The Mermaid - Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra

Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra
The Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra
(MPO) gave its inaugural performance
at Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS
(DFP), Kuala Lumpur, on 17
August 1998. The initial search for
outstanding musicians involved a
worldwide audition tour. The result
was a symphony orchestra made
up of musicians from 25 nations – 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. and
Andrea Bocelli, 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 Specials, Pops,
Family Fun Day, Chamber and Happy
Hour series. It regularly presents
specially commissioned new music
and successfully collaborates with
local and international artists.
The MPO regularly visits the major
cities of Malaysia. Internationally, it
has been to Singapore, Japan and
Korea (2001), Australia (2004), China
(2006), Taiwan (2007), Japan (2009)
and Vietnam (2013). The MPO’s
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 arranges 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).The MPYO gave
its inaugural concert at DFP on 25
August 2007, followed by a highlysuccessful tour of several cities in
Peninsular Malaysia. In 2008, the
MPYO toured Sabah and Sarawak,
visited Singapore in 2009, and
Brisbane, Australia, in 2012.
As it celebrates its 17th Anniversary on
17 August 2015, the Orchestra 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.
Fri 4 Mar 2016 at 8.30 pm
Sat 5 Mar 2016 at 8.30 pm
Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra
Kazuki Yamada, conductor
Pacho Flores, trumpet
PROGRAMME
BRAHMS
Serenade No. 2 in A major, Op. 16 29 mins
HAYDN
Trumpet Concerto in E flat major 13 mins
Interval 20 mins
ZEMLINSKY Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid )
45 mins
BIOGRAPHIES
KAZUKI
YAMADA
Conductor
Kazuki Yamada is Principal Conductor and Artistic Director Designate of the Orchestre
Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre de
la Suisse Romande. In Japan, he holds positions as Principal Conductor of the Japan
Philharmonic, Music Partner with the Sendai Philharmonic and Ensemble Orchestral
Kanazawa, and Music Director of the Yokohama Sinfonietta.
Yamada appears regularly with the Orchestre de Paris, Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester
Berlin, St Petersburg, Helsinki and Czech Philharmonics, Gothenburg and Utah
Symphonies, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, and Tonkünstler-Orchester
at the Vienna Musikverein. He has worked with Emmanuel Ax, Boris Berezovsky,
Håkan Hardenberger, Nobuko Imai, Daishin Kashimoto, Daniel Müller-Schott,
Xavier de Maistre, Steven Osborne, Vadim Repin, Baiba Skride, Jean-Yves
Thibaudet, Simon Trpčeski and Alexander Kniazev.
In the 2015/16 season, Yamada returns to the Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre
Na-tional de France, Tonkünstler-Orchester, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, NHK
and City of Birmingham Symphonies. His debuts include with the Staatskapelle Dresden,
Bergen Philharmonic, West Australian Symphony Orchestra and at the Grand Théâtre
de Genève. He continues his cycle of Mahler symphonies with the Japan Philharmonic.
Active in the field of opera, he will be performing La Traviata, Carmen and Rusalka
in Japan. Strongly supported by Seiji Ozawa, in 2012 he conducted a semi-staged
production of Honegger’s Jeanne d´arc with the Saito-Kinen Orchestra. In 2015,
the project was a huge hit in Côme de Bellescize’s staged version at the Philharmonie
hall in Paris with the Orchestre de Paris and actress Marion Cotillard.
Yamada and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande are releasing recordings inspired
by dance, French ballet and works of Manuel de Falla. In 2014, he released a disc of
works by Glazunov, Kalinnikov and Khatchaturian with the Czech Philharmonic.
He is the Music Director of Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus which has released ten CDs.
Now a resident in Berlin, Yamada was born in Kanagawa, Japan, in 1979. In 2009,
he was the winner of the 51st Besançon International Competition for young conductors.
BIOGRAPHIES
BIOGRAPHIES
Francisco ‘Pacho’ Flores is the first prize winner at the Maurice André, Philip Jones and
Citta di Porcia international competitions. A product of the groundbreaking Venezuelan
System of Youth and Children Orchestras (El Sistema), he is increasingly recognized
for his outstanding performances and recordings that span the solo, chamber and
orchestral repertories, and is equally at home with classical and folk genres.
He has appeared with the Kiev and Osaka Philharmonics, St. Petersburg Camerata,
Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Orchestré de la Garde Républicaine, and the NHK and
Tokyo Symphonies. He has given recitals at New York's Carnegie Hall, Paris’ Salle
Pleyel, and Tokyo Opera City.
A founding member of the Venezuelan Simón Bolívar Brass Quintet, he has toured with
them in Europe, South America, the USA and Japan.
Flores has played principal trumpet in the Simón Bolívar Orchestra, Saito Kinen
Orchestra and Miami Symphony under the direction of Claudio Abbado, Sir Simon
Rattle, Seiji Ozawa, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and Gustavo
Dudamel. A founding director of the Latin American Trumpet Academy in Caracas,
he mentors young musicians, is a frequent guest at conservatories and serves on
juries at international competitions.
