Concert series offers chamber music treats

Concert series offers chamber music treats

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A series of five chamber music concerts starting in the city
tonight (Thursday) will offer fans a rare chance to hear the
period music performed by distinguished musicians.

Performed between Nov. 4 and Feb. 24, the concerts would
feature subtle interplay between performers, plus the intimate
atmosphere a small ensemble created, cellist and event spokesman
Leonard van Hien said. These quintessential features of chamber
music made it a pleasurable and rewarding experience, he said.

Although most works performed in the series will be mainstream
19th-century European works, the concert will also include
lesser-known but important works.

"This concert is organized by the artists, with the repertoire
bringing together string players, pianists and singers, all at
affordable prices," van Hien said.

All but one of the concerts would be at the Erasmus Huis,
South Jakarta, chosen because of its central location, excellent
grand piano and superb acoustics.

IG Bagus Wiswakarma, regarded by many as the leading classical
violinist in Indonesia today, and the director of a Jakarta many
music school, would be highlight of the performance, he said.

A special treat is on offer in the third concert, on Dec. 30,
when Jean-Paul Minali-Bella will play the arpegina. The latest
member of the string family, the arpegina is rather like a large
viola but with a distinctive, asymmetrically shaped body.

It has a pitch and timbre that lies between that of the cello,
viola and viola de gamba. Minali-Bella will perform Indonesian
composer Slamet Sjukur's work Dedicace 1 for solo arpegina.

in box:
The series in brief:

String quartet
Nov. 4 -- Beethoven, Ravel
Erasmus Huis, Jl. Rasuna Said, South Jakarta

Cello and piano
Dec. 2 -- Beethoven, Chopin, Mendelssohn
Erasmus Huis

Arpegina and piano
Dec. 30 -- Bach, Schubert, Sjukur, Bacri, Marais
Auditorium, S. Widjojo Center, Jl. Sudirman, South Jakarta

Viola/Piano quintet
Jan. 6, 2005 -- Brahms, Mendelssohn
Erasmus Huis

Soprano, piano, clarinet, strings
Feb. 24 -- Schubert, Beethoven, Villa-Lobos, Poulenc, Satoh

Tickets will be sold at the door: adults Rp 50,000, students Rp
20,000 per concert