'This music is wicked and fantastic," said that very wicked fantastic philosopher Frederic Nietzsche. He was referring to George Bizet's Carmen. And for almost 150 years, the world has agreed with him.
"This music is so scary, so deep that it may prove the existence of God," Woody Allen once said of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 41st Symphony. And for 230 years, the world has gasped in almost religious amazement at its miraculous ending.
The Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra (RBSO) is in harmony with those thoughts. Mozart's heavenly Jupiter Symphony, a suite from the music of Carmen, as well as a very rare concerto for clarinet will headline the orchestra's performance on Jan 25.
Bizet's Carmen Suite No.1 was put together by Ernest Guiraud. He was not only a friend of the composer, but was partly responsible for Carmen itself. The composer was not happy to spend time writing the recitatives -- those all-important lines of dialogue with musical accompaniment -- so Guiraud did that tedious chore.
When Bizet died at 36 (one year after Mozart), Guiraud arranged Carmen with two suites for orchestra. Alas, the RBSO will not perform the complete opera. But here are six of the most popular pieces: The complete Prelude (with the haunting "fate" motif), three of the interludes, Carmen's aria, Près Des Remparts De Seville, and the whole finale with the procession of the toreadors and the last tragic aria.
The Mozart symphony, which ends the programme, was not labelled Jupiter until after Mozart's death (he called it merely Symphony No.41 In C Major). Yet it deserves the name of the highest Greek god in all three opening movements.
But now you listen to the finale, for perhaps the most incredible symphonic music ever written. The work swings forward without a stop, and Mozart adds theme after theme as if his mind was whirling. More counterpoint than Bach, more false endings than Beethoven, more colour than Berlioz.
And in the last minute, listen to the French horn introduce a crazy tapestry where Mozart combines all five themes at once. Not with pride, not with an exhibitionist flash, but simply because -- like Jupiter himself -- Mozart had gathered together the Music of the Spheres, and it was so splendid that it needed to sound as one great harmony.
Putting this music together, the conductor Hide Shindori will have a certain challenge. But Mozart made the music sound so effortless that one might not notice his technique at all. Yet Shindori, admired for his "dynamic conducting", studied his art with luminaries like Sejii Ozawa in Japan, and later at the Moscow State Conservatory before returning to Japan primarily as an opera conductor.
In his early 30s, Shindori studied at the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden) under Bernard Haitink and Christoph Dohnanyi, later winning prizes at international festivals. Working with orchestras around the world, he now collaborates with soloists like Gil Shaham.
With the RBSO, he will be collaborating with Thailand's finest clarinet soloist, Yos Vaneesom. Chiang Mai-born, Yos joined the Asean Youth Orchestra and Asian Youth Orchestra before studying clarinet and musical studies in America with full scholarships.
Eight years ago, he was granted a teaching position at Kasetsart University. He also teaches at Silpakorn University and is principal clarinet of the orchestra, which will accompany him in the Second Clarinet Concerto by Oscar Navarro.
Oscar who? No, Oscar Navarro is not a household name like Bizet or Mozart. But in the movie industry, Navarro has a sterling name. Winner of numerous awards, including the Global Music Award and Hollywood in Media Award, Navarro studied composition in his native Valencia, Spain, but he later made his name in Hollywood scoring dozens of movies, working with studios from America to Russia to Macedonia and back in his native Spain.
He has written two concertos for clarinet, and the second will be given an Asian premiere by Yos and the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra. Whether it will be a competition to Mozart or Bizet, one has the feeling that it could be a triumphant showpiece for the soloist and orchestra.
