2 0 1 5 / 1 6 S E A S O N

WAGNER'S RING

Sat, 24 Oct 2015 at 8.30 p.m.Sun, 25 Oct 2015 at 3.00 p.m. Malaysian Philharmonic OrchestraGiancarlo Guerrero, conductor

The concert will last approximately 70 minutes without an interval

PROGRAMME

WAGNER (arr. Maazel) The Ring Without Words

Giancarlo Guerrero is Music Director of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra's Miami Residency. He has led the Nashville Symphony to several Grammy wins in recent years including Best Orchestral Performance in 2011.

In the 2015/16 season, Guerrero makes his debuts with the Pittsburgh and Bilbao Symphonies, Copenhagen Philharmonic, NDR Hanover and Deutsche Radio Philharmonie. He returns to the symphony orchestras of Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic and the Eugene Symphony. He also maintains a close association with the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra (Brazil).

Guerrero has appeared with prominent North American orchestras, including the symphony orchestras of Boston, Dallas, Houston, Milwaukee, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Minnesota and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He is also known to audiences of major summer festivals including the Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles) and Blossom Music Festival (Cleveland).

He has developed an active and visible profile in Europe and has worked with great success in recent seasons with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London and Brussels Philharmonics, DSO-Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.

His recordings with the Nashville Symphony include releases of music by Richard Danielpour and Roberto Sierra on the Naxos label, and Bela Fleck's Banjo Concerto on Deutsche Grammophone. Together with composer Aaron Jay Kernis, he developed and guided the creation of Nashville Symphony's Composer Lab & Workshop initiative to foster and promote new American orchestral music.

GIANCARLO GUERRERO

Conductor

BIOGRAPHY

RICHARD WAGNER (1813-1883)The Ring Without Words (1848-1874/1987)

Richard Wagner’s stupendous operatic tetralogy, Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) stands as one of the most compelling and overwhelming creations in the history of mankind. Wagner called his Ring cycle Ein Bühnenfestspiel (A Stage Festival Drama), and expected its four components – Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung ̶ to be performed on four consecutive days. Requiring fifteen hours or so to perform (not counting intermissions), it constituted the largest single integrated body of music ever written until Karlheinz Stockhausen completed his Licht cycle in 2004.

The BackgroundThe Ring occupied Wagner for more than a quarter of a century, from his first version of the text in 1848 (Wagner, incidentally, was the first major opera composer to write his own librettos) to completion of the orchestral score in 1874. The first performance of the complete cycle took place in August of 1876 in Bayreuth, Germany, where the composer had overseen construction of a new theatre designed specifically to accommodate his colossal creation. It was the musical event of the decade, and its reverberations are still being felt.

Excerpts from the Ring, with and without vocal soloists, have been part and parcel of every orchestra’s repertory since Wagner’s own day. Some of these, like the Ride of the Valkyries, Forest Murmurs, and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey, are audience favorites. But until Lorin Maazel created his Ring Without Words in 1987, many great orchestral passages could be heard only in the context of complete performances in the opera house. Maazel (1930-2014), one of the leading conductors of the late twentieth century, stitched together into a 75-minute continuous sequence some two dozen episodes, long and short, from all four operas, in chronological order, with no transitional material linking them other than Wagner’s own music. There is not a single note by Maazel in his compilation. Wagner aficionados may cringe at some of the links (some work better than others), but there is no denying that many of these passages would otherwise never be heard in the concert hall, as they are either too short, or do not have tidy endings. (The Prelude to Das Rheingold, and the fight between Siegfried and the dragon are perfect examples.)

The Ring is orchestrally conceived on a level matched by few other operas in the repertory. There are even many passages where singers are making contributions also but which can be performed by the orchestra alone with little or no loss of musical integrity. (Ride of the Valkyries, for example, or the Rhinemaidens singing to Siegfried early in Act III of Götterdämmerung.) These are among the excerpts Maazel has incorporated into his Ring without Words.

PROGRAMME NOTES

PROGRAMME NOTES

Based on universal world myth derived from Norse sagas, the Ring cycle is a drama of primitive, instinctual emotions that exist at the core of our beings. The answer to the oft-heard question “What is the Ring all about?” can and does fill volumes. Interpretations have been based on politics, religion, philosophy, drama, even Jungian psychology. In its purest essence, however, the Ring is about the pursuit of power and the evil consequences arising therefrom. The quest for power is incompatible with a life based on love, compassion and other noble human values. Siegfried and Brünnhilde are victims of the old world system ruled by force and corruption, but they herald the dawn of a new utopian age. The Ring involves nearly forty characters and portrays nothing less than the entire cosmos in one all-embracing art form. The full range of human emotions and themes is encountered here: love, hate, terror, fearlessness, nobility, greed, loyalty, betrayal, passion, corruption, envy, regeneration, redemption, and renunciation, just to start the list rolling. Listeners are swept into another dimension as gods, heroes, mortals, giants, dwarfs and much more, interact in a cosmic scenario of awesome expressive power.

