SONGS WITHOUT WORDS: WEILL, BARBER AND PROKOFIEV

sat & Sun, 31 maY & 1 June 2025
sota CONCERT HALL

Performers

Orchestra of the Music Makers
Joshua Tan conductor
Stella Chen violin

SYNOPSIS

Join the Orchestra of the Music Makers on a journey through some of the most captivatingly lyrical pieces of orchestral music written in the 20th century, led by conductor Joshua Kangming Tan.

The concert opens with Robert Bennett’s Symphonic Nocturne arrangement of German-American composer Kurt Weill’s broadway musical “Lady in the Dark”, which features songs replete with typical "broadway" elements: catchy rhythms, lush textures and earworm-inducing melodies in an ode to true love.

Violinist Stella Chen, first-prize winner of the 2019 Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition, then joins us to perform Barber’s contemplatively lyrical yet virtuosic Violin Concerto. Then, demonstrating that melodies aren’t merely about love or introspection, the concert culminates with Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5, whose work incorporates tunes displaying a myriad of characters – be it elegance, grandeur, fear or violence. Interspersed with exhilaratingly quick passages and heartstopping climaxes, this symphony wraps up this performance of songs without words with an emotional joyride.