CONCERT PROGRAMMEANNIVERSARY SPECIAL SEASON

Fri 17 Aug 2018 at 8.30 pmSat 18 Aug 2018 at 8.30 pm (Gala Concert )

Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra

Jac van Steen, conductorTengku Irfan, conductor/piano

PROGRAMME

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 © 2018 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.

The Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) gave its inaugural performance at Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS (DFP) on 17 August 1998. With the initial search for outstanding musicians involving a worldwide audition tour, the result was a symphony orchestra made up of musicians from 25 nations, including 6 from Malaysia, a remarkable example of harmony among different cultures and nationalities.

A host of internationally-acclaimed musicians has performed with the MPO including Lorin Maazel, Sir Neville Marriner, Yehudi Menuhin, Joshua Bell, Harry Connick Jr., José Carreras, Andrea Bocelli, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Chris Botti 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 an exciting 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, traditional, 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), Japan (2001, 2009 and 2017), Korea (2001), Australia (2004), China (2006), Taiwan (2007) and Vietnam (2013).

Its Education and Outreach Programme, ENCOUNTER, reaches beyond the concert platform to develop musical awareness and appreciation through dedicated activities at such diverse venues as schools, colleges, hospitals, orphanages and other community centres.

The MPO’s commitment to furthering musical interest in the nation has been the creation of the Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (MPYO); its inaugural concert at DFP on 25 August 2007 was followed by a tour in Peninsular Malaysia. It has performed in Sabah and Sarawak (2008), Singapore (2009 and 2017), Brisbane, Australia (2012), Kedah (2013) and Johor Baru (2014). The MPO has also released 21 commercial CDs.

As it celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2018, 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 YABhg. Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah Haji Mohd Ali.

INTERVAL 20 mins

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade 47 mins

Bartered Bride Overture 7 mins

Carnival Overture 9 mins

Piano Concerto No. 1 35 mins

(to be conducted by Tengku Irfan)

SMETANADVOŘÁK

TCHAIKOVSKY

MALAYSIANPHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

TENGKU IRFANMPO Youth Brand Ambassador conductor/piano

Praised by the New York Times as “eminently cultured” and possessing “sheer incisiveness and power”,Tengku Irfan, 20, began piano lessonsat 7 and made his debut at 11, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto WoO4 and improvising his own cadenzas with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) at Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS (DFP) in 2009. He has performed under Neeme Järvi, Robert Spano, George Stelluto, Nikolai Alexeev and Jeffrey Milarsky, among others. Previous performances include at the Montreal la Virée classique Festival (invitation from Kent Nagano), with AXIOM, Aspen Chamber Symphony, the Juilliard, Singapore Symphony, São Paulo State Youth, Estonian National Symphony, Peoria Symphony and Aspen Philharmonic orchestras, among others. He won the Aspen Music Festival 2013 Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 Competition, followed by performances of this concerto worldwide. He served his fourth consecutive year as resident pianist for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble in 2017.

After winning the 2012 ASCAP Charlotte Bergen and ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, his composition Sahibul Hikayat Fantasy Overture (world premiered by the MPO) won his second Morton Gould Award in 2014. His orchestral piece, Keraian, was commissioned and premiered by the New York Philharmonic. His work has been commissioned by Harold Rosenbaum and the New York Virtuoso Singers, Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (MPYO) and Singapore Symphony Orchestras. Kristjan Järvi and MDR Sinfonieorchester commissioned Vivacity which was world premiered at the Leipzig Gewandhaus for the Leipzig Bachfest 2016. It won his third ASCAP Morton Gould Award in 2017. In 2015, he made his conducting debut with the MusicaNova Orchestra with the premiere of his string orchestral piece Nocturne. He conducted the premiere of his Pengembaraan Minda dan Kenyataan at Lincoln Center, New York. He made his conducting debut at DFP and the Esplanade Singapore with the MPYOin 2017. In conjunction with the MPO’s 20th Season Anniversary, Irfan was appointed as the MPO Youth Brand Ambassador to cultivate appreciation in classical music among the new generation and inspire young musicians. Irfan is a double major in piano and composition under Yoheved Kaplinsky and Robert Beaser respectively at Juilliard, and studies conducting with George Stelluto and Jeffrey Milarsky. He studied composition with Ira Taxin in Juilliard Pre-College. Irfan served as a Teaching Artist Intern in the New York Philharmonic Composer’s Bridge Program, and is a recipient of a Kovner Fellowship at Juilliard.

