“The Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra Foundation, supported by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Ministry of Culture—Department of Cultural Promotion, and B. Grimm Group Ltd., presents the RBSO 2024: Louis Schwizgebel, a Swiss pianist, plays Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 25th, at the Thailand Cultural Centre, in honour of Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn Krom Phra Srisavangavadhana.”
The performance will consist of four inspiring pieces conducted by returning British maestro Douglas Bostock, an internationally renowned conductor, Artistic and Principal Conductor of the pre-eminent Southwest German Chamber Orchestra.
Maestro Douglas Bostock
Douglas Bostock has conducted many of the leading European, North American, and Asian orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, the BBC orchestras, Royal Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Prague Radio Symphony, Prague Symphony, Aarhus Symphony, Munich Symphony, United Philharmonic Vienna, New Japan Philharmonic, Kyoto Symphony, Sapporo Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, National Chamber Orchestra, State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra, and the Calgary Philharmonic.
He has collaborated regularly with the RBSO in recent years and built up a strong relationship with the orchestra and audience alike. Maestro Bostock has well over 100 CD recordings of a broad repertoire to his name.
Pianist Louis Schwizgebel
The RBSO, collaborating with the Embassy of Switzerland, has invited Pianist Louis Schwizgebel to perform. He has studied with Brigitte Meyer in Lausanne and Pascal Devoyon in Berlin, then later at the Juilliard School with Emanuel Ax and Robert McDonald and at London’s Royal Academy of Music with Pascal Nemirovski. At the age of seventeen, he won the Geneva International Music Competition and, two years later, the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York.
In 2012, he won second prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition and in 2013, he became a BBC New Generation Artist. Schwizgebel has played with the Philharmonia Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony, all BBC Orchestras, Oslo Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Bamberg Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Danish National Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Vienna Symphony, Tonkünstler Vienna, with Cincinnati Symphony, Richmond Symphony and Sacramento Philharmonic, and Singapore Symphony and Auckland Philharmonia.
Louis will perform Camille Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2. Its three movements showcase the composer’s ability to effortlessly blend serious themes with playful elements. This ability is evident throughout the concerto, which is structured more like a symphony and starts with a slow-paced movement featuring a Liszt-like solo cadenza.
The Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22 by Camille Saint-Saëns, a French composer and pianist of the Romantic era, was composed in 1868 and is probably Saint-Saëns’ most popular piano concerto.
The entire programme will be exciting, starting with Hector Berlioz’s famous overture “The Roman Carnival”, which is nine minutes of dashing music intended as the prelude to the second act of his opera “Benvenuto Cellini”.
The overture seamlessly stitches together themes from the opera, including Celini’s luscious aria, now played by the cor anglais – and the wild saltarello, an Italian folk dance, which is the recurring element in the overture. Maurice Ravel’s “Valses nobles et sentimentales” is a suite of waltzes composed in 1911. The title pays homage to Franz Schubert’s collection of waltzes, entitled “Valses sentimentales”.
Ravel’s suite combines Impressionist and Modernist elements, showcasing his fascination with the waltz genre. Georges Bizet’s ever-popular L’Arlésienne Suite No. 2 was arranged posthumously by contemporary composer Ernest Guiraud and shows Bizet at his most charming.
The music was initially written for a play named “L’Arlésienne” (The Woman from Arles), a play produced in 1872. The four movements contain some of classical music’s most beloved tunes, culminating in the famous “Farandole”, which ends the concert in a whirlwind of excitement.
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