American conductor takes charge
Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra will tackle an eclectic programme under the baton of Jeffery Meyer in the next concert entitled “Meyer Conducts Bartok” at Mahidol University’s Prince Mahidol Hall, Salaya campus on July 15 at 7pm and July 16 at 4pm.
The American conductor is the artistic director of St Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic in Russia and will lead the TPO to perform two of the great orchestral masterworks of the 20th century and one of the most beloved concertos for French horn.
The soloist for this concert is TPO’s own principal horn player, Suparchai Sorathorn, who has been with TPO since its inception in 2008. He will perform Richard Strauss’s Concerto No.1, a piece which sits at the pinnacle of standard horn repertoire.
Strauss composed this work at the age of 18 for his father who was a well-known professional horn player. To this day it remains the most frequently performed concerto in the horn’s repertoire. It is wellloved for its idiomatic and lyrical melodies, as well as its heroic finale.
The second half will open with the Four Sea Interludes from Benjamin Britten’s opera, Peter Grimes. The interludes are colourful and exquisitely-composed depictions of the power of the sea. They perfectly portray the opera’s major theme — the hardships of a fisherman’s life on the sea.
The concert will conclude with Hungarian composer Bela Bartok’s most popular and most accessible work, Concerto For Orchestra. The five-movement piece aptly makes use of Hungarian folk melodies, combining them with elements of Western music.