Andy's Pick of the Year !

It's almost the end of the year. Although this year ends with the unlucky number 13, I must say that it's not been a bad year at all. With the things that I absorbed this year, there were some really inspiring works of art. So, here's my pick of the year 2013. .............................................................................................................................................. This year is especially fruitful for me in consuming great writings by Indonesian writers. Of course Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet and Julius Caesar, Ovid's Metamorphosis and Plato's Symposium still remain my "bible", keeping them beside my bed the whole year, but for the new ones, I should pick my favorites of this year (the order is random, neither alphabetical nor a ranking of what I think is the best since it's difficult to say which one is better than the other) : Leila S. Chudori : Pulang , Budiman Sudjatmiko : Anak-anak Revolusi , Laksmi Pamuntjak : Amba , Okky Mandasari : Pasung Jiwa , and I enjoy so much the collection of Fira Basuki's tweets in her book "140 karakter". .............................................................................................................................................. The only foreign book that impressed me deeply this year is Paolo Coelho's Manuscript Found in Acra. I must admit that I haven't read that many books in other languages this year, I dunno why. .............................................................................................................................................. In classical music, although we could claim that technology has made it possible to listen to things almost immediately, I just heard recently some pieces written a few years ago, due to the inavailability of the recording on CDs. In fact, I heard them first through youtube. Those that have moved me deeply this year include : John Williams' Cello Concerto (from the 1990s !), Andre Previn's Harp Concerto (from 2007) and Lera Auerbach's "Icarus". The first two have been my favorites all my life, and am so glad that in their old ages (Williams is 81 and Previn is 84 and now quite frail) they remain so prolific in their musical productions. Lera Auerbach is a new discovery for me, I befriended her through facebook and have always listened to all her music posted in her facebook.The really new ones written this year I should mention Robert Zuidam's Bosch Requiem and Santiago Lanchares' 3 pieces from "Castor & Pollux" for orchestra (the latter is the only one that I heard through the radio at the moment of its premiere last November). .............................................................................................................................................. Of course I am really delighted that pianist Henoch Kristianto has released a CD of many of my piano music; it's been a highlight for me this year. I would certainly pick that CD for the high quality of PERFORMANCE, but with the music, I wish I could produce at least 10% of artistry of those composers mentione above. My music (especially the 6 numbers of Rapsodia Nusantara) is not easy at all, and I must admit, sometimes so unpianistic, but Henoch's playing was just admirable. I am glad that the whole CD is now also available on iTunes, and both the CD and the iTunes is enjoying a good selling. If you wanna have it through iTunes (which is much cheaper than the CD, almost 50%, but you can't read my amusing program notes. Oh well, mostly they are taken from this blog anyway) the link is : http://itunes.apple.com/album/rapsodia . .............................................................................................................................................. Movies ? Well, I don't really like Hollywood movies, but I could mention Richard Linklater's Before Midnight, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and of course as a faithful Trekkie I should mention the last Star Trek : Into Darkness (my God, Benedict Cumberbatch's acting is so impressive! He should do some Shakespeare!). Anyway, I am not a movie freak, so I should limit my movie pick into just 3. .............................................................................................................................................. This might be my last entry of this blog this year, since starting the 26th I will be busy in preparing the Jakarta New Year Concert 2014, which will take place on January 5th, 2014. I am performing on the piano in the first half, and will conduct the Nusantara Symphony Orchestra in the second half. I am excited to accompany the best young Indonesian soloists of today; they are all under 20 years of age. They are : violinist Amadeus Giovani Biga, pianist Randy Ryan (winner of Ananda Sukarlan Award Int'l Piano Competition 2012) and vocalists Nikodemus Lukas and Isyana Sarasvati (both winners in different categories of Kompetisi Tembang Puitik Ananda Sukarlan voice competition). In fact, the theme of the concert this time is JUVENUM, and not only the soloists are young, but the music is about youth as well. To end this entry with a light spirit, let me invite you to enjoy one of my last pieces, the short n humorous piece with a very loooong title (you can check my last entry in this blog). Here's the link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c-32i6fOqQ. I am very much looking forward for more great artistic creations in 2014 !

MOZART MEANDERING THROUGH JAVA BEFORE BUMPING INTO BEETHOVEN IN BOSTON

These last few days we are having so much fun preparing for the concert in Jakarta with some woodwind principals of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The original plan was a wind quintet with them, but the flutist & clarinetist had to cancel their trip, so the organizer had to find 2 substitutes. We premiered (well, it wasn't the official world premiere, it was a "teaser" so to say) yesterday at the American Cultural Center "@atamaerica" the piece I wrote, commissioned for this event, and the title was a result of the brainstorming among all of us: me and the Boston guys, just before that sneak peak event at @atamerica. At last we corrected the very long title (even longer if you consider the piece is only 3 minutes long!) into MOZART MEANDERING THROUGH JAVA BEFORE BUMPING INTO BEETHOVEN IN BOSTON. The piece was written very quickly, around 2 days in November : one was on the airplane from Jakarta back to Spain, and another day already home in Cantabria (see my entry last month on November 19th). It's dedicated to the players who premiered it : Katie Zagorski (flute), John Ferrillo (oboe), Erin Svoboda (clarinet), Richard Svoboda (bassoon, father of Erin), James Sommerville (horn) ... and myself ! Thanks to David Svoboda (the nephew of Richard) who commissioned me to do it. I certainly didn't regret writing it, although I was given very short time. Well, my fault. I set my own deadline, since in fact I could just submit the piece a few days before they arrived to Jakarta, and knowing that they are such FUN-tastic players that they could learn and understand the piece very quickly. However, I always would like to give any piece at least 1 month ahead to the players, if possible (this wouldn't be possible in cases like writing music for films, where I had to write the music TONIGHT and give it to the musicians TOMORROW to be recorded THE DAY AFTER). And since the idea of a new piece came up around 6 weeks before the premiere, then .. well, that was what happened. Anyway, the piece is a kind of polyphonic game between Mozart's themes, the West Javanese children folksong "Tokecang" and .. well, you'll hear Herr Beethoven approaching in the end :). ................................................................................................................................. .............

