31 December 2024, 10PM
Victoria Concert Hall Lin Juan, conductor
A Philharmonic New Year’s Eve 2025 Gala Concert
The Philharmonic Orchestra Lin Juan, Conductor
Strauss Jr. Overture to Die Fledermaus
Tchaikovsky Polonaise from Eugene Onegin
Offenbach Overture to Orpheus in the Underworld
Intermission (20 mins)
Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 6
Strauss Jr. On the Beautiful Blue Danube
Khachaturian Masquerade Suite
Concert duration is approximately
1 hour 30 minutes with 20 minutes intermission
The Philharmonic SingaporeOrchestra,
The Philharmonic Orchestra (TPO) is a project initiated by Lim Yau in 1998. Formerly known as the Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, TPO rapidly bloomed from its humble pit orchestra beginnings into the collaborative orchestra of choice, accompanying over 15 Singapore Dance Theatre and Singapore Lyric Opera productions during 1999-2008. Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay invited TPO to accompany Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light (music set to the 1928 silent film Joan of Arc). TPO also partnered artistes ranging from K.D. Lang, Omara Portuondo, Aska (of Chage and Aska), David Foster, Andrea Bocelli, and Hacken Lee. Today, the orchestra comprises passionate young adults committed to the study and performance of seminal orchestral literature.
Helmed by Music Director Lim Yau, TPO delves deeply and whole-heartedly into composers who shape the evolution of the western symphony. Critical acclaim followed performances of symphonies - complete cycles of Beethoven’s (2003 & 2017), Schumann’s (2004), Brahms’ (2013), as well as signature symphonies by Schubert (2005), Haydn, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Shostakovich. 2007-2008 marked TPO’s endeavour to be the first in Singapore to complete the Sibelius symphony cycle (recently reprised over 2019-2024). 2012 marked another milestone marking the first Singaporean iteration with a Singaporean pianist - a complete cycle of Beethoven piano concertos showcasing prominent pianist Lim Yan.
The vocal line being close to TPO’s heart sees us with sister ensemble
The Philharmonic Chamber Choir (TPCC) in concert, in Brahms Tonight (2010) and Debussy Tonight (2014). Handel’s Messiah for the Hallelujah Oratorio Society’s 40th Anniversary (2017) followed. Further performances also starred vocal soloists Su Yingwen singing Ravel (2014), Teng Xiang Ting singing Berlioz (2022), as well as Andrea Bocelli at the Singapore Botanic Gardens in
An Enchanted Evening (2010).
TPO strongly believes that music is for all - actors and presenters frequently guide the audience through our orchestral repertoire. Such productions include the Papa Haydn and You series (2009), a stage production of Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale (2009) as part of Esplanade’s Spectrum series, narrated performances of Stravinsky's 100 Years Later series with complete ballet music from Firebird (2010) and Petrushka (2011), as well as Animal Stories featuring Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Poulenc’s Story of Babar in both English and
Mandarin shows (2021). TPO’s composer-features with actor William Ledbetter whisk audiences away on biographical, historical and musical discoveries of landmark masterpieces in Brahms’ First Symphony (Brahms Tonight! 2020), Debussy’s La Mer (Debussy Tonight! 2014), Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra (Bartok Tonight! 2015) and Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony (Tchaikovksy Tonight! 2016). Other composer-feature concerts highlight the rich oeuvre of Lutoslawski (2016), Ravel (2018), and Berlioz (2022).
Cultural Medallion artists Maestro Lim Yau and Choreographer Angela Liong also started a slew of outreach projects in collaboration. With contemporary dance group The ARTS FISSION Company, in Esplanade Theatres by the Bay, The Rite of Spring: A People’s Stravinsky (2013) presented a massive community tour de force - senior citizens, youth volunteers, and musicians on the same stage in a multi-disciplinary presentation of Stravinsky’s seminal ballet. Next, The Mazu Chronicle (2015, SG50) reimagined works by pioneer-generation Singaporean composers in a symphonic dance-theatre production, inspired by stories and brought to life by volunteer dancers from our pioneer generation. The burgeoning TPO-ARTS FISSION symbiosis deepened with garden•uprooted (2018), melding dance-theatre with music by Tōru Takemitsu’s (Between Tides, Nostalgia, Rain Tree, and Tree Line).
