The entire concert of the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra on July 24 will be devoted to an interval of seven years and a single Central European country. But what emotional years they were! And what inspiration came out of what we now know as the Czech Republic.
Antonin Dvorák memorial.
In 1874, the popular Czech composer Bedrich Smetana found himself with the "Beethoven disease". The pianist/composer/conductor, who had immortalised the Czech river with sounds of The Moldau found himself with terrible sounds in his own ears. He was growing deaf.
True to Smetana's upbeat temperament, he handled it the same way that Beethoven did, by writing a string quartet which contained references to his affliction.
In From My Life Smetana wrote of his youthful joys, of the alien sounds he heard in his ears, and of his attempts to make sense of his life. That work was recreated for full orchestra by the great conductor George Szell and will be given a rare performance for this Bangkok concert.
Three years later, on the verge of madness (Smetana died in a hospital for the mentally ill), he wrote two comic operas. With his deafness, his nervous breakdowns and his endless work, one wonders what genius was able to provide the inspiration for this. But the opening to The Secret is an overture which also opens the Bangkok programme.
In that same year, Antonin Dvorák, who had gone from being a string-player in Czech village orchestras to an acclaimed international star, was introduced to the most distinguished violin player of the 19th Century, the Hungarian artist Joseph Joachim. No less a figure than Johannes Brahms suggested that Dvorák write his own violin concerto for Joachim, which he did, dedicating it to the violinist.
Sadly, the very conservative Joachim, after expressing great interest, somehow forgot about it. The premiere came four years later with another artist. But Joachim's neglect was wrong. It became immediately popular over Europe and later America. And while never achieving the worldwide fame of the Beethoven or Brahms concertos, or Dvorák's own Cello Concerto, the work is a favourite of violinists.
The Dvorák Violin Concerto has a very special meaning for the soloist of the evening, Kyoko Yonemoto. Yonemoto, one of the most luminous young stars of the violin virtuoso world, played the Dvorák Violin Concerto during one of the most important and respected competitions in the world, the Moscow Paganini Competition. So glorious was the interpretation that she garnered first prize.
Somehow, though, the word prodigy is an understatement when applied to Kyoko Yonemoto. She picked up her first violin at the age of three and immediately began serious study. Ten years later, she gave a public appearance in Tokyo of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. That same year, she went to Genoa, Italy, which has its own Paganini Competition. And at the age of 13, she became the youngest player to receive the special Enrico Costa Memorial Prize.
This was the beginning of a long line of prizes. She was a winner in the Paris Long-Thibaud competition in Paris, the Queen Elisabeth competition in Brussels and the Fritz Kreisler competition in Vienna, as well as Japan's own violin competition.
So in a world where thousands of young fiddlers are trying to build an international reputation, Ms Yonemoto, a prize student of Boris Belkin, is performing with some of the greatest stars on the international stage.
Outside of her stardom in Japan, she gives concerts and recitals throughout Europe. She has played with orchestras in Austria, Belgium, Holland, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Her conductors and collaborators include maestros Myung-whun Chung, Yuri Bashmet, Junichi Hirokami, Kenichiro Kobayashi, Eliahu Inbal, Robert Benzi and many others.
In 2009, she returned to Moscow to play the First Paganini Concerto, and later performed the Vieuxtemps Fifth Violin Concerto under the baton of arguably the finest violinist in the world, Pinchas Zukerman.
Today, living in Paris, she is a professor in the Maastricht Conservatorium, Netherlands. Yet she still must remember the Dvorák concerto with special affection when she performs here under the baton of conductor Charles Olivieri-Munroe.
As audiences here will discover, this is a work which celebrates the Czech spirit. Later in his life, Dvorák would go to America and pick up influences from the international scene. But this was a masterpiece from his "Slavic" period, written in proximity to his first series of Slavonic Dances, Czech Suite and the Slavonic Rhapsodies sharing its compelling folkloric melodies and overall positive expression.
In fact, as Ms Yonemoto certainly knew, Dvorák's first instrument was the violin (though he played viola in orchestras). The composer makes the most of the instrument's lyricism, while again giving the sense of the full resonant sound. Melodically, it was so rich that Dvorák never thought about giving the concerto the usual violin cadenza. In fact, all the sweeping melodies in the first movement, the rhapsody of the second movement and the series of wild dances in the finale are enough of a challenge for any violinist.
Actually, the entire evening will be filled with dances. Smetana's overture to The Secret has its lilting melodies, while the orchestration of his From My Life takes in all of Smetana's love of waltzes, polkas and conviviality. In fact, he described it as "using instruments speaking among themselves in something like a friendly circle".
Only in the last movement do we hear that ringing which was in Smetana's ears. A tragic end, perhaps, but the most touching finale for Bangkok's evening of gorgeous music from the Czech Republic.
"Kyoko Yonemoto Plays Dvorák" is on Sunday, July 24, 8pm at Thailand Cultural Centre, Main Hall. Tickets priced 400 800 1,200 1,600 and 2,000 are available at Thaiticketmajor, tel: 02 262 3456 or www.thaiticketmajor.com. Call the BSO Office on 02 255 6617-18 or www.bangkoksymphony.org. There is 20% discount for Bangkok Post readers.
