Piano Recital as Cabaret Show

Goethe Institut Auditorium. Bangkok, Thailand. March 7, 2013. In Bangkok, what you expect is not always what you get. Sometimes that can be disappointing, but at other times, it can be a pleasant surprise. Australian Ambre Hammond was billed as a world-class pianist with competition wins to her credit. In fact, she's an awful pianist, a murderer of the works of Chopin and Liszt, in spite of the fact that she has a very good technique. However, she's beautiful and charming, and a captivating story-teller. Upon seeing the pathetically small audience at her recital, she must have decided that her time was better spent telling stories about herself and about the music. She was entertaining and totally charming. She would be well-advised to continue emphasizing her ability to charm and entertain. Her next project is to put a piano in a truck and drive it to rural villages in India and elsewhere to give her listeners their first taste of live classical music. After Bangkok, she is going to East Timor to perform. She's definitely on the right track.