It was in fact a happy accident. I planned to write a "normal" piece; fun, but normal. But I was stuck when I needed a second theme, and time is the only thing I DIDN'T have at that moment! So I thought, well let's be a rather naughty and take a phrase from Mozart, and it should be a famous one. After stealing his symphony's theme, I thought that I should link it with a Javanese song, since those Boston guys are visiting here, so I took "Tokecang", a children folksong from West Java, which I also used in my Rapsodia Nusantara no. 2. And the game went on, stealing from other themes ! If you wanna test your musical knowledge, please check at youtube that looooong title, and see how many themes of other composers you can find. ................................................................................................................................. ............. Apart from the world premiere of that "Mozart" piece, the Boston players are playing 2 of my other pieces : Echo's Whisper (for oboe & piano), and Niobe Weeping while turning into stone (for french horn & piano). Like my other pieces for woodwind instruments and piano, they are all inspired from a (some) characters from Ovid's deeply moving Metamorphosis. The concert will be tomorrow (14th) and Sunday (15th). .............................................................................................................................................. People always ask me, why I love classical music so much. Well, I think any kind of love, if it's sincere and coming from the heart, is inexplicable. I haven't even asked that question to myself, and when people ask me that question, I gotta think ... and still don't have the answer. .............................................................................................................................................. But is it true that everything about music is just wonderful? Well, some people might think so. I tweeted a few days earlier: "If John Lennon imagined a world w/ no religions, countries etc., I just imagine a world w/ no DEADLINES n can take all the time to compose:( " . And some people replied, basically tweeting something like "do composers have deadlines?" . I thought it is quite obvious that we have deadlines all the time, but apparently it is not. Many don't realize that an artistic profession, like any other profession, has its stressful sides too. That "Mozart" piece mentioned above might sound fun 'n funky, but it wasn't so fun writing it being chased by a tight deadline! So, many people (yeah, many! There were about 10 tweets replying to me stating that disbelief of deadline for composers) think that the date of a release of a film can be comfortably postponed, and so do concerts, opening of an exhibition, world premieres .... But when it actually happens, imagine the mess of the hundreds or thousands of people who claim their money back !

Complete interview with David del Puerto & me, uncut

Last Monday the newspaper The Jakarta Globe published an interview by guitarrist John Paul that he did to David del Puerto and me during his visit to Madrid (see previous entry). It was as usual cut for the newspaper, but here is the complete interview, literally transcribed from his real time chat. I think it is important to hear the opinion of Spain's prominent composer about Indonesian music. .............................................................................................................................................. During my trip to Madrid recently to perform a concert with Ananda Sukarlan and other selected Indonesian musicians, I had the opportunity of working with David del Puerto, one of Spain’s most important composers today, in preparing to perform his Nocturno y Toccata, for solo guitar. David has composed a number of large works influenced by Indonesian music. His 2nd symphony Nusantara, was dedicated to Ananda Sukarlan. While in Madrid, I was also able to interview David and Ananda especially for The Jakarta Globe readers. .............................................................................................................................................. David del Puerto 1. Would you mind to tell us a little bit about your compositions which were inspired by Indonesian music? I love music from everywhere in the world and the musical culture of Indonesia is one of the most developed, not exactly the folk, but the traditional music. I have composed some big works that are quite entirely devoted to Indonesia such as my 2nd symphony called Nusantara, dedicated to Ananda Sukarlan. Indonesian elements are a strong influence not just in some of my compositions but in my compositional language in general. I am not an atonal composer. My lungs and my breath are modal, sometimes even tonal. The important thing about modalism is not just how the scales sound, but how they work and the understanding of this is important in creating modal music that sounds natural, so not just Indonesian pentatonic scales but also Indonesian culture is a central part of my musical language. .............................................................................................................................................. 2. The identity of the Spanish sound of the Spanish composers particularly of the 20th century is one of the most distinct. How would you advise today’s young Indonesian classical music composers in forging an Indonesian identity in their music? In the Avant-garde world there is the danger of forgetting the ethnic and folkloric sources of music. The Avant-garde was developed by countries which had a strong relationship with such sources in the 19th century. Any country that has not overpassed this status has to develop it now. Indonesia, Japan, Latin America or China has somewhat of the obligation to go through the same steps as France or Germany did in the 18th or 19th centuries. Classical music is not a closed world. Its material includes folkloric sources and this was true for the music of German composers of the 18th and 19th century. So if an Indonesian composer forgets that, then he will lose all the real roots of the way of thinking in regards to Indonesian artistic identity and he will become just a copy of the Germans, French or Italians. This is something that an artist needs to absolutely avoid. He has to find his way of developing from his country and his roots. Of course, he should not forget his studies, but he should not imitate. His point of reference could be his own roots, and the history of the classical music of the 20th century that has not followed the Avant-garde language. Assuming that we are speaking of Indonesian composers who consciously want to produce music that belongs to the long tradition of classical music, then in the simplest terms I would say one must learn from the past, but do not imitate. .............................................................................................................................................. 