8 Sep 2006 - eresources.nlb.gov.sg

Supported by various corporate sponsors and individual donors, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra is a not-for-profit companylimited by guarantee and registered under the Charities Order.

SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA11 Empress Place, Victoria Concert Hall, Ground Floor, Singapore 179558

Company registration no.: 197801125M

Phone +65 6338 1230 (main) Fax +65 6336 6382 (main)E-mail [email protected] Website www.sso.org.sg

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MOZARTPlus

A VOICE DIVINE

Fri & Sat, 8 & 9 Sep 06Victoria Concert Hall

All Rights Reserved, National Library Board, Singapore

Lan Shui conductorNancy Argenta soprano

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LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVENThe Ruins of Athens: Overture, Op. 113 6’00

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART“Voi avete un cor fedele”, K. 217 6’00

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART“Un moto di gioia”, K. 579 3’00

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZARTDon Giovanni: Overture, K. 527 7’00

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZARTExsultate, jubilate, K. 165 17’00

Intermission 20’00

Nancy Argenta will sign autographs during the intermission

SCHUBERTSymphony No. 4 in C minor, D. 417 ‘Tragic’ 31’00

All timings indicated are approximate

Fri & Sat, 8 & 9 Sep 06

MOZARTPlus –

A VOICE DIVINE


A premier Asian orchestra gradually gaining recognition around the

world, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) aims to enrich the

local cultural scene, serving as a bridge between the musical traditions

of Asia and the West, and providing artistic inspiration, entertainment

and education.

4 SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA2


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A full-time professional orchestra with 96members, the SSO now makes its performinghome at the Esplanade Concert Hall, andalso performs regularly at other venues,including outdoor concert platforms.Performing over 50 symphonic concerts ayear, its versatile repertoire spans the all-time favourites and masterpieces to excitingcutting-edge premieres. In support ofSingaporean talent, local musicians and composers feature prominently in theconcert season. Since its inception in 1979, the SSO has toured America, China,the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Japan, France,Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Since Maestro Lan Shui assumed the position of Music Director in 1997, he hasraised the Orchestra’s level of excellence, and has been distinguished by hisdedication to the performance of new Asian compositions. Choo Hoey, who wasMusic Director from 1979 to 1996, is credited for developing the Orchestra withhis diverse programming.

Winning acclaim were the SSO recordingsof the first-ever complete symphony cycleof Alexander Tcherepnin. The SSO has alsorecorded the music of Chen Yi, Zhou Long,Bright Sheng and Richard Yardumian underan exclusive recording contract with the BISlabel. Artists heard on SSO recordings includeEvelyn Glennie, Cho-Liang Lin, Gil Shaham,Noriko Ogawa, Christian Lindberg and MartinFröst.

Highlights of the 06/07 season include appearances with conductors ChristopherSeaman and Hubert Soudant, soprano Nancy Argenta, percussionist Evelyn Glennie,pianists Yevgeny Sudbin and Nikolai Demidenko, violinists Isabelle van Keulen andCho-Liang Lin, as well as cellist Nina Kotova.


4 LAN SHUIc o n d u c t o r

Lan Shui joined the Singapore Symphony Orchestraas Music Director in 1997. Under his direction,the Orchestra started recording under theinternational label BIS, and he has led the Orchestraon several successful tours. In support of Asian-influenced works, Lan Shui is passionate aboutpremiering and commissioning works by Asian andSingaporean composers.

Other than the SSO, his recent engagements withother orchestras include performances with theFrankfurt Radio Symphony, Stuttgart Radio

Symphony, Bamberg Symphony, Frankfurt Museumsorchester, Komishe OperaOrchestra, Saarbruecken Radio Symphony, Danish Radio Symphony, CopenhagenPhilharmonic, Royal Danish Symphony, Odense Symphony, National Orchestra ofLoire (France) and Bern Symphony, amongst others. He is also the PrincipalGuest Conductor of the Aalborg Symphony in Denmark.