The MusicHere are the excerpts Maazel presents in The Ring Without Words:

DAS RHEINGOLD – Prelude (a peaceful watery environment vividly evoked by eight gently undulating horns, then cellos) – Transition to Scene 2 (view of the gleaming castle Valhalla) – Transition to Scene 3 (Wotan and Loge descend into Nibelheim, home of the dwarfs) – Donner’s call to the mists (Donner is “sung” by the trombone).

DIE WALKÜRE – The curtain goes up on Scene 1 (the storm outside abates; inside a hut in the forest Sieglinde tends to her surprise guest, Siegmund) – Dawning affection between the two – End of Act I (Siegmund and Sieglinde are now rapturously in love) – Prelude to Act II (Brünnhilde enters to characteristic Valkyrie music) – End of Act II – Ride of the Valkyries (divine warrior maidens who gather dead heroes from battlefields and carry them on horseback to Valhalla) – Wotan bids farewell to his beloved daughter Brünnhilde and sends her into a deep sleep from which only a hero will be able to awaken her.

SIEGFRIED – The dwarf Mime imagines terrifying visions in the forest; suddenly the boy Siegfried returns, in jolly good humour – Forest Murmurs (Siegfried, alone in the forest, lost in thought, contemplates the beauty of nature and tries to imagine what his dead mother might have looked like) – The hero Siegfried battles the dragon Fafner (no points for guessing who wins!).

GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG – The final opera of this vast tetralogy is unique in the aura of epic grandeur it conveys, and in the powerful momentum that sweeps the listener irresistibly into its orbit. Almost half of The Ring Without Words is devoted to this opera. The orchestral transition that brings us from the mysterious gloom and darkness of the opening scene up to the bright of day where Brünnhilde lies sleeping is one of the great glories of

PROGRAMME NOTES

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the orchestral repertory. In this transition, the Dawn scene, Wagner takes us, over a span of several minutes, from one end of the orchestral colour spectrum to the other in one of the longest continuous crescendos in music – a single arc of sound that culminates in a harmonic resolution in the heroic key of E-flat major for the entire 17-piece brass section – Siegfried’s Rhine Journey (swirling water music) – Hagen assembles his vassals – The Rhinemaidens sing sweetly to Siegfried – Siegfried’s dying moments – Siegfried’s Funeral March (The funeral cortège moves slowly across the stage as themes associated with the hero are heard against the backdrop of a frightful pounding motif) – Finale.

Here, in the last minutes of the Ring cycle, we see – and hear – the collapse of the Hall of the Gibichungs, a conflagration, an inundation by the Rhine, the destruction of Valhalla with all its morally flawed gods, the return of the cursed ring to the Rhine, and reinstatement of pure nature as it was when the Ring cycle opened many hours ago. To portray these awesome events in sound, Wagner composed, in the words of scholar Ernest Newman, “such music as the spirit of the universe might hear when world crashes into world at the end of time.”

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

MALAYSIAN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

PRINCIPAL CONDUCTORFabio Mechetti

RESIDENT CONDUCTORCiarán McAuley

fIRST vIOLINConcertmaster*Marie RossanoCo-ConcertmasterPeter DanišPrincipalMing GohCo-PrincipalZhenzhen LiangSub-PrincipalVira Nyezhentseva

Runa BaagöeMaho DanišMiroslav DanišEvgeny KaplanErgys KoniMartijn NoomenSherwin ThiaMarcel AndriesiiTan Ka MingAi Jin*Marit Vligenthart

SECOND vIOLINCo-PrincipalTimothy PetersAssistant PrincipalLuisa Hyams

Catalina AlvarezChia-Nan HungAnastasia KiselevaStefan KocsisLing YunzhiIonut MazareanuTan Poh KimYanbo Zhao*Ahin Lee*Ooi Khai Ern*Roxana Tudorache*Petia Atanasova

vIOLACo-PrincipalGábor MokányAssistant PrincipalAyako Oya

Fumiko DobrinovOng Lin KernCarol PendleburySun YuanThian AiwenFan RanEliza FluderJulia ParkMahmoud Hussein*Ida Kovacs*Emil Csonka

