The Sinfonietta is One Year Old....

It was an incredible experiment — a bold journey into undiscovered territory — both for the kids and for their director.  The concept was simple enough: to find the brightest, most musical, most committed young musicians in Thailand, and to plunge them into total immersion.  The Sinfonietta kids were going to be fed to saturation on the classical style, a style which had not, up to now, been systematically taught in Thailand’s music schools.  They were not going to learn a movement here and a movement there, but were going to absorb entire repertories, and they were going to be asked to play in a radically new way — surrendering themselves completely to the passion, the drama, and the precisely articulated textures of the classical period.

It was tough.  There were casualties — a few very fine young musicians couldn’t take the heat and retreated to youth groups with a more easy-going schedule.  There was also harsh criticism.  But the ones who have been with us for this exciting first year of Si Si’s history have become a closely-knit family.  They know that they will be playing together for the rest of their lives.  Their grasp of the classical style has become instinct, the drama second nature.  

The Sinfonietta spent time on the road this year, playing twice in Korat and twice more in Hua Hin.  Members of the group played Bach in the market in Korat, an exremely moving event as it may well have been the first time this music was ever heard live in that location.  

They also played a wonderful concert to help raise money for the city of Bangkok after its recent troubles, the Together We Can concert ... and many events for kids, many of whom had never heard classical music before.  

And in a little while, the reality show and the line of CDs is going to be launched.  The sky is the limit for these remarkable young people.

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My assistant, the incredible Mr. X., asked members of the Sinfonietta to comment about the first year and so I'm reprinting all the comments that came in ... this is in Thai, I'm afraid ....

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Strings

เจ violin : เวลาที่ผ่านไปทำให้เห็นได้ชัดว่าเราสามารถมาได้ไกลขนาดไหน ความสามัคคี ความรัก ความผูกพันธ์ ที่เราร่วมกันใส่ลงไปในดนตรี ต้องบอกเลยว่าประทับใจกับวงนี้มากๆ ทั้งนี้ต้องขอขอบคุณอ.สมเถา กับ พี่พิซซ่ามากๆด้วยครับ ที่ชี้แนะพวกเราไปในทางที่ถูกต้อง

ทอป violin : ในเวลาหนึ่งปีที่ผ่านมา ผมได้เล่นคอนเสิร์ตร่วมกับวงสยามซินฟอเนียตต้ามาหลายครั้ง และทุกๆครั้งที่เล่นผมจะรู้สึกว่าได้รับความรู้ใหม่ๆอยู่เสมอ ไม่ว่าจะเป็นจากอาจาร์ยสมเถา อาจาร์ยทฤษฎี หรือ เพื่อนๆและพี่ๆในวง
ผม รู้สึกว่าวงเราเป็นวงที่ทุกคนเข้าถึงกันได้ และอยู่กันอย่างเป็นกันเอง ซึ่งเป็นสิ่งที่ทำให้เราแตกต่าง ทั้งนี้ทั้งนั้น ผมขอขอบคุณทุกๆคนในวงที่คอยให้ความช่วยเหลือที่ดีมาโดยตลอด

ซัน violin: วงนี้มีอะไรหลายอย่างที่วงอื่นไม่มี ประทับใจมากตั้งแต่เข้ามาซ้อมในครั้งแรก ทุกคนเข้ากันได้หมด เหมือนพี่เหมือนน้อง มีความสุขทุกครั้งที่ได้เล่นกับวงนี้ ผมขอขอบคุณอาจารย์ทุกท่าน ไม่ว่าจะเป็นอาจารย์สมเถา พี่ซ่า แล้วก็พี่นาว ที่ช่วยสอนผมในหลายๆอย่างและได้ให้โอกาสผมได้เข้ามาเล่นในวงนี้ครับ  

แป้ง  violin : ก็ขอบคุณสำหรับโอกาสและประสบการณ์อะไรเยอะแยะเลยขอบคุณพี่ๆหลายๆคนที่คอยช่วยแป้งมาตลอดค่ะ 

แบงค์ Violin : ความประทับใจของวงSiSi มีความเป็นกันเองของนักดนตรีทุกๆคนรวมถึงอาจารย์สมเถา พี่พิซซ่า และพี่นาว ทุกคนเอาใจใส่พวกเรามากและมีความสนุกและความสุขตลอดเวลาที่ได้ไปเล่นวงนี้ ได้รับความรู้มากมายผมยอมเสียเวลา 3 ชั่วโมงในการซ้อมวงSi Si เพราะผมได้รับความรู้ประสบการณ์ที่หาจากวงอื่นไม่ได้

จูเนียร์ Viola : รู้สึกดีที่ได้อยู่วงนี้ เป้นวงที่ดีมากๆ ได้รับความรู้และความบันเทิงมากมาย จุฟๆ sisi

โพส viola : รู้สึกมีความสุขมากที่ได้มาร่วมเล่นกับวงนี้ วงนี้เหมือนพี่เหมือนน้อง ครอบครัว ขอบคุณอาจารย์สมเถาและอาจารย์ทฤษฎี ที่คอยสั่งสอน และอาจารย์พงศธร ที่คอยรักและห่วงใย คอยตักเตือน มาตลอดมากกว่า 1 ปี ขอบคุณเพื่อนๆ พี่ๆทุกคนที่เล่นดนตรีด้วยกัน ฮาด้วยกัน ช่างมีความสุข

วิลลี่ cello : ของคุณอ.สมเถาที่ทำให้พวกเราทุกคนมาเจอกัน ขอบคุณอ.ที่ทำให้อนาคตของพวกเรามาได้ถึงขนาดนี้ ไม่ว่าผมจะไปอยู่ที่ไหนก็ตาม ไม่ว่าผมจะไปได้ไกลขนาดไหน ผมจะไม่มีวันลืมบุญคุณของอ.