Lan Shui has conducted many orchestras including the Baltimore Symphony, BerlinSymphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony,Houston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Malmö Symphony, MinnesotaOrchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra and Tampere Philharmonic. He has performedat festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Bravo! Vail Valley, Round Top, EasternMusic, National Orchestra Institute and Casals Festivals.

Born in China, Lan Shui made his professional conducting debut with the CentralPhilharmonic Orchestra in Beijing in 1986 and was later appointed Conductor ofthe Beijing Symphony. In 1990 he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s SummerFestival, where he came to the attention of David Zinman who invited him to theBaltimore Symphony Orchestra as Conducting Affiliate in 1992.

From 1994 to 1997, he was Associate Conductor to Neeme Järvi at the DetroitSymphony. In the same period he assisted Kurt Masur at the New York Philharmonicand conducted the Cleveland Orchestra in Paris as part of Boulez’s young conductors’project.

Lan Shui currently records on the BIS label. Recordings with the Malmö Symphonyinclude the music of Arnold, Hindemith and Fernström. Notable releases with theSingapore Symphony include the first-ever complete symphonies of Tcherepnin.Lan Shui is the recipient of several international awards, amongst them awardsfrom the Beijing Arts Festival, New York Tcherepnin Society, 37th BesançonConductors Competition in France and Boston University Distinguished AlumniAward.


With a repertoire spanning three centuries, NancyArgenta has been hailed not only as the supremeHandel soprano of our age but also praised for herperformances of works by composers as diverse asMahler, Mozart, Schubert and Schoenberg. Her abilityto adapt from large scale orchestral works to chambermusic and recitals has earned her great recognitionand respect within the world of music.

She has worked with conductors such as Ozawa,Gardiner, Davis, Blomstedt, Pinnock, Hogwood and

Norrington with orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra, Boston Symphony,City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Toronto, Montrealand Sydney Symphony Orchestras. In opera, concert and recital, she has appearedat many leading festivals including Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg, Mostly Mozart andthe BBC Proms.

Her discography of over 50 recordings includes Bach’s St John Passion, B MinorMass, Magnificat and Christmas Oratorio with Gardiner, Purcell’s King Arthur and theHaydn Masses with Pinnock and Hickox, and Mozart’s Requiem, Magic Flute andDon Giovanni with Norrington. As an EMI/Virgin artist she has recorded SchubertLieder, Scarlatti Cantatas and two discs of Bach Solo Cantatas as well as two ofPurcell songs, the first of which, O Solitude, was honoured with a Classic CD Award.Recent CD releases include Handel’s Saul with Paul McCreesh (Archiv), Handel’sResurrezione with the Combattimento Consort and Lost is my quiet, a collectionof English Music from Purcell’s time.

As a devotee of the song repertoire of all periods, Nancy Argenta tours widely asa recitalist, presenting songs with their “original” keyboard accompaniment ofharpsichord, fortepiano or modern piano. Her recent recital locations, with MaggieCole at the keyboards, include the Netherlands, Hungary, Israel, Canada and Spain.

Nancy Argenta’s forthcoming concerts include performances with the West AustralianSymphony Orchestra and the Malaysian Philharmonic.

5NANCY ARGENTAs o p r a n o


SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

MUSIC DIRECTOR Lan ShuiRESIDENT CONDUCTOR / MUSIC DIRECTOR ofSINGAPORE SYMPHONY CHORUS Lim Yau

CONDUCTOR EMERITUS Choo Hoey

PRINCIPAL GUEST CONDUCTOR Okko Kamu

FIRST VIOLINLEADERAlexander Souptel

CO-LEADERLynnette Seah

ASSISTANT LEADERKong Zhao Hui

FIXED CHAIRChan Yoong Han

Chen Da WeiDuan Yu LingFoo Say MingGu Wen LiJin LiCindy LeeLim Shue ChurnSeow Jin ChongSui Jing JingKaren TanWilliam TanWei Zhe

SECOND VIOLINPRINCIPALZhang Zhen Shan

ASSOCIATEPRINCIPALMichael Loh

FIXED CHAIRHai-won Kwok

Deng Xin LeiNikolai KovalMarietta KuPriscilla NeoMargit SaurShao Tao TaoJoshua Tan Kang MingWu Man YunYeo Teow MengYin Shu ZhanYokoyama Hiroko

