A Young Thai Piano Talent Impresses

Young Thai pianist Tarin Supprakorn accepts flowers after his successful Bangkok recital

Goethe Institute Auditorium. Bangkok, Thailand. May 29, 2011. Thailand is the home of a surprisingly large number of talented young pianists, and Tarin Supprakorn is among the best. While in high school in Bangkok, I heard him play several times before he went on the study with American piano pedagogue Thomas Hecht, at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore. Having just graduated, and now on his way to the Eastman School of Music to study with Nelita True, he showed his Bangkok fans just how much he progressed during his years in Singapore.

Like all young pianists today, Tarin choose to play an extremely difficult program: a Haydn sonata, the Bartok piano sonata, and Schumann’s wonderful Davidsbundlertanze. The Schumann in particular, consisting of 18 short movements spanning about 38 minutes, was the most difficult to keep together musically. Tarin sailed through it like a seasoned pro, producing changes in mood, level, rhythm, and sound which made this diverse work the unified whole that it is. Happily, Tarin concentrated on making beautiful music, leaving the “wow” factor to other less talented performers.