CONCERT PROGRAMME
2016/17 SEASON
The Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) gave its inaugural performance at Dewan
Filharmonik PETRONAS (DFP) on 17 August 1998. The MPO today comprises musicians
from 24 countries, including 7 from Malaysia, a remarkable example of harmony among
different cultures and nationalities.
A host of internationally-acclaimed musicians has worked with the MPO, including Lorin
Maazel, Sir Neville Marriner, Yehudi Menuhin, Joshua Bell, Harry Connick Jr., José Carreras,
Andrea Bocelli and Branford Marsalis, many of whom have praised the MPO for its fine
musical qualities and vitality.
With each new season, the MPO continues to present a varied programme of orchestral
music drawn from over three centuries, as well as the crowd-pleasing concert series.
Its versatility transcends genres, from classical masterpieces to film music, pop, jazz,
contemporary and commissioned works.
The MPO regularly performs at major cities of Malaysia. Internationally, it has showcased
its virtuosity to audiences in Singapore (1999, 2001 and 2005), Korea (2001), Australia
(2004), China (2006), Taiwan (2007), Japan (2001 and 2009) and Vietnam (2013). Its
Education and Outreach Programme, ENCOUNTER, reaches beyond the concert platform
to develop musical awareness, appreciation and skills through dedicated activities that
include instrumental lessons, workshops and school concerts. ENCOUNTER also presents
memorable events in such diverse venues as orphanages, hospitals, rehabilitation centres
and community centres.
The MPO’s commitment to furthering musical interest in the nation has been the creation
of the Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (MPYO). It gave its inaugural concert at
DFP on 25 August 2007, followed by a tour in Peninsular Malaysia. It has performed in
Sabah and Sarawak (2008), Singapore (2009), Brisbane, Australia (2012), Kedah (2013) and
Johore Bahru (2014).
As it celebrates its 18th anniversary in 2016, the MPO remains steadfast in its mission
to share the depth, power and beauty of great music. The MPO’s main benefactor is
PETRONAS and its patron is Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah Haji Mohd Ali.
Sat 15 Apr 2017 at 8.30 pm
Sun 16 Apr 2017 at 3.00 pm
Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra
Carl St. Clair, conductor
PROGRAMME
HAYDN
Symphony No. 88 in G major
23 mins
INTERVAL 20 mins
STRAUSS
Ein Heldenleben, Op.40 40 mins All details are correct at time of printing. Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS reserves the right to vary without notice the artists and/or repertoire as
necessary. Copyright © 2017 by Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS (Co. No. 462692-X). All rights reserved. No part of this programme may be
reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright owners.
Carl St. Clair
conductor
Music Director of the Pacific Symphony
for more than two decades, Carl St. Clair
has become widely recognized for his
musically distinguished performances,
innovative approaches to programming
and
commitment
to
outstanding
educational programmes. The largest
ensemble formed in the USA during the
last fifty years, the Pacific Symphony
owes its rapid artistic growth to his astute
leadership. Influenced by his close
association with Leonard Bernstein, his
commitment to the development and
performance of new works by American
composers is evident in the wealth of
commissions and recordings by the
Symphony.
Most recently, he was named Music
Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica. Now in its 75th season,
the orchestra is a well-established regional and national orchestra serving the entire
country.
In North America, St. Clair has conducted the Boston Symphony, Los Angeles
and New York Philharmonics, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the symphonies
of Atlanta, Detroit, Fort Worth, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Montreal,
Nashville, San Francisco, Sarasota, Seattle, Toronto and Vancouver, to name a
few. Worldwide engagements include with numerous orchestras in Europe, South
America, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Japan. Festival appearances
include Schleswig-Holstein, Pacific (Japan), Round Top, Breckenridge, Wintergreen
(Virginia), Tanglewood and the Texas Music Festival (Houston).
St. Clair has served as General Music Director and Chief Conductor of the German
National Theater and Staatskapelle in Weimar, Germany (the first non-European
to hold this position); General Music Director of the Komische Oper in Berlin; and
Principal Guest Conductor of the SDR/Stuttgart where he successfully completed
a three-year recording project of the Villa-Lobos symphonies.
St. Clair has maintained a relationship with the USC Thornton School of Music for
over 20 years. Since the 2005/2006 season, he was Principal Conductor of the
USC Thornton orchestras and a faculty lecturer in conducting. In 2012, he took on
the expanded role of artistic leader for the School.
PROGRAMME NOTES
A mere glance at the number of musicians required for Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben
(A Hero’s Life), as well as the title itself, suggest that this work will provide an
unusually exciting listening experience. Indeed, Ein Heldenleben is replete with
opulent sounds, glowing orchestration, huge climaxes, enormous energy and
a veritable kaleidoscope of tonal colours. As a sort of prelude to this oversized
symphonic canvas, we hear one of Haydn’s masterful late symphonies, No. 88,
which amply demonstrates that a great composer can write great music even with
a small orchestra.
FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809)
Symphony No. 88 in G major (1787)
I. Adagio ̶ Allegro
II. Largo
III. Menuetto ̶ Trio
IV. Finale: Allegro con spirito
The Background
Symphony No. 88 was throughout the
nineteenth and for most of the twentieth
century one of the few Haydn symphonies
played with any regularity. It is indeed a
masterpiece, inspired from beginning to
end, and its diminished popularity today
is due less to inherent qualities than to
the increased attention now finally being
given to the entire catalogue of this
composer’s hundred-plus works in the
genre. To an even greater degree than
most Haydn symphonies, No. 88 is richly
endowed with melodic invention, sturdy rhythmic momentum, contrapuntal ingenuity,
felicitous touches of scoring, and unusual features. Haydn scholar H.C. Robbins
Landon calls it “a particularly successful blend of gaiety and towering intellectual
strength. … Seldom did Haydn reach the pinnacle of perfection achieved in No. 88”.
The Music
The symphony begins with a slow introduction of imposing grandeur, punctuated
by silences. Lest any listener doubt the necessity of this introduction, imagine the
symphony beginning at the Allegro section, which opens with the main theme in G
major stated softly by the violins, and only later by the full orchestra. The second theme,
in D major, bears close relationship to the first both rhythmically and melodically.
This kinship between themes was characteristic of many sonata-form movements in
Haydn’s music.
In the second movement, Haydn brings in the hitherto silent trumpets and timpani in
conjunction with outbursts from the full orchestra, marking the first time this composer
had ever used these instruments in a symphonic slow movement. The main theme
is one of enchanting loveliness and grace, sung by an oboe and solo cello an octave
apart.
The Menuetto is full of Haydn’s typically playful rhythmic irregularities, particularly in
the central trio section with its rustic charm and suggestion of bagpipe drones.
As in the first movement, the main theme of the finale begins with a bouncy two-note
upbeat. Slightly modified, it serves as the mildly contrasting subordinate theme as
well, and for good measure, Haydn incorporates a short fugal treatment of this theme.
Lots of bustle and high spirits bring the symphony to an exhilarating close.
RICHARD STRAUSS (1864-1949)
Ein Heldenleben, Op.40 (1898)
The Background
Strauss was just 34 when he wrote Ein
Heldenleben in 1898 (sketches were made
in the previous year). He was already at the
height of fame and fortune, lionized by the
press, and could count himself one of the
half dozen most talked-about composers
alive or dead. He had no inhibitions about
showing his pride in heroic terms. He told
Romain Rolland: “I do not see why I should
not compose a symphony about myself. I
find myself quite as interesting as Napoleon
(referring to Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony)
or Alexander”. But as Norman Del Mar
observes in his three-volume survey of all
Strauss’ music, “a truly great hero needs
equally great and honest opponents, or his
victory will be a worthless bubble”.
The opponent in Ein Heldenleben is a collective force ̶ music critics, which are
depicted in all but the first of the six sections. Strauss uncharitably portrayed the
critics not as a worthy adversary but as a bunch of sniveling, cackling imbeciles. But
actually, to infer that these were the very men who wrote about Strauss’ own music
would be an injustice, for he was generally well treated in the press.
Much discussion has ensued over the autobiographical elements in the score. There
is plenty of evidence to support almost any viewpoint, including a statement made by
the composer himself (writing in the third person): “He presents in Ein Heldenleben
not a single poetic or historic figure, but rather a more general and free ideal of great
and manly heroism … that heroism which describes the inward battles of life, and
which aspires through effort and renouncement towards the elevation of the soul”.
The first performance of Ein Heldenleben took place at a Frankfurt Museum concert
on 3 March 1899 conducted by the composer.
The Music
The six main sections, all connected except for the pause ending the first, run as
follows:
I) THE HERO – A swashbuckling, energetic theme sweeps up magnificently from
the depths of the orchestra across a span of nearly three octaves. This theme is
extensively developed and is heard in combination with additional melodic ideas.
II) THE HERO’S ADVERSARIES – The critical fraternity is uncharitably depicted in
angular, disjointed, dissonant, confused music, with such performance directions
as “snarling”, “cutting" and "pointed” and “hissing”. The two tubas solemnly state
a four-note motif that incorporates a bête noir of traditional harmonic practice, the
progression of parallel fifths.
III) THE HERO’S COMPANION – Strauss’ capricious, domineering wife Pauline is
portrayed by the solo violin in a series of cadenzas, each more difficult than the last.
“She’s very complex”, Strauss explained, “very much a woman, never twice alike”.
A richly scored love scene ensues, but is spoiled at the end by a return visit from the
malicious critics.
IV) THE HERO’S BATTLEFIELD – Three offstage trumpets sound the call to battle.