VIOLAPRINCIPALZhang Manchin

ASSOCIATEPRINCIPALGuan Qi

FIXED CHAIRLuo Biao

Chen GeJiri HegerLiu Hao YuShui BingTan Wee HsinIrina TarasovaTong Yi PingXia Bing*Yang Shi Li

CELLOPRINCIPALNella Hunkins

ASSOCIATEPRINCIPALYu Jing

Chan Wei ShingDing Xiao FengGuo HaoLi ChengSong Woon TengWang YanZhao Yu Er

DOUBLE BASSPRINCIPALGuennadi Mouzyka

ASSOCIATEPRINCIPALYang Zheng Yi

FIXED CHAIRKaren Yeo

Olga AlexandrovaMa Li MingJacek MiruckiWang XuXu Li

FLUTEPRINCIPALJin Ta

ASSOCIATEPRINCIPALEvgueni Brokmiller

Goh Tiong EngLee Kee Hoi

OBOEPRINCIPALRachel Walker

ASSOCIATEPRINCIPALPan Yun

Carolyn SondereggerElaine Yeo

COR ANGLAISASSOCIATEPRINCIPALElaine Yeo

CLARINETPRINCIPALMa Yue

ASSOCIATEPRINCIPALGabor Varga

Vincent GohTang Xiao Ping

BASS CLARINETASSISTANTPRINCIPALTang Xiao Ping

BASSOONPRINCIPALZhang Jin Min

ASSOCIATEPRINCIPALLiu Chang

Anani Donev*Sun Gong Jun

CONTRABASSOONAnani Donev*

HORNPRINCIPALHan Chang ChouGerd Seifert*

ASSOCIATEPRINCIPALGao JianJamie Hersch

Hoang Van Hoc**Wang Min

TRUMPETPRINCIPALLaurence Gargan

ASSOCIATEPRINCIPALGavin Wells*

Ikebe JunYap Thien Soo

TROMBONEPRINCIPALAllen Meek

ASSOCIATEPRINCIPALFredi Sonderegger

Chong Shoo Mei

BASS TROMBONEASSISTANTPRINCIPALShannon Pittaway

TUBAPRINCIPALJacomo Bairos

TIMPANIPRINCIPALJonathan Fox

Grzegorz Markiewicz

PERCUSSIONPRINCIPALJonathan Fox

Mark De SouzaLim Meng KehGrzegorz Markiewicz

HARPPRINCIPALGulnara Mashurova

KEYBOARDShane Thio*

Musicians (listed alphabetically by family name)rotate their seats on a per programme basis

* Musician on temporary contract** SSO Musician on leave

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MUSICIANS’ CHAIR

Allow your corporation to play an active role in the life ofthe Orchestra by supporting the Corporate Seat Scheme.

For more details, please contact the Development &Sponsorship Team at 68370998 or [email protected]

CORPORATE SEATS

$20,000 and aboveJapanese Chamber of Commerce & Industry, SingaporePetrochemical Corporation of Singapore (Pte) Ltd

$10,000 and aboveBDHong Leong FoundationLippo LimitedPrima Limited

$5,000 and aboveDyStar Singapore Pte Ltd

To continue to be one of the most outstanding orchestras in the region, theSingapore Symphony Orchestra needs to recruit and maintain its pool of talentedmusicians. We would like to thank the following corporations for supporting ourMusicians’ Chair Programme:

SINGAPORE INSTITUTE OFMANAGEMENT

Conductor’s Podium

SINGAPORE PETROLEUMCOMPANY LIMITED

Musician’s Seat

TEMASEK HOLDINGS(PRIVATE) LIMITED

Musician’s Seat

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DONATIONS RECEIVED FROMJANUARY - JUNE 2006($1,000 AND ABOVE)

$100,000 and aboveSingapore Totalisator BoardLee Foundation, SingaporeKeppel Corporation LtdConrad Centennial SingaporeFJ Benjamin (Singapore) Pte Ltd