เอ็กซ์ cello: ขอบคุณ Siam Sinfonietta ที่สร้างสรรค์งานดนตรีที่เป็นดนตรีจริงๆ ขอบคุณอาจารย์สมเถา พี่นาว พี่พิซซ่า พี่จิง น้องเจ วิลลี่ ฟรุค บูม และเพื่อนๆ พี่ๆทุกคน ที่ทำให้ผมมีแรงบันดาลใจในการเล่นดนตรีมากขึ้นกว่าเดิม ขอบคุณทุกกิจกรรมค่ายดนตรีที่มีมาอยู่บ่อยๆสนุกมากๆเลยครับผม ตั้งใจฝึกซ้อมเพื่อวงและตัวเอง ขอบคุณสำหรับทุกโอกาสที่ได้ผ่านเข้ามาโดยมีทุกคนเป็นผู้หยิบยื่นให้ ขอให้ siam sinfonietta เป็นวงออเคสตร้าที่สร้างสรรค์เสียงดนตรีที่มีคุณภาพจริงต่อไป รักทุกคนใน siam sinfonietta

ฟรุค cello : ขอบคุณวงนี้มากๆ ขอบคุณอาจารย์สมเถา  ขอบคุณพี่นาวมากๆ ตั้งแต่สมัยก่อนผมเล่นเชลโล่ไม่ได้เรื่องเลย เล่นมานิดนึง ก็มาออดิชั่น ขอบคุณอาจารย์สมเถาที่ให้โอกาส ขอบคุณไมสโตร ทฤษฎีที่เลี้ยงข้าว ขอบคุณวิลลี่ที่ช่วยให้ผมมีกำลังใจจะพัฒนาฝีมือ ขอบคุณทุกๆ คนในวง Siam Sinfonietta วงนี้ทำให้ผมพัฒนามากๆ 1 ปีที่ผ่านมาทำให้ผมได้อะไรเยอะแยะเลยครับ

โอม cello : หนึ่งปีที่ผ่านมามันเยอะมาก มากไม่รู้จะเขียนลงไปยังไงดี =_=" รู้แต่ว่ามีความสุขมากๆ ที่อยู่วงนี้ ทุกครั้งที่ซ้อม ทุกครั้งที่ได้่เล่นดนตรีกับน้องๆพี่ๆเพื่อนๆ...จนแทบลืมไปเลยว่าแก่ขนาดไหน แล้ว 555+"

ปลื้ม cello : ประมับใจหลายอย่างเลยประทับใจอาจารย์ ว๊ากก!!เก่งมากเลย -0- จริงๆแล้วก็มีความสุขสุดๆได้อยู่ในวงนี้อบอุ่นดีเหมือนครอบครัวเดียวกันเลย คุยกันได้ทุกเรื่อง อยากอยู่วงนี้ไปนานๆๆ เลย ภูมิใจมากๆได้อยู่วงนี้ ขอบคุณอาจารย์ มากๆที่ทำให้ทุกคนมีความสุข จะตั้งใจซ้อมให้มากกว่านี้ครับ

Woodwind

ต้น Flute : เป็นการรวมตัวของวงออเคสตร้าที่ดีมาก ผมประทับใจมากที่ได้เล่นร่วมกับวงนี้ ได้ฝึกซ้อม ได้หัดสิ่งใหม่ๆ เป็นสิ่งที่ทุกคนที่เล่นดนตรีควรได้เล่นกัน และวงนี้ก็เล่นและพัฒนามาอย่างต่อเนื่อง ภูมิใจที่ได้อยู่วงนี้ครับ

น้องโบ flute :  ''การที่เป็นสมาชิกวงSiam Sinfoniettaทำให้ได้ประสบการณ์และความรู้ใหม่ๆมากมาย ขอขอบคุณอาจารย์สมเถาและพี่ทฤษฎี รวมถึงเพื่อนๆพี่ๆน้องๆในวงสำหรับเรื่องราวดีๆที่มีต่อกัน''

