Original interview with Indonesia Tatler, Jan. 2012

Now that one of Indonesia's most prestigious lifestyle magazine Indonesia Tatler has published the February edition, I can post here the original (meaning the one that I sent them) interview which was then edited, cut and published in their January edition. Due to the limited space, the one published was just around half of the original interview, so enjoy this one.

1. New year concerts are common happening in Europe & America. Did the annual happenings intrigue you to create one in Indonesia? Why? Please elaborate.

Yes, I "stole" those ideas, but only the idea, not the content. We have to adapt it to Indonesia's situation, tradition and culture, therefore it's not done every 1st of January, but every first Sunday since our second edition in 2006. This year, since Jan. 1st falls on a Sunday, we do it on the 8th in Jakarta since people are still having holiday out of town during the first week. Also we want to make the program content as Indonesian as possible, as London does it as English possible and Vienna as Austrian possible. It would make no sense to make a new year concert with a Western content, as foreign people came to our concert to "feel" Indonesian as those who do to Vienna, Amsterdam etc. It has now become a landmark in Jakarta, and starting this year we do it in Surabaya (13th) and Bandung (15th) too, therefore the "J" in JNYC is changed from Jakarta to Java.

2. What are the pieces to be presented at the concert?

This is a groundbreaking program in Indonesia, never been done even in our 6 JNYC's before: two operas in one show: A Real Man and Suddenly Rich. We are taking a big risk here, since operas are still considered both "extremely high brow" and "boring" (too long? in a foreign language?) to Indonesian audience. The reasons we dare to do this are: 1. both operas are short (half an hour each) and in Indonesian, so the audience would understand. 2. Both are taken from two popular short stories by Indonesia's "father of short stories" Putu Wijaya, and the plots are quite simple, light but profound (both discussing single themes: the first about "what is a real man" and the second "if you have to choose, which one do you prefer: money or happiness?"). 3. Both are presented as comedies with twists in the end, so I hope this will bring joy and not a heavy burden for the audience. Imagine starting the new year watching a horror or thriller opera! Hopefully this will not only attract music lovers, but also literature fans as well as dance fans (Chendra Panatan, my favorite choreographer graduate from England is doing the stage direction and choregraphy).
The singers are considered the best young vocalists of today in Indonesia, since they have brilliantly won prizes at the "Ananda Sukarlan National Vocal Competition" 2011. They are still unknown, but they are THE Indonesian classical singers of the near future. Remember these names: Evelyn Merrelita (soprano coloratura), Eriyani Tenga Lunga (mezzosoprano) and two tenors Adi "Didut" Nugroho and Pharel Silaban. And let's not forget one thing: the Bank Indonesia Auditorium is not often open for public concerts, but in fact it is definitely the best hall, acoustically speaking as well as its luxurious design, for chamber music and chamber opera in Indonesia. It's amazingly good.

3. Any particular reason for the choice? Please elaborate.

Answered above, right?

4. Appreciation to classical music in Indonesia is growing. There are more concerts now as well as new venues - ie Aula Simfonia. How did you perceive it? How did you compare it with those in South Korea and Japan?

We are still way far behind those countries, since we lack one crucial thing: music education at school. It's true that we have audience that flock to classical concerts nowadays, but I bet you they are always the same people. I dare to say, perhaps around the maximum 3000 people in Jakarta who go to those concerts. Now, that's a very small percentage of the total inhabitants of Jakarta, right? And in my case, many expatriates are among the audience.

5. Does working with top musicians abroad means anything to you? Why? Tell us of your unforgettable moments with them.

Of course. I learned a lot not only from their immense knowledge but also their professionalism, musical craftmanship and artistry, not mentioning their contagious passion in what they are doing. It's amazing how, as a 20-year-old boy I learned about musical structures (the real one, not the one we learn from books) and how we play with psychological time and durations directly from masters such as Sir Michael Tippett, who saw the enormous potential inside me but also, in a nice and subtle way, told me that I was wasting my talent then and I should focus on less things. Greatness comes not from a huge talent, but severe self-criticism, hard work, passion, modesty and willingness to constantly go out of our comfort zone. And of course people like him really helped my career as he was the first "living legend" I met and the one who introduced me to the BBC for the first time, for example.

