CONCERT PROGRAMME 2015/16 SEASON

Sat 9 Apr 2016 at 8.30 pm Sun 10 Apr 2016 at 3.00 pm Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra Mark Wigglesworth, conductor Asier Polo, cello P R O G R A MME

DVORÁK Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 40 mins INTERVAL

20 mins

ELGAR Enigma Variations, Op. 36 29 mins WAGNER Excerpts from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg 18 mins

BIOGRAPHIES

MARK WIGGLESWORTH Conductor

Photo Credit: Ben Ealovega

Recognised internationally as a masterly interpreter, Mark Wigglesworth creates performances of great sophistication and rare beauty. His highly detailed readings always possess a controlled pacing and a finely considered architectural structure. He has forged enduring relationships with many top-level orchestras and opera houses across the world in repertoire ranging from Mozart to Tippett. He was appointed Music Director of English National Opera in 2015 and has worked with many leading orchestras and opera companies of the world. Born in Sussex, England, Wigglesworth studied music at Manchester University and conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 1992, he became Associate Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Other appointments included Principal Guest Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. In addition to working with most of the UK's orchestras, Wigglesworth has guest-conducted many of Europe's finest ensembles including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam, La Scala Filarmonica, Milan, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Rome,

Stockholm Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, Salzburg Camerata and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. He has been just as busy in North America, being invited to the Cleveland Orchestra, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, and the Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco and Boston Symphonies. In Australia, he has worked regularly with the Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras. Equally at home in the opera house, Wigglesworth started his operatic career with a period as Music Director of Opera Factory, London. Since then, he has worked regularly at Glyndebourne, Welsh National Opera, English National Opera, the Netherlands Opera, La Monnaie in Brussels, the Sydney Opera House, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In the studio, Wigglesworth's recordings have centred around a project with BIS Records to record all the symphonies of Shostakovich. This cycle has received critical acclaim throughout the world.

ASIER POLO Cello

Considered one of the most important Spanish cellists of his generation, Asier Polo has worked with many major international orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionalle della RAI, Dresdner Philharmonie, Orchestre de Paris, BBC and Louisiana Philharmonic, Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester, Berliner Symphoniker, Orquesta Nacional de México, Orquesta Sinfónica de Sao Paulo, Orquesta Nacional de España and the Basel Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of distinguished conductors including Pinchas Steinberg, Christian Badea, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Günther Herbig, Juanjo Mena, Antoni Wit and Anne Manson.

in demand to perform new compositions, he has a great interest in less-known repertoire. Gabriel Erkoreka, Luis de Pablo and Antón García Abril have dedicated works to Polo, who enjoys combining modern music with great classical repertoire.

He is a regular guest at prestigious festivals, including Schleswig-Holstein, Nantes, Ohrid, Biennale di Venezia, Rome, Lisbon, Morelia (Mexico), Granada and the Quincena Musical in San Sebastián.

He has given masterclasses in many countries including Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil. He is Artistic Director of Forum Musikae, the International Music Academy and Festival in Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid. Its aim is to raise young peoples’ interest in classical music and promote and support talented students with musical training.

He has appeared with great artists including Silvia Marcovici, Nicolás Chumachenco, Sol Gabetta, Isabelle van Keulen, Josep Colom, Eldar Nebolsin, Gerard Caussé, Cuarteto Janácek, Cuarteto Casals and Alfredo Kraus, who in his last years invited him to perform as soloist at his concerts, with engagements at Florence's Maggio Fiorentino, London’s Covent Garden, Zurich’s Tonhalle and Vienna’s Musikverein, as well as a successful Japan tour. Polo is devoted to contemporary music, especially from his native country. Always

Polo has recorded 14 discs for major labels including Naxos, Claves, RTVE and Marco Polo, playing major Spanish repertoire for cello. Born in Bilbao, Polo studied with Elisa Pascu, María Kliegel and Ivan Monighetti. He stood out as a promising young musician, winning first prizes at the National Young Musicians Competition in Spain.

He is currently professor at the Centro Superior de Música del País Vasco, ‘Musikene’ in San Sebastián and Artistic Director of the Music and Performing Arts Faculty of the Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio in Madrid. Polo plays a Francesco Ruggeri Cello (Cremona, 1689) purchased in collaboration with the Fundación Banco Santander.