3. Would you mind to share with us your impression of the concert of the Indonesian diaspora in Madrid recently? It was for me a big, nice surprise. It is great to see how young musicians coming from such a distant country - with a strong and distinctive culture -, are fully involved in the performance of contemporary classical music, the art music of our time. It means that the seed of the musical creation is alive, so we can expect a great harvest in the immediate future. And furthermore, the contribution of the spirit of a rich and complex culture that has recently joined the adventure of classical music will be for sure of the greatest interest, both in interpretation and in composition. I think this event in Madrid was a true guarantee of future for the music, in which we can trust firmly. .............................................................................................................................................. Ananda Sukarlan .............................................................................................................................................. 1. What do you hope to achieve through this event? It’s a beginning where I hope to prove that we can show our quality in Europe. .............................................................................................................................................. 2. Why did you choose Grace, Ratna, Amelia and I? I have seen all of them play and I see potentials in all of you. I hope this is not a onetime project, and I do hope to invite more (Indonesian) musicians in the future. I chose you in particular because you are a guitarist and this is Spain. Also because, well, to be honest, I don’t know any other Indonesian guitarist in Europe. So that’s you in particular. .............................................................................................................................................. 3. The German minister of Arts is quoted as saying that spending on culture is not a subsidy but an investment in the future of our society. Do you agree with this? Of course! And it’s not just the future, it’s the present. .............................................................................................................................................. 4. What must our musicians, educators, corporate sector, government and Indonesian society in general do to improve classical music in general in Indonesia, the appreciation for it, and to forge this Indonesian classical music identity? To start, just one. Believe in ourselves. Many of us still believe that western music is better. Classical music started in Europe, but it no longer belongs only to Europe. The task of American musicians in establishing an American classical music identity was considerably easier than ours since Americans tend to be very proud of America. We don’t believe in our own musicians. The proof can be seen by low attendance at concerts by our own musicians. But try inviting a foreign musician and it will be much easier to sell the tickets. On the other hand, our musicians also don’t play enough music by Indonesian composers. After we believe in ourselves, then what we need is collaboration. Walt Whitman said, “A great nation is one that provides a great audience for its artists”. .............................................................................................................................................. 5. This question of Indonesian identity holds true in a lot of other aspects of Indonesian society. Yes, but we have an advantage over countries like the United States for example, where everything has come from outside. Americans were all immigrants, whereas Indonesians are all natives. So we do have an identity, and it can sound a bit Acehnese or Javanese, etc. .............................................................................................................................................. 6. I have an interesting point about natives. Would you say that any ethnic group that has been in a country for over 500 years or even millennia can be called native? Yes. In fact, I call the Chinese people in Indonesia as native. I’m against people who say “Oh, he’s Chinese” (condescendingly) because for me anybody who was born in Indonesia is a native. .............................................................................................................................................. 7. Why relate Indonesian arts to this long line of classical music that originated from Europe, why not just learn the Gamelan or Balinese dancing? What’s the point of going to Europe to study in a conservatory and of creating this whole intertwined idiom? Well, in my case it’s because that (classical music) is my passion. It’s like asking why are you in love with this girl instead of that girl? .............................................................................................................................................. 8. So it’s not mutually exclusive? No. I mean, I love gamelan and I love reading books but I don’t want to be a writer and I don’t want to play the gamelan. I want to play the piano. I love Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and gamelan simultaneously. But then I write my own music, having learnt from both of them. .............................................................................................................................................. 9. There seems to be a common misconception among people, parents and children alike, that one learns the arts in order to become an artist. Is this true? No. .............................................................................................................................................. 10. What do you think? Why should anyone or everyone learn the arts? The brain is divided in two parts, one is the logical part and the other is the illogical part. Using only the logical part creates imbalance and this can be seen in our imbalanced society. It’s all money-oriented with people selling weapons and creating wars, dirty politics, no spirituality because the part of the brain which includes spirituality, instinct, artistic values, including chaos is never used. .............................................................................................................................................. 11. What do you mean by spirituality though, since one might consider that in Indonesia we seem to be perhaps even to “spiritual”? Yes, even corruptors. They ask dukuns to santet, if you call that spiritual. .............................................................................................................................................. 12. So you might say that as a result of the imbalance, many decisions that should use logic are being made illogically since they never train that part of the mind? Yes! I mean corruption is basically illogical. One has lots of money and yet still needs more money from poor people.

