Showing 1 - 6 of 6
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".
Brahms, Schumann and a royal tribute
Life, Harry Rolnick, Published on 06/07/2017
» On July 15, the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra will feature two giants of 19th century musical history and one world premiere tribute to Thailand's late monarch.
The Magic of the Musicals
Life, Harry Rolnick, Published on 01/09/2016
» To be honest, "The Magic Of The Musicals" didn't start with The Sound Of Music or The Phantom Of The Opera or even My Fair Lady.
Inside Beethoven's universe
Life, Harry Rolnick, Published on 02/08/2016
» If the "Beethoven Gala" on Aug 11 proves nothing else, it will show that there was never "one" Beethoven. The scowling, misanthropic personality, the irresponsible debtor running from countless irate Viennese landlords was also the man who created his own universe of emotional and arousing music.
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.
Finally, Zimerman in Bangkok
Life, Harry Rolnick, Published on 08/01/2015
» Krystian Zimerman's been called a "rabble-rouser", an "intruder", a "cold aristocrat", a "thin-skinner". Both he and the Steinway piano he carries around to his concerts have been called "utterly eccentric."