PROGRAMME NOTES The three works on this programme all come from favourite composers of the late nineteenth century. Two of them, Dvořák’s supremely romantic Cello Concerto and Elgar’s Enigma Variations, were written in the very last years of the century, but give no inkling of the stylistic upheavals just around the corner. That we do not know the underlying enigma of Elgar’s variations prevents no one from enjoying their great beauty. Wagner’s warm-hearted Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is his only opera that exudes a mood of abundant joy and human warmth.

ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK (1841-1904) Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 (1892-1895) I. Allegro II. Adagio ma non troppo III. Finale: Allegro moderato The Background

Source:

Chandler B. Beach The New Student's Reference Work for Teachers Students and Families (Chicago, IL: F. E. Compton and Company, 1909)

Dvořák wrote his Cello Concerto, one of the three or four best-known in the repertory, mostly in the New World during his stint as director of the National Conservatory in New York (1892-1895). But unlike his New World Symphony, which is filled with references to American folk music, the Cello Concerto is infused with the spirit of the composer’s native Bohemia. By the end of his third season in New York, Dvořák longed deeply to return permanently to his homeland, and in fact completed the work there in 1895. The stimulus to write a Cello Concerto came from a performance Dvořák heard of Victor Herbert’s Second Cello Concerto in Brooklyn in l894 (Herbert was principal cellist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at the time). Dvořák was inspired by Herbert’s ability to juxtapose the sound of the solo cello with a large orchestra, a combination regarded at the time as particularly treacherous in terms of balance. Stimulus also came from Hanuš Wihan, a friend of Dvořák and the finest cellist in Bohemia. The concerto was written for Wihan, though not premiered by him. This honour went to Leo Stern, who played it in London on 19 March 1896 with the composer conducting. The Music Like many of Dvořák’s best large-scale works, the Cello Concerto brims with melodic invention of the highest calibre. The first movement’s principal theme, announced at the outset by clarinets, proves to be not only memorable in itself, but capable of almost infinite development and transformation by both orchestra and soloist. The same might be said of the gently flowing second theme as well, announced by the solo horn. The second movement, in ternary (ABA) form, is more subdued, though no less replete with exquisite lyricism. The strongly rhythmic character of the Finale suggests a Bohemian dance, though lyrical elements are not neglected. Reminiscences of the earlier movements appear before the final swell brings the concerto to a brilliant close.

Statue of Elgar with bicycle in Herefordshire

https://www.flickr.com/photos/brighton/7849730958

EDWARD ELGAR (1857-1934) Enigma Variations, Op.36 (1899) The Background The premiere of the Enigma Variations on 19 June 1899 marked the beginning of a new chapter in Elgar’s life. So quickly did Elgar’s fame spread now that he was knighted just five years after its premiere. He dedicated the score “to my friends pictured within”. The identities of those “friends pictured within” constitute one aspect of the title’s enigma. Following the stately theme are fourteen variations of twelve men and women who played important roles in Elgar’s musical and/or social life, plus Elgar’s wife and finally, at the end, himself. But there is another enigma to the Variations. Elgar never revealed “its ‘dark saying’ … through and over the whole set another and larger theme ‘goes’ but is not played.” This unplayed theme, a theme that “never appears,” has mystified the musical world for more than a century. Late in life, the composer gave a clue: the theme was “so well known that it was strange no one had discovered it”. Musicologists tried mapping all kinds of songs and popular melodies onto the Variations, with varying degrees of failure. The enigma remains. The Music The theme appears immediately in the violins as a gently rising and falling line. The second part of the theme is shared by strings and woodwinds. With no change of tempo we are introduced to Caroline Alice Elgar, the composer’s wife, who had “a romantic and delicate inspiration,” (Elgar’s words). The second variation describes a pianist warming up, the third is a caricature of an actor playing an old man in an amateur theatrical. The full orchestra is heard in the fourth variation describing “a man of abundant energy” (Elgar’s words). Next comes the portrayal of a man of depth and seriousness, then a violist, then the efforts of a piano teacher to instruct a hopeless student. By contrast, the eighth variation depicts the tranquil lifestyle of a gracious lady. Best-known of all the variations is the ninth, known as “Nimrod,” in which Elgar creates a noble and moving tribute to one of his dearest friends. “A dance of fairy-like lightness” (Elgar) is heard in the next variation, followed by the musical portrayal of the antics of a bulldog. The twelfth variation features the cello, the instrument of another of Elgar’s dearest friends. Elgar was even more enigmatic than usual in the penultimate variation, which he entitled simply ***. The asterisks replacing initials were eventually traced to Lady Mary Lygon, who was on a sea voyage to Australia at the time of composition. The final variation is about the composer himself. Here we see his assertive, self-assured side, not the more typical reserved side. The Enigma Variations end with exultant tones.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/File:Richard_Wagner_-_Enge_-_ Villa_Rieter_(Sch%C3%B6nbe rg)_2011-08-18_15-42-22.jpg

