Download concert programme 2016/17 season

CONCERT PROGRAMME
2016/17 SEASON
Sun 12 Feb 2017 at 3.00 pm
Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra
Naohisa Furusawa, conductor
PROGRAMME
DUKAS Fanfare to La Péri 4 mins
DVOŘÁK Serenade in D minor, Op.44 24 mins
INTERVAL 20 mins
TOURNIER
Prelude for Harp Duet Nos. 1 and 2, Op.16 4 mins
TCHAIKOVSKY Serenade for Strings in C major, Op.48 28 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.
Naohisa Furusawa
conductor
Naohisa Furusawa has been a member
of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra
(MPO) double bass section since 2003.
Born in Tokyo in 1973, he started to play
the violin when he was four years old
and later joined his junior high school
orchestra as a double bass player at age
12; his first conducting experiences were
with this orchestra. Later, he studied
double bass with Prof. Nobuo Shiga,
and piano and conducting with
Prof. Kazue Kamiya at Tokyo’s Toho
Gakuen School of Music.
Furusawa has performed as a double
bass player with the NHK Symphony,
Yomiuri Nihon Symphony, Tokyo
Metropolitan Symphony and several
other orchestras, under the direction of
many conductors including Seiji Ozawa,
Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Horst Stein, Lorin Maazel, Herbert
Blomstedt, Pierre Boulez and Valery Gergiev.
In 1998, Furusawa was awarded a scholarship from the Cultural Affairs Agency
of Japan to study double bass at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. He has
conducted Beethoven’s 9th Symphony five times with Tokyo’s MAX Philharmonic
Orchestra. He also conducted Mahler’s Second Symphony with the MAX
Philharmonic to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second
World War.
He has conducted many young musician ensembles including MPO’s Encounter
Training Ensemble and the Miri Tutti Project in East Malaysia as part of the MPO’s
Education and Outreach Programme.
PROGRAMME NOTES
Two serenades form the heart of this MPYO programme, one featuring wind
instruments, the other strings. Each is a masterly creation written by a great
melodist. Although both compositions exude a sunny disposition, their authors
could not have been more different in their personal lives: Dvořák was among
the happiest and least complicated of the late romantic composers, while
Tchaikovsky positively wallowed in neuroses, melancholy and wild mood swings.
Introducing the concert is a bright little fanfare by Dukas.
PAUL DUKAS (1865-1935)
Fanfare to La Péri (1912)
The Background
French composer Paul Dukas showed an early predilection for dramatic subjects.
His first important composition was an overture to a stage work, Corneille’s
Polyeucte (1891). Over the next thirty years, he turned out a number of finelycrafted, poetically-inspired works. He also made his mark as a conductor, essayist,
professor of composition and orchestration, and arts administrator. But despite
all these public activities, he remained a very private person, and would not even
permit photographs of himself to be published.
The Music
La Péri (1912) was Dukas’ last important work. He called it a “Poème dansé”,
by which he meant not just an ordinary ballet score, but rather a symphonic poem
with a choreographic interpretation, an approach Ravel was pursuing in Daphnis et
Chloé at almost precisely the same time. Concertgoers who admire the sumptuous
orchestral effects and the atmosphere of magic and fantasy of The Sorcerer’s
Apprentice, Dukas' most famous work, will find even more to enjoy in La Péri, which
is twice as long (the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra performed music from La
Péri this past November). The story revolves around a Persian king, Iskender, who
seeks the Flower of Immortality from a beautiful, fairy-like creature (a peri). Today’s
concert offers only a teaser for the musical riches to be found in this score through
the brief but splendid brass fanfare that precedes the rise of the curtain, and is often
performed independently of the ballet score.
ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK (1841-1904)
Serenade in D minor, Op.44 (1878)
I. Moderato, quasi marcia
II. Tempo di menuetto – Trio: Presto – Tempo di menuetto
III. Andante con moto
IV. Finale: Allegro molto
The Background
Dvořák was no revolutionary. He wrote
in an essentially conservative style,
respecting the forms inherited from
Beethoven and Brahms. But he was
one of the first of the great musical
nationalists, incorporating the rhythms,
colours and melodic idioms of his
native Bohemia into much of his music.
In addition, he was one of the great
melodists of music history, a close rival
to Schubert, and many of his works
fairly bubble over with melodic invention.
This includes the Serenade we hear this
afternoon.
Most concertgoers would agree that the Serenade in D minor is one of his most
agreeable and sunniest creations. Why then is it heard so seldom in the concert
hall? A glance at the instrumentation reveals the answer: it is too large for any of the
traditional chamber ensembles to handle, and too small for a symphony orchestra
– even one of modest size – to bother with. But happily the MPYO has thrown
convention to the winds and offers listeners a composition for the unique ensemble
of two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon (optional), three horns,
cello and double bass.
Although an Op.44 would imply that the composer was well along in his career
by this time (he was 36), Dvořák was still relatively unknown as a composer. It
is Brahms we have to thank for changing this. Brahms persuaded his publisher
Simrock to accept some works by Dvořák for publication, including this Serenade
and the first set of Slavonic Dances, Op.46. The Dances were a huge success, and
Dvořák quickly found himself famous. The first performance was given in Prague on
17 November 1878.
The Music
The Serenade opens with a sturdy march, a throwback to eighteenth century
serenades in which the ensemble would enter the performing area to a march, play
the serenade (or divertimento or cassation – the terms were nearly synonymous)
and exit to the same march. The contrasting central episode is in F major.
