Anatomy of a bad night...

I've gone through a few of these types of posts in my head, ones where I describe how for various reasons I didn't make it to a concert or event or attraction after leaving my apartment with every intention to do so. Such episodes happen with alarming frequency here in Bangkok, partly due to the language barrier, partly to my own failure to check about details ahead of time, and partly because things are often cancelled or changed without public notice. 

I thought Friday night would be my bad night, seeing as I had decided to go to a 7pm concert by the Thailand Philharmonic in Salaya, which is well outside of Bangkok; to balance affordability and traffic circumvention, this meant taking a bus to the Skytrain from my apartment, then taking the Skytrain to Victory Monument, and then taking another bus from Victory Monument to Salaya, all during Friday evening rush-hour. The last and longest leg of the trip was in fact pretty miserable: standing on a packed bus for an hour and a half trip that's usually just forty minutes, with no mobility and a barely a grip on the overhead rail. However I anticipated the traffic,  arrived at the College of Music campus in Salaya half an hour before show time (two and a half hours after leaving my apartment), grabbed an iced latte in the beautiful auditorium lobby, and proceeded to enjoy a great night of music making. The orchestra, led by Dariuzs Mikulski, performed an arrangement of the Thai classical song Pamaa ram kwaan, Mozart's Overture to Cosi Fan Tutti, Richard Strauss's Horn Concert No. 2 in E-flat major (handled, by account of the horn players around me, superbly by guest soloist Szabolecs Zemplenl), and the Concerto for Orchestra by Witold Lutoslavski with the same energy and sense of excitement I've felt at other TPO concerts.

So Friday turned out okay. Now the bad night. I already had a funny feeling about Saturday because I had to make the tough decision of either going to a chamber music concert or an orchestra concert, both of which were featuring music by Thai composers. Proximity, ticket cost, and the general scarcity of chamber music in Bangkok led me to the RSU Trio concert at the Thailand Cultural Center Small Hall. The ensemble of professors from Rangsit University was to perform a new composition by Denny Euprasert, in addition to the Beethoven "Archduke" and Dvorak "Dumky" trios. I was very excited. In fact, my fiancee Alex and I had centered our day around the evening performance by heading to the Esplanade complex near the Cultural Center that afternoon to catch a movie and get some work done. So around 7 we start the walk to the TCC. It's pouring rain and we don't have an umbrella. She's in heels, the sidewalks, already uneven, are now muddy and slippery. This stinks, we're soaked, but we get there still in good spirits. Except now the situation is looking strangely familiar, like the night I showed up to hear the non-existent Sarah Chang/Bangkok Symphony Orchestra concert. The TCC security guards shoot us the same funny looks, there is little light and no activity, and soon it is obvious that there is no RSU Trio concert. 

This was extremely frustrating, but determined to make something work, I decide to forge on to the Siam Philharmonic concert across town at 8pm. There is still time to make it. The program was to feature two works I had already paid to hear the ensemble perform--Trisdee's Eternity, and Wagner's Siegfried Idyll--but a rare 1977 piece by Thai composers Dnu Huntrakul and Nop Sotthibandu called "Le Mort de la Mort" had caught my attention. The '70s was an interesting time for composers in Bangkok. Somtow Sucharitkul, Dnu, Nop, and the American Bruce Gaston were emerging as strong voices in Asian music, mingling with the likes of Lou Harrison at the Asian Composers' Expos in Japan, the Philippines, and Taipei, and experimenting with the mixing of European avant-garde techniques and Thai classical sounds. I'm in the process of getting the whole story on this group of composers and on this period in Thai music history, and I was excited about the opportunity to hear this piece live, in Bangkok. 

It almost happened. Alex got in a cab to go home after the failed attempt at the Cultural Center, and I was hurrying to the subway to begin my circuitous trek to the Siam Phil concert. But a few minutes later, she calls. She does not have her keys to the apartment. There is nothing I can do but follow suit and head home, muddied and soaked, with no music to account for on Saturday night. So, if anybody has word on the Siam Phil concert, please fill me in! Also, if anybody knows if the RSU Trio concert has been rescheduled, I'd be curious to hear about that as well. 

I could have started this entry with an apology about my lack of writing lately, but I've saved it for the end. Truth is, everything I've been hearing and learning the past few months is worth writing about. The Thai contemporary ensemble Kor Phai two weeks ago at Settrade was amazing, and this past weekend, while on a short beach escape to Koh Chang (photo above), I was able to catch an interesting assortment of musicians (including Khun In) at the World Musiq and Fruit Festival, a super fun event. Before that, I had my initiation ceremony as a Thai musician (wai khru) and got to play the saw ou in an ensemble for an extended period of time for the first time. I'd love to share this all in realtime and in detail, but in reality, I only have seven weeks left in Thailand and will probably have to post most of my research once I'm home and not running around so much (ha). Distance might bring some different insights, too. For now, Classicalive will unfortunately remain in the state it has devolved to over the last few months: a place for random outbursts like this one and the occasional concert notice/report. But please, keep reading, and especially keep writing me if you are reading. It's great to know who's out there. 