$50,000 and aboveSingapore Press Holdings LtdSingapore Airlines LtdSiemens Pte LtdFar East Organization Centre Pte LtdHyflux Ltd

$20,000 and aboveSingapore Petroleum Company LimitedAsia Pacific Breweries FoundationChristopher HoMckinsey & Company Singapore Pte LtdOversea-Chinese Banking Corporation LtdPSA Corporation Ltd

$10,000 and aboveBernard Tan Tiong GieDaimlerChrysler South East Asia Pte LtdDeutsche BankArthur Lee King ChiBNP ParibasContinental Steel Pte LtdHo Lien FungJulie LoMelvin Teo Tzai WinNatSteel Asia (S) Pte LtdTan Kong Piat (Pte) LtdUBS AGUnited Overseas Bank LtdWBI Corporation Ltd

$5,000 and aboveAllen & GledhillClarinda Tjia-DharmadiFrench EmbassyOon Chiew SengTay Hui TiongAPBS Dealers AssociationBernard Cheong Wei KokChiu Teng Enterprises Pte LtdCIMB-GK Securities Pte LtdDyStar Singapore Pte LtdHo Bee Developments Pte Ltd

Hong Leong Holdings LtdKong Siang Pte LtdKris Taenar WiluanLim Bee TinLippo LimitedNTUC Fairprice Co-Operative LtdNTUC Income Insurance Cooperative LtdPACC Ship Managers Pte LtdSingapore Pools (Pte) LtdTee Yih Jia Food Manufacturing Pte LtdWing Tai Holdings LtdWorld Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd

$1,000 and aboveLum Kit ChingTan Boon KiatDonna MeyerChristopher David MartinGretchen LiuMobileOne LtdUnited Caoutchouc Trading Co Pte LtdAsdew Acquisitions Pte LtdShi Ka YeeTatang TabraniAlexander SieberBelinda Koh Yuh LingBrian GambrillChhun LeangComfortDelgro Corporation LtdContemporara Holdings Pte LtdDavid Philbrick ConnerDennis LinEdmund N S TieFesterville Pte LtdFrances Cheang Chin NeoFrank BenjaminGeir EikHarvey SchwartzHuang Shang BaiJoseph GrimbergKang Tze YongLarry Jewelry Singapore Pte LtdLawrence Stephen BasapaLGT Bank in Liechtenstein (Singapore) LtdLim Ho SengLoh Pong TuanLucia Lim Kee PinManju VangalMavis Lim Geck ChinOei Siu Hoa

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9DONATIONS RECEIVED FROMJANUARY - JUNE 2006($1,000 AND ABOVE)

Ong Jen YawPauline Ang Hooi YeongPontiac Marina Pte LtdRaffles Medical Group Pte LtdRobert Khan & Co Pte LtdRobin Ann RheaumeRosna TjuatjaSamas Management Consultants Pte LtdSembCorp Industries LtdSky Pilates Pte LtdSoo Yook LinSt. Hanivi Jewellers Pte LtdSun Tony HoTang Tuck Kim Registered SurveyorTeoh Colon Rectum & General Surgery Pte LtdThe Plastic And Hand Surgery Pte LtdTommy KohWilli HessWilliam H HernstadtYeo-Leong & Peh LLC


After months of illnessB e e t h o v e n w a sinstructed by his doctorto take a complete rest.In late July 1811 he setoff for the spa town ofTeplitz in northernBohemia but, as hewrote in a letter to hisbrother, “Just as I wasgetting in my carriageto drive to Teplitz Ireceived a parcel with

the request to compose something for the opening of the new theatre in the cityof Pest [later to become part of Budapest].” Two new plays had been commissionedfrom the leading German-language playwright, August von Kotzebue (1761-1819)- a prologue entitled King Stephen, Hungary’s first Benefactor, and an epilogue calledThe Ruins of Athens - and Beethoven was invited to compose incidental music forboth. His letter continued, “After spending three weeks at Teplitz I felt fairly well.So, although my doctor had forbidden me to work, I sat down to do somethingfor those mustachios who are genuinely fond of me and on 13 September I sentoff my parcel to them in the belief that the performance was to take place on1October.” In the end, the theatre’s opening ceremonies were put back four monthsand the plays were not premiered until 9 February 1812. It was, by all accounts,a great success.

