THE Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) marks the end of the music celebration of its 20th anniversary with a performance themed Tales of Winter, tonight and tomorrow night at 8.30pm, at Dewan Filharmonik Petronas (DFP).
The concerts will present a programme which includes Tchaikovsky’s Suite No.1 from The Nutcracker. It seems unthinkable to have Christmas without this colourfully-scored ballet music written in 1891.
Mozart’s Three German Dances highlights the use of sleigh bells that connote a snowy landscape while Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll was first performed on Christmas Eve in 1870 as a birthday present for the composer’s wife.
The concerts’ overture, Hansel and Gretel, has a tradition grown up around it which later turned it into an opera most often performed at this time of the year.
Due to its nature as a children’s opera, the spirit of Christmas can be felt in this wonderful stage work, written by Humperdinck in 1893.
The MPO will be performing with its protégé, the Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (MPYO), in these two concerts.
Then on Sunday at 3pm, MPYO will hold its own concert. The 10-year-old orchestra will present a programme comprising works such as De Falla’s Suite No.2 from The Three Cornered Hat, Tchaikovsky’s popular Symphony No.5 in E minor and Dvorak’s Violin Concerto (which will feature child prodigy Low Zi Yang at the forefront).
This special concert is themed Once Upon a Tune.
All the concerts will be led by MPO resident conductor Naohisa Furusawa (pix).
For more, visit the MPO website.
