A Disappointing TPO Program

Polish violinist Marta Magdalena Lelek performed the world premier of Karl Fiorini's (b. 1979) Violin Concerto No. 2

College of Music, Mahidol University. Nakhonpathom, Thailand. May 19, 2012. The Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra is incapable of a bad performance, and Saturday's regular concert was no exception, but the program left a lot to be desired. The first half was occupied by the world premier of Violin Concerto No. 2 by the young contemporary Maltese composer, Karl Fiorini, who is destined to remain as unknown in the future as he is today. It was one of these musical contraptions that only make sense, if at all, to the composer himself and, possibly, the musicians performing it. In his program notes, Fiorini says "[This violin concerto]… is build on the three octatonic scales (alternation of tone/semitone intervals]…." With that explanation, you can well imagine what this one-movement composition sounds like. Playing this difficult work might have been good practice for the orchestra, but the benefit to the audience is less clear.

General Prem, President of the King's Privy Council and one of Thailand most respected and powerful men, attended the concert and presented the artists with flowers.

I've known Richard Strauss' longest tone poem, Ein Heldenleben, for my entire adult life, but not well, even though I've owned a CD version for as long as I can remember. In preparation for today's concert, I listened to this well-known work several times and felt well-prepared to enjoy a live performance by the TPO and its superb conductor, Gudni A. Emilsson, but, to my surprise, the TPO started at the middle of Ein Heldenleben, giving the audience half a loaf, which in the case of a comprehensive work like this, is not better than no loaf. Frankly, I never got over the disappointment I felt by being deprived of the first half of Ein Heldenleben, a programming choice which, I'm sure, has no precedent: orchestras don't dribble out great works of art in bits and pieces. A bright spot for me was the TPO's performance of Concert Overture by Karol Szymanowski, now regarded by many as Poland's greatest modern composer, an exciting work which is the only Szymanowski composition I've ever really liked.