SUNDAY AFTERNOON FANCIES 25 Feb 2024 Victoria Concert Hall
25 FEBRUARY 2024 SUNDAY AFTERNOON FANCIES PROGRAMME Singapore Symphony Youth Choir Wong Lai Foon Choirmaster Musicians of the SSO
FINZI My Spirit Sang All Day
2 mins
Choir, Ensemble
TAVENER The Lamb
4 mins
Choir, Ensemble
ELGAR Serenade for Strings
13 mins
Ensemble
8 mins
Choir, Ensemble
13 mins
Ensemble
8 mins
Choir, Ensemble
SHEARING Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare I. Live with me and be my love II. When daffodils begin to peer III. It was a lover and his lass RUTTER Suite for Strings RUTTER Selections from Fancies I. Tell me where is fancy bred II. There is a garden in her face III. The urchins’ dance
CONCERT DURATION: approximately 1 hour (with no intermission)
© Jack Yam
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 44-week calendar of events. The SSO is led by Music Director Hans Graf, the third in the orchestra’s history after Lan Shui (1997-2019) and Choo Hoey (1979-1996). In addition to its subscription series concerts, the orchestra is well-loved for its outdoor and community appearances, and its significant role educating the young people of Singapore. The SSO has also earned an international reputation for its orchestral virtuosity, having garnered sterling reviews for its overseas tours and over 50 recordings, culminating in its 3rd place win in the prestigious Gramophone Orchestra of the Year Award 2021. In 2022, BBC Music Magazine named the SSO as one of the 21 best orchestras in the world. The SSO performs over 60 concerts a year at such venues as the Esplanade Concert Hall and Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore. Bridging the musical traditions of East and West, Singaporean and Asian musicians and composers are regularly showcased in its concert seasons. Its versatile repertoire spans alltime favourites and orchestral masterpieces to exciting cutting-edge premieres. The SSO is part of the Singapore Symphony Group, which also manages the Singapore Symphony Choruses, the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, and the VCHpresents chamber music series, the Singapore International Piano Festival and the biennial National Piano & Violin Competition.
WONG LAI FOON © Michelle Tng Ying
Choirmaster
Wong Lai Foon has been a driving force behind the development and growth of the Singapore Symphony Children’s Choir (SSCC) since its inception in 2006. Appointed Choirmaster in 2015 and armed with a mission to nurture young voices and inspire choral excellence, she led in the expansion of the SSCC’s training programme to include six preparatory ensembles, as well as the formation of the Singapore Symphony Youth Choir in 2016. With repertoire ranging from Baroque to opera to contemporary and popular music, she has directed the SSCC and SSYC in a wide array of concerts, often receiving praise for the choirs’ beautiful tone and sensitivity. She has prepared
the choirs in collaborations with renowned conductors and performers such as Stephen Layton, The King’s Singers, and Sofi Jeanin and la Maîtrise de Radio France. The SSCC has also had the distinction of being invited to perform at state functions. Wong has commissioned and premiered treble choir works by local composers and has also arranged for the SSCC and SSYC. Her efforts to educate and inspire singers extend into the community through workshops, talks, as well as adjudicator, chorus-master and guest-conductor roles. Some ensembles that she has worked with include The Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Singapore Symphony Chorus, Singapore Lyric Opera, Hallelujah Singers, and Methodist Festival Choir. She holds a master’s degree in choral conducting from Westminster Choir College, USA.
