Good Prospects for the Jakarta Symphony Orchestra

Good Prospects for the Jakarta Symphony Orchestra

By Gus Kairupan [10 pts ML]

JAKARTA (JP): Listeners heard some good and some bad at the
first concert for 1994 given by the Jakarta Symphony Orchestra
(JSO), led by Yudianto Hinupurwadi, at the Patra Jasa building,
South Jakarta, on Wednesday.

The event was held to commemorate the 52nd anniversary of the
Bakrie Group. The Group's chief, Aburizal Bakrie, is an active
supporter of good music performances in Jakarta -- the Jakarta
Symphony Orchestra and the Twilite Orchestra to be exact.

But to get back to the good and bad of JSO's performance. The
"bad" should not be taken too literally, because the "good"
provides the needed balance and points to the more-than-ample
opportunity for corrective measures.

Compared to their wonderful performance of Albinoni's concerto
for two oboes and strings, JSO had shortcomings in their
rendering of Smetana's Die Moldau. And their engaging overture of
Poet and Peasant was certainly better than Borodin's Polovtsian
Dances.

However, Die Moldau and Polovtsian Dances are very difficult
to master.

They are descriptive music, or compositions intended to
suggest a sequence of images or incidents, also known as program
music.

This genre came to full flower in the 19th century through the
works of Berlioz, Liszt, Schumann (his piano cycles), Richard
Strauss (no relation to Johann Sr. and Jr.), Mussorgsky, Mahler
and a host of others.

The Jakarta Symphony Orchestra is by no means the only
orchestra that doesn't do well with program music.

Die Moldau is one of six symphonic poems, written over a
number of years, which Smetana united in one gigantic work called
My Fatherland.

The music describes the birth of a river, the Moldau, from two
small streams (represented by two flutes) that become one. The
piece follows the river's course through the Bohemian
countryside, past a hunting scene, a wedding party with folks
dancing the polka, through a moonlit landscape, furious rapids,
and finally, as it passes the Vysehrad castle -- the subject of
the first symphonic poem, which echoes against the Moldau's
melody.

These six different scenes require the deft handling of
dynamics, tempi and coloring to make the work come to life.

In the opening scene, the effect should be of quiet from a
distance, or, in musically correct terms, pianissimo come da
lontano.

It should creep on you slowly, not jump on you as it did at
JSO concert.

As for Borodin's Polovtsian Dances, they contain three
different themes, depicting dances for girls, men and boys.

Originally intended as a ballet insertion with chorus for the
opera Prince Igor, the work is better known as a concert piece.

Here, too, dynamics, tempi and coloring must be varied
accordingly to effectively characterize the different themes.

As for the other dance, Strauss's Emperor Waltz, is party
music for -- as the title implies -- emperors, kings, and their
ilk to dance to.

The piece actually contains two (social) dance rhythms, an
unhurried polka (or maybe a gavotte) in the introduction and the
waltz proper.

How does one learn a dance? By doing it, of course. Please
note that I'm not entirely unserious when I say this -- the
conductor and orchestra members should study (if not to actually
do) the waltz, polka, polonaise, etc. before playing these dance
compositions.

Discipline

During the performance, Brahms's Hungarian Dances was replaced
with the Javanese children's song, Ilir-ilir arranged for
orchestra by bassoonist Siswanto.

With a rather extensive role for the brass instruments, the
piece was quite heavy and suffered from somewhat weak links
between sections, making the transitions awkward.

Of course JSO is still in the development stage. Dr. Fuad
Hasan, who heads the Yayasan Adiswara, the umbrella foundation of
JSO, believes the group needs more discipline.

The foundation, he said, is also "exploring exchange programs
with Japan, enabling our musicians and the conductor to train
there."

Such a program would offer good prospects for the JSO to
become a viable symphonic ensemble.

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