Orchestra

Orchestra

The Nusantara Chamber Orchestra has done it again! Their program on April 3 was an absolute delight. It had two high points. The first was the performance of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings Opus 11. This singularly exquisite piece of music was performed sufficiently well to produce an issuance of rheum at the corner of my eyes and somehow conjured within me the impression that it expressed the sigh of a great entity like an ocean or even the planet itself.

Further it brought to mind an idea expressed in a lecture given by the acclaimed British mystic Sir John Trevelyan in 1969 at which time he said that when a fine piece of music is performed "geometries of light are created in the subtle realms." I thought at the time that this was rather poetic manner of speaking but as Barber's opus built into its crescendo and fell back again I had the distinct impression that this was actually happening.

The second high point occurred when Myrna Setiawan came to the stage to give a passionate and robust interpretation of a Rachmaninov piano concerto. What a pleasure it was to see this beautiful and talented pianist giving Rachmaninov's moody and technically difficult composition a real dusting off--and without recourse to the sheet music either!

To the NCO - a great evening, thanks.

NARISH STOCK

Jakarta