CONCERT PROGRAMME
2016/17 SEASON
Organ Recital
Wed 18 Jan 2017 at 6.30 pm
Marcelo Giannini, organ
PROGRAMME
BACH BACH BACH FRANCK
GIGOUT
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.
Prelude and Fugue in E flat major, BWV 552
Pastorale in F major, BWV 590
Two Choral Preludes: Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein, BWV 641
: Wir glauben all'an einen Gott, BWV 680
Choral No. 2 in B minor
Toccata in B minor
The recital will last approximately 60 minutes without an interval.
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 21 Jan 2017 at 8.30 pm
Sun 22 Jan 2017 at 3.00 pm
Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra
Guillaume Tourniaire, conductor
Marcelo Giannini, organ
PROGRAMME
DEBUSSY
Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun 10 mins
POULENCSinfonietta 29 mins
Interval 20 mins
SAINT-SAËNS Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op.78 – ‘Organ’ 36 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 © 2016 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.
GUILLAUME TOURNIAIRE
Marcelo Giannini
French conductor Guillaume Tourniaire is currently
enjoying a meteoric rise onto the international
conducting stage. Born in Provence, he studied
piano and conducting at the Geneva Conservatory
during which time he won the first prize at the
international Gabriel Fauré Piano Competition.
His professional career started as Artistic Director
of the vocal ensemble Le Motet de Genève,
Chorusmaster at the Grand Théâtre de Genève,
and Choir Director of the Teatro la Fenice in
Venice. This early apprenticeship has given him a
rare depth and experience with the operatic and
vocal repertoire. This, combined with his talent
and passion for rare and previously unperformed
music, has made him a highly sought-after
conductor on the world stage.
Marcelo Giannini began studying the organ and
harpsichord in his native Brazil. He trained with
Karl Richter in Munich and Lionel Rogg before
concluding his studies at the Geneva Conservatory,
finishing with a Premier Prix de Virtuosité. He
regularly gives recitals in Europe, Brazil and
the USA. He has collaborated as organist and/
or harpsichordist with orchestras including the
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, l’Orchestre de
Chambre de Genève and the Sinfonia Varsovia.
He has performed with the Vocal Ensemble of
Lausanne and Gulbenkian Choir of Lisbonne under
the direction of Michel Corboz.
conductor
Tourniaire made his conducting debut in 1998 at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in
its production of Prokofiev’s opera Betrothal in a Monastery. He then appeared at
the Opéra National de Paris, conducting Stravinsky’s ballet Le Sacre du Printemps.
He subsequently collaborated with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva
conducting works that include the world premiere of the complete original version
of Prokofiev’s music for the Eisenstein film Ivan the Terrible, based on Tourniaire’s
own reconstruction; Mozart´s incidental music for Thamos, King of Egypt;
Prokofiev’s cantata Alexander Nevsky, Martinů´s oratorio Gilgamesh, Damase’s
musical tale Madame de; and Janáček’s cantatas Amarus and The Eternal Gospel.
He made his Opera Australia debut in 2010 with Bizet’s Carmen.
He has conducted the Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France,
Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Teatro Sao Carlos in Lisbon,
Sferisterio Opera Festival in Macerata, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Deutsche
Oper in Düsseldorf, Stadttheater in Osnabrück, Geneva Chamber Orchestra,
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie in Bremen, Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra National de
Paris, Camerata Antiqua in Seoul, Orchestre National de Lyon, Warsaw Polish
Radio Orchestra, Dijon Opera, Hermitage Orchestra in Saint-Petersburg and the
Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg, amongst others.
In 2006, he made his debut at the Prague State Opera and became the company’s
Musical Director in 2007. In 2012, he was appointed Artistic Director of Vocal et
Instrumental de Lausanne. In 2015, he won the prestigious Australian Green Room
Award for Best Conductor.
organ
For years, he has worked as a choral director,
interpreting major works of the sacred repertoire. He has directed the Orchestra
Gulbenkian of Lisbonne and the Orchestra of Caracas from the harpsichord
in programmes of Baroque music including the six Brandenburg Concertos.