The Ruins of Athens tells of Minerva, the Greek Goddess of Handicrafts, whom Zeushad commanded to be put to sleep for 2000 years for refusing to defend Socratesagainst his judges. As the play opens she is awoken from her long sleep and takenback to Athens by Mercury. She is appalled to find it in ruins and overrun bybarbarous Turks. A similar fate has befallen Rome, and Mercury informs her thatthe Temple of Culture and Civilization is now Pest, which has been dubbed “thenew Athens”.

The music Beethoven composed for it comprised choruses for the Invisible Spirits,a duet for Mercury and Minerva, a chorus of Dervishes, a Solemn March, pseudo-Turkish exotic orchestral sounds and the Overture, which he himself described as“a little work that can be performed as a refreshment.” That “little work” opensin darkness as Minerva sleeps. She is gently awoken (in the guise of a charmingoboe solo) by Invisible Spirits (here represented by a pair of horns) and thenhurries off on her journeys with Mercury.

Marc Rochester

The Ruins of Athens: Overture, Op. 113 6’00

Baptized Bonn, Germany 17 December 1770,died Vienna 26 March 1827.

Generally regarded as a major composer ofpiano sonatas, chamber music, concertos andsymphonies.

Wrote just one opera but a considerableamount of other music for the theatre, mostlyincidental music for stage plays.

10 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)


Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Nikolaus HarnoncourtTeldec 0630-13140-2

Minnesota Orchestra/Stanislaw SkrowaczewskiVox CDX5099

Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra/Stephen GunzenhauserNaxos 8.550072

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Lan Shui conductorYu Jing cello

Adams Short Ride in a Fast MachineHaydn Cello Concerto No. 1 in C majorZhou Long The Rhyme of TaiguTchaikovsky Valse from Swan Lake

Savour an exciting mixture of the familiar and the fantastic. One of theestablished cello concertos in the repertoire today, Haydn’s Concertoin C actually remained undiscovered for two centuries before it wasfound in the National Museum of Prague in 1961. And get ready fora breath-taking ride in John Adams’ 1986 masterpiece, of which hewrote: “You know how it is when someone asks you to ride in a terrificsports car, and then you wish you hadn’t?”

CASUAL CONCERTSun10 Sep 06, 5pmVictoria Concert Hall

Lan Shui conductorEvgueni Brokmiller fluteAlexander Souptel & Lynnette Seah violins

Mozart Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525Mozart The Magic Flute: Overture, K. 620J. Dove The Magic Flute DancesSchnittke Moz-Art à la HaydnHaydn Symphony No. 94 in G major ‘Surprise’

Alfred Schnittke was often the target of Soviet bureaucracy, findinghimself in 1980 banned from travelling outside the Soviet Union.His Moz-Art à la Haydn was completed in 1977, a unique musical tapestrythat gives a 20th-century perspective on Mozartian melodies. Mozart’sown timeless favourite A Little Night Music opens this uniquely variedconcert, which also includes Jonathan Dove’s Magic Flute Dances andHaydn’s Surprise Symphony.

Siemens Classics: MOZARTPlus –Magic Flutes and Musical Mirrors

Fri15 Sep 06

Victoria Concert Hall


Lan Shuimusic director

Lan Shui conductor

Jutta Koch sopranoGunnar Gudbjornsson tenorAndrew Greenan bass-baritone

Singapore Symphony ChorusSingapore Bible College ChoraleHallelujah Chorus

Haydn The Creation

During his two visits to London in the 1790’s, Haydn found himselfinspired by the masterly oratorios of Handel, and embarked on a searchfor a text which he, too, could set to music. This he found in JohnMilton’s Paradise Lost, as well as the Books of Genesis and Psalms.The result was a work which has endured to the present day as oneof the most resoundingly popular and grandiose of the great choralmasterpieces.