นิค flute : 1 ปีที่ผ่านมา หลายๆคนรวมทั้งตัวผมเองก็(เชื่อว่า..)จะพัฒนาขึ้นสิ่งที่ได้เรียนรู้จากความ ผิดพลาดของตัวผมเองและเพื่อนๆคนอื่น ได้เป็นกรณีศึกษามาเป็นความรู้ในการปรับใช้ในการเล่นรวมวงกับเพื่อนๆ ซึ่งสิ่งที่ได้คือประสบการณ์ที่ดีและทำให้เราได้พัฒนาตนเองให้ดีขึ้น สำหรับตัวผมแล้วประสบการณ์ในการเล่นวงของผมยังถือว่ามีน้อยเมื่อเทียบกับ เพื่อนๆคนอื่นๆในวงเพราะโอกาสในการได้เข้าร่วมเล่นในวงออเครสตร้านั้นหาได้ ยาก นอกจากได้ไปร่วมเข้าค่ายดนตรีต่างๆและวงนี้เองเป็นวงที่ทำให้ผมได้ทั้งเรียน รู้และฝีกหัดการเล่นในวงออเครสตร้าอย่างจริงจังและได้แสดงความสามารถอย่าง เต็มที่ สิ่งที่ได้จากวงนี้นอกจากมิตรภาพที่ดีกับเพื่อนๆแล้ว ความรู้ในการเล่นวงที่อาจารย์และรุ่นพี่ได้ถ่ายทอดมานั้นเป็นสิ่งที่ได้ เรียนรู้จากการทดลองปฏิบัติจริง การศึกษาบทเพลง การทำงานร่วมกับผู้อื่น การยอมรับและเคารพซึ่งกันและกัน ฯลฯทั้งหมดนี้ทำให้ผมได้รับรู้ว่ามันเป็นส่วนหนึ่งในการเล่นดนตรีออกมาให้ดี ได้ อย่างไรก็ตามผมก็ต้องเรียนรู้เพิ่มเติม และผมเชื่อว่าวงนี้ จะเป็นวงที่สามารถผลิตนักดนตรีที่ดีและมีความรู้ความสามารถซึ่่งเป็นกำลัง หลักในหมู่นักดนตรีรุ่นต่อไปในอนาคตได้ ผมต้องขอขอบพระคุณอาจารย์ พี่ๆทุกคน เพื่อนๆ ที่ยอมรับในตัวผม และให้โอกาสผมได้ขึ้นแสดงและผมหวังเป็นอย่างยิ่งว่าจะไม่ทำให้ทุกคนผิดหวัง และจะทำให้ดีขึ้นเรื่อยๆครับ

Brass

โด้ French Horn : รู้สึกว่าได้ประโยชน์จากวงนี้มากมาย เช่น ประสบการณ์, ความรู้ความเข้าใจในบทเพลง, ได้มีสังคมด้านดนตรีเพิ่มมากขึ้น อีกทั้งยังรู้สึกสนุกที่จะได้เล่นดนตรีอีกด้วย

จิง French Horn : พี่ก็ประทับใจวงนี้มากๆอย่างแรกเลยก็คือทุกคนในวงเริ่มต้นจากความตั้งใจที่ มาร่วมเล่นร่วมซ้อมกันแบบมีวินัยนะดูเป็นมืออาชีพเวลาซ้อมเราก็ตั้งใจกัน จริงๆใช่มั้ยคือทุกคนอยากมาเล่น งานที่ออกมาทุกครั้งพี่ก็เลยรู้สึกดีทุกครั้งเวลาเราไม่ได้ซ้อมทุกคนก็เฮฮา เป็นกันเอง ทำให้พวกเราสนิทกันไงเลยยิ่งมีความสุขและยังได้ความรู้จาก อ.สมเถาและ พี่พิซซ่าอีกเยอะมาก

ผู้จัดการวง

พี่นาว Bass(ผู้จัดการวง) : ตลอดเวลาที่ผ่านมา ทุกคนทำงานหนักและตั้งใจกันมามาก พี่เชื่อว่าน้องๆทุกคน "อยู่ได้" มิใช่ "ได้อยู่" เพราะกาลเวลาพิสูจน์ให้เราเห็นแล้วว่า คนที่"อยู่ไม่ได้" จะไม่ได้อยู่ ขอขอบคุณน้องๆทุกคนที่ร่วมงานกันมาใน1ปีนี้ และขออภัยหากพี่ต้องเหวี่ยง ต้องด่า ต้องประชด ต้องบังคับ ต้องบังคับใช้กฎอย่างเข้มงวดในบางครั้ง แต่ทุกอย่างพี่เชื่อว่าน้องๆเข้าใจว่า เรื่องที่พี่บังคับให้ทำ มันเป็นเรื่องที่ควรทำและเป็นเรื่องที่ผู้เจริญแล้วเขาทำกัน ในปีต่อๆไปอยากเห็นทุกคนรักกันให้มากขึ้น สุดท้ายนี้ขอบอกว่า พี่รักทุกคน รักอาจารย์ และพร้อมจะทำตามแนวความคิดของอาจารย์เพื่อให้ได้มายังจุดหมายที่ชัดเจนดัง ที่อาจารย์ต้องการ พยายามกันต่อไปนะครับ Siam Sinfonietta เราจะไม่มีคู่แข่งเพราะเราไม่ได้แข่งกับใคร เราแข่งกับตัวเองเพื่อให้คนอื่นยอมรับ และเมื่อวันนั้นมาถึงทุกคนจะยอมรับเราโดยไม่มีข้อโต้แย่ง ขอให้ทุกๆคนสนุกกับการซ้อมและเล่นดนตรี ขอบคุณมากครับ

Thoughts About My Teachers

Started more than five weeks ago, on teacher's day....

Today is Teachers' Day in Thailand, when it is traditional for Thais to present their teachers with flower garlands and to thank them for handing on the gift of learning.  So one of the kids in the Sinfonietta told me today that I was the best teacher he ever had.  Which is probably true, not to boast or anything, because I do have two qualities that can make an inspiring teacher: (a) I know a lot (some would say "everything" but that would be a monstrous exaggeration) and (b) I love nothing more than to share what I know.

I received these two gifts from two teachers without whom I could never have achieved any of what I've done in my life, and today I would like to talk about these two people.