In recent times, TPO explored less-known Classical works in Not the Big Three (2019), led by Resident Conductor Lin Juan. 2020 innovated socially distanced recordings - arrangements of Morricone’s Gabriel’s Oboe, and Handel’s Ombrai Mai Fu. 2023 saw further partnerships in NAFA’s 85th Anniversary concert featuring Prokofiev and Zechariah Goh, followed by an all-Rachmaninoff programme with Tchaikovsky competition silver medalist George Harliono as soloist in the second piano concerto.
Certainly not least, TPO’s hallmark annual event is undoubtedly our well-loved New Year's Eve Countdown Concerts, featuring all of crowd favourites, miniatures, soloists, and young conductors. Iterations ranged from a virtual show full of chamber works in 2020, to the usual live shows featuring audience participation and music counting down to midnight. This sell-out concert tradition celebrates over ten years of history, a cherished fixture in Singapore’s concert calendar, now residing at the Grand Dame of Empress Place - Victoria Concert Hall.
Orchestra Committee
Albert Phang Emerald Tan Jonathan Francis Koh Kristi Anastasia Tan Lin Juan Sarah Wong
Lin Juan Resident Conductor
A graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music, UK (Bachelor and Master degrees in cello) 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; he also appears regularly as Principal Cellist with re:Sound Chamber Orchestra, Singapore Lyric Opera Orchestra, The Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.
As an active chamber musician, Juan has most notably collaborated with Red Dot Baroque, Ding Yi Music Company, More Than Music, Incursion Trio, and since 2022 has been cellist of Concordia Quartet.
Juan is Lecturer at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), teaching cello, chamber music, and orchestral studies. He was the first Associate Conductor of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra and continues to educate youths as conductor of the Raffles Institution and Hwa Chong Institution (College Section) String Ensembles. He is also the Resident Conductor of The Philharmonic Orchestra.
Lin Juan, Resident Conductor
Musicians
Violin 1
Wilford Goh^
Yamakawa Sakura
Shen Xing
Zhang Chunsheng
Abigail Soh Zhi Xuan
Violin 2
Kim Kyu Ri*
Celine Angir
Zach Loh Lit Wung
Wong Sher Maine
Zhang Jipeng
Viola
Janice Tsai*
Thantakorn Lakanasirorat
Teh Chia Hui
Max Cheng
Cello
James Ng*
Yein Sim
Peh Xiang Hong
Isaiah Ong
Double Bass
Si Pei Tan*
Claire Lim
Lee Zi Xuan
^Concertmaster *Section Principal
Kathleen Koh
Loh Hui En Lauren
Lina Wang
Alyssa Neu
Erlyn Alexander
Hong Yaw Chang
Elizabeth Low
Lo Khin Marn
Leon Lai
Natasha Lee
Elizabeth Ip
Kenneth Lee
Elton Teo Kai Jie
Sharon Ham
Chee Jun Hong
Tizane Loh
Flute / Piccolo
Jasper Goh* Teo Shao Ming
Oboe
Leow Rui Qing* Tian Keyun
Clarinet
Benjamin Wong* Natalie Gail Pimentel
Bassoon
Emerald Tan* Tan Kuo Cheang Junnevaeh Lim
Horn
Xavier Tan* Christopher Shen*
Joey Aston Lim
Andrew Lee
Trumpet
Muhd Raimi*
Nur Imaan Binte Zulkiffli Amanda Yong
Trombone
Kow Kang Yue Don* Xylia Wong Benjamin Lim
Tuba
Gordon Low
*Section Principal
Harp
Nigel Foo
Percussion
Sng Yiang Shan*
Gordon Tan Akhilesh Vellavan
Keyon Toh
Wong Ting Feng
Overture to Die Fledermaus(1874) Johann Strauss
Jr. (1825-99)
“How could I forget the laughing genius of Vienna?”
The wellspring of light dance music “Schani” (Johnny) Strauss Jr. almost had the music beaten out of him by the disapproving patriarch Johann Strauss Sr. Several poetic turns however saw the junior Strauss learning the violin in secret, eventually composing (presumably without beatings) an endless stream of waltzes, polkas, marches, then leading his own ensemble to perform them (ostensibly with some form of beating), even roping in his younger brothers Josef and Eduard to assist with the conducting.
Johann Strauss Jr., with hundreds of crowd-pleasers under his belt, thusly surpassed his father and many other contemporaries to be crowned “The Waltz King”.