Recent interview at L'Uomo Vogue magazine

This month (November), the Italian magazine L'Uomo Vogue features ASIA as their theme of the month, and they picked some figures from our continent. From Indonesia it was the pop singer Anggun, film star Raditya Dika and myself. They have asked the writer who happens to be my friend, Erza S.T. to write about Raditya and me, so he interviewed me through email. Naturally it was edited for the magazine, but here are my answers to his questions. This is not his complete interview, since some of the questions could be found in my previous entries in this blog, so I don't feel the need to repeat them again in this entry. .............................................................................................................................................. As musician and composer, do you think that Indonesia is better place to work compare Europe right now? What is the classical music scene like in Indonesia this present time? I answer those 2 questions since they are related : Yes, I think the future of classical music is in Asia (not only in Indonesia). This is not only due to the economic, political and cultural crisis that Europe is suffering, and therefore cutting subsidies for the arts (and those subsidies certainly will not come back when the crisis is over), but also because the Asian countries know better how to market the classical music for the audience. In the end, the generous government subsidies did more harm than good, since artists in Europe lived in a comfort zone, and were too lazy to come out of that. Also, we Asians are not bound by tradition, we can present it in a more innovative way without being criticized by the "puritans" and the music is somehow "filtered" and "tailored" for the audience, meaning that we don't feel "obliged" to present programs such as "the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven" but we know how to present them without being pedantic and academic without lessening its quality. When you go to a classical music concert in Indonesia, the majority, or at least half of the audience consists of young people, which is not the case with those in Europe. Also in my observation, instrumental playing techniques (at least in piano) is now way way more developed in many Asian countries than in Europe, proven by the many winners of international competitions coming from Asia. .............................................................................................................................................. What made you want to change from concert pianist to composing? To tell you the truth, my dream was always being a composer. But I studied piano (as any composer should study an instrument), enjoyed, learned and inspired by the music of Bach, Beethoven to Britten too much that I ended up playing them, and I became (in my opinion, rather too) successful as my career as a concert pianist. Since the year 2000 ahead, I started taking composition again and realized that that is my real passion of life. There is so much music inside me that needs to come out. .............................................................................................................................................. Tell us about your composition. It seems that are always elements of love, broken hearted, drama and pain. Are these elements that inspire you on creating a composition? Unfortunately, I realized that music (and therefore all arts) is a product of pain. The best music usually is written when one is in pain, and it alleviates the pain, it helps to heal the scars. .............................................................................................................................................. On the recent CIMB Niaga Bank opera gala 2013, we noticed that you finally created a full complete orchestra under Ananda Sukarlan Chamber Orchestra and becomes the conductor. What is the story behind it? Will conducting becomes your new career as well? The orchestra is in fact nothing new. The name is new, but what's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet ! And that's the case of the ASO. In fact, I could go back to 2008, when I needed an orchestra to perform my second cantata, LIBERTAS. It was a chamber orchestra without brass, with a huge choir, if you remember. So I gathered my friends and made an orchestra, without a name. I continued performing with mostly the same musicians during those years until my last orchestral piece, "ERSTWHILE - A Communion of Time" earlier this year. Still without a name, an organization, a patron, a fixed management. .............................................................................................................................................. Now that Indonesia Opera Society (IOS) needs me to conduct an orchestra, I called my musician friends again. But apparently that's not the only thing IOS needs. It needs A NAME !! And so, after talking with the IOS founder Erza S.T, with some musicians and other friends, we decided to call it Ananda Sukarlan Orchestra, just because those musicians know me and my music so well, and I have got used to conducting them. They know all the twists in my music, they know its weirdness, they know that when something sounds strange they should just play it again until they get the feeling and understand its strangeness. So, if there was something new with the event on September 12th, it is that ASO will play other people's music : Mozart, Strauss, Offenbach etc. And they premiered my new short piece for piano and orchestra, Wagner's Restless Nights. .............................................................................................................................................. What will I do with ASO? To be honest, I dunno the answer. The musicians keep on being freelance, they have expressed their availability with pleasure whenever I need them to perform. I think in the future I will do the same thing that I've been doing, the only thing I can do best in my life: writing music for them that they are eager to do. As they never disappoint me with their playing, I will try not to disappoint them with my music. I know my music is not the easiest to play, but I gotta give them music that is WORTH studying, rehearsing and performing. They don't do it for money ; no, in fact my music takes more time to study and rehearse, they could have played easier and more accessible music, so they could earn easy(er) money. I love them, and there is no greater reward for a composer than musical friends who accept me and my music as it is, and even then still love playing it. And conducting will not be my new career, my passion is in composing. .............................................................................................................................................. What is indonesian government position towards art these days? The central government? At the moment, hopeless. Our president likes to write cheap pop songs, and care more about that than the country. But we have a new jakarta governor, Joko Widodo, who although his favorite music