During my childhood, the person who did more than anyone else to make me who I am was a teacher named "Noonie".  Her real name was M.R. Smansnid Svasti.  And this is how it happened.

In the 1960s, I came back to Thailand from an early childhood spent in Europe, and after only a few days in a Thai school, I was kicked out for ripping the teacher's dress in a fit of pique.  It was really frustration not only about the language problem (I couldn't yet speak Thai) but also at the formulaic techniques of Thai education at the time.  So my parents sent me to a British school, the Bangkok PNEU, which at the time was operating without a license.  It was an attempt to create a British-system school in what was, at the time, the middle of nowhere, without a real curriculum and few textbooks ... and the school building was actually a rented private home, the house of film star Amara Asvanond.

Noonie was a member of the Thai aristocracy whose family had followed King Rama VII when he left Thailand for Britain after the political confusion of the 1930s.  She was a wild maverick; in a sense she was a "hippie" long before such existed.  In the 1960s she had just returned from England and was full of passion about many things.  (Later she would become known as an important environmental activist.)  She seemed to us to be quite mad, but her madness hid an exceptional grasp of the world's underlying realities.

Because there was no curriculum, we were allowed to study whatever was in the school storeroom.  There were 40 copies of Shakespeare's King John, so that was the first Shakespeare play we read in depth.  We ransacked the storeroom again and got Euripides.  I produced my first play, a mishmash of all three Greek tragedians' Electras, minus the depth but plus a barrel of gore -- no messengers relaying offstage violence for me!  Played the leading role, too, though I forgot my own lines.  Noonie was also a fine musician, at one point sightreading a string quartet I'd composed at the piano.

The most important thing I learned from her, however, was how to handle shit.

You see, in my play, many of the characters wore masks, which we made ourselves from papier-maché. The airmailed editions of European papers, on wafer-thin paper stock for cheap mailing, made great raw material. Noonie taught us to make clay face masks and to mould the papier-mâché to the clay.  However, the weather in Bangkok being what it is, the mass of wet paper soon started to rot and smell very bad.  I didn't want to get into the stinky mess and I demurred from helping to make those masks.

It was then that Noonie taught me one of the most important life lessons.  She said, "If you're going to create great art, it's not enough to have your head in the sky.  You also have to have your hands in the dirt."

And this is an important truth I try to live by every day.

Next time I will talk about the other teacher who changed my life, Michael Meredith at Eton.

Only when I am through with the "good things" will I address (and I have been requested to by many) the latest round of political tomfoolery that is threatening the beautiful house of cards that is this country....

Remembering the Magic

When I was a child, my two great-aunts, wives of King Rama VI, were still very much alive.  We would often go and visit them on a Sunday afternoon.  They had many stories to tell about life at court —some of them quite scurrilous by today's standards — but most of all they told of a time devoted to music and drama and poetry, where every day someone was putting on a production at court.

In 2001 when I composed the opera Madana it was to help in the restoration of one of King Rama VI's palaces in Bangkok which had seen many uses since the WW II and was now part of a hospital.  When I saw my great-aunt's royal bedchamber converted into a radiology lab, it was a very strange feeling, as the doors still had the stained-glass images of roses from the play Madanabada which King Rama VI dedicated to my great-aunt Praphai (HM Queen Indrasakdisachi.)

Ten years later we were invited to bring the kids of the Siam Sinfonietta to another palace that was a residence of my great-aunt, the seaside palace of Mrigadayavan in Hua Hin.  When we arrived I had the opportunity to stroll through the "women's quarters" which would in those days have been absolutely forbidden to any male except the king himself, and to see the room she slept in, including a pink dress she once wore, laid out, the mosquito netting spread over her bed, and a wedding photograph on the dressing-table.  It was a very strange feeling; I could hear her voice in my head.  The last time I ever spoke to her was at the funeral of my great-great-aunt, Indrasakdisachi's mother.  In the midst of that spectacle Her Majesty my great-aunt said about me, "Watch out for that kid.  He's not afraid of anyone!"

Imagining her as a young woman in the baby-blue painted room wearing the pink flapper dress, I remembered the stories she and her sister, Phra Sucharitsuda the royal consort, used to tell me.  Suddenly the palace was not an empty place but full of the sounds and colors of the 1920s.

The concert took place in a royal hall that was open to the garden.  There was a balcony where the king used to sit to watch the proceedings - often his own plays being performed with my great-aunts as some of the key players.

So when we performed, when we rehearsed in that hall, it was like reliving that era.  I think the feeling of magic infected all the kids as well.  The Mrigadayavan Palace people put us up in some beautiful seaside cottages right there on the estate and there was swimming and beach play every morning.

On the Saturday the kids played a Haydn, Rossini and Mozart programme ... sadly, the flute player's father passed away during the weekend and he had to run back to Bangkok.  The concert was well attended and afterwards we had some wonderful rehearsal time to start getting into "Peter and the Wolf" and Mozart's 39th Symphony.

The next day we had a splendid mini-concert at another royal residence, the Chom Dong Villa which was a former home of HM Queen Rambhai Bharni, who was queen during the reign of Rama VII.

 The concert was accompanied by a lovely pizza dinner served from Chom Dong's huge outdoor pizza oven.  Celebs there including Patravadi the well known Grand Dame of avant-garde theatre accompanied by the kids from the school she has founded for brilliant young theatre arts teenagers.