6. England has The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Does Indonesia need one? Why? Please elaborate.

We have already many orchestras, mostly not up to standards. We need quality, not quantity to represent Indonesia. What is more urgent is establishing the identity of Indonesian classical music and only good quality musicians can inspire composers to do that. And then we need public and sponsors who believe in supporting our own musicians, and understand that classical music indeed originates from Europe, but every country has developed its own identity of it. Indonesia has not. That's why me and my friends started those competitions for piano and voice, giving platforms for young musicians to manifest their talents regardless of where they come from and to help them start their career and to be known to a wider public.

7. In the days of 'Orde Lama' there were designs to build an art centre plus a concert hall in the class of l'Opera de Paris in the area surrounding Museum Nasional, Jakarta. Is it time to start again with the project? How instrumental is the opening of such a grand venue in enhancing the development of performing arts? Please explain.

Of course, but we have to pay much attention to acoustics. Again, we have many theatres, but very few with the good condition for presenting classical music without sound system. As long as the architect doesn't consider the hall's acoustics as a musical instrument, it is doomed to be a failure. Look, in a piano recital there are two musical instruments: the piano AND the hall. That has never been thought like that by architects in Indonesia. And as you consult a pianist if you want to buy a piano, you should consult (classical) musicians when you build a concert hall.

What's wrong with being Indonesian (or Chinese)?

For me, nothing. On the contrary, I am f***ing proud to be Indonesian, especially after having lived in Europe for the last 24 years of my life (which is the most part of it) and realized that we are no better or worse. And I will show my discomfort if I am being rejected not for what I have done, but for what I am, among which is being Indonesian.

A few days ago (in January) Chendra my manager sent me an announcement of a national piano competition in Indonesia (for teenagers and below) and .. here are two things that made me uncomfortable:

1. One of the jury members is Ananda Sukarlan (eh? what a surprise! Another pianist in Indonesia with that name? Or maybe he's not a pianist but a politician or a businessman, as it's pretty trendy now to have them as juries in a piano, nota bene classical music, competition in Indonesia, and therefore I don't know him).

I want to copy and paste what I have written just a few weeks ago in this blog (about fakely using my office to promote a Korean boyband) again here:
I might be the most badly bruised musician in Indonesia. My music has been pirated and used without my permission (oops sorry, I should say they indeed asked for permission, but after Chendra caught them red-handed). Not only my music: an article from this very blog has been published in a major newspaper in Indonesia under a different name -- and yes, translated in Indonesian, therefore it couldn't be categorized as plagiarism. And now just my name, not my work, is used. And this case of using my name is not the first time that it happened, but since this very moment those who does anything of this will have the honour of being mentioned by me in my facebook and twitter account. I avoid names in this blog since this will stay a longer time, but the name of those honoured are very clearly mentioned in my facebook & twitter.

2. For the repertoire, after all those Chopins, Schuberts and Bachs, "Indonesian and Chinese composers are excluded".

I immediately went to the mirror after I read this. What's wrong with being Indonesian or Chinese? Of course I am not an especially handsome guy (I admit I do have a low self-esteem about my looks), but think of ... emmm ... Jet Li or, since we are talking about music (in any genre), what do you think of Jay Chou? And in Indonesia, isn't that pop-singer "Ariel" who now went to jail for reasons I don't understand, or actor Nicholas Saputra, or Anggun who is highly adored by the French considered universally beautiful? What is it then, our noses? Our heights?
Oh, oh, it's not about looks? Then what, about brains? Well I don't mean to boast myself, but my IQ has been tested several times and the results are always higher than 150. Indeed, I failed to enter MENSA (the international club for the elite geniuses) since I am just a few points away from requirement of 160 to belong to their exclusive club. But I do believe there are many highly smart Indonesians and Chinese that have contributed to the arts and science. Just think of the new generation of Indonesian writers: smart, sharp and brilliant. Many Indonesians are now having top positions in Silicon valley and universities around Europe, the US and Asia (I will exclude China, it belongs to the same dustbin as Indonesia, right?).

Wait, perhaps it's about musicianship! We are not as musical as the rest of the world! Well... let's see. Then why did Debussy, Britten, even until now Peter Scuthorpe, David del Puerto, and even younger composers are so amazed and highly influenced by the gamelan, kecak dance and so on? And in case you don't know, our traditional instruments such as angklung is declared World cultural heritage by UNESCO. Gamelan music is now as universally acclaimed as music by European classical composers, Brazilian samba or jazz.