is rock music, is willing to support all kinds of culture and arts, since now there is money due to the process of elimination of corruption in the Jakarta government. Artists (and in fact, all Jakarta inhabitants) love him. .............................................................................................................................................. You told me once about your fixation to Walt Whitman and Benjamin Britten. Are they your source of inspiration? What is it about them that makes you interested? That's difficult to answer. It's like asking "why do you fall in love with this person and not with that person". Somehow something about their art connect with me. In fact, I learned more from Sir Michael Tippett, but even Tippett himself told me that my music, and personality, resemble those of Britten. I should add: without his genius, of course. But I also read a bit of Shakespeare every day before I sleep, and nowadays play the music of Joseph Haydn at least half an hour every time before I practice the stuff I need for my concerts. .............................................................................................................................................. What brings you to live in Bilbao? What is the classical music scene there? How do you like it compare to Jakarta? It was because I worked with lots of Spanish musicians when I lived in Holland, so that I decided to move there in 1998. Somehow I am more productive there, I don't know why, perhaps it's the weather. I live in the suburbs, and I always, as a ritual, take a walk for 45-60 minutes during sunset there. That walk is always so beneficial, not only physically ; it refreshes but at the same time sorting out musical problems in my head. I cannot get that in Jakarta, due to the traffic and the inavailability of parks or even just open spaces to hang around. .............................................................................................................................................. As a pianist maestro and composer, you seems to have quite glamorous life and meeting all the high society everywhere. Is this the reality? As a pianist, yes, but as a composer it is perhaps the most boring life for most of the people on this planet : being alone with just either a pencil and music paper, or a computer with the Sibelius program used to type the notes. But it is a nice balance, since as a sufferer of Tourette and Asperger syndrome I need time to be with myself, and only with the music I can understand and analyze my deepest emotions. Very often I feel much lonelier in a crowd than being alone in bed writing music. It is ok if I am lonely by being alone, but if I am in a crowd (and mostly when I am performing) this loneliness become unbearable. It is a strange thing that I suffer from being lonely, but I enjoy it on the other hand. It's a kind of mental sadomasochistic attitude. This is another one of the reason that I cut many of my performing activities. While my brain cannot stop being creative (I'd rather to call it as such, than call it being obsessed), mentally I can't stand too much being in, or exposed to a crowd. Being a composer really helps in keeping me mentally sane. .............................................................................................................................................. What is happiness to you? Doing the thing which is my passion, and being with those I love. Money cannot buy my happiness, but if I cry, it's better in a (at least) 4-star hotel room than under the bridge during a storm. .............................................................................................................................................. What is music to you? It's my life saviour, since it has helped me go through lots of difficult moments. I can even say it's my religion. .............................................................................................................................................. How do you promote classical music as part as Indonesian culture when the government still consider that classical music is a western country art? Simple: I just don't involve the government! I do it myself. I founded, together with several friends, our Yayasan Musik Sastra Indonesia (Indonesian Classical Music Foundation), and thanks to private donations we have educated around 100 children by teaching them play instruments for free. They are classically trained, but the repertoire is a mix between all those Mozarts, Beethovens and the Indonesian folktunes that I arranged for them. You can check about us at www.anandasukarlancenter.com . .............................................................................................................................................. What is the most challenging part of your life as pianist and composer? I always wanted to be a 100% composer, but after many years, I gave up that hope. I am, (un?)fortunately still highly demanded as a pianist, and even sometimes as a conductor, so the biggest challenge now is to lead a double, sometimes triple life! When I was younger, I performed more than 50 concerts a year that it was practically impossible for me to compose, since other people's music kept on popping in my head everytime I wanted to write my own. Now I limit myself, and always force myself to have a few months a year without performing, even practising the piano, so I can clean up my head and let my music come out without any interference. .............................................................................................................................................. On recent interview, you mention about your life with tourette syndrome. How does this syndrome effect your life in music? I belong to both the Tourette AND Asperger syndrome (TS and AS) sufferer, although the Asperger part is quite light, and only appear seldomly. It is common to have both in different degrees, since they are related. Some people have only one, and some even both with the same degree. People with TS/AS tend to be introverted character even from a very early age, so we are not interested in getting in touch with the outside world. (to continue this, please check http://andystarblogger.blogspot.com.es/2013_05_01_archive.html ). .............................................................................................................................................. Last question: what is a perfect dinner with you? An early dinner just before sunset at a beach in Bali with friends talking about my favorite things in life. It would be better if those friends were Plato, Shakespeare, Stravinsky, Walt Whitman, Andy Warhol and Mohandas K. Gandhi all in one table :)

A relaxed 'n productive week