CELLOCo-PrincipalCsaba KőrösAssistant PrincipalSteven RetallickSub-PrincipalAttila Pasztor

Gerald DavisJulie DessureaultLaurentiu GhermanTan Poh JooElizabeth Tan SuyinSejla SimonMátyás Major*Sandor Stampf

DOUBLE BASSSection PrincipalWolfgang SteikeCo-PrincipalJoseph Pruessner

Raffael BietenhaderJun-Hee ChaeNaohisa FurusawaJohn KennedyFoo Yin HongAndreas Dehner

fLUTESection PrincipalHristo DobrinovCo-PrincipalYukako YamamotoSub-PrincipalRachel Jenkyns

PICCOLOPrincipalSonia Croucher

OBOESection PrincipalSimon EmesCo-Principal*Elizabeth CheeSub-PrincipalNiels Dittmann

COR ANGLAISPrincipalDenis Simonnet

CLARINETSection Principal*Gonzalo EstebanSub-PrincipalsMatthew Larsen*Luis Miguel Mendez

BASS CLARINETPrincipalChris Bosco

BASSOONSection PrincipalAlexandar LenkovCo-Principal*Adolfo MartinezSub-PrincipalOrsolya Juhasz

CONTRABASSOONPrincipalVladimir Stoyanov

HORNSection PrincipalsGrzegorz Curyla*Cem AkcoraCo-PrincipalJames SchumacherSub-PrincipalsLaurence DaviesTodor Popstoyanov*David Bonet Piris*Jorg Wetzel*Xiang JiAssistant PrincipalSim Chee Ghee

TRUMPETCo-PrincipalWilliam TheisSub-PrincipalWilliam DayAssistant PrincipalJohn Bourque

TROMBONECo-PrincipalMarques YoungSub-PrincipalAnthony WisePrincipal Bass Trumpet*Carl Lenthe

BASS TROMBONEPrincipalsZachary Bond*Bill Thomas

TUBASection PrincipalBrett Stemple

TIMPANIMatthew Thomas

PERCUSSIONSection PrincipalMatthew PrendergastSub-PrincipalsDarryl LittmanMatthew Kantorski*Chun Yu Tsai*Tan Suyin

HARPPrincipalTan Keng HongSub-Principal*Bryan Lee

CORPORATE SUITE CLUB MEMBER

Dewan Filharmonik PeTronaSChieF eXeCUTiVe oFFiCerNor Raina Yeong Abdullah

Ceo’S oFFiCeHanis Abdul Halim

bUSineSS & markeTingmanagemenTCarl Selvarajah

bUSineSS DeVeloPmenTAt Ziafrizani Chek PaFadzleen FathyNurartikah IlyasKartini Ratna Sari Ahmat AdamNik Sara Hanis Mohd Sani

markeTing Yazmin Lim AbdullahHisham Abdul JalilNurul Hidayah AbasFarah Diyana IsmailNatrah Omar

CUSTomer relaTionShiPmanagemenTAsmahan AbdullahFaizol Ramli

mUSiC TalenT DeVeloPmenT & managemenTSoraya Mansor

Planning, FinanCe & iTAzwin Sofia Md. YusupMohd Hakimi Mohd RosliNorhisham Abd RahmanSiti Nur Illyani Ahmad Fadzillah

ProCUremenT & ConTraCTLogiswary RamanNorhaszilawati Zainudin

hUman reSoUrCe managemenT & aDminiSTraTionSharhida SaadMuknoazlida MukhadzimWan Intan Shahfinas AbasZatil Ismah AzmiNor Afidah Nordin

TeChniCal oPeraTionSFiroz KhanMohd Zamir Mohd IsaYasheera IshakShahrul Rizal M AliDayan Erwan MaharalZolkarnain Sarman

malaySian PhilharmoniCorCheSTraChieF eXeCUTiVe oFFiCerNor Raina Yeong Abdullah

general managerTimothy Tsukamoto

general manager’S oFFiCeAhmad Faris Ahmad Khairi

orCheSTra managemenTShannon HoAmy Yu Mei LingTham Ying Hui

arTiSTiC aDminiSTraTionGan Hui Wan

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eDUCaTion & oUTreaChShafrin SabriShireen Jasin Mokhtar

malaySian PhilharmoniC yoUThorCheSTraAhmad Muriz Che RoseFadilah Kamal Francis

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