Bangkok, 4 August 2020 —Siam Sinfonietta will perform Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 “Song of the Night,” conducted by Somtow Sucharitkul, live on August 19, 8 pm at the Thailand Cultural Center, Main Hall.
The concert can be attended in person or experienced online via Siam Sinfonietta’s Facebook page.
Somtow Sucharitkul’s work in Thailand has a personal connection with Mahler since he made a promise, twenty years ago, to HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana.
Somtow said: “One day, orchestras in Thailand will be able to play all of Mahler’s symphonies.” He completed the cycle of ten symphonies plus the unnumbered “The Song of the Earth” with a memorable performance of No. 2 five years ago. Since then, he’s had the ambition of doing the cycle again, but this time with the youth orchestra, Siam Sinfonietta, which he founded in 2010.
Siam Sinfonietta won first prize in Vienna playing Mahler as the only Asian symphony orchestra in the competition and the only one to dare play work by an Austrian, in Austria, with an all-Austrian panel of judges. Siam Sinfonietta also received the Munich Prinzregenten theater in the Berlin Konzerthaus for Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. In addition, it performed No. 5 in collaboration with a youth ensemble from Taiwan, and No. 6, augmented by young musicians from Malaysia, plus No. 9 for the opening of the fabulous Suryadhep Music Sala at Rangsit University.
This year is the orchestra’s 10th anniversary and Siam Sinfonietta had scheduled a special reunion of musicians from all ten seasons, playing the largest of symphonies, Mahler’s No. 3, when the COVID-19 outbreak began.
Now, on August 19, the long-awaited reunion will finally happen with a few adjustments for the pandemic.
“First, the soloist and choruses needed in addition to the orchestra in Mahler’s No. 3 can’t come to Thailand because of quarantine requirements, therefore, the symphony was changed to Mahler’s No. 7, the ‘Song of the Night’,” Somtow said. “This is no less gargantuan than the other Mahler symphonies. It also has one special feature; it hasn’t been performed by any youth orchestra on earth.”
He called it “an absolutely crazy work”, bristling with difficulties. It has a huge orchestral palette of instruments that are never used in the symphony — a saxhorn, a guitar, and a mandolin.
“It’s an appropriate work for a turbulent time, a time of darkness that nevertheless leads to the bright light of dawn,” Somtow added.
According to new guidelines for social distancing at the Thailand Cultural Center, only a couple of hundred people will be allowed to attend this epic celebration in person. However, the entire concert will be livestreamed from Siam Sinfonietta’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/SiamSinfonietta).
Its first livestream concert, a Beethoven event, was limited to only 50 seats at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center, while so far over 3,500 have experienced the livestream — reaching a bigger audience than a full house at the cultural center.
Siam Sinfonietta hopes every socially distanced seat will be filled, offered at only 100 baht, with a VIP seating area available for those who give 1,000 baht to the cause. Tickets can be booked directly from Ticket Melon (www.ticketmelon.com/operasiam/mahler-7). If you had a ticket for the tenth anniversary concert which was originally scheduled for March, please contact LINE @operasiam for information on how to use your existing reservation. Seats may have been changed to conform with the new social distancing seat map.
In just ten years Siam Sinfonietta has transformed Thailand’s classical music scene with the country’s leading professional symphony orchestras filled with graduates of Siam Sinfonietta’s training system, including section leaders in all major orchestras (and a few overseas as well.). A concert by Siam Sinfonietta should not be missed, especially a performance of such an exciting, rare work.
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For further media enquiries, please contact:
Warin Pattarapatumthong (Audi)
TQPR Thailand
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