There were also about 50 kids from another local school who completely new to classical music, and that was fun as well.

These are the kinds of events that make all this angst I go through worth while.

An Unravelling Scandal

I've been in bed with an assortment of drugs (painkillers mostly) for the last three days; CARMEN was a tremendous strain, but it was really the Amanpuri that finished me off.  However, in retrospect the Amanpuri fiasco seems more comedic than tragic.  Even though it seems abundantly clear that my currently being laid up with dengue fever is a direct result of the trip to Phuket.


On the other hand, the Bundit scandal, which started off as something mildly amusing, is now turning into a global can of worms.  The letter which Klaus Heymann sent me evoked responses within a matter of hours.  A young Thai opera fan named Parkorn, for instance, wrote: "I have compared "Royalty-Free" Let The Bright Seraphim with the recording from Joan Sutherland - The Art of the Prima Donna, a studio recording with Francesco Molinari-Pradelli conducting the Royal Opera House Orchestra. Exact match."


Surely these can't all be misunderstandings, errors in software, or simple cases of mistaken identity.  It's clear that, though his intentions might have been innocent enough, K Bundit's crafty marketing ploy was tragically flawed because his source was flawed.  Far from being a major player in the classical compilation sweepstakes, it turns out he is not even a major a player in the resultant piracy scandal.


I do hope he follows my advice, which is to remove any even remotely suspect items from the market until the matter is cleared up.  Unfortunately that would entail taking the entire compilation series off the market.  That would be the safest thing to do.  There are plenty of performances that CAN be licensed for compilations from sources that are not suspect.  It shouldn't take long to assemble an equally impressive compilation from such sources -- or, with a bit of investment, to record them himself with a decent orchestra.  Bulgaria and Czech Republic are good sources if he'd like to make his own recordings with orchestras that can be deemed "international", and they are as cheap as the Bangkok Symphony.  


Thailand is always being accused of being a haven for piracy. It would be a shame if one of Thailand's best known artistic figures became a piracy "poster boy" ... especially if he had no intention of using material that might not have been legally obtained.


In my next blog I will talk only of positive things :)

Somtow Encounters the Grinch

In almost half a century of giving performances in venues of every kind in most of the world's continents, I've never had quite as weird an experience as I did on Christmas Eve this year.

It all started a week or so earlier when Bruce Gaston, my fellow Silpathorn Kittikun Artist, called me and asked me if I'd send the Shounen-Thai quartet down to Phuket on Christmas Eve.  I didn't really want to do it because they were already signed up for Dr. Veena's TV special on Christmas Day in Bangkok, but Bruce was persuasive.  The event would be a glittering star-studded evening at the Amanpuri Resort.  The money would be respectable.  And this would by no means be an event demeaning to the Opera (we have a policy of not doing commercial functions, especially ones in which the audience are simultaneously eating or wandering around, because we work with real artists, not bar bands.  By the time the discussions were finished I had agreed to provide a 90 minute "Classical Christmas" programme with 2 opera singers, Trisdee on piano, myself, and the quartet as well.  In particular, we were asked to do Christmas music in a classical vein, so I spent a great deal of time obtaining arrangements for string quartet of popular Christmas songs.  My two singers were the best ones I could find in Thailand on short notice: Zion Daoratanahong, who recently was chosen to sing the special televised dedication song for the King's birthday, and Stefan Sanchez, who is staying on for a while in Thailand after his well-received performance in CARMEN.

It was a stroke of luck to have Trisdee in the group ... just back from conducting the RAI National Orchestra of Italy, and about to go off to conduct the Verdi Orchestra of Milan in the near future ... by far the best known Thai conductor internationally (Sorry, Mr. Bundit.)

So this gig, which we took on basically to help out Bruce Gaston, was a bit of nuisance, but we took it seriously, trying to fill the "Classical Christmas" agenda with a nicely constructed and varied programme.  Everything was thoroughly rehearsed before we left and we were assured that the Amanpuri, a well known hangout for millionaires, would have the whole thing smoothly and beautifully organized.

We arrived in Phuket around 3 pm and were driven to the Amanpuri.  On arrival, we were met by some kind of assistant F&B person and it became painfully obvious that all was not as we had been told.  "We will now send you off you check in to your hotel.  Be back by 6 for a sound check, and your show begins around 8:30 or 9.  You must play until 11:30."

I wasn't too suprised they were putting us up elsewhere, but rather irritated to discover that the place was an hour away.  From 4-6, with travel in both directions, that would have allowed precisely zero rest time, after which we were expected to be on call for almost six hours.  There was not even going to be a room provided for us to rest, and the concert was an open air one, next to the ocean.  I offered to check into the resort (at $852 a night) at my own expense; I was doing the gig as a favor, not to make money. so I didn't really care.  The F&B scoffed, behaving as though I were a presumptuous insect for daring to imagine that "the entertainment" might be accommodated with their great and powerful clients. That was when I started to get a bad feeling about this.

In the car, travelling to the hotel they had booked for us, we discussed our options.  It was clear right away that the Amanpuri had no clue who any of us were.  If it hadn't been for Bruce Gaston, I would have simply gone home.  I don't need this.