Oh, perhaps it's this. We, Indonesian and Chinese composers are not QUALIFIED enough, right? So, was I making a fool of myself (and of Indonesia) when I perform at Berlin Philharmonie, Concertgebouw etc.? Those conservatories or music faculties are making a mistake hiring me as guest lecturers, eh? And Tan Dun definitely didn't deserve his Oscar (and was it a Grammy too?) for his music for the film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. And of course, our brilliant young generation such as soprano Bernadeta Astari shouldn't have made her debut at the Concertgebouw a few months ago. Right?

And how about Indonesian of a Chinese-descent Indonesian composer or vice versa? A double negative is a positive, right? Do they deserve to exist?

D'you know that the great Spanish writer Miguel Cervantes said: "When there is music, there are no bad intentions"? Yeah, nice phrase, but it can't be more outdated.

Two things for sure after an afterthought on this. But remember, this is just a humble opinion from another Indonesian who is excluded.
1. It is not cool, smart or artistic at all putting all Indonesian and Chinese composers into one trash bag. Especially by fellow Indonesians!
2. From those two requirements of that Piano Competition, held in Indonesia for Indonesian young pianists, only one will be realized: Indonesian and Chinese composers are indeed excluded, as they wished. But Ananda Sukarlan won't be serving as a jury. I won't possibly contribute in the exclusions of my own fellow countrymen, and especially after they used my name to sell their product. Over my dead body.

Six Etudes are published for now, and more coming, hopefully

Next month my book of 6 Etudes will be published, and they will also be available through the iPad app. (you can search "Ananda Sukarlan" at the App Store).

My 6 Etudes are my excursions --or perhaps trying to find home?-- to the piano in my compositional adventures. One might be surprised to know that the piano is not my favorite instrument for which I compose. It is the human voice. Therefore it explains the numerous works I wrote for that beautiful "instrument" and the few quantity of (substantial) works for piano solo. By writing these Etudes I can experiment again what we have learned from the great masters of the past (Chopin and Liszt mostly, but also Debussy, Rachmaninov etc) and how my musical language can fit with the pianistic techniques that they have invented and developed. Melodies play an important role in my piano music, since I always try, perhaps in vain, to make the piano "sing" like human voice. Here are some of my notes about some etudes of mine. I guess the music speaks for itself, therefore I wrote only the background of 3 of them. These are just for those who are curious about their creative process; I don't think they would help much for their interpretation. As I always say, the composer is the person who understands his music the least, since he can only view it from one point of view. The great interpreters are those who find other points of views and could decide how it should be performed. And for their technical difficulties, there is only one way to surpass it: PRACTICE!

The first etude is inspired by 2 things: 1. The poem by Indonesia's most prominent poet, Sapardi Djoko Damono, especially the phrase "Can you listen to the great silence that descends with the drops of the rain", and therefore the title of the Etude. 2. Pianistically it is modelled on Liszt concert etude "Waldesrauschen" with one substantial difference: the "accompaniment" figure changes in its rhythms everytime it changes figurations, therefore it never "falls down" together with the melody which is built on simple rhythms. It thus creates a strange polyrhythm between the melody and accompaniment and the listener will perceive, unlike Liszt's, two things happening independently.

About the last etude, "Ritual Dance" from my opera MENDADAK KAYA which I just finished, I paste here my email a few days ago to the dedicatee of the piece, Japanese pianist Kazuha Nakahara.

Hi Kaz!

After about one year of promise (or more? Ah, it was after your performance of my other Etudes, right? That was 2010, if I am not mistaken) here is "your" Etude. I wrote half of it many months ago but then got stuck (and had to do something else which I forgot what), and when I wrote my last opera I took it and used the whole material for the opera!

It is a bit more than one and a half minutes, and I believe the last 30 seconds or so are quite (or terribly) difficult. Very sorry about that, hehe... but that's what etudes are for, right? Anyway, I hope this (as my other etudes) serves for technical education (esp. in polyrhythms) as well as concert pieces.

Now, I will have to ask your permission to give the world premiere of this. I am performing my Etudes together with Ligeti's (book I & II) on February 12th in Galicia, and since I thought this is just the right opportunity to premiere it, I'd do it. And then there are already several performances, next time will be Rotterdam (in the hall of the conservatory) in April, again my Etudes will be paired with the Ligetis.

The score of my 6 Etudes will also be released next month, as well as being available to be bought at my application (Ananda Sukarlan) on iPad.