Recently, he has performed Poulenc’s Organ Concerto with the Chamber
Orchestra of Geneva, Camerata Fukuda of São Paulo and the Bern Symphony
Orchestra, as well as Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony with the Orchestra
Gulbenkian of Lisbonne.
He has recorded many organ works by Bach, Franck, Reger and Alain in
Switzerland and Brazil. He has also participated in recordings by the Orchestre
de la Suisse Romande and the Vocal Ensemble of Lausanne with Michel Corboz
in Bach’s Mass in B minor, Fauré’s Requiem and Gounod’s Choral Mass, among
others.
Giannini is currently principal organist at the Temple of Carouge and professor of
bass continuo and Improvisation for harpsichord and organ in the Department of
Ancient Music at the Haute École de Musique in Geneva, Switzerland.
PROGRAMME NOTES (21 & 22 JANUARY 2017)
French conductor Guillaume Tourniaire leads the MPO in an all-French programme
of music from the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Lambent colours
and tonal ambiguities in Debussy, light-hearted banter and frivolity in Poulenc, and
sonic grandeur and majesty in Saint-Saëns combine to provide a rich and fulfilling
musical experience.
CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918)
Prélude to The Afternoon of a Faun
The Background
The inspiration for Debussy’s first orchestral masterpiece
came from the poem “L’après-midi d’un faune”
(The Afternoon of a Faun, 1876) by the French Symbolist
poet Stéphane Mallarmé. The Symbolists worked
with elusive images, imprecise feelings, evocative
atmosphere, sensuous language, abstruse syntax,
transient ideas, inferences and subtleties, all bathed in
a suggestive half-light. Debussy’s musical sensibilities
corresponded closely to the Symbolist aesthetic, and
having read Mallarmé’s poem sometime around 1877, the composer set about
creating a musical interpretation that influenced the course of much twentiethcentury music. Written in 1892-1894, it was first heard on 22 December 1894 in
Paris. A faun, incidentally, is a mythological woodland creature that walks upright like
a man but has cloven hoofs, horns, a tail and fur like a beast. Its chief concerns are
eating, sleeping and the pursuit of sensuous gratification.
The Music
The substance of Mallarmé’s poem, what the English critic Edmund Gosse called
a “famous miracle of unintelligibility,” is described in his well-known synopsis as
follows: “A faun … wakens in the forest at daybreak and tries to recall his experience
of the previous afternoon. Was he the fortunate recipient of an actual visit from
nymphs, white and golden goddesses, divinely tender and indulgent? Or is the
memory he seems to retain nothing but the shadow of a vision, no more substantial
than the ‘aired rain’ of notes from his own flute? He cannot tell … The sun is warm,
the grasses yielding; and he curls himself up again, after worshipping the efficacious
star of wine, that he may pursue the dubious ecstasy into the more hopeful
boscages of sleep”.
FRANCIS POULENC (1899-1963)
Sinfonietta
I. Allegro con fuoco
II. Molto vivace
III. Andante cantabile
IV. Finale: Prestissimo et très gai
The Background
Poulenc indulged in his early years of composition (from the end of World War I to
the early 1930s) in poking fun at anything others took seriously, in traipsing around
Paris as the bon vivant in the carefree 1920s, acting clever, charming and chic.
During these years he joined company with five other Parisian composers who
called themselves the Nouveaux jeunes. In 1920, a newspaper article referred to
them as Les Six, and by that name they have been known ever since. The manifesto
of Les Six called for avoidance of the vague Impressionism of Debussy, the
chromatic mysticism of Franck and the surging romanticism of Strauss and Mahler.
Instead, their music reflected a return to the classic French values of economy and
clarity, the influence of jazz and French music-hall style, and the lighthearted banter
that flourishes among friends out for an evening in the Montmartre.
The Music
All this and more can easily be detected in Poulenc’s Sinfonietta, written in 1947.
It was commissioned for the tenth anniversary of the BBC Third Programme, and
received its first performance on 24 October 1948 under the direction of Roger
Désormière. Aside from several concertos, this is Poulenc’s only purely orchestral
work. A gay, carnival atmosphere infuses the music. The diminutive title itself
is indicative of the composer’s own attitude toward the work: even though the
Sinfonietta lasts as long as a full symphony (nearly half an hour), Poulenc regarded
the music as more entertaining than serious. G.H.L. Smith described the Sinfonietta
as “amiable without being banal, popular without concession, haunted with nimble
dances and songs that each hearer will think he remembers, but which are new,
nevertheless”.