All concerts at 7.30 pm, Esplanade Concert Hall unless otherwise stated

THE CREATIONFri29 Sep 06

U P C O M I N GC O N C E RT S


It was a commonpractice during the 18thcentury for new ariasto be written when astaging of an operainvolved singers whohad not been involvedi n t h e o r i g i n a lproduction. Sometimesthe original composersundertook this task, butmore often it was leftto others. As Mozartbecame increasingly

well-known and respected among singers, he was asked to write a substantialnumber of these so-called “insertion arias”, and he took special care to mould eachto the specific qualities of the individual voice. His circle of musical friends includeda large number of sopranos, and of the 57 independent arias Mozart composed,no less than 33 were for the soprano voice.

We do not know, however, who the soprano was for whom Mozart composed hisaria Voi avete un cor fedele on 26 October 1775 for a performance in Salzburg ofGaluppi’s opera La nozze di Dorina. It was one of Mozart’s earliest soprano ariasand is characterised by a profound understanding of the role of the maidservant,Dorina, who, when she sings this aria, cannot decide whether to marry an admirerwhose faithfulness she has good reason to doubt. The text is by Carlo Goldoni.

“Voi avete un cor fedele”, K. 217“Un moto di giola”, K. 579Exsulate, jubilate, K. 165

14 WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART(1756-1791)

Voi avete un cor fedele,come amante appassionato;ma mio sposo dichiarato,cha farete? cangerete?Dite, allora, che sara?mantenete fedelta?

Ah, non credo! Giò prevedomi potreste corbellar,Non ancora, non per ora,non mi vuò di voi fidar.

You have a faithful heartas a passionate lover;but as a husbandwould you change?Tell me, what will happen?Will you still be faithful?

Ah, I don’t believe it! I expectthat you might deceive me.Not yet, not for now,I don’t want to trust you.

Born Salzburg 27 January 1756, died Vienna5 December 1791.

Loved writing for the soprano voice andmarried into a family in which all four daughterswere gifted sopranos.

In addition to 21 operas, composed 57independent arias either for concert use orfor insertion into later productions of pre-existing operas.


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Known as “La Ferrarese” after the town in which she was born (in 1755),Adriana Gabrielli changed her name shortly after her arrival in Vienna in 1788 toAdriana del Bene in a bid to further her singing career. Jane Glover, in her bookMozart’s Women, describes her as “the hottest property in operatic Vienna”,although according to Charles Osborne “her moral reputation was dubious andno one appears to have thought very highly of her as a singer and actress.” Yetnot only did Mozart create the role of Fiordiligi in his opera Così fan tutte for her,but chose her to sing Susanna in the revival of The Marriage of Figaro staged inVienna in 1789 (although that might have been prompted by the fact that, by then,she had become the mistress of the opera’s librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte). For thatperformance Mozart wrote two new arias expressly for her, one of which, Un motodi gioia, is rarely used in modern performances of the opera but has become wellestablished in its own right as a concert aria.

Un moto di gioiaMi sento nel pettoChe annunizia dilettoIn mezzo al timor.

Speriam che in contentoFinisca I’affanno;Non sempre è tirannoIl fato ed amor.

Di pianti di peneOgnor non si pasce,Talvolta poi nasceII ben dal dolor.

E quando si credePiù grave il periglio,Brillare si vedeLa calma maggior.

An emotion of joyBursts in my heart;It promises pleasureIn spite of all my fears.

Let us hope that my troublesWill end in happiness;For the destiny of loversIs not always cruel.

Life need not be filledWith weeping and pain,And good things can happenIn the midst of our suffering.

When one believesDanger is at its greatest,One sees the lightOf a greater calm.

According to Köchel’s catalogue, Mozart’s first 19 compositions were all instrumental.His 20th work, however, written in London in June 1765 and presented to theBritish Museum by his father (where the original manuscript still resides) was notonly his first vocal composition, but also his first sacred work and the only timein his entire composing career that he set a text in the English language, “God isour Refuge”. From that time onwards, vocal music and particularly sacred textsformed a major part of his output. Köchel’s catalogue lists 20 “short sacred works”,

Ah! non credo,Dite, dite, che farete?dite, dite, cangerete?