Woohoo, it's been more than 1 month since I blogged! Here I am, back home in the hills of Cantabria. Last week (the 10th of November) we did something which was quite new and unique for the Indonesian classical music scene : with the financial support of the Indonesian Embassy in Madrid and the BNI Bank in London, I gathered 4 Indonesian young musicians who are in their last years in their higher musical educations in Europe, and we played together in Madrid. So, 5 of us played under the "Diaspora" Project, at the "Amaniel" Conservatory of Music in Madrid in front of a packed hall. We didn't only play music. I introduced 2 of them (guitarrist John Paul and violinist Amelia Tionanda) to 2 Spanish composers, David del Puerto (John Paul played his Nocturne & Toccata) and Santiago Lanchares (Amelia and me played his 3 short pieces "Momentos") so they could meet and work together. The other Indonesians were Grace Petrona (violist) and flutist Ratna Indira. And then I played some interludes of Jesus Rueda. The 3 composers came to the concert, and of course that fact alone attracted much interest, since they are the most popular composers here of today. It was a unique event, both for Spain and for Indonesia's classical music world. I also played 2 of my Rapsodia Nusantara, and apparently no. 10 (the one based on the Balinese song JANGER) captured the audience's interest the most, as I made the piano sound like a Balinese gamelan. Our ambassador, the lovely Mme. Adityawidi Adiwoso also came, and I am so thankful to her, and to our attaché Mr. Theodorus Nugroho and others from the Embassy who share the same vision about promoting Indonesia through its classical music. And, we all had fun, at least I had with the young musicians, and young people always recharge my battery. .............................................................................................................................................. Back home, I have 12 days before leaving to Mexico for some lectures and masterclasses. I am supposed to start practising Poulenc's Sextet for piano and winds these 12 days, since I am gonna perform it with the wind players of the Boston Symphony Orchestra next December, but I found myself too lazy to practice. Apart from that, some things occured and they gave me excuses to write music. One, is that our Indonesian Classical Music Foundation (Yayasan Musik Sastra Indonesia) is going to make a fund-raising concert at the residence of one of our patrons, Mrs. Pia Alisjahbana, on December 15th. Since it's near Christmas, we'd call it a "Christmas Concert". Now, I gotta think of a X-mas-ish theme for this concert, so I decided to write a set of variations on "Silent Night". This piece will be auctioned during that concert, and the highest bidder will get his / her name (or the name of someone (s)he wishes to dedicate to) printed above the title, when the music is published. You know, just check the scores of Beethoven's or Haydn's Sonatas or even Chopin's Ballade, and you'll see the name of the sponsor or patron of those pieces. .............................................................................................................................................. While in Madrid last week, the guitarrist John Paul told me that he also will perform in a fund-raising concert in Jakarta for the poor people in the slum areas of Jakarta, and he invited me to come. It's a free concert, but of course we had to donate something. Now,  I honestly think I should focus on my own foundation, also working with poor people, so I told him that instead of donating money, I'd donate a piece, for the same purpose of my piece written for my foundation. He will perform the piece together with the soprano Jessica Josephine Januar (nice initials, eh, that triple J) and hope someone would pay for this piece, which then the money would be destined to those people who need it. This piece would make a nice pair with my older piece for soprano and guitar, Twilite : By the Seaside. ..............................................................................................................................................   While the "Silent Night" Variations (I might change the title into something more fancy) took me a few days to compose, John Paul's piece was written almost instantaneously. I was coincidentally reading my book of Walt Whitman's short poems, and I stumbled (again) on a beautiful love poem, To a Stranger, and music just popped out from it. I remember last month I also made music from another Whitman short poem, O you whom I often and silently come, also from the same collection of poems. It was written for Nikodemus Lukas, the junior male voice winner of the national voice competition "Tembang Puitik Ananda Sukarlan" this year. He's gonna record a CD with many songs of mine, with me on the piano. Both Whitman poems were so powerful that I felt I didn't have to invent the music, the combination of words already produced the music itself. And I didn't even remember anything while writing them, it was like having sex : you just enjoy it and suddenly it's over. And I even wrote both of them in bed, so the comparison with sex is more appropriate, eh? Whitman's poems have that scary seductive power on you. If they were real people, I'd already have children with all of them. ..............................................................................................................................................    Ah I also finished my own Piano Sextet that I started on the plane coming back to Spain from Jakarta, a few days before our fun Madrid concert, which will be premiered with my Boston Symphony friends. It's a short humorous piece, a kind of Rapsodia Nusantara but for Sextet, using a theme of a Sundanese folksong coupled with Mozart's. Which ones, I'm not gonna tell you for now. The title is longer than the piece : Mozart's Transit in Java before leaving to Boston to meet Beethoven. And in fact, before starting the Sextet on the plane, I wrote a short piano piece for the birthday present of Lina Chan, a good friend of mine in Jakarta. The motif of this piece is based on her name: LINA (La(A)-B-G-A), and it has a very different character than my Sextet. It's amazing for myself to realize that 2 pieces, written only separated by a dinner, can have such different character. Her birthday is on November 10th, so I emailed Chendra my manager after I landed and asked him to give the piece to Lina right on the 10th. The piece took its character from a poem by Lord Byron, She Walks in Beauty, like the Night, which I read while waiting for boarding the plane. And it fits Lina, since she's a beautiful lady. You are what you eat, but apparently you are also what you read. So, not a bad month after all. .............................................................................................................................................. If you wanna come to our concert with the Boston Symphony friends, please just contact my manager, Chendra, at ycep@yahoo.com or +62 818 891038. The concert is on the 14th of December, and apart from the Poulenc sextet and the premiere of mine, we will do some duos and trios of my music which are based on the book "Metamorphosis" by Ovid, such as Rescuing Ariadne (flute and piano) and Niobe Weeping, while turning into Stone (french horn and piano). You can tweet me at @anandasukarlan if you wanna know more about this concert (or about anything else of my life!).

