Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra’s mesmerizes with 20th anniversary performance
KUCHING: The Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra’s ( MPO) mesmerized the audience, including DUN Speaker Datuk Amar Mohammad Asfia Awang Nassar and his wife Datin Amar Fatimah Mohd Iskandar as well as Minister of Local Government and Housing Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian at the State Legislative Assembly ( DUN) Building here Wednesday evening.
The concert which was part of the orchestra’s 20th anniversary celebration, featured well-known classical works including Georges Bizet’s excerpts from ‘Carmen and L’Arlésienne Suites’, Malaysian classics ‘Getaran Jiwa’ by the late Tan Sri P Ramlee and ‘Cindai’ (made popular by Datuk Seri Siti Nurhaliza).
Conducted by Naohisa Furusawa, the orchestra opened with Mikhail Glinka’s Overture to Russlan and Ludmilla, an energetic piece from the Russian classical music composer, followed by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ‘ Piano Concerto No.1 in B f lat minor, Op. 23’ accompanied by 19-year- old local prodigy Tengku Irfan on the piano.
Irfan who made his debut with MPO when he was just 11 years old, captivated the audience with the 36-minute piece.
He has performed solo with orchestras around the world including the Juilliard Orchestra, São Paulo State Youth Orchestra and Singapore Symphony Orchestra just to name a few.
After intermission, the orchestra performed ‘ Mercu Kegemilangan’, a lively contrapuntal composition by Vivian Chua which weaves the tapestry of Malaysia and was specially commissioned to mark MPO’s 20th anniversary.
Bizet’s classical masterpieces from the 19th century was then performed followed by ‘Cindai’ and ‘Evergreen’.
MPO’s concert on Wednesday marked its fourth tour to East Malaysia; its first was at Kuching in 2002 and in 2003 at Kota Kinabalu, Sabah followed by another tour to both states in 2011.
The orchestra will be performing at Menara Tun Mustapha’s Tun Ahmad Raffae Auditorium Kota Kinabalu on June 30, starting 8pm.