[CANCELLED] Orchestral Institute: Gravity and Light
2 October • 7:30pm
Conservatory Concert Hall
PROGRAMME
NICOLA MATTEIS
Passaggio rotto e fantasia
ALAN CHOO, violin
HAYDN
Symphony No. 59, A Major (Feuersymphonie; Fire Symphony)
I. Presto
II. Andante o più tosto allegretto
III. Menuet 4
IV. Allegro assai
CHARLIE CHAPLIN/CALISTA LIAW
Charlie Chaplin Fantasia
CALISTA LIAW JINGYI (B.Mus2), erhu
BARTÓK
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, BB 114
I. Andante tranquillo
II. Allegro
III. Adagio
IV. Allegro molto
ABOUT THIS EVENT
Gravity & Light, a concert for modern times from the YST Orchestral Institute
And thus the sense of inward numbers, the knowledge and practice of the social virtues, and the familiarity and favour of the moral graces, are essential to the character of a deserving artist, and just favourite of the Muses. Thus are the Arts and Virtues mutually friends: and thus the science of virtuosos and that of virtue itself become, in a manner, one and the same.
– Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury (and the patron of John Locke)
The YST Orchestral Institute under the direction of Principal Conductor Jason Lai brings you music inspired by Gravity & Light – from the Age of Enlightenment in 18th-century Europe, to 21st-century Singaporean responses to Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, all refracted through the genius of Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and Béla Bartók (1881-1945). The concert features soloists Alan Choo ’12 (Founder and Artistic Director of new Ensemble-in-Residence Red Dot Baroque) and Calista Liaw (B.Mus2, MS-Erhu).
Light is on full display with Haydn’s Symphony No. 59 from the late 1760s, written during his time at the Esterhazy court. The work exemplifies his Sturm und Drang (“storm and desire”) style with an energetic blazing light associated with early classical rococo style, that would eventually earn the symphony’s moniker Feuersymphonie (‘Fire Symphony’). The Sturm und Drang style is an emotive Germanic arts movement characterised by expression of passion and subjectivity, in part as reaction to the rationalism associated with the Enlightenment. Haydn would later go on to be fascinated with the English Enlightenment movement, leaving the generous (even if confining) patronage support of the Esterhazy court in the 1790s, and moving to London where he would famously compose the London Symphonies, financing himself through subscriptions, commissions and publications.
As centuries passed, and as the European enlightenment descended towards nationalism, imperialism and (by the 1930s) fascism, the gravitas-infused counterpoint that opens Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1937), seems a universe away from Esterhazy’s court. Yet as the piece unfolds, the Music’s architectural balance, including its absurdist joie de vie humour (inspired by Charlie Chaplin, no less) seems ultimately, on reflection, wholly Haydn-esque in spirit.
Framing the concert’s two acts, we prelude the Haydn with the solitude of Alan Choo’s interpretation of violinist-composer Nicola Matteis’s (ca. 1650-1714) Passaggio rotto e fantasia on solo baroque violin, and the Bartók with the solace of Calista Liaw’s reimagined Charlie Chaplin Fantasia on solo erhu: performances that evoke archetypal resonances with the pieces that follow them, and also remind us that the communities of musicians that enlighten the orchestral tradition orbit around the knowledge and practice of the individuals collected.
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TICKETING INFORMATION
- All event information is correct at the time of print.
- This event is open to a limited live audience from within YST, as part of a pilot for moving back to live external audiences. We hope to welcome you back to our halls in person soon!
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