Our hero leaps up, ready for action. In one of the most celebrated battle scenes in all
music, Strauss depicts the hero, wife at his side, bravely fending off his assailants in a
riot of orchestral colours and effects. The scene is one of great chaos and purposefully
ugly sounds. The enemies are finally routed, and a sumptuous victory song ensues,
with all eight horns in unison joining in for the triumphant, climactic moment.
V) THE HERO’S WORKS OF PEACE – As the hero reflects on a lifetime of
achievements, we hear a retrospective tapestry of 31 themes and motifs from nine
previous Strauss compositions ̶ including six tone poems, two songs, and the opera
Guntram. The hero slips into a deep reverie, but one last bout with a surly critic is still
to come. Flaring up in anger, he crushes his opponent decisively and again lapses
into musings on the past as softly throbbing echoes of his tone poem Don Quixote
lead into the calm of the final section.
VI) THE HERO’S RETREAT FROM THE WORLD AND FULFILLMENT – The serene
ending to the hero’s life is marred only by a brief memory of critics – “the impression
of a bad dream experienced by an old man dozing in his armchair”, as Del Mar puts
it. The wife (solo violin again) returns to comfort him, and remains to the end in a
tenderly moving dialogue with solo horn, each instrument reaching its own fulfillment
on high (violin) and low (horn) E flats. One final, monumental presentation of the hero
theme, played by brass and woodwinds, sends the hero on his way to another world.
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CONDUCTOR
Harish Shankar
Naohisa Furusawa
FIRST VIOLIN
Co-Concertmaster
Peter Daniš
Principal
Ming Goh
Co-Principal
Zhenzhen Liang
Runa Baagöe
Maho Daniš
Miroslav Daniš
Evgeny Kaplan
Martijn Noomen
Sherwin Thia
Marcel Andriesii
Tan Ka Ming
*Gyula Gabora
*Ikuko Takahashi
*Branislava Tatic
*Marco Roosink
SECOND VIOLIN
Section Principal
Timothy Peters
Co-Principal
*Graeme Norris
Assistant Principal
Luisa Hyams
Sub-Principal
*Kylie Liang
Catalina Alvarez
Chia-Nan Hung
Anastasia Kiseleva
Stefan Kocsis
Ling Yunzhi
Ionut Mazareanu
Yanbo Zhao
Ai Jin
Robert Kopelman
Petia Atanasova
VIOLA
Section Principal
*Caleb Wright
Co-Principal
Gábor Mokány
Assistant Principal
*Marylène
Gingras-Roy
Fumiko Dobrinov
Ong Lin Kern
Carol Pendlebury
Sun Yuan
Thian Aiwen
Fan Ran
*Fung Chern Hwei
*Nozomi Oe
*Arman Alpyspaev
CELLO
Co-Principal
Csaba Körös
Assistant Principal
Steven Retallick
Gerald Davis
Julie Dessureault
Laurentiu Gherman
Elizabeth Tan Suyin
Sejla Simon
Mátyás Major
*Sandor Stampf
*Gabriele Ardizzone
DOUBLE BASS
Section Principal
Wolfgang Steike
Co-Principal
Joseph Pruessner
Raffael Bietenhader
Jun-Hee Chae
Naohisa Furusawa
John Kennedy
Foo Yin Hong
Andreas Dehner
FLUTE
Section Principal
Hristo Dobrinov
Co-Principal
Yukako Yamamoto
Sub-Principal
Rachel Jenkyns
PICCOLO
Principal
Sonia Croucher
OBOE
Section Principal
Simon Emes
Co-Principal
*Kalev Kuljus
Sub-Principal
Niels Dittmann
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Principal
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CLARINET
Section Principal
Gonzalo Esteban
Co-Principal
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Sub-Principal
Matthew Larsen
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Principal
Chris Bosco
BASSOON
Section Principal
Alexandar Lenkov
Co-Principal
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Sub-Principal
Orsolya Juhasz
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Principal
Vladimir Stoyanov
HORN
Section Principals
Grzegorz Curyla
*Steven James
Co-Principal
James Schumacher
Sub-Principals
Laurence Davies
*Mirko Landoni
*Robert Shirley
*Alex Hambleton
*Zora Slokar
Assistant Principal
Sim Chee Ghee
TRUMPET
Section Principal
*Jakub Waszczeniuk
Co-Principal
William Theis
Sub-Principals
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*Jose Real Cintero
Assistant Principal
John Bourque
TROMBONE
Section Principal
*Fernando Borja
Co-Principal
*Richard Shirley
Sub-Principal
*Marques Young
BASS TROMBONE
Principal
*Genki Morikawa
TUBA
Section Principal
Brett Stemple
TIMPANI
Section Principal
Matthew Thomas
PERCUSSION
Section Principal
Matthew Prendergast
Sub-Principals
Matthew Kantorski
*Eric Renick
*Shaun Tilburg
HARP
Principal
Tan Keng Hong
Sub-Principal
*Bryan Lee
Note: Sectional string players are listed alphabetically and rotate within their sections. *Extra musician.
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