Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra "200 Years Of Richard Wagner" May 10 & 11

[Stradavarius37]

200 Years of Richard Wagner

Opera and TPO collide as principal guest conductor Claude Villaret leads a program devoted to the supreme emotion of Richard Wagner. Familiar works including “The Flying Dutchman” Overture and Ride of the Valkyries will be sure to captivate your imagination! The program also features Thai saxophonist Supat Hanpatanachai performing “Your Rockaby” by UK composer Mark Anthony Turnage.

Concerts:

• 10 May 2013 / 7.00 p.m. / MACM

11 May 2013 / 4.00 p.m. / MACM

Conductor:

Claude Villaret

Soloist:

Supat Hanpatanachai, Saxophone

Program:

• Thai Piece: “Sa-mer”

Pierre Max Dubois: Concerto pour Saxophone alto

Richard Wagner: Overture “The flying Dutchman”

Intermission

• Richard Wagner: Parsifal Prelude

Richard Wagner: Tristan Prelude and Liebestod

Richard Wagner: Ride of the Valkyries

For Ticket Information - http://www.thailandphil.com/tickets-and-policies/

For Shuttle Service From BTS Station Wong Wian Yai - http://www.music.mahidol.ac.th/salayalink/

[Stradavarius37]

A lovely picture of Prince Mahidol Hall - Opening in December 2013. This hall has 2,040 seats, acoustics designed by Mueller Company (Same company that did the Esplanade in Singapore), and looks amazing. Come here TPO prepare their sound to fill this big space!

[Stradavarius37]

One last interesting tidbit - every Saturday TPO program is broadcast LIVE on Thai Channel 9 (Modern Nine). But of course, hearing the real concert is much better, and every Saturday concert we have groups of expats from Pattaya and Hua Hin who rent shuttle buses and come to our programs! Check us out - we are pretty good

[OldChinaHam]

Dress Code

• No shorts, sneakers and slippers are allowed at any time.
  

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No Shorts?

Glad to hear it.

Also, of course, very glad to to see this happening!

[Stradavarius37]

Dress Code

No shorts, sneakers and slippers are allowed at any time.

-----------------------

No Shorts?

Glad to hear it.

Also, of course, very glad to to see this happening!

Seen there so you can verify!

[OldChinaHam]

Of course, you know I would REALLY love to go.

But I think it is too far to go for a concert.

Maybe I will watch it on Television, if it works which I do not know.

Thailand needs all the classical music and classical music concerts it can comfortably fund.

Not only in 1 or 2 cities.

You may already have listened to this internet classical stream, but if not, have a listen when you get the chance.

USA's only really good classical FM station with a very good quality audio stream 24 hours 7.

Almost nothing but music, classical.

Plenty of Bach for your Strad, if you really do have one.

Hopes so.

Very little in this life as great as classical cello though::

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/

• On Air:
• Jeff Spurgeon
• Piano Quintet in E-flat, Op. 44, Robert Schumann Cleveland

[Morakot]

“I just can't listen to any more Wagner, you know...I'm starting to get the urge to conquer Poland.”

― Woody Allen

[OldChinaHam]

GREAT LINE!

Thanks for Woody.

I can't get enough of him

I had forgotten this line it was so long ago, but this just points out again how much fun these films are to watch, some a dozen times over 30 years.

Thank you.

[Stradavarius37]

GREAT LINE!

Thanks for Woody.

I can't get enough of him

I had forgotten this line it was so long ago, but this just points out again how much fun these films are to watch, some a dozen times over 30 years.

Thank you.

Here is an interesting article that dives into the topic that Allen glossed over - http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Wagner.html

For myself the brilliance of the music, politics aside, is of primary importance when I perform it.

[OldChinaHam]

It is important to separate the work of art, the music, from the composer, and to also be very mindful of the history.

If we are mindful of the accurate history, then I do not think we can be faulted for appreciating the music.

