A Philharmonic New Year's Eve 2023 Gala Concert

The Philharmonic Orchestra (Singapore), formerly the Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra is a project initiated by Lim Yau in 1998. The orchestra comprises of young adults who are committed to the study and performance of seminal orchestral literature.

With Lim Yau at the helm, TPO distinguishes itself as an orchestra that delves deeply and wholeheartedly into the composers that shape the evolution of the western symphony. It has received critical acclaim for performances of the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms and Haydn. In 2008, TPO became the first Singaporean orchestra to perform the complete Sibelius symphonies. 2012 marked another milestone when TPO was joined by acclaimed pianist Lim Yan in performing the complete piano concertos by Beethoven, the first in Singapore to feature a Singaporean pianist.

In bringing its music to a wider audience, TPO works frequently with actors and presenters to explore theatrical elements to create accessible concert formats for new audiences. A crowning

The Philharmonic orchestra, Singapore

highlight in TPO’s community outreach is its collaboration with contemporary dance group The ARTS FISSION Company and Esplanade Theatres by the Bay, presenting inter-generational symphonic dance-theatre productions - The Rite of Spring: A People’s Stravinsky in 2013, The Mazu Chronicle in 2015 and garden•uprooted in 2018.

Since 2011, TPO has presented the ever-popular annual New Year’s Eve Countdown Concerts, which continues to be a cherished fixture in the Singapore concert calendar. Born of its early activities as a pit orchestra, TPO has been the collaborative orchestra of choice by the Singapore Dance Theatre, Singapore Lyric Opera and Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay.

TPO celebrated its 15th anniversary in its 2017 season, coming full circle with a fresh rediscovery of the complete Beethoven symphonies, 14 years after its first cycle.

Albert Phang

Emerald Tan Jonathan Francis Koh Kristi Anastasia Tan Lin Juan Sarah Wong

Orchestra committee:

Agraduate of the Royal Northern College of Music, UK (Bachelor and Master Degrees in Cello Performance) and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Specialist Diploma in Orchestral Conducting), Juan is a highly sought-after orchestral musician, regularly freelancing with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, and re:Sound Chamber Orchestra. He also appears regularly as Principal Cellist with the Singapore Lyric Opera Orchestra and The Philharmonic Orchestra.

As an active chamber musician, Juan has most notably collaborated with Ding Yi Music Company, Red Dot Baroque, Incursion Trio, and since 2022 was appointed cellist of the Concordia Quartet.

With the belief that education is a natural part of a musician’s life, Juan is Lecturer at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), teaching cello and conducting its orchestra and ensembles. He was Associate Conductor of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, and conducts the string ensembles of Raffles Institution and Hwa Chong Institution.

Juan is proud to be Resident Conductor of The Philharmonic Orchestra.

Fernandez,

Tonight, Brendon has the easy job: introducing the talented people who’ll be playing the beautiful music you are about 
 to hear.

Other concerts Brendon has emceed include Disney on Classic with the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra, and the Christmas Concert series with Ensemble de la 
 Belle Musique.

Brendon also works as an actor in theatre,

Musicians

Musicians from violin, viola, cello and double bass sections 
 are listed in alphabetical order.

Violin 1

Wilford Goh, Concertmaster

Albert Phang

Basil Ong Cheryl Ho Erlyn Alexander

Joanne Wong Kathleen Koh Noryn Sazali

Violin 2

Jocelyn Ng, Principal Alyssa Neu Gabriel Lee Jonathan Koh Lu-min Chew Wong Sher Maine Stacey Huang

Viola

Jeremy Chiew, Principal Leon Lai Li Jiaqi Natasha Lee Pearl Ng Mohamad Zurymie

Cello

Tzu-Jou Yeh (Zoi), Principal Elton Teo Kenneth Lee Peh Xiang Hong Li Yiyang

Double Bass

Julian Li, Principal Chee Jun Hong Kuek Jia Xin Lim Roo Yee Richmond Lip

Flute

Paul Huang, Principal Matthew Tan

Trombone

Kow Kang Yue, Don, Principal Toh Chang Hui Principal Percussion

Principal

Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla

Mikhail Glinka 1837–42

“Tchaikovsky, however, decided that the first music which was to sound within the newly-opened [Saint Petersburg] Conservatory had to be that of Glinka, and he therefore sat down at the piano and played from memory the overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila.”

