Tchaikovsky’s brilliance to be heard at Neilson Hays Library
Neilson Hays Library will present two rounds of the “Brahms Tchaikovsky Concert” on Friday and Saturday at 7pm.
The evening programme will feature Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir De Florence, a string sextet composed in 1890. It demonstrates the distinct Russian character that, integrated with the Romantic idiom of his German contemporaries, fuelled Tchaikovsky’s intensely personal musical voice and has placed him among Western music’s most irresistible composers.
The work ranks among Tchaikovsky’s finest creations and, indeed, is one of the foremost masterpieces of the Romantic chamber repertoire. Also featured will be String Sextet No.1 In B Flat Major composed in 1860 by Johannes Brahms. It has four movements. The first movement pulls between dance and song. Above a fragile slow waltz, solo strings rise and fall in smooth arcs.
The second movement is a theme and variations that look backwards for its model. Brahms filled his library with music by composers of old, adopting and adapting their tools. His beloved JS Bach echoes through this movement.
After the fizz of a blink-andyou-miss-it scherzo, the fourth movement has the feel of a serenade. Performing the two pieces will be a string sextet of international musicians including Rhys Watkins and Omiros Yavroumis on violin, Aibek Ashirmatov and Tasana Nagavajara on viola, and Rowena Calvert and Noa Lev Chorin on cello.
Tickets cost 950 baht (850 baht for library members) and will not be available for purchase at the door. A negative Covid-19 ATK test result within 24 hours is also required.
Visit neilsonhayslibrary.org, email info@neilsonhayslibrary.org or call 02-233-1731.