Stefan Sanchez then pointed out that, if he were not doing this gig as a favor to me, he would have already had a tantrum and refused to perform.   After all, it's been about two centuries since the time that renowned artists had to wear livery and expected to be treated like servants.  The Bangkok Opera, which is a pauper compared to the Amanpuri, never treats its artists in such a shabby manner.  When Zion was invited to perform at the King's birthday event in Sanamluang, she had a an earlier engagement the same night singing in one of my concerts ... and the ministry actually had her delivered to their concert in style, by motorcycle escort.  I have never given any performance in any hotel or resort where they did not provide a complimentary room (the Oriental gave me a huge suite and free run of room service including all the dinner guests I wanted.)

But it was not so much that the accommodation was insulting.  It was the idea that hard working artists who take their craft seriously and who had just flown in that afternoon would be fine to perform for twice the amount of time specified without having any rest after flying in and being bused from place to place for what would by then have amounted to three hours.

As we suspected, the hotel we were sent to was an incredible dump.  But by then we needed the rest and could ignore the fleas.  Calling the F&B person elicited no response, so I talked to Bruce and explained the situation.  I told him the artists were mutinying.  We had a beautiful 90 minute programme prepared, not a 150 minute one.  Whatever happened, we would be insisting on taking our rest now,  and still arrive in plenty of time to perform.  We also asked Bruce to tell the Amanpuri we wouldn't play unless they gave us the cheque upfront.  This is because Stefan, by far the most experienced among us with "hotel dealings", was having strange vibes about the whole thing.

Bruce called the F&B people and got them to agree to the upfront cheque and the time constraints.  So, on balance, we decided we would just not worry about the demeaning treatment and do the best we could, put on the finest "Classical Christmas" we were capable of, and then go home and try to forget about it.

We had been told that the "brilliant sound people" would have everything ready and a sound check wasn't even necessary, but on our arrival at the venue, we discovered that there were no music stands, no light by which the musicians could see the music, and the "piano" was an electronic device set at a height where Trisdee would have to stand to play it.  It was clear that these people had not the slightest clue about how to set up for classical music.  But okay, we sorted all that out, and after a lot of hemming and hawing we were also able to extract Bruce Gaston's cheque from them, although they started by saying that they weren't aware that they were supposed to come up with this cheque.

The "audience" consisted of people wandering around at a rather upscale buffet.  Well, never mind.  We began.  Zion sang a lovely rendition of "O Holy night" with a heart-stopping top B flat at the end and got a nice round of applause.  It seemed that the music itself would at least be okay.

The string quartet played a bit of Mozart.  More applause.  Then they launched into Jingle Bells and all hell broke loose.

First, the assistant F&B manager descended on the quartet.  He said, "No Christmas music!  The boss's orders!"

Well, considering that the programme we have painstakingly worked up consisted almost entirely of Christmas music, this was going to be a tall order.

Nevertheless, we got in a huddle and next we despatched Stefan to sing the "Toreador Song" from CARMEN.  He had just after all done the role to enormous acclaim in Bangkok, and you can never go wrong with this song.

Except at the Amanpuri, rated the world's No. 1 Spa, where a blonde, perhaps German, woman, who was Mr. Assistant F&B's boss, now asked us whether, as well not playing any Christmas songs, we could also avoid playing anything classical.

I called Bruce.  "It's worse," I said.  I explained the latest developments.

He said, "Well, they knew they were getting opera singers and a classical quartet ... and they knew it was Christmas music."

I said, "Well, I guess getting the cheque upfront was the right thing to do."

At that moment, it began to rain.  It looked like providence was going to get us out of this tough spot.  Well, the F&B people immediately suggested that we might as well leave.  "We'll worry about the details later," they said.   One of them said to Trisdee, "It would be better if I wasn't seen talking to you."  They couldn't wait to get rid of us.  It was clear they were all very nervous and that heads were about to roll.

As the van left the premises, the heavens began to open.  Rain was sluicing down in sheets.  The huge open-air seaside buffet was clearly not going to withstand the forces of nature.

As we entered the main road, Zion, a devout Catholic, said, "Jesus must be angry they wouldn't let us sing his songs on his birthday."

I found her simple faith curiously comforting in that moment.

I have no idea what the Amanpuri resort was thinking if it accepted the idea of a classical Christmas concert without realizing that such a concert would contain both classical and Christmas music.  I haven't a clue why, if they were told that two well-known opera singers would be in the group, they didn't realize that they might be singing opera.  And why a ban on Christmas music on Christmas Eve?  And if so, what about telling the performers in advance?

It is, I suppose, a salutory lesson.  I've never been fired five minutes into a performance before, but there's a first time for everything.

And now ... back to Controversy ...

I recently received a letter from the owner of Naxos, which is probably the most widely-distributed label of classical music in the world.  Mr Heymann, one of the most respected figures in the classical music recording world, has been following the Trisdee-Bundit controversy keenly.  You see, it seems that he does have a stake in it.  He has asked me to ask my readers for help and I will explain what he has asked for in detail.

Do you remember that in my blog entry "Bundit-The Plot Thickens" I told of an unexpected development ... that it looked like this was no longer a case of deceptive marketing, but might end up as out-and-out piracy?

That the question might no longer be one of an obscure artist from a small country cleverly marketing himself ... but a major scam being perpetrated on a much larger scale, in which K Bundit's reputation is but an iota of collateral damage?

