The Thailand Cultural Centre resounded with the powerful and stirring sounds of the film world last Sunday at the third concert of the current “Great Artists Concert Series 2014”, presented by the Department of Cultural Promotion and the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra (BSO) Foundation. In honour of the upcoming birthday of BSO patron HRH Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, the concert also celebrated the 10th anniversary of the orchestra’s co-operation with the Embassy of France and its La Fête festival.
Matt Rawle at 'A Night At The Movies'.
Consequently, after the lights went down and Alfred Newman’s iconic 20th Century Fox Fanfare got things off to a highly charged start, the first half consisted entirely of movie tunes by great French composers, starting with the lush Lawrence Of Arabia Overture by Maurice Jarre, represented here also a few numbers later with the haunting Lara’s Theme from Dr Zhivago. The intense passion and emotion of these two majestic tunes was indeed carried through the entire generous programme of 26 pieces, finishing most appropriately with John Williams’ ultimate blazing crowd-pleaser Star Wars, which of course never fails to thrill.
Established West End vocalists Matt Rawle and Robin North took to the tastefully lit stage in turns for solo numbers throughout the evening in various tuxedo suits and sexy dresses respectively, as well singing four convincing duets. Of these, Burt Bacharach’s seductive The Look Of Love (from Casino Royale) and Leonard Bernstein’s Tonight (from West Side Story) were delivered with loving finesse. Songwriting genius Michel Legrand had six of his classics rendered before the interval, with Rawle appearing stage-right first for the intoxicating Windmills Of Your Mind, North then following for the same composer’s
The Way He Makes Me Feel, made famous by Barbra Streisand in the 1983 film Yentl.
Rawle swiftly returned for What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?, prompting charming and debonair English conductor Roderick Dunk to make one of many witty comments during the show. In a polite and softly spoken tone he made light fun of the perennial issue facing visiting Western artists who stay here for only a few days: “What am I doing the rest of my life?” he posed quizzically. “Trying to learn some more Thai phrases to say to the audience!” His genial approach as he segued with such suave banter between songs delighted the near capacity audience at the TCC. Indeed, the heartiest audience laughter rewarded his introduction to Monty Norman’s original James Bond theme in the second half, when he jested that he might play the character Ernst Stravo Blofeld himself, with a furry white cat in his lap to stroke with one hand and a secret lever with which to open up the stage in the other, thus dispensing with the BSO! However, quite to the contrary, the first-time visiting guest conductor Dunk was clearly most impressed with the level of the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, bringing them to their feet repeatedly in order to receive rapturous applause as well as congratulating individual players. Lead violinist Bing Han (concertmaster for this event), who played a number of sweet-sounding solos — notably in Legrand’s The Summer Knows — was thanked personally. Likewise for pianist Sasipa Rasmidatta who was featured in Francis Lai’s Where Do I Begin? (Love Story) and electric guitarist Thanapot Phumipak who “played” James Bond in the famous menacing theme.
All three visiting artists have had the shared experience of performing this and related styles of light music countless times in the UK on long-running BBC Radio 2 show “Friday Night Is Music Night” and this evening the BSO was made to sound by Dunk very much like the slick BBC Concert Orchestra itself, except enhanced here with the added visual flavour of multicoloured lighting effects. But North is the only one to have performed in Bangkok before — last year she made a huge impact with
a similarly large and enthused audience in “A Night At The Musicals”.
The sheer joie de vivre which fantastic North once again brought to the TCC stage was transferred to all others concerned with old pre-World War II classics such as Harold Arlen’s Over The Rainbow (Wizard Of Oz) and Max Steiner’s Tara’s Theme (Gone With The Wind) being juxtaposed with modern greats like Elton John’s Can You Feel The Love Tonight (The Lion King). One representative piece from our present century, The Fellowship Of The Ring by Howard Shore (from the Lord Of The Rings trilogy) provided a rare example of a contemporary music score which.
To spend an evening immersed in this particular art form is indeed a joyous affair, and certainly one to be repeated.