Voi avete un cor fedele.

Ah, I don’t believe it!Tell me, tell me, what would you do?Tell me, tell me, would you change?

You have a faithful heart.


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the last of which, Ave verum corpus, was dated June 1791 – just six months beforeMozart’s death – while, numerically exactly at the mid-point of that list, comesExsultate, jubilate which Mozart wrote in Milan where it was first performed on17 January 1773.

Making his third and final visit to Italy, Mozart arrived in Milan in October 1772to oversee the final preparations for his opera Lucio Silla. The premiere took placeat the Teatro Regio on 26 December, and was such a success that it was staged afurther 25 times to invariably full houses throughout the Carnival season.Mozart and his father remained in the city for a further three months, not solelybecause of Lucio Silla, but because Leopold had petitioned the Grand Duke ofTuscany for a place for Wolfgang in his court at Florence; only at the end ofFebruary did Leopold learn that his petition had failed. In the meantime, however,Wolfgang had produced five string quartets, a divertimento, movements of asymphony, and the motet Exsultate, jubilate. As he wrote in a letter to his sisterback in Salzburg, “I have to compose a motet for the primo uomo which will beperformed tomorrow at the Theatrine Church.” The “primo uomo” was the castratiVenanzio Rauzzini who had created the role of Cecilio in Lucio Silla.

The anonymous text refers to the liturgy of the day devoted to the Virgin Mary.Mozart set it as a three-movement sonata for voice, two oboes, two horns, stringsand organ (adding a part for flute when he revised the work for a performancein Salzburg in 1779). Opening with a joyful orchestral prelude, the first movementaddresses itself to those happy souls who sing the praises of God and ends witha vocal cadenza designed to display Rauzzini’s spectacular range.

Exsultate, jubilate,o vos animae beatae,dulcia cantica,cantica canendo!cantui vestro respondendo,respondendo psallant aethera,psallant aethera cum me.

Hail you who rejoice,oh, you happy souls,singing sweet songs,singing songs!Replying to your songs,replying, the heavens intonepsalms together with me.

The central slow movement opens with a recitative;

Fulget amica dies,jam fugere et nubila et procellae;exortus est justis inesxpectata quies,Undique obscura regnabat nox;surgite tandem laeti,qui timuistis adhuc,et jucundi aurorae fortunatefrondes dextera plena et lilia date.

The friendly day shines bright,and storms and clouds have fled;an unexpected calm has come.Everywhere the darkness reigned;let him finally be happy,he who was afraid until now,and greet the fortunate dawnwith his handfuls of lilies.


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After which comes this deeply tender aria in prayer to the Virgin Mary;

Tu virginum corona,tu nobis pacem donna,tu consolare affectusunde suspirat cor!

You, the crowned virgin,give us peace,you give us comfort,where the heart sighs!

This leads into the final movement, an exuberant setting of the single word “Alleluia!”

Marc Rochester

Arias:Kathleen Battle/Royal Philharmonic/André PrevinEMI CDC 7 47355 2

Edita Gruberová/Wiener Kammerorchester/György FischerDecca 448 249-2

Exsultate, jubilate:Victoria de los Angeles/London Symphony Orchestra/Adrian BoultTestament SBT 1088

Cecilia Bartoli/Wiener Kammerorchester/György FischerDecca 443 452-2

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WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART(1756-1791)

Don Giovanni: Overture, K. 527 7’00

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Six weeks after the death of his third child, Mozart travelled to Prague for aproduction of The Marriage of Figaro. His visit was a huge success, the rapturousreception given him by the Prague public contrasting sharply with the increasingdisinterest shown in his music by the Viennese. Consequently, when the PragueNational Theatre asked him to compose a new opera for them, he readily agreed.On his return to Vienna, he contacted Lorenzo da Ponte (with whom he hadcollaborated on The Marriage of Figaro) and the two decided that the new operafor Prague would be based on the story of Don Juan. The premiere took placeon 29 October 1787 at the National Theatre in Prague.