In that blog, I explained how, although K Bundit's CDs in some cases made references to music licensed from http://www.royalty-free-classical-music.org/, a website in which it is claimed that all tracks are conducted by a Dr. Keith J. Salmon, some of those tracks appear to be the actual work of extremely big name conductors and orchestras such as Karl Böhm, Georg Solti, and Neville Marriner.

My blog has set off a slew of responses in the classical music world.  John Duffus, the impresario, checked out a number of tracks available from Dr. Salmon and said this: "However, imagine my amazement when I came across one track that is unquestionably my old orchestra in a recording made in 1986 with the coloratura soprano Beverly Hoch" ... a few days later, he emailed me again.  "Salmon's Brahms Violin Concerto is the Kennedy/Tennstedt/LPO recording!"

Meanwhile, here is the email in question from Klaus Heymann:

Dear Somtow,

I read your column about the above and the Bundit CDs.

I think he was tricked by Dr. Salmon -- RFCM also had a copy of my wife's Vivaldi Four Seasons on its site and, in the meantime, it has taken it down from the site and all the other sites licensing this stuff from Salmon have also taken it down.

There are many more recordings from other record companies on the RFCM site, for examply EMI confirmed that the Brahms violin concerto is their recording with Nigel Kennedy. There are also Universal recordings on the site.

Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 is Jorge Bolet from Vox.

Perhaps you can invite your readers to identify more rip-off’s on Mr. Bundit’s compilations.

Best regards,

Klaus

People such as myself and Trisdee are busy performing artists (and in my case I've also got operas to finish writing and a novel that's 3 years overdue.)  Last week Trisdee dashed off to Turin to conduct the RAI National Orchestra and his concert was carried live throughout the Italian broadcast media as well as available for web streaming, meaning that his many fans in Thailand who happened to be up at 2:30 am could see him for themselves.  If we spent our lives tracking down the real identities of the hundreds of tracks on these websites, we would have to give up our careers.  

However, if we enlist your help, and go as far as we need to go to protect any performers whose rights may have been violated, we can all work together on this.

You see, it turns out that this is not about K. Bundit at all.  He is at best a minor player, and may be as much a victim as any customers who may have purchased his CDs thinking that he was the conductor.  Indeed, he has already made a move to amend the problem by putting stickers on the sealed CDs stating that he is the compiler, not the conductor.  (The question of "why now?" is an ethical one, not a legal one.)

What this is about is a more pernicious kind of piracy than what you can see in the alleys of Bangkok.  If I buy a Chinese knock-off of a Solti CD, it still says on the cover that Solti conducted it.  Solti is being cheated — but only of his royalties.  Any real artist will admit, if you get him drunk enough, that in the end it's not about the money.  If someone ripped off my CD in that way, I'd be annoyed but on some level, I would also be flattered.  It does, after all, add to my fame, if not my bank account.

When someone markets a recording by Georg Solti and says it is by someone else ... that is far worse than taking money out of Mr. Solti's wallet.  That is taking away Mr. Solti's name.  His identity.  His very nature as an artist and even as a human being.

This must not be allowed to happen, in this country or anywhere else.  If K Bundit has read this blog, he knows that at least some tracks on his CDs may be pirated.  If that is indeed the case, they cannot legally be sold, whether he was aware of the original piracy or not.  They must be taken off the market.

With so many artists screaming about Dr. Salmon's websites, my advice to K. Bundit would be to play it safe and just recall all the CDs until people like EMI and Naxos have gone on the record to state that Dr. Salmon has permission to use their work without attributing it to their artists.

Klaus Heymann has devoted decades of his life to making thousands of pieces of music accessible at realistic prices to a very large audience.  Thanks to him, I can listen to music which in my student days I could only get hold of my tracking down scores or applying to read manuscripts in libraries.  If he asks me to ask my readers for help, I take this very seriously.  

If any of you spot something suspicious please let me know and I will pass on the information.

World Opera Week

On Monday night we had a rather avant-garde evening.  Last night we had a traditional gala night at the opera with the audience in tuxes and a presiding princess.  Tonight, we'll have CARMEN again, without the tuxes but with hopefully even more excitement.  And on Sunday -- an "alien opera"!

Don't miss Carmen....

Don't miss Carmen ... here's a bit of rehearsal footage to whet the appetite...
Thailand Cultural Center 16th and 17th at 7:30 pm

Vive La Revolution!

This has been an absolutely amazing week of ups and downs, drama, delusion, and divine madness.

First came the concert at Thailand's "ground zero", Central World.  Yes, I did hear from a few fanatic yellow shirts who called me to say, "Thank you for claiming back our territory!" To which I would reply: "Excuse me?  This territory belongs to EVERYONE.  That was the whole point of the concert."  On the whole, people did understand this, and understood also that where words fail us, sometimes it can be music that brings us together.

The last concert I organized in the name of peace was in fact in collaboration with the infamous Dr. Weng ten years ago.  Yes, I know the man has said a lot of insane things lately and become a bit of a joke, but I have absolutely no doubt of his sincere desire to make this country a better place.  Curiously, my mind did flash back to that concert, which took place in a relatively happy time for our country, when HRH Princess Galyani was still with us.  There were those who called it a "world war" concert because behind the scenes there was the kind of Machiavellian backstabbing and jealous betrayals that are the very subject of opera (both soap and the other kind.)