So, hope you like it! It has no "nuances" or colours whatever, so very different from Chopin's, eh? It's just a game of rhythms. Oh, and it is only on the white keys! Only the beginning 5 bars have an air of mystery (a rather freaky one, I must say), and if you are playing on a piano that has only 2 pedals one can always hold the l.h. and try to get around with the jumps at the r.h, still with strictness of rhythm (the fermatas are only valid for the silences, but when there are notes, they have to be played as rhythmical as poss).

Have a nice time torturing yourself!

Ciao
AS

Get a date by watching my operas

Do you know the easiest way to get a partner,at least for tonight? According to the statistics, the most potential places to get a date are: 1. in a painting gallery/museum. 2. in a concert hall, mostly at opera or ballet performances. In any case, avoid noisy places. Both places I mentioned are ideal: quiet and intimate, and people look pretty since they dress up.

I would be the happiest person on earth if one comes to me with his/her partner and say: "we met, and fell in love, at your opera (or concert) performance". And I tell you a secret: one of the purposes of the performance in Jakarta of our recent Java New Year Concert was exactly that. Remember that there were two operas back to back? Now I still haven't got the end results on who got a partner in that event, but here's the point.
You see, the best way is to talk to another person who came alone during the intermission, and if you are a shy person, well, there's always the easy conversation material: what do you think of the first half? Did you get the story and its twists? Did you like it? What do you think of the singers? Which aria do you like best (or hate the most)? And then, the usual "hi, my name's .." (things would be more perfect if it were Bond, James Bond)

"Normal" operas are usually in 2 or 3 acts, with one break in the middle. But that would be too "heavy" for the New Year Concert where in some cases a whole family came to watch (as well as singles!). So I gathered that putting 2 operas in one show would be a good idea. People watch 1 opera, have a break, and then see the next opera. In this case it's even perfect: during the intermission one can already talk about a whole opera. Of course both operas should be completely different, though they have a lot in common: both are written, composed and directed by the same people (Putu Wijaya, me and Chendra Panatan respectively), both are of the "funny" genre, and both have "same sex" singers (and therefore there is also a common theme: one of the characters in each opera is desperate to get laid, and asks his/her fellow protagonist for advice! In "The Real Man" it is her mom, and in "Instantly Rich" it's the witchdoctor; nothing can be so further opposed,eh). And we did give ample time during the break to get people socialize.

Yes, I am a naughty, naughty boy. But I do like watching people know each other and then fall in love. Don't you?

Well there is a reason behind my naughtiness. As written in Plato's "Symposium", both love and artistic inspiration have something in common: they are both "divine madness". Both are not logic since they can strike you wherever and whenever therefore they can be categorized as "madness", but a divine one. And then Sigmund Freud went further to say that any human creativity and artistic ideas are in fact just a transformation of our (sometimes distorted) sex drive.

And now just read all the libretto of any existing opera on this planet, and check the underlying theme. Now you understand, right? The real motif, or even leitmotif is not the notes. It's the three-letter word.

Don't know who, don't know why

This entry is a statement on behalf of all people in my building, the Ananda Sukarlan Center, and of the Indonesian Classical Music Foundation (YMSI) whose office is there too.

Last week for a few days suddenly a flock of people came to our office to ask for reimbursement of a cancelled concert .. but not a classical music one! It's the cancellation of the visit to Indonesia of a Korean boyband, CN Blue. Apparently the Event Organizer, one called "Starlight Management" has put our address as their office. It was stated in their website (not available anymore) and on the tickets. Now that the show has been cancelled they dismantled everything to make themselves inaccessible to hundreds (or thousands) of those who've bought the "tickets" and want their money back. They don't answer the phone and even their website is down. Fortunately after coming to our building people understood that we, all of us who are at the Ananda Sukarlan Center, know NOTHING about them and are only aware that we are being used by Starlight to cheat the public. We have been told that many people are reporting this to the Consumers Foundation (Yayasan Lembaga konsumen Indonesia) and even to the police, and we told them to go ahead, since we at the Ananda Sukarlan Center are also victims of their hoax. Not financially, but they are using my name, my office and my foundation to back up their "plan", and this whole thing do disturb us in the midst of our preparation of our Java New Year Concerts.

Yesterday the whole story and its investigation by the Trans TV was broadcast on their channel, you can see it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAiiqI0WcbI . The person talking on the phone was Chendra Panatan, my manager and the director of Ananda Sukarlan Center, not me, by the way. If you want to have an English translation, please click the "cc" button on that video.