That the opera was ever finished at all is little short of miraculous. Da Ponte wasworking on two others simultaneously – one for Salieri and another for Martin ySoler – as well as carrying on an intense affair with the 16-year-old daughter of aneighbour, while, for his part, Mozart was busily involved with teaching (one studenthe took on at that time being Beethoven), planning a trip to London (which nevermaterialised) and, in May, dealing with the death of his father. Mozart was also quiteill himself and was unable to travel to Salzburg to attend Leopold’s funeral. He waswell enough, however, to travel to Prague with Constanze to oversee the finalrehearsals for the premiere of Don Giovanni, which he conducted, and to put thefinishing touches to the work.

Those finishing touches included composing the Overture, which, according toConstanze, he did in the early hours of the day of the performance. He startedwork shortly after midnight, and the Overture was completed by seven in themorning, moments before the copyist arrived to collect Mozart’s manuscript.There is, nevertheless, scant evidence of haste in the Overture, other than its useof themes from the opera itself.It opens with music, including thetwo massive solemn chords,drawn from the scene in whicha statue arrives to dine with theunderstandably terrified Don. Theensuing Allegro, in a major key,portrays in its bustling character,frequent changes of mood andcolour, the character of DonGiovanni.

Marc Rochester

Sinfonia Varsovia/Yehudi MenuhinWarner Classics 75605 57032-2

Staatskapelle Dresden/Colin DavisRCA 7432168004-2

New Philharmonia Orchestra/Otto KlempererEMI 567335-2

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SIA NewAd


FRANZ PETER SCHUBERT (1797-1828)

Symphony No. 4 in C minor, D. 417 ‘Tragic’ 31’00

Adagio molto - Allegro vivaceAndanteMenuetto (Allegro vivace) - TrioAllegro

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Schubert’s earl iestcompositions, whichinclude sketches for asymphony, date fromaround the time of his13th birthday. Withinthree years he hadprogressed so far that,in October 1813, hehad completed his firstsymphony. Subsequentsymphonies followedthick and fast despitethe distractions of his

employment as a teacher at his father’s school. (He wrote how, “whenever I wascomposing a little gang used to annoy me so much that the ideas always went outof my head. Naturally I gave them a good beating!”) If ideas did actually go out ofhis head, a great many stayed there and in the two years during which he workedin the school (1815 and 1816) he composed no less than 382 works including theSecond, Third, Fourth and Fifth Symphonies. The completed manuscript of theFourth Symphony is dated 27 April 1816, but the work had to wait until 19 November1849 for its first public performance, given by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

Despite its subtitle “Tragic” (given by Schubert himself), and the fact that this wasSchubert’s first symphony in a minor key, high spirits are never far from the surface,and although the first movement opens in a mood of dark tragedy, this soon givesway to music in a much lighter vein, and the over-riding mood is agitated ratherthan deeply tragic.

The second movement is built around two contrasting ideas – one typical ofSchubert at his most tender and melodious, the other stormy and passionate –and throughout the movement Schubert keeps them separate from each other.

If anything the third movement is humorous rather than tragic. Its swaggering,syncopated, almost clumsy opening theme prompts pictures of Schubert staggeringback to his dimly lit room after indulging in one of his favourite pastimes, drinking

Born Lichtental, Vienna, 31 January 1797,died Vienna 19 November 1828.

Son of a school master, he began his musicalcareer in the Vienna Court Chapel choir (nowknown as the Vienna Boys’ Choir).

Composed over 1000 works, including 600songs, 200 piano works and 13 symphonies –although until recently five of those werethought to have been lost.


with his friends. In typically Viennese fashion the central part of this movementis a more rustic type of dance.

Despite a distinctly agitated theme and some particularly passionate outburststhere is nothing approaching real tragedy in the fourth movement. If anythingthis is the tragedy of a rainstorm; angry while it lasts but even before themovement has run its course the clouds have broken up and it ends basking in thesun.

Marc Rochester

Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Claudio AbbadoDG 423 653-2

Berlin Philharmonic/Lorin MaazelDG 477 5254

Vienna Philharmonic/István KertészDecca 430 773-2

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8 Sep 2006 - eresources.nlb.gov.sg