His undisputable flair for popular music later extended to the Viennese operetta, after compatriot Offenbach successfully brought the rich French and Italian operatic traditions to the attention of Austria and Germany’s artists and audiences. (or the Revenge of the Bat) exemplifies the lighthearted and spirited nature of the operetta genre, featuring pranks, jokes, crossdressing, all surrounding a resplendent masquerade ball. A perfect display of the composer’s remarkable talents, the zany comedy is finely introduced on an eclectic tasting platter that is this .
Die Fledermaus
Overture
“Tonight - Die Fledermaus! I think you’ll like it”
Polonaise from Eugene Onegin (1879)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-93)
“...Nor study, banquet, rout nor ball His constant soul could ever tire…”
A sceptical Tchaikovsky took several moons to realise a suggestion to write the episodic opera , based on the most dramatic events in compatriot Pushkin’s classic verse-novel from a half-century prior. Despite the opera premiering rather quietly, the sheer artistic genius and stellar performances all but ensured the Tsar’s eventual championship of Tchaikovsky, as well as the composer’s worldwide success.
Proudly defiant of the cursed plot involving an ill-fated duel between friends and unfulfilled love, the opens the final act with a grand ball attended by protagonist Eugene, and the girl he once rejected, Tatiana. This emotional rollercoaster’s peak belies the (narratively) recent death (at his own pistol) of Eugene’s friend, and Eugene unexpectedly falling in love with Tatiana, who is ironically now happily married (of course she rejects him this time).
Coincidentally in the real world, though perhaps not abnormally for 19th century Russia, Tchaikovsky had annulled his disastrous marriage shortly before starting work on the opera, while author Pushkin had previously perished not long after the completion of his favourite masterpiece in an uncannily similar duel. Believers of “great art following great suffering” would relish Tchaikovsky’s numerous inspired motifs of remarkable pathos recurring as easter eggs throughout his late symphonies and other splendid works.
Drama aside, the brilliant heartfeltness of the reflects glistening opulence over undercurrents of conflict, in a most vibrant and poignant monument of opera, music, and history.
“So
there will be a dance to-night. Girls in anticipation skip!”
Eugene Onegin
Polonaise
Polonaise
Overture to Orpheus in the Underworld (arr Carl Binder, 1860)
Jacques Offenbach (1819-80)
“Where the Italian gave free rein to his verve and his imagination, the Frenchman prided himself on mischief, common sense and good taste; where his model sacrificed exclusively to cheerfulness, he sacrificed above all to the spirit!”
Jacques Offenbach’s biography could easily fill a volume with his wit, another tome with hate, and a half-page appendix of half-praise. “The Mozart of the Champs-Élysées" was eloquently described as the "artistic genius, clown” whose works somehow contained “moments of wanton perfection".
As talented as he was rebellious, Offenbach weathered fortune and famine with his cello before finding fame (and notoriety) in tiny operatic comedies. Starting out in a cramped theatre on a stage barely holding three performers, the fledgling indie comic-theatre of buffoonery barely survived through several small acts. grew from one such slapstick into its current fairy-opera state. A satire of the more established ancient tragedy Orpheus and Eurydice, Offenbach’s first full-length opera reimagines unfaithful violin teacher Orpheus and naive farmer wife Eurydice who in turn fancies the shepherd-god-ofdeath Pluto, in a “splendid, vulgar and indecent” parody of French life under Napoleon’s rule.
Overture
Orpheus in the Underworld
The 1860 , arranged by Austrian Carl Binder in his last year of life, comprises a highlight reel of the operetta’s various events and characters. From the deathly boring lament of Styx (here Pluto’s henchman and Eurydice’s jailer), to the strait-laced Jupiter’s minuet (hurriedly danced to distract the other gods while kidnapping Eurydice for himself), and penultimate scene with the wanton Roman gods descending into drunken debauchery in the riotous and unmistakable Infernal Galop.
"The most fascinating composer of the age, the Operatic Puck" Offenbach, who began his career playing pranks on cello and score alike, failed miserably in his more establishment-pleasing endeavours. His most serious opera went unfinished, while his well-curated American debut had to be saved from financial disaster by more popular French songs and singers. Clearly, the public, and the audiences, simply wanted the Cancan.
“Rossini wrote a short piano work dedicated to Offenbach: the Petit caprice (style Offenbach) in can-can rhythm, in which the performer is directed to use only the index and little finger of each hand.”