Now that I am stating about this hoax, I would also like to clarify other things. Our office and foundation doesn't finance anything that is not stated at our website or facebook. Our foundation is not a big and bombastic one, we focus on small things and do it honestly. Greatness, for me, is making ourselves and things around us better, doing small things in a great way. I don't want to change the world! We give musicaleducation to children who are less priviliged and few scholarships, and we are thankful to some donators. We admit, we do need to market ourselves better, not to get fame and acclaimed for our small achievement, but in case of a hoax like now, people should know our foundation and our very clean reputation. Our next authentic event is the JAVA NEW YEAR CONCERTS, and we have done that event for the 7th year now. It doesn't involve thousands of people and we don't sell expensive tickets. It is meant for those who really love classical music, and our ambition doesn't go beyond that (unfortunately). This year is very special for us, since we are doing it in 3 cities: Jakarta (Jan.8), Surabaya (Jan.13) and Bandung (Jan.15). We are grateful for the collaboration with Amadeus Enterprise of Surabaya (who also organized the National Vocal Competition and therefore we could get the winners, certainly the best Indonesian classical vocalists of today to perform in these events) and Bandung International Music Academy. If you want to know more about it, please check http://www.facebook.com/events/321042434575881

Do NOT think that the world of (classical) music in Indonesia is something very clean, no no, it's the ugly business of beautiful music. A number of people have put the status "Dr." or PhD in music without being one, and that's just an example. I might be the most badly bruised musician in Indonesia. My music has been pirated and used without my permission (oops sorry, I should say a couple of them indeed asked for permission, but after Chendra caught them red-handed). Not only my music: an article from this very blog has been published in a major newspaper in Indonesia under a different name -- and yes, translated in Indonesian, therefore it couldn't be categorized as plagiarism. And now just my name, not my work, is used. And this case of using my name is not the first time that it happened, but since this very moment those who do anything of this kind will have the honour of being mentioned by me in my facebook and twitter account. Enough of being a good boy, I am now defending myself clearly, since my trust & kindness has been badly abused by some people.

I would like to express my deepest sympathy to those who have been cheated by Starlight Management. It is a highly irresponsible and insensitive act, and I obviously condemn it. If there is anything me or any staff of the Ananda Sukarlan Center could help, please just let me know by tweeting me at @anandasukarlan . I, myself, feel cheated and am on your side, so I'd be more than glad to help.

Know thyself

I was so exhausted last night at 3 a.m., and it was too cold (and I was too lazy) to put on my coat to take a walk outside, so I stayed in bed with my laptop, browsing ("stalking" is a more appropriate word) other people's facebook and twitter. And so I realized why I have written so much music. There are people who spend hours, days, weeks and months of their lives playing those games such as FarmVille, Texas HoldemPoker, errr... what else? Oh yes, that Social Sims thing. And then other people spend their spare time doing sudoku and crossword puzzles. Well, my game is made of notes. As I have always said about the beginning of my pianistic interest when I was around 4 or 5 that I considered piano as a toy, so do I with notes. Writing polyphony for me is like doing a crossword puzzle. Setting words into music is like doing a sudoku. And I do it everywhere: on trains, planes, at home, on holidays ... and even in the midst of a big project like writing operas.

Writing big pieces means that one has to obey the big structural plan, which means less freedom in composing for weeks and sometimes months. Of course one can change part of the plan during its execution, but again one designs a rule, not so different than a map, and gotta stick to it. After a while one loses the fun of being creative and free. While writing short piano pieces (or other instruments) or vocal music based on poems doesn't need a real plan. A simple structure, yes, but then one immediately execute it and finish it in a few hours or less. And sometimes I know how it sounds as a whole so I don't need to plan anything, I just write the notes....

...like what I discovered about my own songs based on poems by Nanang Suryadi, whose tweets I follow. Just before I started to write this blog entry I browsed my archives, and realized that I have done 7, yes seven, songs based on his poems! And I thought I had done only 3 or 4 at the most. Some of them are very short poems, and therefore they were done very quickly in a flash of mind, so I forget them very quickly too. Just try to do something on a train, and when you arrive you get to be introduced to the people who pick you up at the station, eat and gossip around with a bunch of new acquaintances ... and you will forget what you did on the train. And this doesn't happen only with the short poems of Nanang Suryadi, I also "discovered" my own songs based on that lady champ of very short poems Medy Loekito and even one of Walt Whitman who normally didn't write short poems.