An avid champion of new music, his repertoire includes commissions and premieres
of works by Roger Boutry, Efraín Oscher, Giancarlo Castro, Santiago Báez and Juan
Carlos Nuñez y Sergio Bernal. His first album, La trompeta Venezolana, was released
by GUATACA Producciones.
A Stomvi artist, Flores performs with instruments tailored specially for him by this firm
and participates in the development and innovation of their instruments. He recently
became an exclusive artist with Deutsche Grammophon.
PACHO
FLORES
Trumpet
PROGRAMME NOTES
Tonight’s programme consists of three works each unique in some way. Brahms’
Serenade No. 2 may well be his least-known purely orchestral work, though no
Brahms-lover could live without it. Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto is not only his most
famous concerto for any instrument, it is the most famous trumpet concerto in the entire
repertory. Alexander Zemlinsky may not be a name known to most concertgoers, but
few are going to be unmoved by the surging romanticism, splendiferous orchestration,
and yearning melodies of Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid), a 45-minute symphonic
poem based on a fairy tale and drenched in hyper-romantic expressivity.
JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Serenade No. 2 in A major, Op. 16 (1859)
I. Allegro moderato
II. Scherzo: Vivace
III. Adagio non troppo
IV. Quasi menuetto
V. Rondo: Allegro
The Background
Brahms’s Serenade No. 2 reflects a relaxed,
intimate world of genial sentiments and
warm sonorities, violas being the highest
voice in the strings (no violins!), with clarinets
and bassoons the predominant wind colours.
It was first performed in 1860 by the Hamburg
Philharmonic conducted by the composer. Brahms
himself had high regard for the work, which is
significant in light of his severe self-criticism.
en.wikipedia.org
The Music
The Serenade’s opening theme ̶ that soft, warm glow of clarinets and bassoons
̶ sets the tone for the entire work. Brahms will use this sonority more than any
other in the Serenade. The second theme too goes initially to the clarinets, a
gently rocking idea that seems distantly related to the Hungarian Dances. The
second movement has been compared to the Czech furiant (a national dance) for
its bouncing syncopations and cross-play of two beats against three. The deeply
serious third movement is the darkest and most sombre of the five. Its most
characteristic element is an ostinato (a steadily repeated, short melodic pattern)
in the lower strings, over which winds develop a flowing theme. The beguiling
fourth movement suggests a minuet without actually being one. The joyous,
light-hearted finale includes an instrument exclusive to this movement, the piccolo,
as well as some memorable folk-like tunes.
www.007.comw
FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809)
Trumpet Concerto in E flat major (1796)
I. Allegro
II. Andante
III. Allegro
The Background
Haydn wrote his Trumpet Concerto in 1796
as a vehicle for the Viennese trumpet player
Anton Weidinger, who had recently invented a new
instrument with keys, permitting much greater freedom
en.wikipedia.org
in melodic writing for the instrument. Up until this point,
the trumpet’s range of pitches was restricted to the overtones
generated by the harmonic series. Weidinger’s invention incorporated
a system of five keys that could be operated by the player’s left hand. These keys
opened and closed holes drilled along the length of the tubing, much in the manner
of a modern clarinet or saxophone.
The Music
The concerto opens with the main theme played not with fanfare and brilliance, but in the
subdued tones of quiet violins. The soloist’s first entry is not to this theme, but rather on a few
“warm-up” notes during the orchestral exposition. The orchestra is no mere accompaniment
to the soloist; the whole movement is solidly constructed on symphonic principles,
almost on the level of a full-fledged symphony movement with trumpet obbligato.
The second movement is typically songful in nature, and exploits the soloist’s
new-found ability to play lyrical chromatic lines in its middle range.
The finale is chock full of sparkling humour, high spirits, dramatic surprises (sudden
alternation of loud and soft, full texture and thin), harmonic detours, and bravura work
for the soloist, a splendid and fitting conclusion to a path-breaking work.
ALEXANDER ZEMLINSKY (1871-1942)
Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid) (1901-1903)
I. Sehr mässig bewegt
II. Sehr bewegt, rauschend
III. Sehr gedehnt, mit schmerzvollem Ausdruck
The Background
Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Little Mermaid,”
published in 1837, was but one of about 170 stories the
great Dane wrote throughout the mid-nineteenth century,
www.ricordi.de
a collection that ranks among the finest achievements in world
literature. Such is the popular attraction of this story, about an aquatic
creature who longs to acquire a human soul, that her bronze statue, perched on a
rock in Copenhagen’s waterfront, has become Denmark’s best known icon.
PROGRAMME NOTES
In the early years of the twentieth century, the Viennese composer Alexander Zemlinsky
set this story to music in a 45-minute symphonic poem of ravishing beauty and sumptuous
orchestral colours. The first performance was given in Vienna on 25 January 1905.
A rich tapestry of motifs unifies the work. The languorous solo violin, the first melodic
material to evolve from the dark, primeval world suggested by the opening moments
of the score, surely represents the little mermaid herself. The theme heard most often
throughout Die Seejungfrau, the sea theme, is first encountered briefly in the unison
woodwinds, then in the strings. Another melody, this one strongly reminiscent of a
theme from the slow movement of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, might be associated
with the mermaid's longing for immortality.
