Piano quartet plays chamber music for masses

Chisato Hara, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Lovers of classical music and Hungarian maestros Bartok, Liszt and Weiner will be offered a feast for their ears with M- Project's Volume 2 program.

Featuring the Brahms Piano Quartet on Feb. 1 at Erasmus Huis, South Jakarta, the program will present a selection of chamber music pieces from those with folk influences to those with an undertone of pathos that is commonly associated with Hungarian compositions.

As manager Kyoko Matsunoki said, M-Project was established in 2004 to enrich the classical music scene in Indonesia, particularly in promoting its appreciation and education among the Jakarta public. The Hungarian music program is a special focus of this effort, and is supported by Hungarian Ambassador to Indonesia Gyorgy Busztin.

"We could not have realized this program without Ambassador Busztin's generous support," said Matsunoki, who initiated the program through her personal relationship with the wife of the former Hungarian Ambassador to Vietnam.

The soloists grouped in the Brahms Piano Quartet are renowned for their academic contributions to Indonesia's classical music scene, and are established public performers in their own right. This is, however, their first public appearance as a quartet.

In addition, the four musicians have each resided in the country for at least a decade, with the most "veteran" among them American violinist and musicologist Edward Van Ness, who has been an active educator and performer in Indonesia for 32 years. He is currently principal conductor of the Nusantara Symphony Orchestra.

While the pieces featured in Hungary Vol. 2 may not reflect the underlying connection between Hungarian music and Indonesian listeners, Van Ness said a cultural tie exists: Hungarian music carries in its melody and scales a "not-so-distant connection with Arabic music", a nuance that was imported through Hungary's Ottoman rulers of old.

Japanese pianist Miwako Fukushi, who performed a piano duet in Hungary Vol. 1, draws directly upon that country's musical legacy, having studied under Nedor Gyorgy at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. Fukushi teaches at Pelita Harapan University as well as providing instruction to private students.

One of the pieces the quartet will play is Sonata for Viola and Piano by Weiner Laszlo, a promising Hungarian composer and a Liszt academy alumnus who died in 1944 at a young age in a German forced labor camp.

As befits the time, the piece is somber and dark, a mood that is drawn out by the deep resonance of the viola.

American violist Sharon Eng, a graduate of the Juilliard School in New York, brings her international touring experience to the performance. Eng is currently director of Jakarta International School's strings program and has performed frequently in the capital.

According to Eng, the Jakarta classical music circle has become more sensitive over the years to the need to work together, and is enthusiastic about the neutral platform of collaboration and appreciation M-Project offers to all music lovers.

Meanwhile, Singapore-born British cellist Leonard van Hien, who has played in chamber music ensembles in England, Switzerland and Indonesia, observed that classical chamber music has "a definite following here", particularly over the last five years.

"About 200 to 300 people will show up for a performance, and they're not always the same crowd or the same faces," he said, adding that the audience's age group was not restricted, and ranged from young adults to more mature listeners.

Van Ness concurred, saying that developments in audience behavior toward the classical genre were also noticeable, particularly in their knowing when to clap between movements -- and in remembering to turn off their cellular phones upon entering the concert hall.

Another proof of the growing appreciation for the musical form emerged last year with the first public performance by an all- Indonesian string quartet.

The irony, said van Hien, is that classical chamber music was never intended for mass appeal, and was written as an "intimate (form of) music to be shared among friends."

It is this spirit of sharing that is at the heart and soul of M-Project -- a sharing between performers and listeners linked through their mutual love for music.

Hungary Vol. 2 by the Brahms Piano Quartet will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 1, at 7:30 p.m. at the Erasmus Huis auditorium on Jl. HR Rasuna Said Kav S-3, Kuningan, South Jakarta. Tickets are Rp 50,000 for adults, Rp 20,000 for students. Contact Yayasan Musik Internasional (7503729, 75905639) or M-Project (08151800551) for information/invitations. Tickets will also be available at the door.