Introduction

The Victoria Concert Hall, home of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, is back - just in time for Singapore’s 50th birthday next year. And what better way to celebrate than receiving an invitation to play at the BBC Proms for the first time! For concert-goers, there’s also much to look forward to as the 2014-15 season is littered with surprises. Here is what you can expect.

BBC Proms

Our national orchestra will be performing at the world’s greatest classical music festival, the BBC Proms! Postures, the first concert of the season, is a sneak preview of what they will be playing there.

Postures, 4 July 2014
SSO at the BBC Proms, 2 September 2014

The Superstars

None of these big names will be performing in Singapore for the first time, but it’s great to have them back! Expect these concerts to sell out faster than usual, so grab your tickets quickly.

“It is rare to find, in the same artist, the very highest levels of musical talent living alongside the deepest genuine humility. None has that rare combination in higher degree than Vladimir Ashkenazy.” 

Ashkenazy with the SSO, 29 October 2014

“The young French violinist has a lean but velvety tone and is admirably restrained with his use of vibrato. Where he is very reminiscent of Heifetz is in his way of making virtuosity look effortless. He phrases with a high degree of elegance.” 

Renaud Capuçon, 15 November 2014

"His thinking, if you can get behind his joking, is elegant, the way a physicist might say an equation is elegant." 

Cho-Liang Lin, 28 November 2014
Cho-Liang Lin plays Mozart I & II, 23-24 November 2014
Brahms: String Sextet No. 2, 30 November 2014

"I never have the impression that she is playing what she was taught to play - it's so spontaneous and beautiful. She has an incredibly sensitive musical imagination. Her playing can be so distinguished, so aristocratic. And so charming." 

Sarah Chang Live, 6 March 2015

“Many soloists today have masterly technique, but few conjure such searing intensity seemingly out of nowhere. Midori plays not on top of the strings but deeply inside them, pulling the sound out so vigorously that the entire violin sometimes protests with an audible nasal buzz. There was something thrilling in hearing that buzz... It meant that a supremely well-made instrument was being played at the very edge of its envelope and that the performer had chosen sonic expressiveness over safe and unblemished tonal beauty." 

Midori, 4 April 2015

Distinguished Guests

Some of these names might be unfamiliar to you, but trust us, they too are superstars in the hearts of musicians.

“Zimerman's playing is as refined and searchingly thoughtful as ever - the sleeve note reveals he listened to more than 80 recordings of the concerto before he decided on the correct tempi for his performance - and he achieves a perfect balance between that meticulous attention to detail and real expressive spontaneity.” 

Krystian Zimerman, 10 January 2015

“Very few conductors can transcend baton technique into directing your soul and psyche like Rozhdestvensky. He is so reliable that sometimes musicians forget there is a conductor on the podium. He never memorizes the music on stage but so often discover moments in the score, clearly reflected in is every facial expression. Wonderful to experience him every year now in SSO.” 

Russian Nights, 27 September 2014

“Hough's masterful legato and grip on the long arches in the outer movements (of the Dvořák Piano Concerto) - symphonically conceived and growing almost relentlessly in intensity – made for some formidable edge-of-seat stuff.” 

Stephen Hough in Recital, 2 October 2014
Stephen Hough plays Dvořák, 4 October 2014

"Ray has proven himself to be a very pure musician with great qualities such as a beautiful youthful tone, vitality and lightness. He has all the skills of a truly musical interpreter.” 

Ray Chen plays Mendelssohn, 17 October 2014

“Bronfman is a brilliant pianist who can do whatever he wants at the keyboard, and what he wanted to do in this case was use his technique for a weighted, emphatic performance that never allowed difficult rapid passages to dissolve into show-offy virtuosity. His playing was delicate, fluid and virtually frictionless in the dance-like second theme, yet he also drew great power, richness and weight from the piano where Brahms expects it to stand up to orchestra.” 

Yefim Bronfman plays Brahms, 7 November 2014

“Inbal offered thought-provoking compensations and made a compelling case for Mahler as a symphony fabricator, not as an Angst -driven hero writing symphonic autobiographies. Inbal conducted with a grasp of deep structural significance and proportion. Elements that others delight in contrasting, Inbal knit into a tightly cohesive fabric. The results were an attention to detail and seldom-heard clarity, openness and balance among elements.” 

Eliahu Inbal conducts Mahler's Ninth, 28 March 2015

“He launched himself at Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto, revelling in its brilliance and conveying its blend of showmanship and poetry with easy assurance”

Benjamin Grosvenor plays Liszt, 10-11 April 2015

“You don't forget a Steven Isserlis performance. On stage, he has a physical, sensual relationship with his cello; so much so, that you sometimes feel you're eavesdropping on something too intimate to be displayed in public. If you had to create a stereotype of an overwrought cellist, it would be Isserlis, with his mop of thick, curly hair, otherworldly gaze into the middle distance, and perennial state of rapture.” 

Steven Isserlis plays Shostakovich, 30 April 2015

“He also has plenty of firepower in the break-out moments of the “Emperor” Concerto, like the pummeling double octaves in the vehement development section of the first movement. Still, what distinguishes the performance is Mr. Lewis’s deft blend of magisterial vigor and impetuosity.” 