Thai classical (sort of) in town

I had a great time at the BSO's season opening on Friday night. The all Beethoven program was headed up by the Irishman Barry Douglas, and included a fiery account of the Emperor Concerto and the Seventh Symphony (my favorite Beethoven symphony, if I had to choose). There was a strong crowd, very excited to have the orchestra back from hiatus, and it looks like an interesting year ahead for the BSO. Asides from their own programs, they are presenting a concert by the Bach Orchestra of the Leipzig Gewandhaus (July 19), and recitals by Leif Ove Andsnes (November 9) and Lang Lang (December 11). 

I just wanted to post quickly about a few upcoming events. Tomorrow night (May 5) at 7pm in the Thailand Cultural Center Small Hall, Denny Euprasert (composer, pianist, and dean of the Conservatory of Music at Rangsit University) and some of his promising students will be getting together for an evening of jazz. Denny performed at one of the first concerts I saw in Bangkok and I had the pleasure of talking with him two weeks ago about some of the exciting programs being offered at his fairly new conservatory. As promised, I have some Thai classical listings too. In the new, free insert to The Nation known as the Daily Express, I read that free Thai classical music performances will be taking place this upcoming Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at the River City Shopping Center between 4 and 7pm. The complex is down in the Old Quarter, sort of near The Oriental Hotel. And on Friday night, May 9, at the Stock Exchange on Ratchada, contemporary Thai ensemble Kor Phai will offer up a program of traditional and not so traditional Thai music, including "ground-breaking Ponglang xylophone from Northeast, Bamboo sounds from all over Southeast Asia, songs to celebrate 100th year anniversary of distinguished female composer, Kru Banleng Sagarik, and 100th year of the greatest historical-romance novel writer, “Jacob” Chot Phrae-phan."

New kid on the block

Thai opera singer Saran Suebsantiwongse founded NUNi Productions in Bangkok last year, and I encourage you all to take a second and explore the company's fantastic new website. Saran and his crew presented "Mozart in Mischeif" in November (which I sadly missed), but they have some exciting stuff coming up, including "The Orpheus Schemata" during the second and third weeks of May, and Donizetti's "Il Campanello" on July 4, presented in a joint venture with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra. Here's a blurb taken from the website:

NUNi Productions (Never Underestimate New Ideas) is a dynamic new theatre company that seeks to elevate the status and standard of multidisciplinary performance in Thailand and beyond. Comprised of passionate professionals, we have joined together to create opera, dance and dramatic pieces driven by great storytelling and innovative design.

Trisdee's "Eternity"

Sunday night, at the Siam Philharmonic's concert titled "Unanswered Questions", Trisdee na Patalung's "Eternity" had its world premier. Closing the first half of the program, the audience, myself included, was mesmerized. The work is dedicated to the late HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana, advocate and patron of classical music in Thailand. The composer was inspired to write the work after witnessing monks chanting at the Princess's resting place in Dusit Mahaprasad Hall in the Grand Palace during a late night memorial service. Trisdee writes, "The chant was meditative and of haunting beauty. It was not until one week ago did I find out that what I heard was in fact Wat Rakang's Luen Luang chant, the melody of which I have decided to use as the composition's main theme." 

The work opens with solo violin presenting this theme. Then, slowly, it is joined by a 2nd violin, a viola, a cello, and lastly a bass, all staggered, playing the same melody in unison but with different ornaments and trills creating beautiful dissonance. The orchestra then enters with six full chords, as the solo violin soars above. I was reminded for a second of John Taverner's "The Protecting Veil." Everything moves forward with simple harmonic gestures and increasing sound to the piece's climax, at which point the pi java (a type of Thai oboe with a deep, bag-pipe like sound used at funerals) enters with a gorgeous solo. Hidden in the back of the large string ensemble, the audience was not expecting this entrance, and those squirming to catch a view of the player were soon subdued and put in a trance by the beauty of it all. Players on stage were visibly moved, and really, it all felt very religious in a way, the same way Taverner's music can make almost anybody believe in some sort of heaven or transcendence. The work ends as it began, simply and quietly with the Luen Luang chant melody working its way through the quintet of soloists, though this time the full strings joined the last cadence. 

The Philharmonic sounded excellent throughout the evening's interesting program, which began with Ives's "The Unanswered Question" and Ravel's "Le Tombeau de Couperin", and ended with Beethoven's Second Symphony. I last heard the group play in February and the improvement on Sunday was marked. I did recognize a few more Bangkok Symphony Orchestra faces than usual in the cello section in particular, but either way everything was more in tune and crisp; the ensemble really jelled over the last few months of steady concertizing. 

A brief tangent, relating back to Trisdee's "Eternity." I've met two other Thai composers this month who have pieces that in different ways draw on Buddhist chant. In Anothai Nitibhon's "Dukkha", for double bass and string quartet, "the bass musically emulates the way the harmonic series is harnessed in the original throat-singing style" of Tibetan chant, according to the composer. In Atibhop Pataradetpisan's 1999 work called "Three Prosodies of Chant for Sextet", the composer said he constructed the piece from the pattern of hard and soft syllables in a Thai chant. The last two composers actually both cite George Crumb as a strong influence in their work too, so go figure. The styles of all three pieces taken together end up being quite different though, despite the common link to chant melodies or breathing patterns or rhythms. Atibhop's work offers the least tangible reliance on chant to the listener, as he was mostly using the hard and soft syllables in a process, while Trisdee's is very overtly invoking chant by way of melody and atmosphere...Anothai's work is somewhere in between! 

