Thai Youth Orchestra “Good Vibes Concert” English Review

    Before Songkran Festival (Or Easter if you are Christian), I was finally able went to see concert another than at the Thailand Cultural Center or RBSO (Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra) not performing in this year. In the period before Songkran Holiday, there will be no concerts until the end of the month. I thought I would never write about this orchestra. But to thinking about it, it wouldn't be fair to write only to major orchestra with international artists. This was the Thai Youth Orchestra's first public performance for over the years on the concert called “Good Vibes Concert” held at the auditorium in Rangsit University near Bangkok. It might not be mistaken to say that this Suryadhep Music Hall is the main concert hall of this orchestra because it is well supported by the dean of this university. The inside of this auditorium is designed in the same way as Mahidol University's MACM HALL, but the general appearance and atmosphere not exactly the same, probably because there are more than twice the number of seats and it looks like a theater rather than a concert stage. Although it is large there is a gap seat for the audience as well as making it difficult to find a seat at first.

    For this performance, 2 conductors were used to separate groups of musicians, with the first performance being led by Nattawat Luantampol and the rest is led by the main conductor Akarawat Srinarong. The later's habits are back again that is there is a long talk, chats and lecture before the performance. In addition, during the break, there were interviews between him and musicians. I don't know who he got his model from, but it reminds me of NPR's Classical Music radio show "From The Top".

    In the first performance of this concert by Norwegian composer Edward Grieg, the Holberg Suite is a simple multi-part serenade that shows the nature of Norway, although it may sound inferior to another work is Peer Gynt Suite, but if you are a classical music fan you will definitely notice. In this performance Nattawat was given the role to lead the backup orchestra to play in the complete version. As soon as the performance began stringed instrument play in which show the detailed color of the stringed instrument appeared, Possibly with both conductors are being fundamentally violinists. However as orchestra continued on it seemed they lost in performances many times, especially in playing adagio that went to weak direction. The obvious problem is the harmonization between the strings , especially from the viola. Even though the backup concertmaster is the one who has to show talent as much as possible, they may still lack enough talent. But the show ended with delicacy. The problem is because this piece has a clear, uncomplicated sound. Faulty can be found even to those who do not listen regularly, fortunately parents may not able to notice. It is considered lucky for the musicians to improve their skills in the next performance.

    Later on with main orchestra, The next performance is considered to be one of the most famous Russian or piano with orchestra works, The Piano Concerto No. 2. by Sergei Rachmaninoff. This work has been later adapted for many genres of music, even pop music. This time, Dr. Tarin Supakorn play the piano soloist without reading the notes. In the first movement is the beginning with a few notes gradually getting louder. It gets louder and louder with the orchestra that intertwines together. The orchestra retains its singnature as detailed strings sound that is completely different from the previous piece, performing more refined than many Thai orchestra can even play. But until sometimes the high sound of the violin even collide the piano's high. Also, even though the piano plays like a bump, but it doesn't put much attack, it might be outstanding sound but it's not too different. As for the brass and woodwinds even though the two sides were scrambling for sound, they tried to scrambled out to get it out of the way. As for the second movement , it is a slower meticulous piano accompaniment to the clarinet and the strings. As if orchestra notice the  audience would not allow the piano to stand out alone. Even though they playing very slowly, the string instruments show no errors or distorts at all.

    And in this last movement, both sides compete with each other. May be scattered until the latter part of the movement I encounters the viola's distorted playback clearly. At that moment, I learned that Viola was the weakest link of the orchestra, but because the cello compromise them. While the piano continues to perform the main parts as standard as it should be. Although during this time was not very loud. Even at last piano overall performance is not perfect as intense as the first movement. But pianist pointed out how beautiful piano sound is and how powerful it can be when fill the gap at the right time. Before the orchestra showed blast playing and culminating with a familiar melody before close out in the most spectacular finale. As for Encore, he played a piano solo adapted from an orchestral track from the famous Japanese animated movie Laputa: Castle in the Sky's Carrying You. It's an unexpected piece even for some people may have seen on Netflix, but if the listeners can't keep up, they may not know at all. He played along the notes, not different in any way. The mood of this piece can be reached as the movie wants to convey before to intermission.

    For the second half of the concert, it was played with a young musician who is the professor's daughter in this university like Dena Euprasert who sang and played with electric guitars. As I did not judge for it so I will not explain or criticize in this performance. And finally concert concluded with  Sergei Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2, which has been adapted several times into movie soundtracks or modern music. that although this piece can perform excerpt, However conductor like Akkarawat play out with complete version in about over an hour which fully extracts the player's talent especially from string instruments. The first movement is a taciturn opening before expressing a lively, energetic, complex emotion. The brass wind instruments sounded so loud, almost out of control. A stringed instrument with a clear emphasis and loud harmonies.

    The second movement continues from the previous one. But there is a dreamy atmosphere to float, so the sound is not interrupted from playing intensely to relaxing, open and repeating again. And in the third movement, the piece was playing slower but slowly so profoundly so that some people fell asleep. At this point, they performed so well that it was forgotten that it was a youth orchestra at all. The perfect chemistry of the orchestra, all the instruments come together at this movement even the woodwinds blows too much. They show their intense in a style that can be like The Philadelphia Orchestra at all. In this concert I liked this part the most, indicating that the string instrument was particularly focused. And in the final movement, the orchestra returned to show their liveliness again, creating alternating fast and slow tempo. strings that although at some point they slipped away because they clearly showing its power in rivetingly. Although at the end there was distortion but the roles were not too much, contradicted or too intrusive before closing out the concert impressively.

    To be honest, this orchestra is the best classical music organization in Thailand in terms of performance. It is the orchestra with the most intense and detailed performances of all. Compare this to the Shaolin Temple of the Thai classical music scene. Overall, this concert is the return of the orchestra with high expectation. The main strength of the orchestra is still to the string instruments meet the goals that the conductors have expected. Although this orchestra has been around for a long time, changing musicians from time to time as some of them have become professional musicians in various professional orchestra. They are also natural for youth cultural groups to have fewer performances due to the musicians who are more focused on education and that most of the audiences coming to their concerts are usually friends or family of the musician themself. So there are not many true music listeners out there. Also, as Akkarawat explains "Don't look at them as youth musicians, but rather as an young professional musician.", I hope that these musicians eventually be able to develop their western classical music skills to become professional and will continue to persist until they can play in professional as soloist or in orchestra in Thailand or abroad like many Asian players such as China, Japan or South Korea. I wish only time will tell.

For The Score out of ten.

• Edward Grieg - Holberg Suite (6.5)
• Sergei Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 2
• Piano (8.5)
• Thai Youth Orchestra (8)
• Encore - Joe Hisaishi - Carrying You (8.5)
• Sergei Rachmaninoff - Symphony No. 2 (9)