The second movement is marked “Menuetto” but its true spirit is the Czech folk
dance known as a sousedská (neighbours’ dance). Its trio resembles the Czech
furiant, another indigenous dance which Dvořák used in several of his symphonies
and Slavonic Dances. The romantic slow movement exploits the warmest colours of
the ensemble, and the last movement consists of an exuberant romp through some
highly technical writing, a return to the opening march, and a final flourish of fanfares
from all the instruments.
PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Serenade for Strings in C major, Op.48 (1880)
I. Piece in the Form of a Sonatina: Andante non troppo ̶ Allegro moderato
II. Waltz: Moderato, tempo di valse
III. Elegy: Larghetto elegiaco
IV. Finale: (Russian theme) Andante – Allegro con spirito
The Background
In 1880, Tchaikovsky was busy writing the tremendously noisy, brash, extroverted
Overture, 1812. Concurrently he composed one of his most genial and intimate
scores, the Serenade for Strings. The composer had little enthusiasm for the former
work, written more or less as a social obligation (“It has no great artistic value”,
he told his benefactress Nadezhda von Meck), but he regarded the Serenade
as one of the finest things he had done up to that time. “I wrote it from an inward
impulse”, he wrote to von Meck. “I felt it deeply and venture to hope that this work
is not without artistic qualities”. To his publisher Jurgenson he wrote, shortly after it
was finished, “I am violently in love with this work, and can’t wait for it to be played”.
Originally, Tchaikovsky planned to make a symphony out of the musical material he
had sketched, then changed it to a string quartet, thought about a suite, and finally
settled on the title Serenade as an homage to the eighteenth century in general
and to Mozart (his favourite composer) in particular (seven years later he was to
write his orchestral suite Mozartiana). “Serenade” is just the right description for this
thoroughly delightful work of four contrasting movements of concise structure.
On the occasion of the first performance, a private one with a student orchestra
in late 1880, Tchaikovsky’s former teacher Anton Rubinstein pronounced it his
finest writing to date. The first public performance was given on 30 October 1881
in St. Petersburg with Eduard Napravnik conducting. The appreciative audience
demanded an encore of the Waltz movement, which has since become one of
Tchaikovsky’s best-known pieces.
The Music
Tchaikovsky called the opening movement “my homage to Mozart; it is intended to
be an imitation of his style, and I should be delighted if I thought I had in any way
approached my model”. There is an extended slow introduction based on a chorale
theme which returns twice in the Serenade, once at the end of this movement, and
again near the end of the final movement. The main part of the movement is in
sonatina form – an abridged sonata-form movement without development section.
The second movement is the aforementioned famous waltz, a lilting creation that
bears eloquent testimony to the composer’s love of things Viennese.
A romantic interlude in the form of an elegy constitutes the third movement.
The Finale begins with a transcription of a folk song, a hauling song of the Volga
boatmen. The Allegro con spirito portion of the movement also uses a folk song,
this one a lively street ditty from the Moscow region. Its melodic profile strongly
resembles that of the Serenade’s slow introduction, which indeed does make
a final appearance before the work ends with a flourish.
MALAYSIAN PHILHARMONIC YOUTH ORCHESTRA
VIOLIN
Andrea Sim Yi Xian
Joey Young
Joshua Chew Caleb
Lee Jin Yen Nicole Leong Ka Yeng
Soon Wern-Shynn
Elle Chang Su-Ting
Low Zi Yang
Timothy Song
Hoi Khai-Weing
Azhad Sulaiman
Wong How Yuen
Lee Yan Xing
VIOLA
Lee Yuan Hui
Chanel Lee Lynn
CELLO
Joshua Sin Te Sheng
Lee Pu-Yen
Charissa Tan Tian Ai
Nathalie Kwan
Charlene Lee-Ann
FLUTE
Bonnie Kong Tien Li
Chiu Peng Chong
Japeth Law Sze Cheng
Wooi Wei Kane
OBOE
Tunku Amanina
Tho Jun Meng
CLARINET
Emily Tiow Yu Xian
Ho Kok Yoon
Lim Yong Jia
Tang Kit Ying
BASSOON
Stephen Mak Wai Soon
FRENCH HORN
Chloe Chai Mei Qin
Eric Tiow Xian Liang
Mohd Adznan Mokhtar
TRUMPET
Liow Wen Xiang
BASS
Gillian Too
Yong Yoon May
TROMBONE
Teh Yoong Wei
Ahmad Rizqin Nazhif
Zainol Abidin
Note: Musicians are listed alphabetically and rotate within their sections.
PIANO
Tengku Mohd Hadif
Choong See May
HARP
Madelaine Chong Zhia Chee
Kathrina Chair Ping Jieh
Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS
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TECHNICAL OPERATIONS
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Zolkarnain Sarman
Malaysian Philharmonic
Orchestra
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ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT
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EDUCATION & OUTREACH
Shafrin Sabri
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MALAYSIAN PHILHARMONIC YOUTH
ORCHESTRA
Ahmad Muriz Che Rose
Fadilah Kamal Francis
Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra
Naohisa Furusawa, conductor
Classical Kids Live!, presenter
SAT 25 FEB 2017 3:00PM
SUN 26 FEB 2017 2:30PM & 4:30PM
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