Hungarian Dance No. 6 (1869 | arr Albert Parlow, 1876) Johannes
Brahms (1833-97)
“No opus number”
While Johannes Brahms was touring Europe with “worldly, fanciful virtuoso” violinist-composer Eduard Reményi, the latter introduced Brahms to renowned violinist Joseph Joachim (also Reményi’s former classmate) and pianist Franz Liszt. Inspired by the star-studded Hungarian trio Remenyi, Joachim, and Lizst, the astute Brahms completed two sets of Hungarian dances in 1869 and 1880.
Hungarian Dance No. 6
, frequently recorded with its more famous sibling no.5, oozes youthful spirit and flamboyance. The frequent changes in tempo and mood found in the Hungarian Dances, then relatively rare in classical writing but integral to gypsy-style music, would eventually inspire ragtime music. Brahms himself would likewise become remarkable for welding masterful structural traditions to dexterous treatment of tempo and folk styles.
Violist of a quartet: "Herr Brahms, how do you like our tempo?" Brahms: "I like it, especially yours."
On The Beautiful Blue Danube (1867) Johann Strauss
Jr. (1825-99)
When Strauss’s wife Adele asked Brahms to autograph her fan, he wrote the first few notes of the “Blue Danube” waltz, and then underneath the words “Unfortunately not by Johannes Brahms!”
Be it Austria’s second national anthem, New Year’s Concert curtain closer, or plague of department stores and movies alike, paints a redemption arc as majestic as the namesake Danube river’s winding course through central Europe’s geography and history.
An der schönen blauen Donau
Commissioned and premiered as a choir piece, its first performance was unfortunately bogged down by satirical lyrics and a depressing post-war atmosphere, “only” receiving one measly encore. Undeterred, Strauss reworked the score for orchestra, creating history’s greatest blockbuster popular classic.
Legend has it that the piano score sold over a million copies (aka Platinum), and the American debut “Monster Concert” assembled an orchestra of 2000 and a choir numbering ten times that. Allegedly, Strauss’ fans demanded so many locks of his hair as mementos that Strauss’ butler took to clipping his dog’s fur instead, until it almost went bald!
“By the Danube, beautiful blue Danube.”
Masquerade Suite (1944 | incidental music from 1941) Aram Ilyich Khachaturian (1903-78)
I. Waltz
II. Nocturne
III. Mazurka
IV. Romance
V. Galop
“How beautiful this new waltz is! In some kind of rapture I spun faster - and with a wonderful desire My thoughts and I involuntarily rushed into the distance”
Aram Khachaturian, national treasure of Armenia, and favoured composer of the Soviet Union throughout much of the 20th century, “grew up in an atmosphere rich in folk music: popular festivities, rites, joyous and sad events in the life of the people [were] always accompanied by music - the vivid tunes of Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian songs and dances performed by folk bards and musicians.”
Written to accompany a controversial tragic play written over a century ago (and banned for several decades on moral grounds), arduous research by both Khachaturian and his teacher culminated in the incidental music, which was further distilled into this most popular . The three odd-numbered dances mark the climactic titular masque ball, alternating with the more introspective and tender even numbers, artfully united by recurring themes and motifs.
Immediately apparent is the hypnotically familiar - "not a light Viennese romp but a heavy, wonderfully ornate work." It is as jubilant as it is rowdy, almost march-like and menacing, a heady melange of drumbeats and sweeping melodies. Dedicated to the lead actress Alla Kazanskaya, it was also played at the composer's funeral in 1978. Masquerade Suite Waltz
Nocturne Mazurka Romance Galop
A sentimental sung by the soaring violin solo draws the scene inevitably towards a descent into darkness, a brief but unsatisfying respite before the bustling disrupts the mood and trips impulses, at once a deranged waltz and twisted musical interlude. An even darker arrives before a proverbial dawn. While both orchestra and audience are searching for the promised light at the end of the tunnel though, the thunderous (reminiscent of the composer’s Sabre Dance) crashes through, tumbling wildly towards the twelfth hour.
“Peace
and Honour!”
Programme notes by Jonathan Francis Koh
Acknowledgements
The orchestra would like to express its heartfelt appreciation to the following organisations and people:
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
Ensemble-in-Residence Partner
Rehearsal Venue
MusoSpace
Video Recording
Dancing Legs Production
Concert Photography Andrew Bi
Emcee
Zhang Mingying
Logistics
Staff from Victoria Concert Hall Toh Chik Kok (Uncle David)
Balloon Decoration
Eclipse Party SG
Friends and Family
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