Nights to Remember – November Chamber Concerts at the Siam Society
Jean-Pierre Kirkland is a British musicologist residing in Chiangmai. He has done a great deal to promote classical music in Thailand by giving pre-concert lectures and writing reviews of classical performances. The TRF Project on Criticism is grateful to Mr Kirkland for giving us the permission to publicize his latest review of the chamber concerts at the Siam Society, which makes a very strong case for chamber music, a domain that is still much neglected in this country.
Nights to Remember – November Chamber Concerts at the Siam Society
(facebook Pro Musica)
Large concert halls the world over are wonderful places to go and hear some of the great symphonic compositions of composers such as Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Strauss. But nothing – nothing at all – compares to the unique atmosphere of intense intimacy that takes place when some of the world’s greatest chamber music takes place in a much smaller hall well designed acoustically and which allows the sound to penetrate the mind and soul. Such was the setting for 2 unforgettable nights of high quality professional performances from three most accomplished musicians in November at the beautiful Siam Society’s main hall. Seating around 200 people, with its ornate and sensitively decorated interior it is the perfect setting for many works of musical art – the large concert halls, although sometimes used for such performances, do not create anything like that same intense intimacy that occurred at the recitals on November 10th and 11th. Sharing their talents with a good-sized audience were French musicians Alexandre Vay on cello and pianist Dimitri Papadopoulos joined by Thailand’s own superb violinist Tasana Nagavajara in the second half of both concerts. The focus in the first parts on both nights was the performance of Brahms’ first two cello sonatas which Brahms, like Mozart before him, preferred to call ‘sonatas for piano and cello’. In this delightful setting the two artists performed with great panache capturing exquisitely the nuances in the Brahms’ scores – the tender gentle passages and the more vibrant dynamic sections. The cello rang out in royal fashion – deep, resonant and full of velvety tones accompanied by a persuasive and at times powerful piano accompaniment. Brahms never sounded so good – ever! In the second half of each concert two great piano trios were presented with equal panache with a more dynamic sound and a pounding sense of rhythm – the three players performing with perfect coordination in riveting renditions of the long and often intense Tchaikovsky Piano Trio in A minor – written reluctantly and containing symphonic-like passages that give this work a majestic sound, magically captured by our musicians. On the second night the recital ended with Dvorak’s masterful Piano Trio in F minor, written shortly after the death of his mother, full of pathos and sadness at times but so incredibly well balanced by passages of intense beauty and deep reflection. All three musicians had a great understanding and comprehensive grasp of this work, nowhere more so than in the tender third movement of the work, with its amazingly exquisite violin passages captured with great insight by Tasana; here the audience was treated to moments of deep spirituality, this surely being one of the greatest movements that Antonin Dvorak ever wrote. The atmosphere created in a smaller hall can never be reproduced in the large concert halls and it is foolish to try to do so. Chamber music has always played second fiddle to great symphonic works (apologies for the pun) but November’s performances proved beyond any reasonable doubt that these are works of equal stature to those more popular and more frequently performed larger pieces and ones that deserve to be heard far more frequently.
Jean-Pierre Kirkland 2558