SSO 36th Anniversary Concert: Ode to Joy, 12-14 March 2015

Local Spotlight

Singapore turns 50 next year! If you haven’t already, there is no better time than this season to hear the amazing talents that have set foot on and taken flight from our shores.

One of Singapore’s most outstanding talents and a star on the international circuit, violinist Kam Ning has won multiple awards worldwide, and is now the Artistic Director of the Het Kamerorkest in Brugge, Belgium. She will be performing with Albert Tiu, current Associate Professor of Piano at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music who has also taught in the Juilliard Pre-College Division and served as Vice-President of the Singapore Music Teachers' Association.

Metamorphosen, 10-11 October 2014

Adelaide's “Twin Cellists” - comprising Ng Pei-Sian, the youngest-ever Principal Cellist of the SSO, and twin brother Pei-Jee - will be performing together for the very first time in Singapore!

A Dangerous Liaison, 16 January 2015

Igor Yuzefovich, newly appointed concertmaster of the SSO, is also an accomplished chamber musician: he was a prizewinner at the 1996 Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition, and the co-founder of the Monument Piano Trio.

Brahms: String Sextet No. 2, 30 November 2014
Hans Graf with the SSO, 7 February 2015

At 15, Loh Jun Hong captured the public’s imagination when he became the youngest ever to enroll at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. Nine years on, with numerous international competitions and prestigious festivals behind him, Singapore’s wonder kid shines as brightly as ever. He performs Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto under the baton of Joshua Tan.

Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, 16-17 April 2015

Local composers Kelly Tang, Bernard Tan, Emily Koh and Terrence Wong may not be altogether familiar names, but even the youngest among them has had his work premiered by New York Philharmonic principal trombonist Joseph Alessi. Come hear their brand new compositions, all to be premiered by the SSO.

Kelly Tang: Haydn's Sinfonia Concertante, 16 July 2014
Bernard Tan: President's Young Performers Concert, 24-25 July 2014
Emily Koh: Benjamin Grosvenor plays Liszt, 10-11 April 2015
Terrence Wong: Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, 16-17 April 2015

The Brahms Cycle

“Brahms’ music – strict in form, meticulously sculpted and never engaging in emotional histrionics – is also some of the most powerfully moving ever written. Its appeal to both heart and mind is why his orchestral works rank among my favourite listening.

Any compete cycle of his symphonies and solo concerti is no small task, and is potentially a great journey of discovery and re-discovery for performers and audiences alike. I am very excited that the SSO will be presenting all those works – and in collaboration with such renowned musicians.”

Symphony No. 1: Lan Shui, conductor
Haydn's Sinfonia Concertante, 16 July 2014

Piano Concerto No. 2: Yefim Bronfman, piano   Lan Shui, conductor
Yefim Bronfman plays Brahms, 7 November 2014

Violin Concerto: Cho-Liang Lin, violin   John Nelson, conductor
Cho-Liang Lin, 28 November 2014

Piano Concerto No. 1: Krystian Zimerman, piano   Lan Shui, conductor
Krystian Zimerman, 10 January 2015

Symphony No. 3: Günter Neuhold, conductor
Brahms' Third, 23-24 January 2015

Symphony No. 4: Joshua Tan, conductor
Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, 16-17 April 2015

Symphony No. 2: Claus Peter Flor, conductor
Brahms' Second, 15-16 May 2015

Our Top Picks

Still not sure which concerts to attend? Here are the concerts that we won’t miss.

If you are a classical music enthusiast, you will definitely understand what a BBC Proms invitation means to the SSO. If you aren't, just think of this concert as a rehearsal for their American Idol appearance. You wouldn’t want to miss it.

A brilliant BBC documentary, coupled with magnificent music by veteran composer George Fenton performed live. The concept is similar to that of the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra’s Lord of the Rings concerts; those received lukewarm reviews, but we have high hopes for this one.

A superstar violinist performs a classic Mozart concerto, but that aside, we’re more excited about SSO presenting two obscure Debussy pieces (none of us have even heard of the works) - both ballets that were composed but never completed in his later years.

Hersch plays Hersch while the Ngs cross bows in this unusually programmed concert featuring two pairs of brothers. Expect exciting music and legions of fangirls.

Atonal music is more emotionally rewarding than most people describe, nonetheless a full Schoenberg programme is a risky move. Come hear for yourselves why these works continue to fascinate and baffle in equal measure!

The SSO celebrates its birthday as usual with a famous symphony and concerto, but this time they’re serving up a Beethoven feast of the composer’s grandest works in either genre, replete with chorus and one of the finest Beethoven pianists of the day.

Following their collaboration at the Beijing Mahler Festival in 2011, which many veteran SSO musicians declared the "best ever concert" that they had played in, Israeli conductor Eliahu Inbal finally comes to Singapore to conduct Mahler's Ninth Symphony with the SSO. Not to be missed!

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Music Director Robert Spano returns to Singapore for a programme of galactic proportions! Journey through our galaxy of planets in Holst's eponymous suite and explore the nature of the universe and the meaning of life in Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra, which has been used in such films as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Toy Story 2, Wall-E and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

SSO’s Artist-In-Residence performed his first chamber music concert with the orchestra in 2009, and once again in 2010 before the Victoria Concert Hall closed down. Now that the renovation works are completed, we can’t wait to have him back!