Recent reading

Two quick notes: 1) A really excellent little article appeared in the New York Times this past week: "Tourism Saves a Laotian City but Saps its Buddhist Spirit." The author Seth Mydans succinctly and eloquently describes how Luang Prabang's attempt at preservation has led to unsettling tourist trends, a problem not new to different parts of Thailand and something I observed recently in Sapa, Vietnam. Earlier this month, a friend returning from Luang Prabang summed it up like this: "Wayyy too many white people...". The article ends with this insightful and troubling quote from the city's former cultural preservation director: "The paradox is that Unesco gives out the Heritage Site label partly to reduce poverty, but reducing poverty is reducing heritage," Mr. Rampon said. "If you want to preserve heritage, you must keep poverty.” 2) I'm currently reading Maurizio Peleggi's Lords of Things: The Fashioning of the Siamese Monarchy's Modern Image (University of Hawaii Press, 2002). It's an interesting book that reads differently from other Thailand histories which is why I mention it. The work documents the strange lengths Siamese monarchs went to in the late 19th and early 2oth centuries to appear "modern" and "civilized". However, instead of putting forth the usual argument that this was all done to create an image of power and authority in an effort to yield off hungry colonizing powers, Peleggi brings attention to the personal motivations and psychological effects at play and focuses more on the local repercussions. He also spends good time on the notion of "invented tradition", something I find fascinating. All in all a great read, even with the socio-historical and Foucaultian jargon that tends to confuse me. 

Trisdee composes, BSO and opera companies return

Two weeks ago, conductor and composer Somtow Sucharitkul took a turn in the role of pianist; this weekend, his gifted protege, conductor and pianist Trisdee Napatalung, takes a turn in the role of composer. Sunday evening, 8pm at the Church of Christ Auditorium on Phaya Thai, the Siam Philharmonic presents "Unanswered Questions", a program that includes Ives, Ravel, Beethoven, and the world premiere of Trisdee's new piece "Eternity." I've been planning on attending this concert for a while but at present am not sure if I'll be able to return in time from the Songrkan festivities just south of Bangkok in Phra Pradaeng, hopefully it works out. 

Not much else going on this weekend, though I'll mention now that May 2nd marks the return of the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra (note the new website!). The event will feature conductor and pianist Barry Douglas in an all Beethoven program: the Coriolan Overture, Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, and Symphony No. 7. My guess is that tickets will be going fast, so consider booking ahead of time. Even further down the road, it looks like the opera scene in Bangkok will spruce up again, with new productions by Bangkok Opera and the Metropolitan Opera of Bangkok in June.

I've been blogging substantially less frequently since February, and I don't know if that will change in my remaining three months here...the list of people to meet, pieces to learn, concerts to attend, and information to make sense of is ever growing. That said, next week I'm hoping to find some time to profile two more Bangkok composers who are doing really interesting stuff: Ajarn Anothai Nitibhon, a professor of composition at Silpakorn University and recent PhD grad from the University of Edinburgh, and Ajarn Atibhop Pataradetpisan, head of the composition department at the College of Music, Mahidol University. The logic goes that if I publicize my intent to post, it's more likely to happen, so stay tuned!

Khun In: Off Beat Siam

Wednesday afternoon I found myself at the release party for well known ranat-ek (xylophone) player Khun In Narongrit Tosa-nga's latest CD, titled "Off Beat Siam." Khun In came to fame (and got his name) after appearing in the 2004 movie "The Overture." The popular film depicted the life of Khru Sorn Silapabanleang (1881-1954), who later in life became known as the great master Luang Pradit Phairoh, perhaps the most famous Thai classical composer/musician in history. Khun In appeared in the film as Khru Sorn's arch nemesis on the ranat, named Khun In (a fictional character). The two face off in an epic competition in the climax of the film. I've been meaning to see "The Overture" and when I do I'll write more about it, but I know that it was something of a phenomenon here, embraced by the government and public alike as one of the finest representations of Thai identity on film, inspiring hoards of young ranat players and breathing fresh life into the Thai classical music scene. Since the film, Khun In has become a popular music figure in Bangkok, despite his "classical" status. Trying to capitalize and expand on that, he has a new CD out that the press materials sum up as the "masterful interweaving of Thai classical music with hop hop, jazz, funk, rock & roll, and Latin styles." Here is a taste, filmed by me (rather shakily) at the release event on Wednesday at the Joe Louis Theater in Suan Lum.  This particular piece is an arrangement of the popular Thai tune Khang Khao Kin Kluay (tran: The Bat Eats Bananas); it's something of a standard, done up by most contemporary ensembles. Here is Khun In's take: 

I think this falls into the jazz- and funk-fusion realm? Not really sure, but it was entertaining and certainly clever.