RICHARD WAGNER (1813-1883) Excerpts from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1862-1867) Prelude to Act III Dance of the Apprentices Entrance of the Mastersingers Prelude to Act I

Statue of Richard Wagner, Villa Rieter in Zürich-Enge (Switzerland)

The Background Wagner completed Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in 1867 and saw the first performance the following year in Munich conducted by Hans von Bülow. It draws for its inspiration on the historical figure of Hans Sachs (1494-1576) and the German Mastersingers – select members of trade guilds who flourished from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, and who were dedicated to upholding the sacred ideals of noble, creative art. The setting for the opera remains today much as it was in sixteenth-century Nürnberg, with narrow cobblestone streets and ornate half-timbered houses crowned with russet gables and roofs. The Music The Prelude to Act III finds the kindly old cobbler-poet Sachs alone in his workshop, pondering the strange goings-on of the night before. Morning sun streams into the room. The first sounds we hear are from the cellos, poignantly singing of Sachs’s resignation to unfolding events. The broadly flowing lines spread into the violas, then the violins, finally passing into the golden tones of the brass for the splendid chorale Wach auf! es nahet gen den Tag (Awake! The dawn is drawing near), Sachs’ own hymn in honour of Luther and the Reformation. In the final scene, all the mastersinger guilds have assembled for the great Johannistag festival, at which a song contest is to be held. Apprentices from the various guilds (tailors, goldsmiths, shoemakers, furriers, bakers, etc.) assemble, then cavort about the stage in leisurely 3/4 meter. Shortly thereafter, the masters themselves march solemnly to their places to the dignified music familiar from the opera’s Prelude, which, in tonight’s performance, is then played complete as a fitting conclusion to this Meistersinger medley. Themes associated with the masters, the apprentices, the young lovers Walther and Eva, and more are incorporated into the opera’s Prelude, which ends, as does the complete opera, with a massive orchestral peroration hailing the masters in all their glory. 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 *Ikuko Takahashi SECOND VIOLIN Section Principal *Barbora Kolarova Co-Principal Timothy Peters Assistant Principal Luisa Hyams Sub-Principal *Barbora Kolarova 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 CELLO Co-Principal Csaba Kőrös Assistant Principal Steven Retallick 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 Sub-Principal Niels Dittmann COR ANGLAIS Principal Denis Simonnet

TRUMPET Section Principal *Aleksandar Solunac Co-Principal William Theis Sub-Principals William Day *Jeffrey Missal Assistant Principal John Bourque

CLARINET Section Principal Gonzalo Esteban Sub-Principal Matthew Larsen

TROMBONE Section Principal *Marques Young Co-Principal *Allen Meek Sub-Principal Anthony Wise

BASS CLARINET Principal Chris Bosco

Bass Trombone Principal Zachary Bond

BASSOON Section Principal Alexandar Lenkov Co-Principal *Amber Malee Sub-Principal Orsolya Juhasz

TUBA Section Principal Brett Stemple

CONTRABASSOON Principal Vladimir Stoyanov HORN Section Principals Grzegorz Curyla *Zbigniew Monkiewicz Co-Principal James Schumacher Sub-Principals Laurence Davies Todor Popstoyanov Assistant Principal Sim Chee Ghee

TIMPANI Matthew Thomas PERCUSSION Section Principal Matthew Prendergast Sub-Principals Darryl Littman Matthew Kantorski HARP Principal Tan Keng Hong

Note: Sectional string players are listed alphabetically and rotate within their sections. *Extra musician.

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