When I said that I know how the music sounds as a whole I refer to my short pieces, a maximum of 3 minutes or so. Now, do you know that people like Mozart could conceive A WHOLE SYMPHONY in one flash? And I wouldn't be surprised if he could conceive a whole opera as well. That is amazing, I know, but in fact it should not be that mind blowing. I mean, what's the difference of 3 minutes and half an hour, if we consider perceiving music is like dreaming: a long dream with a complicated plot can occur for just 1 second. Which means that time is subsituted by space.

It shouldn't be that amazing ... but why was there only one Mozart?

Isn't it (suddenly) rich? Are we a pair?

Now that my opera MENDADAK KAYA ("Suddenly Rich") is almost finished less than 2 months before its premiere, I dare to write my thoughts about it. Unintentionally it sounds much more "masculine" than Laki-Laki Sejati. Of course there are melancholic parts especially when Alung, the guy who visited the witchdoctor to ask for wealth, realized that he wasn't as happy as when he was poor. But mostly it has very strong rhythmic elements, and I (over?)exploited the "rap" influence throughout the piece.

I have been fascinated how composers "steal" foreign elements outside himself and transformed it into his own. As for rap, Sir Michael Tippett has done it in his last opera, "New Year", and what you hear there is just Tippett. You sort of know that it's taken from rap, but it's become so Tippett. I hope I succeeded in stealing rap into my own music in my opera.

The piano part is surprisingly (even for me) virtuosic. Lots of notes and quite thick. In fact I am toying the idea of taking the whole overture and extend it (doesn't need much more, though!) into an Etude, most probably my 6th etude. The score of the opera will be more than 60 pages because of those notes on the piano. Influences come from Stravinsky, Ligeti and even some Philip Glass creeped in.

I am using, in some parts, a new mode which I am deeply attracted to these days which is a mix of lydian and mixolydian mode. So it's a whole tone from the third to the fourth note AND another whole tone from the last note back to the tonic (which means a half tone from the 6th to the 7th note). It sounds very peculiar, sort of oriental but weird. I use it when the witchdoctor is being possessed, or exorcised perhaps.

Anyway, I wonder how the tenors Pharel J. Silaban and Adi "Didut" Nugroho are taking this. My repertoire for tenor is quite limited in fact, so it's another surprising fact that I am writing an opera for 2 tenors! I have known them for a while now, and it's a big stimulation for me that they are really nice people; both don't "act like tenors", so I am very much looking forward to working with them. There will be female dancers involved as well here, ad.lib. Much more acting is demanded in Mendadak Kaya compared to Laki-Laki Sejati and of course the choreography of the female dancers, so Chendra Panatan will have to work harder. This is not just a dialogue; the witchdoctor has to be "possessed" and Alung comes and goes as both a rich and poor, happy and unsatisfied person, and singing rap should involve a bit of dancing or at least a typical "rap" gesture. Oh God, forgive me for I have sinned ...

Just when I finish writing this Chendra appeared in my chat room. Apparently, two months before the show, tickets are selling quite well. (The "early bird" period just finished yesterday and apparently many tickets are sold) and he asked me about the possibility of a second performance. So, next Monday the 21st we will contact the hall (Auditorium of Bank Indonesia) and see if we can do another performance on the 9th of January, the day after the premiere. It will be a Monday, not a good day for a performance, but we'll see ...

Mendadak Kaya will be premiered at the Java New Year Concerts, Bank Indonesia Auditorium on January 8th, 4 p.m. together as a double-bill with my other opera Laki-Laki Sejati. It will be repeated in Bandung (hence we changed "Jakarta" into "Java" in the event's name which is already held for the 7th time now) on the 15th of January without Laki-Laki Sejati. Laki-Laki Sejati itself (without Mendadak Kaya) will be performed in Surabaya on January 13th. Tweet me at @anandasukarlan if you are confused with this ...and I'll give you a more complete info.