SINGAPORE SYMPHONY YOUTH CHOIR
© Michelle Tng Ying
Inspiring Choral Passion Energetic and full of dynamism, the Singapore Symphony Youth Choir (SSYC)’s choristers embody a zeal for artistic growth that inspires and pushes boundaries. Comprised of a myriad of vibrant personalities aged between 17 and 28, the cool collective welcomes like-minded singers to share their journey of youthful passion for symphonic choral music-making, alongside the national orchestra! Performing regularly at the Victoria Concert Hall and the Esplanade, the SSYC is a group of dedicated singers who enjoy coming together to explore some of the most challenging and beloved choral works across styles and genres. Since 2016, SSYC has had the privilege of performing under the baton of renowned conductors such as Lan Shui, Hans Graf, and Stephen Layton. Their repertoire boasts of musical highlights including Scriabin’s Prometheus, Puccini’s La Bohème, Tallis’s Why Fumeth in Fight, Faure’s Requiem and recordings of Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. With the unique opportunity to learn from world renowned musicians and be part of a community that inspires passion, all while creating a professional sound, SSYC is a social journey to reimagine classical music and choral excellence. sso.org.sg/youth-choir
SINGAPORE SYMPHONY YOUTH CHOIR Wong Lai Foon Choirmaster Evelyn Handrisanto Collaborative Pianist SOPRANO Goh Chen Xi Abigail Ho Giselle Lim Lu Huaiyao Ellissa Sayampanathan^ Desiree Seng Navya Singh Carine Tan Janelle Tan Jasmine Towndrow Raeanne Wong Xing Xiangyue
ALTO Mashie Vanessa Agung Chan Li Ting Dieh Xin Xin Megan Fung Goh Jue Shao Elizabeth Goh Erin Ho Trinetra Kumarasan Zachary Lim Ong Sherlyn Violet Ong Tan Yuqing Elizabeth Yeo Zhang Jingqi
TENOR Cris Bautro Alfonso Cortez Nicolette Foo* Benjamin Kok Gaston Liew Amos Pan Seifer Ong Titus Teo
BASS Leonard Buescher Bryan Carmichael Chai Chang Kai Aaron Koh Loy Sheng Rui Dominic Tang Tan Hee Joshua Tan Wong Zhen Wei
* Choral Conducting Fellow ^ Assistant Choral Conductor
SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA FIRST VIOLIN Kong Zhao Hui Ye Lin Zhang Si Jing Foo Say Ming Karen Tan Cao Can SECOND VIOLIN Michael Loh Tseng Chieh-An Yin Shu Zhan Hai-Won Kwok William Tan
VIOLA Guan Qi Julia Park Janice Tsai Shui Bing CELLO Wang Yan Wu Dai Dai Zhao Yu Er DOUBLE BASS Jacek Mirucki Wang Xu
FLUTE Evgueni Brokmiller Roberto Alvarez
HORN Marc-Antoine Robillard Hoang Van Hoc
OBOE Rachel Walker Elaine Yeo
PERCUSSION Lim Meng Keh
CLARINET Li Xin Liu Yoko BASSOON Liu Chang
HARP Gulnara Mashurova
PROGRAMME NOTES GERALD FINZI (1901 – 1956) My Spirit Sang All Day The English composer Gerald Raphael Finzi is as rarely heard today as he was during his lifetime. Introverted and reclusive, he attended concerts, collected and published older music, lectured at the Royal Academy of Music, and counted Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams among his friends. Dying of complications from Hodgkin’s Disease at the age of 55, he left a diverse body of music, primarily choral, much of which set Christian texts, despite his being an agnostic of Jewish descent. My Spirit Sang All Day is from Seven Poems of Robert Bridges (1937), all on the joys of love, and is a mostly syllabic setting, sensitive to the nuances and cadences of the English language, never overly dramatic, but elegant in its simplicity.
My spirit sang all day O my joy. Nothing my tongue could say, Only My joy! My heart an echo caught O my joy, And spake, Tell me thy thought, Hide not thy joy. My eyes gan peer around, O my joy, What beauty hast thou found? Shew us thy joy. My jealous ears grew whist; O my joy Music from heaven is’t Sent for our joy? She also came and heard; O my joy, What, said she, is this word? What is thy joy? And I replied, O see, O my joy, ‘Tis thee, I cried, ‘tis thee: Thou art my joy.
