TPCC presents: Equinox
TPCC Presents: EQUINOX - A TALE OF NIGHT AND DAY
26 April 2015 (Sunday)
7:30PM
Victoria Concert Hall
$20/$30
Singapore's premier choral ensemble, The Philharmonic Chamber Choir, presents a range of 20th century choral classics.
Can there be day without night? Can make-believe exist without reality? Using texts as diverse as ancient Latin prose and French surrealist poetry, composers of the 20th century have explored the duality of night and day, and its manifestations in nature and emotion. This is a world where dark depths of despair and bleak snow scenes meet the golden veneer of sacred comfort and vernal warmth; where lush romanticism meets stark modernism.
From abstract chromatic soundscapes by Gyorgy Ligeti; to romantic stylings of love and separation by Jean Sibelius. Experience the sensuous rendering of Sappho's poems of Hellenistic hedonism by Ildebrando Pizzetti; revel in the brash, colourful settings of Paul Eluard and Guillaume Apollinaire by Francis Poulenc.
About TPCC:
2015 marks the twenty-first year since The Philharmonic Chamber Choir (TPCC) was formed by Lim Yau, its Artistic Director. It has excelled in giving voice to the great traditions of Western classical music: both a cappella, as well as large works for choir and orchestra; and has equally made its mark in performing the Asiana cappella repertoire. It has been an exciting journey of choral exploration and performance, marked by many memorable highlights. Since its inception, TPCC has worked with such noted choral conductors as Stephen Cleobury, Francisco Feliciano, Joseph Flummerfelt, Robert Hollingworth, Chifuru Matsubara, Peter Phillips, Johannes Prinz, Gregory Rose, and Nobuaki Tanaka. It has often collaborated with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and has also appeared in productions by the Singapore Dance Theatre, Singapore Lyric Opera, and Canada’s Opera Atelier. In July 2000, at the 19th Béla Bartok International Choral Competition in Debrecen, Hungary, TPCC was awarded First Prize in the Mixed Choir Category, and Third Prize in the Chamber Choir category. It also received a Special Prize for the most authentic performance of Zoltán Kodály’s Liszt Ferenchez. In 2002, TPCC was invited to perform at the 1st Performing Arts Festival in Tokyo, where it gave a series of concerts in the Takemitsu Memorial Hall alongside the Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus, Asia’s oldest professional chamber choir. The partnerships formed with various arts groups and organizations over the years has resulted in TPCC’s participation in varied and diverse collaborations, involving an equally wide repertoire, ranging from Esplanade—Theatres on the Bay’s presentation of Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light: The Passion of Joan of Arc, together with the celebrated female quartet Anonymous 4; to YTL Corporation’s Concert of Celebration 2010, featuring Andrea Bocelli at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Previous collaborations of note with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra include a recording of Zhou Long’sThe Future of Fire (2003), recorded on the BIS record label; and together with the Singapore Symphony Chorus: Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem (2010), William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast (2011), Hector Berlioz’s Te Deum (2011), and most recently, Benjamin Britten’s monumental War Requiem (2013). The performance of J. S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor with The Philharmonic Orchestra (TPO), a regular collaborator, was a highlight of TPCC’s 2008 season, as well as in 2000, when TPO was formerly known as The Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra. In an effort to further explore and extend the realm of choral performance, both for the performer as well as the listener, TPCC has, in recent years, looked to bridging East and West. To this end, Light and a Hundred Colours (2008) demonstrated the musical possibilities and emotional potential of an unorthodox pairing of 16th century English motets with the Indian sarangi, while Zen Renaissance (2012), in collaboration with shakuhachi master Ueno Koshuzan, featured the Japanese bamboo flute alongside Renaissance masters such as John Taverner, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Carlo Gesualdo, John Sheppard, and Jean Mouton. Even though it was formed with the primary aim of combing through the Western classical a cappella canon, TPCC has long recognized the responsibility it bears towards its Asian musical heritage; given its position of being a choir that sits at the crossroads of Asia. Since the first edition of an all-Asian programme, When Will the Flower Bloom?, and the recording of its first Asian a cappella CD in 1999, which surveyed the new spirit of Asian folksongs, TPCC has not let up in its efforts and convictions in exploring the wealth of the contemporary Asian choral repertoire. In 2014, TPCC’s fourth edition of its signature Asian a cappella series: The Bird of Time, brought together a collection of Asian choral gems that reflect the sophistication of contemporary Asian choral writing - evidenced by the depth of textual material and the increasingly confident and inventive displays of idiomatic choral language. TPCC was proud to have commemorated its 20th anniversary with the Singapore premiere ofPeng (鹏), by Singaporean composer Zechariah Goh. TPCC has also collaborated with TPO for Debussy Tonight!, with the presentation of Claude Debussy’s Trois Chansons de Charles d'Orléans.