Concert held to help preserve Indonesia's forests

Concert held to help preserve Indonesia's forests

By Gus Kairupan

JAKARTA (JP): Alexander Baillie strode onto the stage,
acknowledged the applause, sat down, touched bow to strings, and
from that moment on everyone in the audience knew they were in
the presence of a true maestro of the cello.

Baillie entered the stage without any hesitation, entirely
confident, his bearing and manner uttering the unspoken words
"let's get on with it." And getting on with it he did, the
result being the most exquisite sample of cello music ever heard
in Jakarta.

The recital, a fund-raising event for the Barito Ulu Project
forest preservation and regeneration project in Kalimantan, was
held Tuesday evening at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, one of the
many businesses that sponsored the performance.

The forest project was established in 1986 and depends
entirely on contributions to maintain its operations.

One interesting aspect is that practically all its support has
come from large industrial enterprises that more often than not
are accused of destroying the environment. Among the prominent
corporate contributors to the project are Enterprise Oil, St.
Michael, Wickes Plc, PT Trakindo Utama, and Glaxo. Others are
Cathay Pacific, PT Chubb Lips Indonesia, PT Multi Bintang and
Allied Pickfords, while PT Pacific Removindo sponsored the
concert.

Equally important were the hands-on efforts of Rupert
Ridgeway, Barito Ulu's project controller, and his wife Diana,
who organized the concert.

Individual supporters included Anna Peters, Harry Darsono,
Lela Pello and Margaret Ilyine.

Flawless

Baillie opened the program with Bach's Third Suite in C for
Solo Cello. It belongs to a number of works for unaccompanied
violin and cello, all of which require (from the listener)
something of an acquired taste.

They're not the sort of music even classical music fans take
to straight away. On the other hand, they're equally demanding
for the musician, who must make every one of the many lines that
typify the music of Bach's era stand out.

Baillie succeeded in this -- with crystal clarity, giving each
of the voices a different tonal quality. Baillie's was a splendid
example of the cello as a total instrument.

For the rest of the official program Baillie was joined by
pianist Iswargia Sudarno, who recently graduated from New York's
Manhattan School of Music with a master's degree.

For him, as for many young and talented Indonesian classical
musicians (including Adelaide Simbolon some time ago), playing
with such international luminaries as Baillie provides the
opportunities they sorely need to achieve maturity.

Baillie and Iswargia performed Schubert's "Arpeggio" Sonata in
A Minor for Cello and Piano, Schumann's Five Pieces in Folk
Style, and Variations on a Slovak Theme by 20th century Slovak
composer Bohuslav Martinu.

In all these works, Iswargia proved himself to be a very able
pianist and accompanist, singing along with Baillie in Schubert's
sonata, which throughout all movements is virtually a lied on a
gigantic scale.

Rapport between the two, who had never met before, was well-
nigh flawless; but then, Alexander Baillie is a person who
communicates with ease on as well as off stage.

That the recital was a success need not be doubted. The
audience of a hundred or so invited guests accorded the duo a
deserved standing ovation which, in turn, was rewarded by no less
than four encores that included two more than well-known pieces
whose hackneyed versions are often heard in the elevator --
Edward Elgar's Salut d'Amour and The Swan, the most popular
excerpt from Camille Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals.

Alexander Baillie's visit here offered more than the recital.
Masterclasses for Indonesian cellists were held at Erasmus Huis
(sponsored by BP Indonesia), which was also the venue of a
special concert for children sponsored by the Lentera
International School.