There’s a not-to-be-missed orchestral concert coming up at Tiffany’s Show Theatre at 2.00pm on Saturday 9th April featuring the splendid Silpakorn University Summer School Orchestra in an exciting programme that includes Tchaikovsky’s colourful 1812 Overture. The programme also includes Brahms’s majestic Symphony No 2 and Massenet’s rarely heard Scènes Alsaciennes.
Silpakorn Summer Music School is held annually and is considered the most important summer music school in Thailand, involving about a hundred young musicians selected by audition. With generous support from Siam Commercial Bank and the Siam Commercial Foundation the summer course is directed once again by the distinguished Japanese conductor Hikotaro Yazaki. Originally studying mathematics at Tokyo’s Sofia University he later graduated as conductor at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. He has conducted the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Youth Symphony Orchestra and also Britain’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and many other top European orchestras.
Japan’s Hikotaro Yazaki will conduct the Silpakorn University Summer School Orchestra at the Tiffany’s Show Theatre concert on April 9.
Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, more correctly known as The Year 1812: Festival overture in E flat major Op. 49 dates from 1880 and was written to commemorate Russia’s defense against Napoleon’s disastrous invasion of 1812. The overture is best known for its percussion effects, cannon fire, chiming bells and the heroic brass fanfare finale. It’s become Tchaikovsky’s most popular work and is virtually a musical picture of the military campaign in which we hear La Marseillaise interspersed with Russian folk melodies and the Russian national anthem.
Brahms Symphony No 2 is a rather more genteel affair; a cheery and lyrical work that dates from the summer of 1887 and is about as far from a battlefield as you can get. The opening has shades of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony and the work contains some lovely music and sumptuous melodies.
The music of Jules Massenet isn’t heard too often these days, so this is an ideal opportunity to hear one of his suites for orchestra that takes its inspiration from Alsace, that part of northern France that was lost to Germany after the Franco-Prussian War. It’s actually the seventh suite and it dates from 1882. Although it opens in a pastoral mood the last movement has a distinct military flavour.
This exciting concert is a joint venture between Silpakorn Summer Music, Pattaya International Ladies’ Club and Pattaya Classical Music. Part of the profits from the concert will be donated to Kate’s Project Trust, a charity that works to improve the living conditions of disadvantaged families. It has helped hundreds of children to attend school and provides school uniforms for children in need. So this is a perfect excuse to treat yourself to an afternoon of great classical music and help the disadvantaged at the same time.
Tickets are Bt. 800 and Bt 500 and they can be reserved by email at [email protected] or you can phone 038 421 700-5. Don’t forget the 2.00pm starting time.
