YST Orchestral Institute
with
JASON LAI, conductor
KUO LYU-YAN, piano

PROGRAMME

PROKOFIEV
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26
I. Andante – Allegro
II. Tema con variazioni
III. Allegro, ma non troppo

TCHAIKOVSKY
Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74
I. Adagio – Allegro non troppo
II. Allegro con grazia
III. Allegro molto vivace
IV. Finale: Adagio lamentoso

ABOUT THIS EVENT

Above  them  flew  Birdie  chirping  merrily. 
“My, what  brave  fellows  we  are,  Peter  and  I!   Look what  we  have  caught!” 

And  if  one  would  listen  very  carefully,  
he  could hear  the  duck  quacking  inside  the  wolf; 
because  the  wolf  in  his  hurry,  had  swallowed her  alive.

– from Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev (1936)

The YST Orchestral Institute under the direction of Principal Conductor Jason Lai, featuring Kuo Lyu-Yan (B.Mus3, Piano), present a concert which, amidst ongoing international conflicts, contemplates life’s heroes, heroines, and the power of overcoming the “wolves” of our lives, whether they come from external challenges or internal states of being. This concert with Lyu-Yan is the third of our 2021-22 Concerto Competition Prizewinner Showcase series.

The wolf-filled turbulent world of one hundred years ago – following on from the 1918 global flu pandemic and emergence out of World War I (1914-18) – had personally profound impacts for the young Ukrainian-born Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), who in fleeing the Russian Revolutions of 1917, went into self-exile for nearly two decades, returning to the Soviet Union only in 1936.

The ebullient nervous energy of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, composed between 1917-21, reflects the turbulence of the day as well as the rock-star confidence of a world-renowned concertizing pianist-composer in the bloom of his career. A passion that didn’t go unnoticed by the young Spanish-American soprano, Lina Codina, who first met Prokofiev in 1918 (and who would marry in 1923) – a presence we may hear in the Spanish-tinged castanet and trumpet infusions in the first movement of Prokofiev’s pianistic masterpiece.

The music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s (1840-93) Symphony No. 6, Pathétique, captures the passions, loves and tragedies of a compassionate life well lived: our lives as the every-Peters and the wolves we confront along the way. As Tsarist Russia’s first truly international composer – but one whose closeted homosexuality made his personal life perennially painful – Tchaikovsky’s ever-popular melodic style transcends borders and time. In Tchaikovsky’s words the music begins with, “the ultimate essence of the thirst of activity,” but ultimately concludes with one of the most sublimely haunting finales in all of the symphonic repertoire – perhaps a fittingly poignant lament appropriate for many of the world’s current ills.

Programme booklet

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TICKETING INFORMATION

Tickets at $9 via SISTIC. Please note that by clicking on the link, you will be directly forwarded to a third-party independent site, which is not developed nor maintained by the National University of Singapore (NUS). The website could be subject to data protection and privacy practices and you are encouraged to examine them before proceeding to share your personal data. NUS will collect, use and/or disclose the personal data submitted through this third party independent site for the purpose of registration and/or management of the event.

To help keep our community safe, here are the measures that we will be adhering to:

• Only ticket holders who are fully vaccinated or exempted from Vaccination-Differentiated Safe Management Measures (VDS)* may be admitted.

• *Exempted from VDS: Individuals who have recovered from a COVID-19 infection and are within 180 days of their first positive test result, individuals who are medically ineligible for COVID-19 vaccination, and children aged 12 and below.

• All ticket holders must warrant that all vaccination and VDS information is correct when requested for disclosure.

• All ticket holders must consent to the collection, use and disclosure of personal data in relation to the ticket holders’ vaccination and VDS data.

• Out of respect for other concertgoers, no children under 6 years of age will be allowed admission.

Do bring along your photo identification, and mobile device with the updated TraceTogether (TT) app or token for SafeEntry check-in. We regret that patrons who do not have their photo ID, the app or token will be denied entry. Please visit the MOH website for details.

* All event information is correct at time of print.