This is a most important question when we listen to Wagner, and a question that I often do think about, so thank you for mentioning it.

This is the first time that I have thought of The Batman in the context of being a serious musician.

I guess I will need to rethink things a bit.

Thank you for sharing this, and hope all goes very well at the performance!

[OldChinaHam]

With all this talk of Woody, and Saxes.....

New York State Of Mind / Billy Joel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZh8YjbDiVk

Not exactly classical but long live serious music.

[OldChinaHam]

From the WSJ:

"Why Israel Still Shuts Wagner Out

An unofficial custom raises hackles, but continues with good reason

Why does the state of Israel insist that its musicians not perform such universally acknowledged masterpieces as "Tristan und Isolde" and "Die Meistersinger"? Because their creator was a notorious anti-Semite -- and because Adolf Hitler loved his music. In "Mein Kampf," the book in which he spelled out his plans for world conquest, Hitler called Wagner one of "the great warriors in this world who, though not understood by the present, are nevertheless prepared to carry the fight for their ideas and ideals to their end." Nor was he shrieking just to hear the sound of his voice. Hitler was an aesthete who knew Wagner's operas very well. He was close to the composer's family and, after he came to power in 1933, he made sure that Wagner's music was prominently featured at Nazi Party functions.

Wagner, needless to say, wasn't a Nazi. He died five years before Hitler was born. But his hatred of the Jews, like Hitler's, was more than a mere tic: It lay at the heart of his megalomaniacal vision of the world. Wagner considered himself to be both a great composer (which he was) and a great political philosopher (which he wasn't), and the doctrine he preached was that of German racial purity and triumphalism. To be sure, you won't find explicitly anti-Semitic language in the texts that he wrote for his operas, and he worked closely with a few Jewish musicians. But when it came to Jews in general, Wagner believed that they were a "swarming colony of worms in the dead body of art" and that only one thing could redeem them from "the burden of curse -- total annihilation.""

Mr. Teachout, the Journal's drama critic

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Still, we should be mindful of the history, and then listen to the music.

I will be listening on television if I can find one that works around here.

Tks!

Edited May 10, 2013 by OldChinaHam

[OldChinaHam]

You know, you say it is to be broadcast on Channel 9, but it would seem to make much more sense to also broad these concerts via internet for those who do not have television or maybe poor television reception.

[Stradavarius37]

Thanks you are right. Channel 9 is streamed on a number of websites. I'll have to find a couple and post them next time!

[OldChinaHam]

Yes, please.

Next time there is a concert, please provide the links for internet streaming.

In my case, I don't know whether I can't tell time, or I have the wrong date and year,

But I turned on the tube and there is no 9

All I get are some news programs and lots of snow on others.

Maybe the television here needs degaussing,?

Remember, the tube is on its way out, and the computer is now here, for those who enjoy classical and do not happen to be in Vienna or NYC, or Sydney, or similar places.

Otherwise pass the paper cup and the string, can't be any worse than the television reception I seem to have today.

[AyG]

Good to see the concert isn't actually 200 years long - though it may well feel like it.

As someone* once said "Wagner's music has some wonderful moments - and some terrible quarters of an hour"

* Quote variously attributed to Sir Thomas Beecham, George Bernard Shaw, Rossini et al.

[Stradavarius37]

Good to see the concert isn't actually 200 years long - though it may well feel like it.

As someone* once said "Wagner's music has some wonderful moments - and some terrible quarters of an hour"

* Quote variously attributed to Sir Thomas Beecham, George Bernard Shaw, Rossini et al.

If you are listening to full length 4 hour operas - that comment might have some bearing - but when listening to an 8 minute overture or prelude, as we are playing, its doubtful you would feel that way!

[Potosi]

"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy." Ludwig van Bethoven

Some of Wagner's compositions provide an emotional pay-off like few others.

[OldChinaHam]

More accessible to most than

Pilgrims Progress.