldly with the orchestra before the violin steps in brashly, pitting itself against the world. The key of A minor, stereotypically as with all minors, may initially strike the listener as sad, but once the ear has adapted to the Central and Eastern European sound world in which minor-key music can be happy, one starts noticing the threads of graceful joy woven throughout. The development is loose, giving the entire movement a feel of improvised fantasy. The flowing Adagio, ma non troppo follows immediately, its lyrical expressiveness contrasting with the strong, broad strokes of the previous movement. The violin here carries a sweeping melody that carries above and through some rather dramatic interjections by the brass, normally silent during slow movements. The final Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo brings us a combination of two Bohemian dances: the introspective dumka and the fiery, rapid furiant, in one of Dvořak’s most carefree and joyful musical creations.
First performed by SSO 28 Nov 1980 (Bohuslav Matousek, violin)
Akiko Suwanai and Kahchun Wong – Dvo
Edward Elgar
1857 – 1934
Enigma Variations, Op. 36 (1899)
Elgar’s Enigma Variations, Op. 36, is an intensely personal work, a guided journey through his circle. Elgar’s own story of its origin was that in 1898, after a day of teaching violin, he relaxed by sitting at the piano improvising melodies for his wife Alice. One of them caught her fancy and he began making variations on it. This set of theme and 14 variations was eventually set for orchestra and premiered in London in 1899, becoming an instant success.
The Andante theme begins in G minor, searching and introspective, then moves ambiguously to G major, before returning to G minor. This is followed by the variations, marked with initials, referring to a trait or event associated with the person.
Variation 1, l’istesso tempo, “C. A. E.” for Caroline Alice Elgar, his wife. He described this variation, a fuller, romanticised and richer development of the theme, as romantic and delicate, like her life.
Variation 2, Allegro, “H. D. S-P.” for Hew David Steuart-Powell, a pianist. The chromatic developments refer to the exercises with which Steuart-Powell would warm up at the keyboard.
Variation 3, Allegretto, “R. B. T.” for Richard Baxter Townshend, Oxford don and amateur actor. High and low woodwinds refer to his variation of voice pitch onstage.
Variation 4, Allegro di molto, “W. M. B.” for William Meath Baker, an energetic fellow.
Variation 5, Moderato, “R. P. A.” for Richard Penrose Arnold, amateur pianist.
Variation 6, Andantino, “Ysobel” for Isabel Fitton, a viola student of Elgar’s, so a prominent viola part dominates.
Variation 7, Presto, “Troyte” for one of Elgar’s best friends, the architect Arthur Troyte Griffith, mimicking his lack of skill at the keyboard.
Variation 8, Allegretto, “W. N.” for the gracious elderly music patroness Winifrid Norbury, and depicts her characteristic laugh.
Variation 9, Adagio, “Nimrod” for Augustus J. Jaeger, music editor at Novello & Co. Jaeger provided frank advice and inspiration,
Elgar in the early 1900s
encouraging Elgar to continue composing despite his setbacks.
Nimrod is the most famous variation from the suite. It is named after the mythological biblical figure from the Old Testament, “a mighty hunter before the lord” – Jäger means hunter in German. In 1904, Elgar revealed that this variation is “the story of something that happened”. He spoke of the occasion when, depressed and close to giving up on composing, Jaegar asked Elgar to think of Beethoven, who wrote beautiful music despite the overwhelming difficulties of his hearing loss. He then sings to Elgar the tender, wistful tune from Beethoven’s Pathétique sonata, which apparently had a direct influence on the Nimrod tune. “Can't you hear it at the beginning?” Elgar asked, “Only a hint, not a quotation.”
Nimrod has become immensely popular on its own, often associated and used in occasions of solemn remembrance, particularly in the UK. At the conclusion of Christopher Nolan’s 2017 film Dunkirk, after an extended emotional prelude, Elgar’s Nimrod turns out to be at the heart of the soundtrack’s own “Variation 15” (by composers Benjamin Wallfisch and Hans Zimmer), appearing ever so briefly, just enough to stir hope for the British. “Only a hint, not a quotation”.
“Can't you hear it at the beginning?”
Elgar asked, “Only a hint, not a quotation”
Variation 10, Intermezzo: Allegretto, “Dorabella” for Dora Penny, a friend whose stutter is gently parodied by the woodwinds.
Variation 11, Allegro di molto, “G. R. S.” for the organist George Robertson Sinclair, and refers to an incident when Sinclair’s bulldog Dan fell into the River Wye and came back up barking.
Variation 12, Andante, “B. G. N.” for Basil George Nevinson, a cellist who played chamber music with Elgar, and a cello takes the spotlight.
Variation 13, Romanza: moderato, marked “* * *” for an anonymous lady who was, at the time of composition, on a sea voyage. The drums suggest a liner’s engines, over which a clarinet quotes a phrase from Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage.
Variation 14, Allegro, “E. D. U.” for Elgar himself, nicknamed “Edu” by his wife. Themes from variations 1 and 9 are echoed, showing how his personality is entwined with those of his wife and his friend Jaeger.
