RBSO Royal Concerts 2022 English Review

RBSO Royal Concerts 2022 Review

    Earlier this month I attended to concert where Alice Sara Ott was the star performer. In fact she is not only protagonist of this concert but could also be for this orchestra for all year long. In Thai social media during the past week there has been many gossip news about this concert. Probably because a royal family member attended. But no one review about performance in this concert. So I might want to write about it a little bit (but maybe quite much!). At the beginning if Alice has some understanding after this concert, she'll found out that this concert clearly reflects the status of the western classical music scene in Thailand today. For now, although Thai government has taken a number of measures to control to prevent the current pandemic, including nighttime activities. But as the program has been pre-installed months in advance. Might because of royal family's support, there is a high probability that despite the current situation even the worse there are, this show would still be go on. Except that this German-Japanese pianist would not be able to participate by herself.

    If anyone who follows or frequently comes to attended some orchestral concerts in Thailand, no matter which orchestra, The feature performers who came aboard for each standard concerts are mostly mid-level artists. It may be a music student who has just graduated from a reputable music conservatoire. Or otherwise, many of the musicians who prepare to competing in international music competitions. So note that only a few well-known musicians in Classical music world dare to perform in Thailand for various reasons. (Parallel that there is a pianist who likes to travel to Thailand who has not yet performed here, but there are scandals in the media many years ago.) There are two main reasons: First is there are small audiences. (Serious listeners base is already small. Even if organizer gave tickets for free to publics, It may be not worth for them anyway. Causing the musicians to not want to invite their friends to perform here)​ Second is very limited budget (Even to maintain a large orchestra in Thailand is still difficult to find a supports from high-class groups and as cost of the musicians salary as they are already expensive so they don't want pay more for feature performer) so to hire world-class musicians to perform is very difficult in Thailand.

    In many classical concerts in Thailand there were many royal family members are involved, either as patron or invited to attend by organizers. The Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra (RBSO) itself is probably the only orchestra in Thailand to be able to hire such a popular artist come to perform. That also shows that the rest of Thai orchestra can't have enough capabilities (Or musicians are not good enough) to support a great concert in Thailand for quite a while.

    In this program are all from the French composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, which are quite popular programs. But due to its tone poem nature, it doesn't really fit much into the standard program.

    Following the ceremony and the performance of Happy Birthday for that royal family member, the first program to perform was L'Après-midi d'un faune, or Afternoon of a Faun, a floating work that imagined the Faun as a creature of Roman mythology. When the they started with the flute sounding out, it was clear that this orchestra should have had a very long time to prepare for this. Demonstrating the most readiness for 10 months, this performance is clearly expressive, especially coming from woodwind instruments that are normally not very noticeable. Playing at an impressionist piece that must be as slow as possible and show the smoothest hold possible, Also the playing of the Harps and the First violin section are stand out in color. I'm really impressed that they were able to convey this clearly.

    Next, in the most important program, Her comings that made the Main auditorium of the Thailand Cultural Center have an overwhelming audience of people attend this concert than usually in the past. (Even if they have to cut capacities by half due to safety measures.) First of all, if anyone has listened to her recordings before, you will find that most of the work she recorded focuses on almost solo instrument pieces of work. From debut to playing duo with a violin or piano together, Only a few of her concertos were recorded with orchestras, And all are mainstream repertoire. Although she has performed and recorded many piece from French composers, However Ravel's left-handed piano concerto for this time was a very challenging performance for someone who not disabled. But in overall, I was surprised that she played this concerto much better than I expected. As the standard in this piece, she had to plays uninterrupted in about 20 minutes.​

    Generally, this work was composed for a pianist who lost his right arm (Which most pianists are good at), So the some pianist get fame from this piece are often the ones who can't use their right arm. Nowadays often they are injuries-related sustained during their career. It's not easy to play with both hands let alone to play it well in one hand, As it means you have to play both melodies with one hand and be quick too. Also because it was composed around the same time as another concerto by the same composer with two hands, making some people seem to hear the similarity from that piece. Maybe the reason for the French-music specialist might to perform this piece in very late in their career, Not only this piece is less popular, but it have to overcome the limitations of using their unused hand as well.

    Maybe it's because she's half-Asian. She was probably influenced by the showiness from some Chinese pianist. She opened it with a few hard key strike and then I could see the her impact the piano as time passed as she continued to play harder. It show very dissonance in sound, playing like this could easily break the piano. But during the cadenza she really played herself to the fullest. Her intricate techniques play that featured her being fully leveraged and showing some fluidity. Which, in fact, she's probably more suited to play recital. Although I felt that she was starting to lose herself during at mid-point, especially when her playing against brass, but seemed she to be able to pull it back. At this time, she's almost perfect if she doesn't slip her concentration. I would say It's really her show this time around, At last her encore is Satie's Gnossienne No. 1.

    As for the orchestra itself, Although they had little time to practice together, However they were well prepared, especially from the woodwind. The string instruments in the first half did not play a clear role except for the concertmaster. But there was a major problem this show wasn't as good as it could have been: there was a problem with room acoustics. causing the sound from the back to come forward too much, especially from brass instruments. It's too loud so the piano can't be heard clearly enough. and then clearly noised, which will be discussed further. After this concerts there is a bouquet ceremony which give in front of stage which in Western world is uncommon but in Thailand it's customary.

    In the second half The show started with La mer, the piece that shows from the waves. Based on the imagination of the most famous Japanese woodblock prints. "The Great Wave off Kanagawa". It very common understanding for music history from all arts eras that there are feature paintings or sculptures and followed by music that reflects those arts, This piece is follow in that suit. It is to performed in swayed sound to show the importance of the waves rather than the sea.

    The orchestra started playing softly, gradually getting louder and louder. The dryer gently blends in with the stringed instrument. Played continuously, softly, without overlapping sounds. All of rocking and swaying in three movements, like waves gently crashing onto the beach or hitting each other from the winds. In this work, It is highly Asian-influence. This can be explained by the distinct oriental and the orchestra's expressions weren't disappointing at all, and what impressed me during the performance was that when they played slowly, the background noise was clear. Because the auditorium's acoustics work very clearly for this piece. Ambidentate emerges when low-pitched or small-bodied beats resonate. This is the point where I think that the recording cannot provide. It's one of their best shows ever.

    On the last of programs is Bolero, a Spanish ballet-inspired piece that is a frequent performance in the world of Western classical music. In spite of the fact that the work has content that requires very little expression. Because only a single music motive is repeated over and over from the basic key in a normal rhythm, nothing special. Starting with snare drums, leading each instrument to play the same melody continued to every instruments until the sound grows louder and louder. Because it is a piece that is easy to understand, but as the piece also focus the ability of each instrument. But in this time around, because the very cold temperature in the auditorium also the auditorium's back acoustics with reverberation are easy to pick up on distorted noise. Especially coming from the woodwinds and brass, when it's started out no one will help them cover sound up. In the end, although it's a piece that doesn't play as well as is in other piece, but if compared to what the orchestra  performed before the epidemic arrived, it was considered very elevated.

    Finally, although after the opening of a few shows in the past months, the orchestra faced quite a few problems. But this performances have improved sequentially and is considered the orchestra's best performance in the last 5 years. Although I feel that the orchestra is much better than before in terms of quality,  But their developing is still a big question that the orchestra must continue to answer on.

For Score

• L'Après-midi d'un faune : 9/10
• Piano Concerto for the Left Hand  :
• Alice Sara Ott 9/10
• RBSO 8.5/10
• La mer  : 8.5/10
• Bolero : 7/10