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)
Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op.78 – 'Organ'
I. Adagio – Allegro moderato – Poco adagio
II. Allegro moderato – Presto – Maestoso – Allegro
The Background
For grandeur, majesty and sheer tonal opulence, few symphonies can stand beside
the Third of Saint-Saëns. The prominent contribution from the organ, the 'King of
Instruments', provides an additional measure of imposing sonority to the work.
Yet this symphony is an anomaly in the composer’s oeuvre. First, it is the only one
of his five symphonies to achieve any lasting reputation. Furthermore, Saint-Saëns
is not much regarded as a “symphonist”, and were it not for the Organ Symphony,
he would have no more importance in this field than Fauré or Gounod (Saint-Saëns
also left two numbered and two unnumbered symphonies, all written many years
before the Third.) Second, there exists virtually no French symphony upon which
Saint-Saëns could have modeled his Third in terms of spaciousness and grandness
of design. The last really great French symphony had been Berlioz’s Symphonie
fantastique (1830), which relied heavily on the kind of programmatic elements
totally lacking in Saint-Saëns’ symphony. Hence, the Organ Symphony was really
the first in a line of grand French symphonies, which bore fruit from Franck, d’Indy
and Chausson among others. And third, there is little in Saint-Saëns’ other music
to prepare us for this symphony’s monumentality and its undisguised attempts to
“wow” the audience. Saint-Saëns generally conformed to the stylistic traits of much
French music – charm, elegance, restraint, plus the transparent scoring, clean
outlines and consummate craftsmanship of a basically classical orientation.
The Organ Symphony has all of this, but it has more as well – much more.
Michael Steinberg has dubbed Saint-Saëns the “master of the immense and
effortless fortissimo”.
The Third Symphony was written in early 1886 as the result of a commission from
the Philharmonic Society of London. The first performance took place in
St. James’ Hall in London on 19 May of that year. The public loved the symphony,
and critical reception was generally favourable, though some critics grumbled about
its unorthodox design.
The Music
The entire symphony is based on the principle of continual transformation of a
“motto” theme. This theme makes its first full appearance in the restless series of
short detached notes in the violins, following the slow, mysterious introduction.
The attentive ear will pick out this theme in its rhythmic and colouristic
metamorphoses throughout the symphony - at varying times flowing and lyrical,
detached and fragmented, broad and noble, or agitated and restless. The melodic
line is also sometimes altered as well.
Although ostensibly in two large parts, the work conforms basically to a standard
four-movement symphony. The first movement contains a contrasting second
theme – a gently swaying line in the violins which serves as a contrast to the
first – but it is the first theme (the “motto”) that is mostly developed. The Adagio
movement is ushered in by soft pedal points in the organ, and unfolds leisurely in
a mood of elevated and lofty contemplation. After a full, extended pause comes
the agitated scherzo-like movement, one of extraordinary energy and drive. Into its
nervous principal theme are worked fragments of original “motto” material (lightning
flashes of woodwinds). The most exultant moments are reserved for the concluding
section, announced by an enormous C major chord from the organ. Sonic thrills pile
up to ever greater heights, and the symphony ends in a magnificent blaze of
C major.
