Singapore International Festival of Music 2015

Singapore's first classical music festival, the inaugural Singapore International Festival of Music celebrates Singapore’s 50th jubilee and showcases young Singapore musicians. Themed War & Peace, the Festival will feature six main concerts commemorating the world’s great wars, a reminder that even hardship can bring forth great art. Similarly, moments of peace also led to fine music that built the foundations for more to come. With Singapore musicians as the pillars of the Festival, this homecoming series seeks to unite the best of Singapore’s talents.

War & Peace

26 September 2015 |730 pm | Chamber

Mozart: Violin Concerto no. 5 [29 minutes]

Stravinsky: Concerto in E-flat “Dumbarton Oaks” [12 minutes]

Britten: Sinfonietta, op.1 [15 minutes]

War & Peace will open the Festival, featuring a chamber orchestra comprising Singapore’s top talents. Kicking off the Festival is the nation’s poster-boy for classical music and co-Artistic Director of the Festival, Loh Jun Hong. He will dazzle with Mozart’s Violin Concerto no. 5, whose third movement contains a section of Turkish Music; the composer’s nod to the historic ‘Battle of Vienna’ when a horde of Ottoman Turks besieged the city.

The Concerto in E-flat “Dumbarton Oaks” for chamber orchestra was the last work Stravinsky completed in Europe from1937-38, before he left for the United States in order to escape impending war in Europe. It is one of his most renowned neoclassical compositions. “Dumbarton Oaks” is a difficult work, which will highlight the virtuosity of our young musicians.

In 1932, as the young Benjamin Britten sat down to compose his first mature work; the Sinfonietta, op.1, elsewhere, the stage was being set in Germany which would jeopardise world peace. Hitler’s nomination as Chancellor of Germany was to become a turning point in history that would change the world later.  

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