Music and dance will dominate JIFPA<\/p>\n
By Gus Kairupan<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): JIFPA, a cultural event that shows every sign of
\nbeing here to stay. Spelled out in full, JIFPA stands for Jakarta
\nInternational Festival of the Performing Arts.<\/p>\n
The opening of the third one was held last Sunday at Gedung
\nKesenian Jakarta, and as the director of GKJ said in her
\nwelcoming speech, this one is to last a month. A good sign, that.<\/p>\n
The first one, held three years ago, lasted four months, which
\nwas far too long for a festival. Even one month can be considered
\na bit on the long side, although considering that the only venue
\nis GKJ, the duration may be all right. However, maybe some
\nthought could be devoted to widening the event by involving more
\nperforming arts centers -- remember TIM has four stages besides a
\nnumber of smaller but very suitable auditoriums run by foreign
\nrepresentations here.<\/p>\n
You'd be surprised at how many and how varied the kinds of
\nstage productions which could be organized. As it is now, music
\nand dance are the only types that fill the Festival's programs.
\nBut JIFPA, at the age of three, is still growing, and hopefully
\ngrowing to a stage where all the performing arts are well and
\ntruly represented.<\/p>\n
Foreign countries taking part this year are Japan, Germany,
\nAustralia, Austria, the Netherlands, the Philippines and China
\nwhich is sending the Beijing Opera group. Now, that's something
\nto look forward to. As far as I know, it could well be the first
\ntime that the Beijing Opera is staged here.<\/p>\n
Simple event<\/p>\n
The Festival opened with a simple event featuring the Jakarta
\nSymphony Orchestra, followed by a gathering of the invited guests
\nfor \"refreshments\", as Ms. Feisol said. Of course, by now
\neverybody knows that refreshments a la Indonesia constitute a
\nfull meal. When it comes to eating, we don't believe in half-
\nmeasures.<\/p>\n
The main feature of the evening, however, was the performance
\nof the Jakarta Symphony Orchestra directed by Judianto
\nHinupurwadi. Participating as guest artist in the concert was
\nSantiago G. Yangco, a flutist who is still in the midst of a
\ndistinguished career which includes performances in, among
\nothers, London, New York, Guam, as well as teaching at the
\nCollege of Music of the University of the Philippines (that's
\nwhere he hails from) and Sta. Isabel College of Music. He's also
\nconductor of the Cabiao Symphony Band of Nueva Ecija. How he
\nfinds time to practice dentistry (his other profession) is
\nanybody's guess.<\/p>\n
Question: why mess about with the insides of people's mouths
\nand make them scream when you're so eminently gifted to entertain
\nthem with the best there is in music? For Santiago Yangco is an
\nextremely fine musician who gave depth to Mozart's flute
\nconcerto, a work often dismissed as superficial.<\/p>\n
Yangco wasn't the only non-Indonesian taking part in the
\nconcert. There was bassoonist Noel A. Singcuenco, also from the
\nPhilippines, Soun Youn Yoon from South Korea who, I was told,
\noccupied first chair oboe section in the Seoul Symphony Orches
\ntra. Also Eric Awuy (brother of harpist Heidi Awuy), Indonesian,
\nbut still attached to a symphony orchestra in Montreal, Canada.
\nIt's seasoned performers like these that budding orchestras like
\nJSO are in crying need of. In Indonesia's immediate neighborhood
\n(i.e. the ASEAN context) the Philippines and Singapore are proba
\nbly the only countries that are ahead of Indonesia when it comes
\nto symphonic music activities. We could learn a thing or two from
\nthem, and this doesn't apply only to players in orchestras but
\nalso to conductors.<\/p>\n
Creditable<\/p>\n
The program included three works: the overture to William Tell
\nby Rossini, Dvorak's New World Symphony and Mozart's Concerto for
\nFlute in D-Major. Now, orchestras being what they are in Jakarta
\n(developing stage, that is) one cannot expect too much from them
\nin terms of musicianship. JSO at least did not overreach itself
\nwith this program (they have played excerpts of Dvorak's work
\nbefore), and thus gave a creditable performance. First and second
\nviolins could have done with a more unified tone which is a bit
\nodd considering that violins are usually quite strong here. A
\nrevelation however, was the cello section, which after a few
\nwobbly seconds at the beginning of the William Tell overture,
\nfound its feet and its strength.<\/p>\n
As for the symphony, director Yudianto should have created a
\ndeeper, richer tone for the entire work and more contrasting
\ndynamics. The work belongs very much to the romantic period and
\nmust be treated as such. As it was, in the orchestra's timbre and
\ntone, there wasn't much difference between Dvorak's symphony and
\nMozart's concerto which belongs to the classical period.<\/p>\n
I am also inclined to think that it is the presence of the
\nmore experienced musicians that contributed a lot to the woodwind
\nand brass sections' impressive performance, especially the oboe's
\nvery extensive solo part in the second movement of Dvorak's
\nsymphony. It's a pity that they're here for only a limited time,
\nbut then, these days you can't turn your ears in any direction
\nwithout hearing such things like \"globalization\" and \"transfer of
\ntechnology\". Well, something like that applies to music just as
\nmuch as it does to making croissants or pumping oil out of the
\nearth's belly.<\/p>\n
JSO, to its credit, has not overreached itself, but the time
\nmay come that we would like to hear works by, say, Hindemith or
\nStravinsky or Messiaen.<\/p>",
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