MALAYSIAN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
PRINCIPAL
CONDUCTOR
vacant
VIOLA
Co-Principal
Gábor Mokány
PICCOLO
Principal
Sonia Croucher
RESIDENT
CONDUCTOR
Harish Shankar
Naohisa Furusawa
Fumiko Dobrinov
Ong Lin Kern
Carol Pendlebury
Sun Yuan
Thian Aiwen
Fan Ran
*Caleb Wright
*Emil Csonka
OBOE
Section Principal
Simon Emes
Sub-Principal
Niels Dittmann
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
Petia Atanasova
*Liu-Yi Retallick
*Freya Franzen
SECOND VIOLIN
Section Principal
*Graeme Norris
Co-Principal
Timothy Peters
Assistant Principal
Luisa Hyams
Catalina Alvarez
Chia-Nan Hung
Anastasia Kiseleva
Stefan Kocsis
Ling Yunzhi
Ionut Mazareanu
Yanbo Zhao
Ai Jin
Robert Kopelman
*Ikuko Takahashi
*Kylie Liang
CELLO
Co-Principal
Csaba Kőrös
Assistant Principal
Steven Retallick
Sub-Principal
Mátyás Major
Gerald Davis
Julie Dessureault
Laurentiu Gherman
Elizabeth Tan Suyin
Sejla Simon
COR ANGLAIS
Principal
*Jennifer Shark
TRUMPET
Co-Principal
William Theis
Sub-Principal
*Jeffrey Missal
Assistant Principal
John Bourque
TROMBONE
Section Principal
*Ricardo Molla
Sub-Principal
*Marques Young
CLARINET
Section Principal
Gonzalo Esteban
Co-Principal
*Oliver Casanovas
Sub-Principal
Matthew Larsen
BASS TROMBONE
Principal
Zachary Bond
BASS CLARINET
Principals
Chris Bosco
*Catherine Cahill
TIMPANI
Section Principal
Matthew Thomas
DOUBLE BASS
Section Principal
Wolfgang Steike
Co-Principal
Joseph Pruessner
BASSOON
Section Principal
Alexandar Lenkov
Sub-Principal
Orsolya Juhasz
Raffael Bietenhader
Jun-Hee Chae
Naohisa Furusawa
John Kennedy
Foo Yin Hong
Andreas Dehner
CONTRABASSOON
Principal
Vladimir Stoyanov
FLUTE
Section Principal
Hristo Dobrinov
Co-Principal
Yukako Yamamoto
Sub-Principal
Rachel Jenkyns
Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS
HORN
Section Principals
Grzegorz Curyla
*Saul Lewis
Co-Principal
James Schumacher
Sub-Principals
Laurence Davies
*Anton Schroeder
Assistant Principal
Sim Chee Ghee
TUBA
Section Principal
Brett Stemple
PERCUSSION
Section Principal
Matthew Prendergast
Sub-Principal
Matthew Kantorski
HARP
Principal
Tan Keng Hong
Sub-Principal
*Bryan Lee
PIANO
*Wong Shwen Da
*Sylvia Loh
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Nor Raina Yeong Abdullah
CEO’S OFFICE
Hanis Abdul Halim
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
At Ziafrizani Chek Pa
Fadzleen Fathy
Nurartikah Ilyas
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MARKETING
Yazmin Lim Abdullah
Hisham Abdul Jalil
Munshi Ariff
Farah Diyana Ismail
Noor Sarul Intan Salim
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT
Asmahan Abdullah
Jalwati Mohd Noor
Music TALENT DEVELOPMENT &
MANAGEMENT
Soraya Mansor
PLANNING, FINANCE & IT
Mohd Hakimi Mohd Rosli
Norhisham Abd Rahman
Siti Nur Illyani Ahmad Fadzillah
PROCUREMENT & CONTRACT
Logiswary Raman
Norhaszilawati Zainudin
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT &
ADMINISTRATION
Sharhida Saad
Muknoazlida Mukhadzim
Zatil Ismah Azmi
Nor Afidah Nordin
Nik Nurul Nadia Nik Abdullah
TECHNICAL OPERATIONS
Firoz Khan
Mohd Zamir Mohd Isa
Yasheera Ishak
Shahrul Rizal M Ali
Dayan Erwan Maharal
Zolkarnain Sarman
Malaysian Philharmonic
Orchestra
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Nor Raina Yeong Abdullah
general manager
Timothy Tsukamoto
ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT
Amy Yu Mei Ling
Tham Ying Hui
ARTISTIC ADMINISTRATION
Khor Chin Yang
MUSIC LIBRARY
Sharon Francis Lihan
Ong Li-Huey
EDUCATION & OUTREACH
Shafrin Sabri
Shireen Jasin Mokhtar
MALAYSIAN PHILHARMONIC YOUTH
ORCHESTRA
Ahmad Muriz Che Rose
Fadilah Kamal Francis
Note: Sectional string players are listed alphabetically and rotate within their sections. *Extra musician.
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