JAC VAN STEENconductor

Jac van Steen was born inThe Netherlands and studied orchestra and choir conducting at the Brabants Conservatory of Music. Since participating in the BBC Conductors Seminar in 1985, he enjoys a very busy career and conducts the best orchestras in Europe, which included the posts of Music Director and Chief Conductor of the National Ballet ofThe Netherlands, the orchestras of Bochum, Nürenberg, Staatskapelle Weimar, The Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra of Dortmund, Musikkollegium Winterthur and Principal Guest conductor at the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. At present, he is Principal Guest conductor of the Ulster Orchestra and Prague Symphony Orchestra. He made his debut with Opera North in 2013 as well as with the Volksoper in Vienna. In 2015, he has made a very succesful début at the Garsington Opera. He returned to Opera North with performances of Puccini’s Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica, the Volksoper Vienna with Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane and Garsington Opera in 2017 with Debussy's Pelléas and Mélisande. He visits the UK regularly with the Britisorchestras such as

the Philharmonia Orchestra, the CBSO, Royal Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra and made his debut in Tokyo with the New Japan Philharmonic. He participates in numerous recordings for the BBC, as well as 'live' broadcasts of his concerts. There are a substantial number of CD recordings of his work with various orchestras.

Besides his activities as conductor, he is dedicated to teaching and is Professor for Conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague. He also regularly works with the Royal Northern College of Music and Chetham’s School of Music (Manchester) as well as the Royal Academy and Royal College of Music (London). In May to June this year, he leads the Jette Park Young Artists showcase as organised by the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London.

(C) Simon van Boxtel

PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op.23 (1874)

I. Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso - Allegro con spirito II. Andante semplice - Prestissimo - Andante semplice III. Allegro con fuoco

On Christmas Eve 1874, Tchaikovsky sat before his friend, the conductor and pianist Nicolai Rubinstein, at the Moscow Conservatory to play for him the piano concerto he had almost completed. “I played the first movement. Not a single remark! … Then a torrent poured forth from Nicolai, gentle at first, then growing more and more into

the sound of Jupiter … my concerto was worthless and unplayable.” Tchaikovsky’s description goes on at great length. Obviously, he was insulted and deeply hurt, but resolved to publish the concerto anyway. As a result of the bad feelings between Rubinstein and the composer, the dedication was changed to Hans von Bülow,

ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK (1841-1904)Carnival Overture, Op.92 (1891)

The whirl and frenetic bustle of Carnival season (most of February) and the spirit of revelry associated with amusement shows have been depicted on numerous occasions in music. The best-known expressions of the carnival spirit in orchestral terms are probably Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture and Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio italien, with Dvořák’s overture not far behind.

Dvořák conceived his work on this subject as the central part of a triptych of overtures portraying feelings aroused in him by “three great creative forces of the universe -

Nature, Life and Love. The sounds of merrymaking, laughter and revelry (or, if you will, the hurly-burly of life) are instantly conjured up in the arresting opening bars. When the bustle and noise subside, the violins then sing a passionate, lyrical theme in E minor, followed by still another idea presented first by violins, then by woodwinds. Suddenly the mood is shattered by the upward sweepings of an instrument hitherto unheard, the harp, which leads into the central slow section. The melodic material of the Allegro section is then developed, followed by a return to the whirl of gaiety with which the overture opened. Dvořák himself was apparently carried away by the exuberance of the coda, which several times seems to be on the verge of ending, only to rush on with even more wild abandon.

BEDŘICH SMETANA (1824-1884)Overture to The Bartered Bride (1866)

The Bartered Bride is generally regarded as one of the half dozen or so best comic operas in the repertory. Strong musical characterizations, exuberant dances, earthy evocations of rural life in nineteenth-century Bohemia, humour, melodic invention, brilliant orchestration … this opera has it all. Not only that; it serves as a symbol of the Czech nation and its people, while its composer has been hailed as “one of the chief builders of modern Czech civilization, one of the chief creators of Czech history” (Vladimir Helfert). Walter Ducloux’s description of the merry overture sets the tone for an evening of pure delight:

“An offbeat leap upward, a precarious teetering as if of a boy on a swaying tightrope, a riotous tumble earthward, amid the high-spirited crowd of Bohemian peasants. It is the day of the spring fair, when the circus is coming to town. A lusty fugue describes the joyous hubbub, absorbing one group after another in happy anticipation. Some moments of respite from the merry turmoil lead to a spell of tender lyricism, like a camera zooming in on two young lovers among a carefree crowd. Soon the lively noise resumes to close the overture brilliantly”.

