Photo Credit: London Philharmonic Orchestra (Based on ‘Utopia’ by Kenny Low), www.lpo.org.uk
On November 13, a disc with a recording of the Utopia symphony composed by Vladimir Martynov 15 years ago at the request of the Ambassador of Singapore will go on sale.
The disc will be released by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which was the first to record the symphony under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski. Cover design is based on Utopia by Singaporean artist Kenny Low.
In 2003, the Ambassador of Singapore to Russia, Michael Tay, commissioned Vladimir Martynov with a symphony that would change the attitude of Russians towards Singapore and contribute to the rapprochement of the two countries.
Russian premiere of the symphony “Singapore. Geopolitical Utopia “for orchestra and mixed choir took place in 2005 in Moscow, two years later Martynov’s work was performed for the first time in Singapore by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in the presence of President Sellapan Ramanathan and Minister-mentor Lee Kuan Yew.
In 2019, the symphony was named Utopia, and the choral score was rewritten from Russian into English. In the fall of the same year, the London Philharmonic Orchestra recorded the symphony at Abbey Road Studios, and the solo parts were performed by the Singaporean violinist Loh Jun Hong.
[Translation by Google]