But what of the “enigma” in the title? Well, the opening G minor theme is meant as a counterpoint to another existing well-known motif that is never heard. Elgar described it as a “dark saying”, like a play’s chief character that never appears on the stage. Countless solutions have been proposed through the years, including references from Auld Lang Syne, Dies irae, Rule Brittania, God Save the King, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Beethoven’s Pathétique, the number Pi, and even the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar. Elgar accepted none of the solutions proposed during his lifetime and took the secret with him to the grave.
Notes by Edward C. Yong & Leon Chia (Nimrod) | Edward C. Yong is a writer, editor, and teacher of dead languages, he plays lute and early guitars, sings bass, and runs an early music group. Like his dog, he is very
Akiko Suwanai and Kahchun Wong – Dvořák and Elgar
To Our Donor Patrons
We would like to express our deepest appreciation to the following individuals and organisations who support our mission to create memorable shared experiences with music in the past year. Without your support, it would be impossible for the SSO to continue to strive for artistic excellence and touch the hearts of audiences.
While SSO is supported partially by funding from the Singapore government, a significant part can only be unlocked as matching grants when we receive donations from the public. If you are in a position to do so, please consider making a donation to support your orchestra – Build the future by giving in the present.
As a valued patron of the SSO, you will receive many benefits.
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We recognise major gifts that help sustain the future of the Singapore Symphony Group. The recognition includes naming of a position in the SSO or in our affiliated performance groups such as the Singapore National Youth Orchestra and the Singapore Symphony Choruses.
F or more information, please write to Chelsea Zhao at chelsea.zhao@sso.org.sg.
SSO Concertmaster l GK Goh Chair
In July 2017, the SSO established the GK Goh Chair for the Concertmaster. Mr Goh Geok Khim and his family have been long-time supporters of the national orchestra. We are grateful for the donations from his family and friends towards this Chair, especially Mr and Mrs Goh Yew Lin for their most generous contribution.
Mr Igor Yuzefovich was the inaugural GK Goh Concertmaster Chair. The position is currently vacant.
SSO Principal Cello
The HEAD Foundation Chair
In recognition of a generous gift from The HEAD Foundation, we announced the naming of our Principal Cello, “The HEAD Foundation Chair” in November 2019. The Chair is currently held by Principal Cellist Ng Pei-Sian.
SSO Principal Flute
Stephen Riady Chair
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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Tan Jiew Cheng Chair
In recognition of a generous gift from the Estate of Tan Jiew Cheng, we announced in February 2024 the naming of our Principal Viola, “Tan Jiew Cheng Chair”. The position is currently held by our Principal Violist Manchin Zhang.
SPECIAL RECOGNITION
Quantedge Music Director
The SSO is delighted to announce the naming of the “Quantedge Music Director” position, currently held by Maestro Hans Graf.
With his spirit of musical exploration, innovative programming, and captivating stage presence, Maestro Graf has consistently inspired audiences and elevated orchestras to new heights. We are deeply grateful for his continued leadership as Chief Conductor in the 2020/21 season and Music Director since the 2022/23 season.
We extend our sincerest gratitude to our anonymous donor for this generous gift of $3 million to mark SG60.
Form a special relationship with Singapore’s national orchestra and increase your brand recognition among an influential and growing audience.
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We provide our Corporate Patrons with impressive entertainment and significant branding opportunities. Through our tailored packages, corporates may benefit from:
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Packages start at $10,000 and can be tailored to your company’s branding needs.
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We partner with various corporates through tailored in-kind sponsorship and exchange of services. Current and recent partnerships include Official Hotel, Official Airline, and we offer other exciting titles.
For more details, please write to Sarah Wee at sarah.wee@sso.org.sg.
Board of Directors and Committees
Goh Yew Lin
Board of Directors
Chang Chee Pey
Chng Kai Fong
Andress Goh
Kenneth Kwok
Clara Lim-Tan
Jesher Loi
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Zhao Tian Chair
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Wee Ee Cheong
Yong Ying-I
*co-opted member
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Kenneth Kwok
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Kok Tse Wei
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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Randy Teo
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Joy Tagore
20–30 Nov 2025
Organised by the Singapore Symphony Group, the National Piano & Violin Competition 2025 is its 15th edition, tracing its history back to 1997 under the auspices of the National Arts Council. The biennial competition identifies and shines a spotlight on young musical talents in Singapore, providing them the opportunity to perform before a panel of Singapore and international professional artistes/adjudicators.
The competition is open to young pianists and violinists aged 25 years and below. Participants will compete in four categories:
Artist 25 years and below
Senior 21 years and below
Intermediate 15 years and below
Junior 11 years and below
The competition will be held from 20 to 30 November 2025 at Victoria Concert Hall.
Registration opens on 5 May 2025, at 10am and closes on 14 July 2025, at 5pm
SSO.ORG.SG/NPVC
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SEASON PARTNERS
The vision of the Singapore Symphony Group is to be a leading arts organisation 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.
