Czech music in the spotlight

Canadian conductor Charles Olivieri-Munroe will be back to direct Bangkok Symphony Orchestra in an evening of nationalistic Czech music with Japanese violinist Kyoko Yonemoto as guest soloist at Thailand Cultural Centre, Ratchadaphisek Road, on July 24 at 8pm.

Entitled “Kyoko Yonemoto Plays Dvorak”, the concert will open with Bedrich Smetana’s The Secret Overture, followed by Antonin Dvorak’s Violin Concerto in A Minor Op 53. Smetana’s String Quartet No.1 in E Minor, entitled From My Life, will then be performed in George Szell’s lush arrangement for full orchestra, amounting to a work of Romantic symphonic proportions.

Kyoko was the youngest ever prize-winner at the Paganini Competition in Genoa, Italy, at the age of 13. She won prizes at the Queen Elizabeth, Fritz Kreisler, and Long-Thibaud competitions, as well as the first prize in both Japan’s national competition in 2001 and Moscow’s Paganini competition in 2006. In 2009, she returned to perform Paganini’s famous first Violin Concerto and Vieuxtemps’ challenging Concerto No.4 with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra.

She studied with paedagogue Boris Belkin at the Maastricht Conservatorium in the Netherlands, obtaining her Master’s degree in 2012 and has subsequently served herself as professor of violin on the faculty.

Charles has already given two very well-received concerts with the BSO last year and this time he has programmed one of his favourite specialist areas of the repertoire namely Czech nationalistic music. He is artistic director and principal conductor of the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra.

Tickets cost 400, 800, 1,200, 1,600 and 2,000 baht and can be purchased from Thai Ticket Major (visit www.thaiticketmajor.com or call 02-262-3456) and BSO office.

Visit www.bangkoksymphony.org or call 02-255-6617/8.