Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra


The Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1997, is the resident orchestra of the Petronas Philharmonic Hall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Its orchestra members are made up of musicians from over 20 countries.
Although the orchestra's mission is dedicated mainly to the performance of classical music, its versatile repertoire includes music from all genres, including pop, jazz, folk music and rock.
The patron of the MPO is Tun Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, wife of the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir bin Mohamad, who was the prime minister when the orchestra was founded in 1997. The orchestra is funded primarily through Petronas, a Malaysian oil and gas company.

Background

The MPO made its debut concert on 17 August 1998 under the direction of its first music director and founder, Kees Bakels. In July 2003, Bakels announced that he would be stepping down due to health reasons. In September 2003, the MPO appointed James Judd to succeed Bakels starting from the 2004/2005 season. However, on 14 June 2004, the MPO via a press announcement stated that “all contractual relationships between MPO and Mr. Judd have ceased with effect from 7 April 2004”. The press announcement did not indicate any reason behind the termination of the contract. Due to the termination, Bakels agreed to continue to give more time for the MPO to find his replacement. Bakels held the position until the end of the 2004/2005 season and later, was honored with a conductor laureate title.
In November 2004, Matthias Bamert was named the new MPO's principal conductor starting from August 2005. Bamert served in that position until the end of 2007/2008 season.
Claus Peter Flor succeeded Bamert as the MPO's music director starting from August 2008, with an initial contract of 3 years. The contract was renewed, and Peter Flor continued as music director until the end of the 2013/2014 season.
Fabio Mechetti was then appointed as MPO principal conductor. He served in that role from the beginning of the 2014/2015 season through October 2015, from which time the MPO has not named another music director or principal conductor.

Noted guest performers

Since its inauguration in 1998, the orchestra has performed with many internationally acclaimed conductors, jazz and classical musicians, including Lorin Maazel, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Mstislav Rostropovich, Jiří Bělohlávek, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Sir Neville Marriner, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yehudi Menuhin, Vadim Repin, Joshua Bell, Sarah Chang, Maurice Steger, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick Jr., Chris Botti, José Carreras, Andrea Bocelli, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Russell Powell and Sumi Jo.

Recordings

To date, the MPO has made 17 recordings under 3 labels.
Released
date		Composer:
Album title		Conductor,
performer		Label,
Catalog #
Jan 2001Jean Sibelius, Aram Khachaturian:
Violin Concertos		Kees Bakels,
Aaron Rosand		Vox Classics,
Cat #: 7904
Feb 2002Alexander Glazunov:
Violin Concerto, Meditation, Etc		Kees Bakels,
Aaron Rosand		Vox Classics,
Cat #: 7907
Aug 2002Antonín Dvořák:
Music for cello and orchestra		Kees Bakels,
Torleif Thedéen		BIS,
Cat #: BIS-1276 CD
Jan 2003Giuseppe Martucci:
Symphony No. 1 Op. 75 & Symphony No. 2 Op. 81		Kees BakelsBIS,
Cat #: BIS-1255 CD
Aug 2003Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov:
Scheherazade Op. 35		Kees BakelsBIS,
Cat #: BIS-1377 CD
Sep 2004Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov:
Capriccio Espagnol Op. 34		Kees Bakels,
Noriko Ogawa		BIS,
Cat #: BIS-1387 CD
Apr 2005Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov:
Symphony No. 1 & Symphony No. 3 Op. 32		Kees BakelsBIS,
Cat #: BIS-1477 CD
Feb 2006Édouard Lalo:
Orchestral Works		Kees Bakels,
Torleif Thedéen		BIS,
Cat #: BIS-1296 CD
Apr 2006Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov:
The Snow Maiden		Kees BakelsBIS,
Cat #: BIS-1577 CD
Jul 2007Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov:
Orchestral Works		Kees Bakels,
Noriko Ogawa		BIS,
Cat #: BIS-1667 CD
Jun 2009Josef Suk:
Asrael Symphony		Claus Peter FlorBIS,
Cat #: BIS-1776 SACD
Dec 2010Bedrich Smetana:
Má vlast		Claus Peter FlorBIS,
Cat #: BIS-1805 SACD
Aug 2011Vasily Kalinnikov:
The Two Symphonies		Kees BakelsBIS,
Cat #: BIS-1155 CD
Mar 2012Antonín Dvořák:
Symphony No.7		Claus Peter FlorBIS,
Cat #: BIS-1896 SACD
Jul 2012Antonín Dvořák:
Symphony No.8		Claus Peter FlorBIS,
Cat #: BIS-1976 SACD
Oct 2012Antonín Dvořák:
Symphony No.9		Claus Peter FlorBIS,
Cat #: BIS-1856 SACD
Sep 2017Carl Davis:
Aladdin: The ballet		Carl DavisCarl Davis Collection,
Cat #: 29

Controversies

During Peter Flor's tenure as music director, he oversaw the controversial "sacking" of nine musicians. The case led to a call from the International Federation of Musicians to boycott auditions for the orchestra.. These musicians were on fixed-term contracts which expired on 15 August 2012. On 15 February 2012, the MPO sent notices to the nine musicians to officially notify that their contracts will not be renewed. Seven out of the nine musicians who received the non-renewal notices filed a legal suit against the MPO at the Malaysian Industrial Court, challenging their former employer’s decision not to extend their contracts. The musicians are Toko Inomoto, Brian C. Larson, Paul Andrew Philbert, Darcey Layne Timmerman, Kevin Hugh Thompson, Markus Gundermann and Liu Jian.
In 2015, Malaysian Industrial Court threw out their dismissal suit, citing that the musicians’ fixed term contracts had naturally expired, and therefore, the MPO had not even needed to dismiss them. The court opined that the case is not considered 'sacking' or 'dismissal' but merely not extending the expired contract, which is common in many industries.
In a separate case, in May 2014, the Malaysian Industrial Court had ordered the MPO to pay a fine of for the dismissal of its former General Manager, Kim Sargeant in 2006.

Resident Conductors & Concertmasters

Dato’ Seri Ooi Chean See was the founding Resident Conductor of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra from 1998 until 2006. The position remained vacant until Ciarán McAuley was appointed to the position from 2014 to 2016. Naohisa Furusawa, a member of the MPO double bass section since January 2003, was named Resident Conductor in 2016. Gerard Salonga was appointed as an additional Resident Conductor in 2018.
Markus Gundermann was the founding MPO concertmaster from 1998 until 2012, when his contract was not renewed by then-Music Director Claus Peter Flor. Anna Reszniak is the second and last violinist to hold the position of MPO concertmaster. Appointed by Flor before his contract was not renewed in 2014, Reszniak left the MPO after just two seasons to join the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra in the same position. Following a successful audition, Marié Rossano was offered the concertmaster position in 2016; she declined and accepted a New York Philharmonic tutti second violin position instead. From the 2014/2015 season, MPO assistant concertmaster Peter Daniš has been serving as acting concertmaster.

Music Directors / Principal Conductors