Showing 1 - 7 of 7
Variations for Valentines
Life, Harry Rolnick, Published on 23/01/2019
» Not slushy or sloppy or kissy-kissy, but three faces of real love will be presented by the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra for St Valentine's month offering at the Thailand Cultural Centre on Feb 8. The first face is the tragedy of love, the second face is the love of beauty, and the third is one of the most emotional offerings of love to humanity in general.
Bangkok to hear Bartók's Viola Concerto
Life, Harry Rolnick, Published on 13/03/2018
» So many jokes have been written about the viola that it really should be pitied. Without a look of its own (the viola resembles an overweight violin), without its own sound quality (it shares three-quarter of the violin notes, three-quarter of the cello notes), stuck behind the violins in the orchestra, the poor viola is hardly singular. In fact, when Hector Berlioz wrote solo viola into the Harold In Italy symphony, Paganini refused to play it. And the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, noting how the viola shared the looks and music of other stringed instruments, called the instrument "the hermaphrodite of the orchestra".
A mix of musical temperaments
Life, Harry Rolnick, Published on 20/02/2018
» The three composers for the next Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, on Feb 28, could not be more dissimilar personally — or more alike historically.
Valentina Lisitsa's outspoken words, outgoing music
Life, Harry Rolnick, Published on 12/12/2017
» Wonderful news for music lovers who hate Tchaikovsky symphonies. On Friday, the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra (RBSO) will be performing a Tchaikovsky symphony.
Summoning the masters by cello
Life, Harry Rolnick, Published on 31/08/2017
» The great cellist Pablo Casals gave the second-best description of the cello. "The cello," he said, "is like a beautiful woman who has not grown older but younger with time, more slender, more supple, more graceful." The greatest description of the cello contained no words at all, and this wordless description is what Bangkok will experience on Sept 2.
Dark, yet more romantic
Life, Harry Rolnick, Published on 17/02/2015
» It's encore time for Clara-Jumi Kang. When the formidable Korean violinist appeared here last year, playing Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, critic James Keller praised her "truly authoritative and highly sensitive musical command". This coming Saturday, Kang has changed her violin, modified her feelings and changed her music from the very proper early 19th century Mendelssohn to a rare highly romantic surprise written 50 years later.
Prepare to be enchanted
Life, Harry Rolnick, Published on 03/09/2013
» Aah, the unlikely miracle of history. Forty years ago, the United States reigned supreme in the pop music business. The Sound Of Music was the highlight on Broadway, Hair was playing off-Broadway, the Beach Boys were re-inventing California and Elvis had conquered everything in sight. Right?