Virto .. virtuo.. what? (Thoughts on development of pianistic techniques)

The last few days have been grueling for me, practising my Rapsodias, some of them I've never played before. No no, not because I feel "examined" by the young pianists who are coming to my concert next Sunday who, most of them, have played or studied at least one Rapsodia of mine. They should not expect the composer to be the best interpreter of his own works, especially if we talk about the virtuosity (oh, oh, what an excuse eh, some of you might be thinking right now). We composers usually are too lazy to practice our own pieces, I personally feel much more responsibility in playing other people's work, not because they aren't mine, but because I always admire them more than my works. And I don't think this is due to the fact that the neighbour's grass is greener (except if your neighbour put lots of sh*t to fertilize it!), but because I always learn a lot from those works of Haydn, Rachmaninov, Busoni etc. They inspire me. The only thing I learned from studying my own pieces is what NOT to do in my next pieces :( .............................................................................................................................................. I have heard incredible performances by young(er) people on my Rapsodia, or other works of mine. And I haven't got used to Henoch Kristianto's new CD of my works, it is, for me, still admirable. Indeed, their virtuosity is stunning. But is that so unusual these days? Perhaps not. ............................................................................................................................................ The overall level of technical proficiency in instrumental playing, especially on the piano, has increased steadily over time. Many pianists and piano teachers friends of mine have noted the phenomenon, which is not unlike what happens in sports. Records keep being broken, barriers are renewed all the time. Something similar has long been occurring with pianists. And in the last decade or so the growth of technical proficiency has seemed exponential. ............................................................................................................................................ What long-term effect this trend will have on the field is not clear. Unlike in Asia, especially Indonesia where audience is growing, classical music in Europe is facing its challenges, including declining appreciation among the general (especially young) public, and not all segments of the audience are noticing the breakthrough in technical accomplishment that is apparent to insiders: pianists, concert presenters and piano freaks. Because so many pianists are so good, many concertgoers have simply come to expect that any soloist playing the Liszt or Tchaikovsky Concerto will be a phenomenal technician. A new level of technical excellence is expected of emerging pianists. I see it not just on the concert circuit but also at conservatories and colleges. In recent years, at my masterclasses or recital programs at some conservatories that I visited as guest teachers, I have repeatedly been struck by the sheer level of instrumental expertise that seems a given. Certainly a phenomenon is taking place. I remember back in 1990s when the movie “Shine,” about the mentally ill pianist David Helfgott, raised curiosity about Rachmaninov’s 3rd Piano Concerto, a Juilliard professor Jerome Lowenthal was asked by reporters whether this piece was as formidably difficult as the movie had suggested. He had two answers: “One was that this piece truly is terribly hard. Two was that all my 16-year-old students were playing it.” ............................................................................................................................................ What role do composers play in all this? A lot, I think. Along the history, composers always push at the boundaries: Someone creates a work of extraordinary difficulty that seems unplayable and then, simply because it exists, people rise to the occasion, and we find that it was indeed possible. But of course, it has to be the composers themselves first who had to prove it, unfortunately : at least Liszt and Busoni did. But has it always been like that? Nope, don't think so. Rachmaninov said about Vladimir Horowitz's playing of his 3rd concerto: "This is the way I always dreamed my concerto should be played, but I never expected to hear it that way on Earth" (I quote it from freerepublic.com, but apparently this statement appears in other pages too). Britten's excellent piano concerto, too, relied on Svjatoslav Richter for its formidable interpretation (by the way, do you know that the incredible recording that we know now was taken during a live performance?). It didn't take off that brilliantly when Britten himself premiered it. .............................................................................................................................................. I think a reason that pianists are getting technically stronger is that as in sports, young pianists are just learning to practice the craft better, becoming better conditioned and getting better results due to the toughness of competitions, and that pianists are rising to the challenges of new music that push boundaries. If we see it in historical context, the first several decades of the 20th century are considered a golden era by many piano buffs, a time when artistic imagination and musical richness were valued more than technical perfection. There were certainly pianists during that period who had exquisite, impressive technique, like Busoni and Rachmaninov. And white-hot virtuosos like the young Vladimir Horowitz wowed the public, but the audience tolerated a lot of playing that would be considered sloppy today. Listen to 1920s and ’30s recordings of the pianist Alfred Cortot, immensely respected in his day. He would probably not be admitted to any European conservatory now. Despite the refinement and élan in his playing, his recording of Chopin’s 24 études from the early 1930s is, by today’s standards, littered with clinkers. These days playing the Chopin études with comfort is practically a basic requirement for passing the first round of any competition. ............................................................................................................................................ There is a danger in pursuing perfection. After Van Cliburn won the 1958 Tchaikovsky Competition and became a household name, every young pianist saw competitions as the route to fame and success. A new generation worked tirelessly to achieve technical flawlessness. Critics found that many of these young pianists had “competition chops” but not much else to offer. During every era of the piano there were players who were superb artists with more on their minds than dazzling virtuosity. You might divide pianists into two basic groups: those who have the technique to play anything and those who have all the technique they need, thank you, to play the music that is meaningful to them.And now, since only in China itself there are more than 1 million young pianists who can play ALL the right notes, a new breed of pianists are searching something new. A new expressivity, a new kind of artistry, and a new kind of REPERTOIRE. The fact that they are all active right now suggests that a new level of conquering the piano is taking place. You could argue that younger performers are expanding the boundaries of technique in other instruments as well. But singers are the exception to this trend. One obvious reason is that while the instruments themselves have not changed that much in the last century, every voice is unique to a person and a body. Though there are certain time-tested principles, each singer must come to terms with his or her own voice.But let me tell you my opinions about singers later, after I finish my concert this Sunday. Right now, I have to struggle with those crazy jumping chords, strange arpeggios, weird running notes all modulating to places where no man have gone before. And unfortunately, all those problems are all created by me. As John Lennon put it, you might say I am a dreamer. But I'm not the only one.

