BRAHMS, SCHUMANN AND A ROYAL TRIBUTE
The Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra will join hands with world-class classical stars − with the opening work by Thai composer Narongrit Dhamabutra drawing special interest
On July 15, the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra will feature two giants of 19th century musical history and one world premiere tribute to Thailand’s late monarch. The Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra will celebrate the late king’s birthday concert this month with the popular Robert Schumann Piano Concerto, and Johannes Brahms’ placid
Second Symphony. Yet it is the opening work, commissioned by the orchestra for this special occasion, which has already been drawing special interest.
Narongrit Dhamabutra’s Sinfonia Siamin
dra may be the first work in musical history to encompass the complete history of a country with music taken from three continents. Narongrit has used the classical form of four movements, but each of them tells a story of Thai history. Sukhothai, for instance, opens the work with an original theme — which Narongrit calls his Royal Theme — using the pentatonic (fivetone) ancient Thai scale, before unfolding into a more modern idiom.
The piece continues with Ayudhaya, where the cosmopolitan capital is pictured with music from many of the nations with which the city had political and economic relations. Narongrit uses musical styles from Japan, ancient Persia, China, India and finally European-style music — in this case a stylised Gregorian chant — to show the international grandeur of the Siamese metropolis for over four centuries.
The War is Narongrit’s wild chaotic section something like the “war” movement from Richard Strauss’s Hero’s Life, with a variety of percussion.
Finally, though, Rattanakosin uses both original and historical music to give a picture of the years when Krung Thep, “The City Of Angels”, has been our capital. He uses not only the Royal
Theme from the beginning of the work, but takes as its basis the authentic Thai tune, Bulanloiluean written by King Rama II, describing Wat Arun, the Temple Of Dawn, the very first structure built when the country took its modern guise.
Narongrit will headline a concert for which the conductor, Charles Olivieri-Munroe, will raise his baton for two of the greatest composers who lived during the reign of King Rama IV.
Olivieri-Munroe is one of the eminent rising stars of the musical world. In fact, The New York
Times has already praised the young conductor for his “combination of talent and charisma”. He has won many awards, including First Prize in the 2000 Prague Spring International Music Festival Conducting Competition and a few years ago, garnered the Brand Personality Award by the Asia Pacific Brand Foundation for his achievements in conducting and music. Previous laureates include Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandela and Mark Zuckerberg.
Since that time, the conductor — a rare musical star from the island of Malta — has conduced the Israel Philharmonic, St Petersburg Orchestra, Munich Symphony and Stuttgart Philharmonic among many others. Opera houses from Berlin to Australia, and soloists for whom he has accompanied all seem to agree with the Toronto Star that he has “a passion for purity of orchestral sound”. After his world premiere of Nargonrit’s Sinfonia Siamindra, he will conduct the Second Symphony of Johannes Brahms. And of all the works of this giant of European music-making, this truly deserves the nickname of “Brahms’s Pastoral Symphony”. No, we don’t have Beethoven’s thunderstorms and running brooks and bird calls. Brahms revered Beethoven above all other composers, but he would never dare to imitate him.
Instead, we have, in all four movements, the feeling which many Thais have always felt when thinking of their late monarch, King Rama IX, that of serenity. Some call it a spiritual serenity, others the serenity of a writer so assured of his powers. But throughout the entire work, written in the same tranquil key which Narongrit ends his own piece, that of D Major, one feels a peace, a repose. One writer, in fact, said that while listening to Brahms’s Second, one thinks of “the tender figures of Botticelli’s picture of the spring”.
In between these two works, another star, Stefan Vladar, will play Robert Schumann’s only
Piano Concerto. Like Olivieri-Munroe, Stefan Vladar is both pianist and conductor, and has been called “one of Austria’s most remarkable musical personalities”.
As conductor, he leads the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and has raised his baton for orchestras from Moscow to Bangkok itself, where he distinguished himself several years ago. Yet it is as pianist that this writer has reviewed him several times, and every time I have heard him, it has been astonishing.
Vladar has exploded over the piano like no pianist since Vladimir Horowitz. He has sometimes burst through the reins of his music, and I once heard him play Robert Schumann as if the bars of music were non-existent. Some might call this irresponsible. I call it remarkable music-making. For the classical composers like Mozart and Haydn, it might not be perfect. But for Schumann — a composer whose tragedies and madness make him a very rare species — this was perhaps the right approach for any young artist.
At any rate, in his performances around the world, Vladar specialises in the later Romantic music, as well as Ravel and Beethoven. In fact, one of Vladar’s recent recordings was a highly-reviewed CD with solo piano compositions by Maurice Ravel. And last year, he released a four-CD box with the complete recording of Beethoven’s solo concertos — five piano concertos, triple concerto, violin concerto and two violin romances. The Schumann Piano Concerto shows no signs of the composer’s madness or tragedy. It is, like the Brahms, a felicitous work, a piece whose only goal seems to be in giving happiness to the listener, and of course technical challenges to a pianist like Stefan Vladar. But unlike all other Romantic concertos, this is not written for virtuosity alone. It is more like a rhapsody, more like improvisations, or a personal monument.
Thus, the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra is offering this July a trio of pieces which may well elevate the soul, performed by a conductor and pianist who have already proven their own abilities.
As for Brahms and Schumann... well, Robert Schumann was probably too mad toward the end or his life to know that Brahms was having an affair with his wife. And Brahms himself gave a tribute to the man after he had committed suicide which still stands out today. “To me, Schumann’s memory is holy. The noble, pure artist forever remains my ideal.”