JOHN TAVENER (1944 – 2013) The Lamb In 1982, English composer John Tavener was inspired to set the poem The Lamb from Robert Blake’s 1789 collection Songs of Innocence and of Experience, for SATB choir. Tavener himself wrote ‘I read the words, and immediately I heard the notes’, and the music reflects his use of dissonance for an effect of uncommon stillness. In line with his minimalist style, a single motif is varied throughout the piece. As the text speaks of the Lamb of God, this piece has become a favourite piece among English choirs around Advent and Christmas.
EDWARD WILLIAM ELGAR (1857 – 1934) Serenade for Strings I. Allegro piacevole II. Larghetto III. Allegretto Elgar’s Serenade for Strings in E minor, Op. 20, is an early work dating from 1892, a time when Elgar was still struggling financially and had not yet achieved the fame he was later to have. The first movement Allegro, marked piacevolle (pleasantly), is, according to his biographer Michael Kennedy, an aubade, a troubadour genre of love song of a lover to his
Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee? Gave thee life and bid thee feed By the stream and o’er the mead; Gave thee clothing of delight, Softest clothing, woolly, bright; Gave thee such a tender voice, Making all the vales rejoice? Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee? Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee, Little Lamb I’ll tell thee; He is called by thy name, For he calls himself a Lamb. He is meek, and he is mild, He became a little child. I, a child, and thou a lamb, We are called by his name. Little Lamb, God bless thee! Little Lamb, God bless thee!
sleeping lady, sung at dawn before his departure. The Larghetto, with its long spinning melodies and genial atmosphere, is classic Elgar. The work was dedicated to his beloved wife Alice, and it is perhaps that heartfelt, familial intimacy that we can sense in this warm heart of the work. An Allegretto concludes the work, returning us to the spirit of the first movement. Perhaps because of its association with his wife, this work remained one of Elgar’s favourites and was one of the final piece he recorded for the gramophone in 1933, the year before his death.
GEORGE SHEARING (1919 – 2011) Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare I. Live with me and be my love II. When daffodils begin to peer III. It was a lover and his lass Born in Britain, Sir George Albert Shearing OBE was a jazz pianist whose style blended swing, bop, and modern classical influences. Despite being blind from birth, his musical talent was recognised early on, and he eventually moved to the United States after WW2, where his fame continued to grow. During the 1980s and 1990s, he developed an interest in choral music and wrote two cycles of Shakespeare settings for choir, piano, and double bass: Music to Hear (1985) and Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare (1999). Despite the texts being some 400 years old, Shearing’s settings make them fresh and are an unexpected delight.
I. Live with me and be my love Live with me, and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove That hills and valleys, dales and fields, And all the craggy mountains yields. There will we sit upon the rocks, And see the shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow rivers, by whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals. There I will make thee beds of roses, And a thousand fragrant posies, A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroider’d all with leaves of myrtle. A belt of straw and ivy buds, With coral clasps and amber studs; And if these pleasures may thee move, Then live with me and be my love. If all the world and love were young, And truth in ev’ry shepherd’s tongue, These pretty pleasures might me move, To live with thee and be thy love. If all the world and love were young, And truth in ev’ry shepherd’s tongue, These pretty pleasures might me move, To live with thee and be thy love.
II. When daffodils begin to peer
III. It was a lover and his lass
When daffodils begin to peer, With heigh! the doxy, over the dale, Why, then comes in the sweet o’ the year; For the red blood reigns in the winter’s pale.
It was a lover and his lass With a hey, and a ho, And a hey nonino That o’er the green cornfield did pass, In the spring time, In the spring time The only pretty ring time. When birds do sing, Hey ding a ding, ding; Sweet lovers love the spring.
The white sheet bleaching on the hedge, With heigh! the sweet birds, O, how they sing! Doth set my pugging tooth on edge; For a quart of ale is a dish for a king. The lark, that tirra-lirra chants, With heigh! with heigh! the thrush and the jay Are summer songs for me and my aunts, While we lie tumbling in the hay.