The Mahajanaka gala was not beset by any kind of backstabbing; the worst that could be said of it was the organizers had little experience with a big classical music event and perhaps didn't realize just what a major symbol it could become (though they did by the end.)  Everything was smooth and what disagreements there were were easily assuaged.  But then again, the concert was organized by private citizens, not by a government or political party.  So none of us was trying to get reelected.

It was certainly amazing to perform there on the King's Birthday and to perform music inspired by the story of the Mahajanaka; this is a story that tells us, indeed that the Avatar of Buddha was rewarded for his perseverance when an angel appeared to lead him on to his destiny.  It's often read that way: persevere and you'll see your guiding angel.  But I would go further and say that the story means that unless you sacrifice everything, that angel isn't going to appear.

God, or "the gods", if such there be and the jury is certainly out on this question, has a tendency not to show up until you have given and given and given of yourself until there is nothing left.  At that point, a space opens up within yourself.  It is in that space that revelation comes.  Ask any messiah.

After the Dec 5 concert comes "World Opera Week" — from a huge blockbuster CARMEN presided over by the Queen to a wild avant-garde romp at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center.  And it all starts on Monday with SAVITRI —the Thai and possibly Southeast Asian premiere of a rare and gorgeous opera by Gustav Holst, conducted (in his operatic debut) by the young Nadanai Laohakunakorn.  I hope to see a lot of you there.

Mahajanaka at Central World

I've been asked to put on an enormous concert in front of Central World ... in the very place where the "troubles" took place earlier this year.  I'm going to have the opera stars who are in town for the World Opera Week, happening nexr month, sing some very popular tidbits from famous operas, and then I'm going to to perform my Mahajanaka Symphony with Nancy Yuen, soprano, a large choir and orchestra ... probably around 150 performers altogether.  Of course it's rather flattering to see that they're planning 12-foot tall "Somtow banners" and a 22-foot wide ad on the side of the mall, but in the end what I am most proud of is that I have now reached the stage in my career where I can bring a large number of people together to make an important statement about harmony and hope.

The concert is on the King's birthday and it's a coming together of many segments of our society in a way which I hope will promote reconciliation and healing.

I think it's going to be one of the larger open-air concerts there have been in this country, with two orchestras, choir, children's choir, five opera singers, four harps and what have you, but the more important part of this is that many people, musicians of every political persuasion, will be creating harmony where once there was discord.

The event will begin at six with "World of Opera" -- a journey around the world in operatic excerpts.  At seven we pause to bring the candelight ceremony from Sanam Luang and to have our own ceremony.  Then after about 15 minutes, there will be a peformance of my Mahajanaka Symphony which I have revised for this event, improving the orchestral sound with what I have learned from being in Thailand for the last decade and figuring out who the musicians are and what they do best.

What is the Mahajanaka Jataka, adapted by H.M. The King twelve years ago into a lovely book, about?  The lesson we are meant to learn from this Buddhist text is perseverance.  We need to get as far as we can, drawing on our own inner strength, our hopes, our beliefs ... only if we totally give of ourselves can we expect a divine being to lead us the rest of the way to other shore.  This is a lesson common to all religious traditions and I think it's a lesson for Thailand right now.

There are not going to be any "quick fixes" for anything.  But until people realize we are in this together, there won't be any fixes at all.

The Things We Fear

In this blog from time to time I post a dream I have had the previous night.  I do this for two reasons; one is for myself, to help me remember some strange image or dramatic revelation.  The second is to share something unusual with my friends.  About four nights ago I had a nightmare I didn't post because it frightened me too much.  I didn't post it so that I could forget it; isn't that what happens to dreams that you don't write down?

But it's still here.

I dreamed I was living in what looked like a brownstone house, white carpeted living room, staircase leading to an upper floor.  An intruder enters my house and I saw him in half.  He is a big, African American guy in a dark raincoat.  It's a vivid killing, with spurting gore and plenty of dangling innards, and I place the two halves into big black trash bags.  As I kill this stranger, I realize that I've killed before.

There's a commotion from upstairs and I hear Trisdee and Jay laughing.  I realize I have to hide the body.  There is a kitchen next to the living room and I drag the trash bags into it, and as I step inside, I open the larder and I see that there is no stairway down into any sort of convenient basement; the bags have to stay in the clean white tile kitchen for now.

Confused I go back into the living room and I sit down at a dining table, pick up a phone and try to dial for help.  But just then the kids come running down the stairs.  They are playing, laughing, having a great time, and when the reach the living room they start play-fighting and Jay slips and falls onto the carpet ... which I suddenly realize is still covered with glistening drops of my victim's blood....

***

The fact that I still remember this vividly four days later must mean something.  The corpse and the trash bags are very black and the house is very white.  That is surely symbolic.  It's a dark thing right here in my house ... and my kids are about to stumble upon it?  I think that for once some classical Freudian scrutiny is probably called for.

But now that I've written this out, it will perhaps exorcise whatever is bothering me and tomorrow I can speak of beautiful, optimistic plans for the future and wonderful epiphanies in literature and music.

Carnival of the Animals....

Something Different ... two days ago, I invited Andrew Biggs to narrate "Carnival of the Animals" for an audience of wildly kids from all around our region.  I thought I'd share the video with you....

Andrew's Thai is of course infinitely better than mine in some ways, with the odd Australianism lending great charm and of course that lovely self-deprecating humor ... it's one of the most congenial collaborations I've ever had....

For a kids' concert to last 2 1/2 hours was pretty amazing though ... I guess I mistimed it!