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A classical holiday feast for all
Life, Michael Proudfoot, Published on 02/01/2018
» Arturo Toscanini and Wilhelm Furtwängler were two of the greatest conductors of classical music of the last century. Their approaches to performance were quite different. Toscanini believed in faithful adherence to the score, reproducing scrupulously the original tempi, the composer's written markings, the time signatures and so on. Furtwängler, on the other hand, was more spontaneous, responding to the particular circumstances of a concert: the concert hall's acoustics, the orchestra, the responses of the audience, while always, at the same time, keeping the overall architecture of the piece in mind. No two Furtwängler performances of the same work were alike.
Wagner, Thai-style
Life, Michael Proudfoot, Published on 25/08/2016
» It was bold of Somtow Sucharitkul to take Opera Siam to Bayreuth in Germany, the spiritual home of Wagnerians, to perform the first opera of a cycle of operas that challenges Richard Wagner's monumental Ring cycle, performed every year in Bayreuth, as the world's longest opera cycle. Sucharitkul's The Silent Prince is the first of the 10 operas of his Dasjati cycle telling the "Ten Lives Of The Buddha", familiar stories in Buddhist culture. Somtow has already composed five of the operas, and hopes to have all 10 finished by 2020, ready for a complete cycle in a sort of Bangkok Bayreuth Festival.
Thai musicians charm Bavarian audiences
Life, Michael Proudfoot, Published on 16/08/2016
» Opera Siam and the Siam Sinfonietta are in Bayreuth, Germany, home each year to the famous Wagner Festival, for the European premiere of Somtow Sucharitkul's opera The Silent Prince, which forms part of the Bayreuth Annual Young Artists Festival. Before the opera opens members of the ensemble have performed concerts in Bayreuth and some small Bavarian towns nearby.