Between the acres of the rye, With a hey, and a ho, And a hey nonino These pretty country folks would lie, In the spring time, In the spring time, The only pretty ring time. When birds do sing, Hey ding a ding, ding; Sweet lovers love the spring. This carol they began that hour, With a hey, and a ho, And a hey nonino How that life was but a flow’r In the spring time, In the spring time, The only pretty ring time. When birds do sing, Hey ding a ding, ding; Sweet lovers love the spring.
JOHN RUTTER (b. 1945) Suite for Strings I. A-Roving II. I have a bonnet trimmed with blue III. O waly waly IV. Dashing away English composer John Rutter is best known for being a composer of choral music, whether sacred or secular, so it is always a bit of a surprise for audiences to see his name attached to an instrumental work. In the grand old British tradition of making a big deal of folksongs, in 1971 Rutter wrote a Suite for Strings, in which each movement was based on a different traditional melody from England or Scotland. His background in composing for voices is evident from his clear writing for the different string sections, as well as the choice of subject matter. The Vivace, lively and lilting, is based on They Are A-Roving, but manages to weave in another song I Sowed the Seeds of Love. The Allegretto comodo e grazioso takes its theme from I have a bonnet trimmed in blue and is all frilly feminine elegance. O waly waly is the inspiration for the Andante espressivo, and its uplifting melody bears a marked resemblance to similar songs such as You Raise Me Up and O Danny Boy. The final movement Presto, based on Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron, works in The Bailiff’s Daughter of Islington in counterpoint with almost Handelian effect.
JOHN RUTTER Selections from Fancies I. Tell me where is fancy bred II. There is a garden in her face III. The urchins’ dance In 1971, the same year as his Suite for Strings, Rutter published Fancies, a set of six short pieces for choir and chamber orchestra, on texts taken from Elizabethan poets. Rutter himself commented, “The ‘fancies’ are the fleeting ideas, dreams and whims that flit like Will-o’-the-wisps through the imagination of every artist.” The pieces are minatures that explore moods suggested by the texts, and are surprisingly memorable in their evocative power. While their first performance was in London, their second was in what Rutter described as a perfect setting – an open-air summer evening concert by the River Thames in rural Berkshire. I. Tell me where is fancy bred Tell me where is fancy bred Or in the heart or in the head? How begot, how nourished? Reply, reply. It is engendered in the eyes, With gazing fed; and fancy dies In the cradle where it lies. Let us all ring fancy’s knell; I’ll begin it,– Ding, dong, bell. Ding, dong, bell. (Shakespeare, 1564 – 1616, from The Merchant of Venice)
II. There is a garden in her face There is a garden in her face Where roses and white lilies grow; A heav’nly paradise is that place, Wherein all pleasant fruits do flow. There cherries grow which none may buy, Till ‘cherry-ripe’ themselves do cry. Those cherries fairly do enclose Of orient pearl a double row, Which when her lovely laughter shows, They look like rosebuds filled with snow. Yet them nor peer nor prince can buy, Till ‘cherry-ripe’ themselves do cry. Her eyes like angels watch them still; Her brows like bended bows do stand, Threatening with piercing frowns to kill All that attempt with eye or hand Those sacred cherries to come nigh, Till ‘cherry-ripe’ themselves do cry. (Thomas Campion, 1567 – 1620)
III. The urchins’ dance By the moon we sport and play, With the night begins our day: As we dance the dew doth fall; Trip it, little urchins all, Lightly as the little bee, Two by two, and three by three, And about go we, and about go we. (Anon., c.1600)
Programme notes by Edward C. Yong
UPCOMING CONCERTS CHAMBER
SMETANA, MOZART AND BARBER 14 Mar, 7.30pm
CHAMBER
Musicians of the SSO
ORGAN
CREATION DANCE – RICHARD BRASIER 23 Mar, 7.30pm
Musicians of the SSO
CHAMBER
Richard Brasier organ
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 SSO is a charity and not-for-profit organisation. You can support us by donating at www.sso.org.sg/donate.
SMETANA AND DVOŘÁK 17 May, 7.30pm
THE PAVEL HAAS QUARTET 19 May, 7.30pm Pavel Haas Quartet
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