The Music
Briefly recounted, the story is this, divided into three parts to correspond with the
divisions of Zemlinsky’s music:
Part I: Deep in the ocean lives the sea king with his six mermaid daughters, who learn
about the world of men living up above from their grandmother. Each daughter is
allowed a glimpse of this world upon reaching her fifteenth birthday. The youngest of
these daughters also yearns for an immortal soul, just like men have. When it comes
her turn to rise to the surface of the sea, she sees a ship bearing a handsome young
prince. A storm breaks out and destroys the ship, and he is in danger of drowning. The
mermaid brings the exhausted and unconscious prince to shore, but being a mermaid,
she cannot leave the water, and when the prince revives, he believes that a human girl
who has chanced to pass by was his saviour.
Part II: The mermaid has fallen desperately in love with the prince, and is willing to make
a great sacrifice to be with him. She goes to the sea witch, who gives her a potion that
will replace her tail with human legs, but in the process will leave her without a tongue.
After going through the terrible ordeal, she regains consciousness at the palace of the
prince, who finds her and befriends her, but cannot offer her the love he reserves for
the human girl he thinks saved him from drowning. As the mermaid is now mute,
she cannot explain the truth to him, and the prince eventually marries his assumed
rescuer, much to the grief of the little mermaid. Her quest for the prince’s love, and her
bid to become immortal through the eternal love of a human being, have both failed.
Part III: The little mermaid is devastated at this turn of events. Once more the sea witch
enters the picture. She presents a knife, which she instructs the mermaid to plunge into
the prince, thus releasing blood that will turn her feet back into a tail so she can return
to the sea world. The mermaid is about to follow these instructions, when, at the critical
moment, she throws the knife away, plunges into the sea and begins to dissolve.
As she looks up, she sees thousands of points of light, the daughters of the air flying
about. The mermaid has, through her nobility of soul and honourable character,
become one of them, and though these creatures are not yet immortal, they have
the capacity to become so. The little mermaid has fulfilled her quest – she will attain
immortality, just like humans.
Concert notes by Robert Markow
MALAYSIAN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
PRINCIPAL
CONDUCTOR
vacant
RESIDENT
CONDUCTOR
Ciarán McAuley
first violin
Co-Concertmaster
Peter Daniš
Principal
Ming Goh
Co-Principal
Zhenzhen Liang
Sub-Principal
Vira Nyezhentseva
Runa Baagöe
Maho Daniš
Miroslav Daniš
Evgeny Kaplan
Martijn Noomen
Sherwin Thia
Marcel Andriesii
Tan Ka Ming
*Ooi Khai Ern
SECOND VIOLIN
Co-Principal
Timothy Peters
Assistant Principal
Luisa Hyams
Catalina Alvarez
Chia-Nan Hung
Anastasia Kiseleva
Stefan Kocsis
Ling Yunzhi
Ionut Mazareanu
Tan Poh Kim
Yanbo Zhao
Ai Jin
Robert Kopelman
*Liu Yi Retallick
*Marco Roosink
VIOLA
Co-Principal
Gábor Mokány
Assistant Principal
Ayako Oya
Fumiko Dobrinov
Ong Lin Kern
Carol Pendlebury
Sun Yuan
Thian Aiwen
Fan Ran
Eliza Fluder
Julia Park
Mahmoud Hussein
*Eve Tang
CELLO
Co-Principal
Csaba Kőrös
Assistant Principal
Steven Retallick
Sub-Principal
Attila Pasztor
Gerald Davis
Julie Dessureault
Laurentiu Gherman
Tan Poh Joo
Elizabeth Tan Suyin
Sejla Simon
Mátyás Major
*Roeland Duijne
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
COR ANGLAIS
Principal
Denis Simonnet
CLARINET
Section Principal
Gonzalo Esteban
Co-Principal
*Luis Camara
Sub-Principals
Matthew Larsen
*Catherine Cahill
BASS CLARINET
Principal
Chris Bosco
BASSOON
Section Principal
Alexandar Lenkov
Sub-Principal
Orsolya Juhasz
CONTRABASSOON
Principal
Vladimir Stoyanov
HORN
Section Principal
Grzegorz Curyla
Co-Principal
James Schumacher
Sub-Principals
Laurence Davies
Todor Popstoyanov
Assistant Principal
Sim Chee Ghee
*Ong Yong Hang
TRUMPET
Co-Principal
William Theis
Sub-Principals
William Day
*Jeffrey Missal
Assistant Principal
John Bourque
TROMBONE
Section Principal
*Marques Young
Sub-Principals
Anthony Wise
*Bill Thomas
Bass Trombone
Principal
Zachary Bond
TUBA
Section Principal
Brett Stemple
TIMPANI
Matthew Thomas
PERCUSSION
Section Principal
Matthew
Prendergast
Sub-Principals
Darryl Littman
Matthew Kantorski
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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