- Nikolay Kashkin

Only the "father of Russian music" Mikhail Glinka could write two operas that would later pit the future Russian musical giant Tchaikovsky against the “Mighty Five”. The first, A Life for the Tsar or Ivan Susanin (1836), would be Glinka’s first great opera. The musically richer second would contain one of the world’s most well known overtures - Ruslan and Ludmilla.

History being stranger than fiction, the plot to Ruslan was first conjured up in a drunken fit by obscure poet Konstantin Bakhturin, then expanded in a poem by Alexander Pushkin, who in turn died shortly after being wounded in a duel, before Glinka himself began writing this very opera. Telling the classic tale of Kievan knight Ruslan battling evil with magic and swordsmanship, and customarily saving his betrothed princess Ludmilla along the way, the fantastical storyline is held up by musical genius and a strong folk character.

Although Ruslan and Ludmilla initially garnered a lukewarm local response due to burgeoning competition from the rising popularity of Italian opera in Russia, it received champions in France’s Berlioz and Liszt, and was a cornerstone work influencing members of the “Mighty Five”, including Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov. The overture is a thrilling joyride, and a favourite showpiece for musicians and audiences alike.

Slavonic Dance in E minor, Op.72 No.2

Starodávný, or Dumka, traditional dance

Antonín Dvořák 1886-7

"...a heavenly naturalness flows through this music."

- Louis Ehlert

In 1878, at the behest of Brahms’ publisher Fritz Simrock, the rising Czech composer Antonín Dvořák wrote his first set of Slavonic Dances Op.46 for piano for four hands, and was almost immediately requested to orchestrate it. As the insider saying goes, short masterpieces make great composers - the first intricate volume garnered great worldwide success, prompting the commission and composition of a second set of Slavonic Dances Op.72 in 1886, in which is embedded this very Starodávný, or Dumka.

Inspired by the great Johannes Brahms’ Hungarian Dances, the octet-sets of dances marry Slavic dance patterns with completely original melodies. Texturally clear and musically earnest, Dvořák’s unassuming collections feature surprising emotional range 
 and depth.

Starodávný, a traditional dance that is a cherished memory, or Dumka, an epic ballad, generally thoughtful or melancholic in character - this description encompasses the yearning tragedy and wistful joy contained in this pithy piece.

Last Spring, from Two Elegiac Melodies, Op. 34

Edvard Grieg 1880

“…I thought it was the spirits of the forefathers, That danced and sighed. Therefore I found between birches and bark, A riddle in spring. Therefore the sound from the flute I carved, Seemed to be weeping.”

- Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, excerpt from Våren (Spring)

Translated from Norwegian

Edvard Grieg adapted twelve of contemporary compatriot Aasmund Vinje’s poems into songs, then further selected two for orchestration (and arrangement for solo piano). The latter melody here evokes the melting of winter into spring, of snow into sun.

Heartbreaking perfection steeps in melancholy as its observer muses on nature’s past towering over his evanescent existence - if this turn of the seasons will be his last.

Danzón No.2 Arturo Márquez 1994

“The idea of writing the Danzón No. 2 originated in 1993 during a trip to Malinalco with the painter Andrés Fonseca and the dancer Irene Martínez, both of whom are experts in salon dances with a special passion for the danzón... From [them], I started to learn the danzón’s rhythms, its form, its melodic outline, and to listen to the old recordings by Acerina and his Danzonera Orchestra. I was fascinated and I started to understand that the apparent lightness of the danzón is only like a visiting card for a type of music full of sensuality and qualitative seriousness, a genre which old Mexican people continue to dance with a touch of nostalgia and a jubilant escape towards their own emotional world; we can fortunately still see this in the embrace between music and dance that occurs in the state of Veracruz and in the dance parlours of Mexico City.

The Danzón No. 2 is a tribute to the environment that nourishes the genre. It endeavours to get as close as possible to the dance, to its nostalgic melodies, to its wild rhythms, and although it violates its intimacy, its form and its harmonic language, it is a very personal way of paying my respects and expressing my emotions towards truly popular music. Danzón No. 2 was written on a commission by the Department of Musical Activities at Mexico’s National Autonomous University and is dedicated to my daughter Lily.”

