If you don't already have one, good luck getting a ticket to Zubin Mehta's evening with the Israel Philharmonic.

The Embassy of Israel in Bangkok and International Cultural Promotions' chairman JS Uberoi have worked together for five years to bring to fruition a dream of Bangkok's classical-music aficionados.

Now, it is mission accomplished with Zubin Mehta conducting the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) on Wednesday, a most fitting curtain raiser for Bangkok's 10th International Festival of Dance and Music.

By now, you’ve read a lot about them in other local media. What’s more important perhaps, and that’s why we’re reiterating here, is the fact that both have had a long and loving relationship, dating back for four decades. The IPO named him music adviser in 1969, director in 1977 and Music Director for Life in 1981.

He has conducted the orchestra in more than 2,000 performances on five continents. In 1994 he did so in Mumbai, his birthplace, helping bridge a political gap that had barred their appearance there for three decades.

Apart from the fact that these world-renowned artists’ presence here is rare, they also choose to perform truly unique and musically challenging programme that’s rarely heard here.

The music event of the year will commence with “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Modest Mussorgsky, who passionately drew his inspiration from an exhibition of works by his late architect-painter, and one of his closest friends, Victor Hartmann. The composer later said that the outburst of his creative energy was overwhelming during that time of sorrow. Hartmann's works inspired a variety of musical ideas and he let his imagination guide his compositional work into new territories. 

For example, the sixth movement entitled “Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle” was inspired by Hartmann's painting that Mussorgsky himself owned. It shows two Polish Jews—one is rich, slow and laconic; the other poor and hungry moving nervously and blabbering endlessly to impress the former, hoping to get something from him. Here, Mussorgsky’s music imitates human talking. 

Maurice Ravel’s subsequent orchestration in 1922 successfully introduced the piece—originally composed for piano and once ignored by the music world—to the concert halls, thanks to his ingenious use of instruments and special instrumental combinations for each movement in fine accordance with its character and temperament. 

In the aforementioned sixth movement, for example, Ravel further emphasized the differences between the two Jews by describing the poor Jew, chattering in a squeaky voice, with a high trumpet, and the rich one with the low strings. 

The concert’s second part is “Symphony no. 6 in B minor, op. 74” (or ‘Pathétique’), the last symphony by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. This immense outcry of pain and agony was derived from the composer's tormented soul, and Tchaikovsky himself believed it was one of his best, if not the best, works. 

From the bassoon’s dark tone in the slow introduction to the final movement, a true elegy of which the mood is tragic and gloomy, Mehta and IPO will take Bangkok audiences through an extraordinary experience. 

At press time, we’ve been informed that tickets to this one-evening-only event are almost sold out. Our sole suggestion: do whatever you can to get in.

>> The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performs at 7:30pm on Wednesday, July 30 at the Thailand Cultural Centre's Main Hall.

>> Tickets are Bt1,500 to Bt10,000 at Thaiticketmajor.

>> The concert is part of Bangkok's 10th International Festival of Dance and Music, most of which takes place in September.

>> Visit www.BangkokFestivals.com.

written by Pawit Mahasarinand

published in Daily Xpress on Monday, July 28, 2008

photo courtesy of International Cultural Promotions