The Unsung (Romantic) Heroes

In my experiences as a judge in piano competitions in Indonesia (I can't say a lot, since there are NOT a lot of (decent) piano competitions in this country), I've always been struck by one thing: the similarity of repertoire chosen by the participants. Even in my own Ananda Sukarlan Award competition, where participants can choose ANY piece of a romantic composer with a maximum duration of 12 minutes, I bet you that 70%+ chose a Chopin's Ballade or Scherzo. Then comes some Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies (yeah, their popularity in Indonesia somehow are decreasing, dunno why), Mendelssohn Variation Serieuses and very few other ones.

Certainly that situation is due to the limited repertoires of the teachers of the participants. That makes competitions quite boring to watch, since we are listening to the same pieces again and again, and most of the time in similar manners (again, due to the limited knowledge of the teachers and their inability to allow freedom of interpretation to their students, they just "teach" the student how to "interpret"). Gone are the expectations of boldly discovering "new" pieces that no (Indonesian) man has heard before. And yes, in this era where music scores and recordings can be downloaded free from internet, things haven't changed. We come to see competitions to listen how the same pieces are "executed", sometimes in a brutal way. There's so much inbuilt inertia in musical education, concert programmes etc here in Indonesia that it's very difficult do stimulate interest in the so-called "lesser" composers.

Now, who are the other Romantic composers, apart from the ones we know: Schumann, Brahms, Liszt, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Tschaikovsky? Certainly the most "romantic" of all is Gustav Mahler, but since I am talking in relation to the piano (competition), I can mention a few. Perhaps these names will help in arousing your curiosity in those beautiful music still unheard in Indonesia.

Carl Czerny (born in Vienna but from a family of Czech origin, hence his name, 1791 - 1857) may be considered one of the victims of history. Known almost exclusively as a lesser composer of boring, ugly and didactic (are they really?) piano pieces today, he was in fact a highly sophisticated artist who wrote in almost every know genre of music, including symphonies, masses, string quartets and much more, and his opus number goes up to the 800s. Student of Beethoven, Salieri and Hummel and teacher of Liszt and dozens more piano virtuosos of the 19th century he was arguably a key figure in his days. His most famous piano piece now is the Variations on the theme by Rode, since it was recorded by the great Vladimir Horowitz, but there are many, many other interesting and elaborate piano pieces of this great composer.

If you think that the title "Transcendental Etudes" only belongs to Liszt, you are wrong. There was another composer who also wrote 12 etudes of the same name, and they are not worse than those of the great Hungarian. Of course they were written inspired by Liszt's, but that's not a reason that we should think that he is "only" a followeer. His name is Sergey Lyapunov. In fact if you mention his family name, one's mind would go to his more famous brother, Aleksander who was an influential mathematician. Sergey's (1859-1924) most important works are in fact for solo piano. Himself a gifted pianist who concertized in Russia and Europe, his piano writing shows mastery of the instrument and a complete understanding of the piano's musical and technical capabilities. His finest works display considerable melodic gifts and, in its effective exploitation of the instrument's timbral subtleties, compares favorably with those of Rachmaninov, Scriabin, and Balakirev. As an orchestral composer, Liapunov wrote expertly in the style of colorful and imaginative orchestration that characterizes the works of the nationalist composers of his period. One hears that Liapunov had a voice of his own.

Now, have you ever heard of Sergey Taneyev's Prelude & Fugue in G# minor, op. 29? That's a great piece, I've played it several times during my busy concert career many years ago. That piece taught me that even a most "academic" form like a fugue can be poignant, expressive and .. well .. romantic. Taneyev (1865-1915) was an important Russian pianist, educator, and composer. Although he wrote a large quantity of keyboard, orchestral, vocal, and chamber music, he is known today primarily as the teacher of Scriabin, Rachmaninov, and Glière. As a young man, Taneyev made his first impact as a pianist, giving the first Russian performance of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto, and the Russian premieres of all of Tchaikovsky's other works for piano and orchestra. For many years, Taneyev's teaching and administrative duties at the Moscow Conservatory prevented him from touring as a performer, but later in his life, he resumed his career as a pianist, particularly in chamber music. He was indeed a not-so-prolific composer due to his perfectionist mentality, but what he has written are mostly of very high artistic quality.

Apart from those 3 names I mentioned above, you should check these names too: Sigismond Thalberg, Moritz Moszkovski, Ignace Jan Paderewski (he was the Prime Minister of Poland, for God's sake!) ... and your curiosity will lead to hundreds of other names. And now, you can start to pick your pieces for the Ananda Sukarlan Award - BIMA International Piano Competition next year. Be innovative, be original and be creative, ok? Good luck!