wikipedia.org

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PROGRAMME NOTES

17 August marks a singular day in the history of the MPO. Exactly twenty years ago,17 August 1998, the orchestra gave its first concert at Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS. It was a memorable event, one being commemorated tonight in a special programme of music infused with exceptional verve and brilliance. Soloist in what may be the world’s most popular piano concerto is Malaysia’s own Wunderkind, Tengku Irfan, who was also born 20 years ago. Two Czechs and two Russians are the composers on tonight’s programme. The Czechs are represented by an overture each – a generous way to open a concert, to be sure. The Russians are represented by concerted works – Tchaikovsky by piano, Rimsky-Korsakov by violin (serving as the voice of the lovely, mysterious Scheherazade). As it happens, all four composers were born within a 20-year time span (1824-1844). So, here’s cheers to twenty years! wikipedia.org

NICOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844-1908)Scheherazade, Op.35 (1888)

I. The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship (Largo e maestoso - Allegro non troppo) II. The Story of the Kalander Prince (Lento - Andantino - Allegro molto - Vivace scherzando) III. The Young Prince and the Princess (Andantino quasi allegretto) IV. Festival at Baghdad; The Sea; The Ship Goes to Pieces on a Rock Surmounted by a Bronze Warrior; Conclusion (Allegro molto - Vivo - Allegro non troppo e maestoso - Tempo come I)

The two hundred or so dramatically linked stories that constitute the Thousand and One Nights (or Arabian Nights) originated in Eastern lands centuries ago.The stories were handed down over the years and embroidered by each storyteller in his or her own fashion. A raconteuse named Scheherazade provided a convenient framework on which to drape a rich and colourful tapestry of these stories, folk tales, poems and dramatic narratives. In the form she related them, we are indebted to the misogynistic Persian king Shahriar.

Having been outraged by his faithless wife, Shahriar resolved to avenge himself on the entire female population of his city. Each night he would marry a beautiful young woman, only to kill her the following day. After some time,

a girl of exceptional charm, wit and intelligence came forward with a plan to end this reign of terror. She offered herself to the King as his next bride, and the King gladly accepted, though he warned her that she would die on the following day. When bedtime approached, the girl began to relate an enthralling story to the King, but broke off just at the most exciting part, with a promise to continue the next day. The King postponed her execution so as to hear the outcome of this story, but the girl repeated her tactic the following night, and the night after that to a total of a thousand nights. By this time, she had borne him a son, the King had come to love her, and he finally renounced his categorical hatred of women. The Queen had in the meantime won the love and gratitude of the people as well, and they named her Scheherazade, which means “Savior of the City”.

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who performed it on a tour of the United States. The world premiere, on 25 October 1875, took place then, not in Russia but in Boston. It was a great popular success, and this work went on to become the world’s most popular piano concerto. Even Rubinstein changed his mind in later years and performed the concerto often.

Another curious fact about this work: its most famous theme, that beautiful, lyrical song played by the violins just after the opening horn fanfare, is used as introductory material only, and never returns. Furthermore, this theme occurs in the key of D flat major, not in the key of the concerto, B flat minor.

Wondrous to hear were Scheherazade’s marvelous tales of intrigue and adventure set in exotic lands. Rimsky-Korsakov, with his masterful ability to exploit dazzling orchestral colours and sonorities, was just the composer to set these tales to music. Scheherazade, his four-movement “narrative” of scenes from the Arabian Nights, was written during the summer of 1888. It was first performed in St. Petersburg on 22 October 1888 with the composer conducting. A lengthy description of each movement would serve little purpose; the individual imagination must be free to roam. Nevertheless, one cannot miss the recurring “voice” of the lovely, seductive, mysterious Scheherazade, represented by a sinuous theme played by the solo violin, just one of the many tantalizing touches of orchestration found in the splendidly tinted score.

all photo credits: glorialana.com

The Sea and Sindbad’s Ship

The Story of the Kalandar Prince

The Young Prince and the Young Princess

DEWAN FILHARMONIK PETRONAS – 462692-X MALAYSIAN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA – 463127-H

Note: Sectional string players are rotated within their sections. *Extra musician.

MALAYSIAN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

DEWAN FILHARMONIK PETRONAS

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERFiroz Khan Mohd Yunus

BUSINESS & MARKETINGMANAGEMENTYazmin Lim Abdullah

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTWan Yuzaini Wan Yahya At Ziafrizani Chek PaNurartikah IlyasKartini Ratna Sari Ahmat AdamAishah Sarah Ismail Affendee

MARKETING Munshi Ariff Abu HassanHisham Abdul JalilFarah Diyana IsmailNoor Sarul Intan SalimMuhammad Shahrir AizatAhmad Kusolehin Adha Kamaruddin

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPMANAGEMENTYayuk Yulianawati RilaJalwati Mohd Noor