- Arturo Márquez

Arturo Márquez Navarro, initially known for his avant-garde mixed media and electronic music, found greater international reach by returning to his roots - of music in the styles of his native Mexico and its Veracruz region. His nine Danzones, reminiscing the golden age of danzón “salon music” of the 1940s and bringing him worldwide success, have been likened to crowd favourites like Ravel’s Bolero and La Valse.

The danzon form marries the Cuban habanera with the contradance of Spanish, British, and French origin. Marquez’s re-imagining here resembles a sultry tango, its first theme played almost solemnly on the clarinet, then gathering intensity and momentum as the rest of the orchestral forces steadily join in.

Frühlingsstimmen (Voices of Spring), Op.410

Johann Strauss Jr. 1882

A story is told in biographies of both men that Strauss's wife Adele [Deutsch] approached Brahms with a customary request that he autograph her fan.

It was usual for the composer to inscribe a few measures of his bestknown music, and then sign his name. Brahms, however, inscribed a few measures from the Blue Danube [waltz], and then wrote beneath it: ‘Unfortunately, NOT by Johannes Brahms.’

The “King of Waltz” Johann Strauss Jr. penned over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other dance music perennials. His mastery of light music was highly regarded by his contemporaries. Wagner considered him the “laughing genius of Vienna”, while Brahms recommended that Strauss sign up with his own publisher.

Frühlingsstimmen, originally a showpiece for soprano and orchestra, was reworked into a purely orchestral version within days of the original’s premiere. The brilliant coloratura passages and trills previously meant for voice were thus distributed to various instrumental parts. This spirit of adaptation later even inspired and challenged artistic solo whistlers to perform the piece in the 1880s. It is a boisterous celebration of the joys of spring, bursting with birdsong and verdant breezes, amidst a gentle, swirling waltz melody.

Poet and Peasant Overture

Franz von Suppé 1846

“You are crazy my child, you must go to Berlin.”

- Franz von Suppé

Born Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo Cavaliere Suppé Demelli in what is now Croatia, Suppé was certainly more poet than peasant, studying law in Italy (where he met composers Rossini and Verdi) and then the flute and singing in Vienna, before becoming a major popular operatic composer and conductor himself.

Ostensibly written for a friend’s production, Poet and Peasant Overture features a warm chorale introduction, a sublime cello solo, and alternates between episodes of a stately waltz and boisterous allegro, concluding with a flashy ending.

Although never attaining the reputation of a serious composer, Suppé nevertheless found fame, fortune, and national recognition. His short works like the Light Cavalry Overture nowadays feature on stage and cartoons like Popeye, Bugs Bunny, and Mickey Mouse. This very overture was also included in Sony’s compilation “I don’t like classical music, but I really like this!”

Clair de Lune from Suite Bergamasque

Claude Debussy

1890-1905

Your soul is like a landscape fantasy, Where masks and bergamasques, in charming wise, Strum lutes and dance, just a bit sad to be Hidden beneath their fanciful disguise

- Paul Verlaine, excerpt from Clair de Lune (Moonlight) from Fêtes galantes (Courtship Parties), 1869

Originally entitled Promenade sentimentale, the far more inspiring Clair de Lune shares the same name of the poem that inspired Claude Debussy’s compilation Suite Bergamasque. The titular poem was written by French poet Paul Verlaine, who died shortly after the composer began writing this musical work.

“The Debussy we were to know later – the lover of vague outlines, of half-lights, of mysterious consonances and dissonances of colour, the apostle of languor, the exclusivist in thought and in style…" had begun his metamorphosis circa 1890. The Suite Bergamasque was an example of Debussy’s “exquisite, pellucid” period, with the Clair de Lune marking a key milestone in the development of his mature musical language.

Finale from William Tell Overture

Gioachino Rossini 1829

“Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind.”

- Gioachino Rossini

William Tell Overture needs no introduction - the Finale, also known as the "March of the Swiss Soldiers", refers to the opera’s final scene of the Swiss victory against their Austrian oppressors. A hallmark musical theme of The Lone Ranger, the Finale was also quoted by fellow composers Strauss Sr. and Shostakovich.

notes by Jonathan Francis Koh

Programme

The Philharmonic Orchestra Society is a not-for-profit organisation that aims to enliven our communities with the arts. As you may appreciate, COVID-19 has placed a great strain on our financial ability to bring events like today’s performances to you.

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