MUSIC TALENT DEVELOPMENT &MANAGEMENTSoraya Mansor

PLANNING, FINANCE & ITMohd Hakimi Mohd RosliNorhisham Abd RahmanSiti Nur Ilyani Ahmad FadzillahNurfharah Farhana Hashimi

PROCUREMENT & CONTRACTLogiswary RamanNorhaszilawati Zainudin

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT & ADMINISTRATIONSharhida SaadMas Arinah HamzahMuknoazlida MukhadzimNor Afidah NordinNik Nurul Nadia Nik Abdullah

TECHNICAL OPERATIONSFiroz Khan Mohd YunusMohd Zamir Mohd IsaShahrul Rizal Mohd AliDayan Erwan MaharalZolkarnain Sarman

MALAYSIAN PHILHARMONICORCHESTRA

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERFiroz Khan Mohd Yunus

GENERAL MANAGERKhor Chin YangSoraya Mansor

GENERAL MANAGER'S OFFICETimmy Ong

ARTISTIC ADMINISTRATION/ ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT/ MALAYSIAN PHILHARMONIC YOUTHORCHESTRAAhmad Muriz Che RoseSharon Francis LihanFadilah Kamal FrancisShireen Jasin MokhtarKatherine Tan Jia Yiing

MUSIC LIBRARYOng Li-HueyWong Seong SeongMuhamad Zaid Azzim Mohd Diah

EDUCATION & OUTREACHShireen Jasin MokhtarShafrin Sabri

RESIDENT CONDUCTORNaohisa Furusawa

FIRST VIOLINCo-ConcertmasterPeter DanišPrincipalMing GohCo-PrincipalZhenzhen Liang

Maho DanišMartijn NoomenSherwin ThiaRuna BaagöeMiroslav DanišEvgeny KaplanMarcel AndriesiiTan Ka MingPetia Atanasova*Seiki Ueno*Mariya Medvedeva*Tobias Gossmann*Marco Roosink

SECOND VIOLINSection PrincipalTimothy PetersAssistant PrincipalLuisa Hyams

Stefan KocsisAnastasia KiselevaCatalina AlvarezIonuț MazareanuChia-Nan HungYanbo ZhaoLing YunzhiRobert Kopelman*Babette van den Berg*Tan Poh Kim*Runa Matsuura*Marius Biclea*Yu Tao-Ming

VIOLACo-PrincipalGábor Mokány

Ong Lin KernSun YuanFan RanThian Ai WenEmil Csonka*Nozomi Oe*Rebecca Saxby*Ida Margit Kovács*Jebat Arjuna Kee Jia Liang*Carol Pendlebury*Ling Li Yen

CELLOCo-PrincipalCsaba KörösAssistant PrincipalSteven RetallickSub-PrincipalMátyás Major

Gerald DavisLaurențiu GhermanJulie DessureaultElizabeth Tan SuyinSejla Simon*Timothy Frank*Erika Kadi

DOUBLE BASSSection PrincipalWolfgang Steike

John KennedyJun-Hee ChaeNaohisa FurusawaRaffael BietenhaderAndreas Dehner*Heinz-Peter Graf*Douglas Rutherford

FLUTESection Principal*Catherine GregoryCo-PrincipalYukako YamamotoSub-PrincipalRachel Jenkyns

PICCOLOPrincipalSonia Croucher

OBOESection PrincipalSimon EmesSub-PrincipalsNiels Dittmann*Tania Ramos Morado*Bernice Lee Wen Ting

CLARINETSection PrincipalGonzalo EstebanCo-PrincipalDavid Dias da SilvaSub-PrincipalMatthew Larsen

BASS CLARINETPrincipalChris Bosco

BASSOONSection PrincipalAlexandar LenkovSub-PrincipalDenis Plangger

CONTRABASSOONPrincipalVladimir Stoyanov

HORNSection PrincipalsGrzegorz Curyla*Albert GalkaCo-PrincipalJames SchumacherSub-PrincipalsLaurence DaviesBarkin SönmezerAssistant PrincipalSim Chee Ghee

TRUMPETCo-PrincipalWilliam TheisSub-PrincipalJeffrey MissalAssistant PrincipalsMatthew Dempsey*Kenny Ooi Chia Fu

TROMBONEPrincipal*Dimo PishtyalovCo-PrincipalFernando Borja

BASS TROMBONEPrincipal*Aldwyn Tan Chor Guan

TUBAPrincipal*Jose M Redondo

TIMPANISection PrincipalMatthew Thomas

PERCUSSIONSection PrincipalMatthew PrendergastSub-PrincipalsJoshua Vonderheide*Kyle Ritenauer*Tan Su Yin*Matthew Kantorski

HARPPrincipalTan Keng Hong

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