Dedication

Now that Henoch Kristianto's CD of my piano music is released, not only with 6 of my Rapsies but also with my other pieces each dedicated to someone, most compliments that I got are not only how good they are performed, but how lucky are those people who received dedications of my pieces. Well, perhaps some of them are. This issue brings me back many years ago, and I almost forgot about it. When I was in the beginning of my career, it was very important for me to receive a dedication from prominent composers. And of course one can't go around pulling the composer's shirts shouting "dedicate a piece to me pleeeaazzze", it just gotta come from the composer himself, or if you are rich, you can commission a composer to write one for you, like all those royal families in the past or the Medici family, or patrons of the arts have been doing. Or you can commission a composer to write something ABOUT and FOR your loved ones. The process is exactly the same as asking a painter to paint a portrait of yourself or your love ones. ............................................................................................................................................ Playing "my" pieces written by them indeed boosted the number of audience, my reputation and therefore my career. The audience are sick of the same Beethovens n Chopins in concerts and they always welcome new GOOD pieces of music. Many of those pieces dedicated to me are a kind of "portrait" of the characteristic of my playing which the composers see in me and not in other pianists, and that I somehow inspired them to do it. Therefore, I can mention pieces by European composers which sound pretty "Indonesian" because of, and written for me, such as "Many Returns to Bali" by Per Norgaard (Denmark), Little Passacaglia by Peter Sculthorpe (Australia), Alio Modo by David del Puerto, Kecak Sonata by Jesus Rueda, and even that celebrated hyper-virtuosic piece Anandamania by Santiago Lanchares and many others. I am indeed grateful that I have contributed something to the development of modern pianistic techniques. Of course as a pianist those dedications come with a (huge) responsibility, since it is my task to introduce those pieces to the audience, otherwise it won't mean anything to have them. Those pieces were then accepted by other pianists who later perform them, but the birth of the piece, and how it gives the first impression, is very important and I am responsible for it. Of course the attraction of the pieces play a major role in its popularity ; the hyper-virtuosic and noisy Anandamania was so much high in demand that I've played it, usually together with the Ligeti Etudes, in more than 100 concerts and not only in Spain or even Europe. That piece alone, breaks the record of my most frequently performed piece, even more than my own ones (writing this, I now wonder if I ever played it in Indonesia). Some of those composers then wrote more pieces of music for me either for professional reasons or just as a "token of gratitude", and somehow I became "identified" with their piano music and received contracts to record their complete piano music on CD. Ah, some of them were so sweet to write (sometimes more than) a few notes dedicated to my daughter, Alicia Pirena, knowing that she used to play the piano too. Needless to say, it wasn't written for her virtuosity, but just an act of love. Usually those composers did it because they have spent some time at our home in Cantabria so they got to know her too. ............................................................................................................................................ But some of my "dedication" pieces are written not for musicians, but purely out of friendship or gratitude. Even if they are for musicians, it can be for just as simple as that, not for professional purposes. You see, I hate going to department stores, let alone shopping malls to buy presents for birthdays or weddings, and I prefer staying in bed writing music. If I give someone my music, there are some advantages for both of us: 1. usually that person knows, and likes, my music, so (s)he would like my present. 2. Now don't say that I am not spending anything. I do spend my time, and time is money. But with music, spending doesn't mean losing, and we both receive, since I don't lose anything. My time writing it usually gives me pleasure, or even therapeutic for my Tourette/Asperger syndrome when it's concurrent. 3. That "present" hopefully will be beneficial not to the receiver, but to other people, coz if it turns out to be nice it will be played by many others, therefore it is a good material either for educational or concert purposes. It is in fact a tradition in Europe to do it, perhaps the most celebrated is Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations, where each movement is dedicated, in his own words to "my friends pictured within", each variation being an affectionate portrayal of one of his circle of close acquaintances. Leonard Bernstein wrote his charming short piano pieces "Anniversaries", with each bearing a simple title "For ...", filling the blank with the name of the (nick)name of the dedicatee. In fact, it is those pieces which triggered me to do those "musical cards" which at the moment sums up to around 40+ short pieces. And 4. now it's helping to save the earth, since a musical score doesn't have to be printed on paper anymore, although poco a poco I am including them in my "Alicia's Piano Books". ............................................................................................................................................ If I write for someone, usually something in that person triggered me to write, although there are a few cases that I found a manuscript I wrote ages ago, and decided I'd dedicate it to someone, sometimes for some random reasons. And if I get the character of the piece formed in my head, I would need a concrete material for it to be developed, and usually I use their names/initials to make a motif. But hey, it doesn't have to be that way. It could be the subject of our conversation, or the place or situation where we had our chat. And I don't care who is that person, as long as (s)he means something for me. A good friend, or someone who's been kind to me. Instead of sending flowers after a dinner invitation, I could just write a musical card, if something we talked during dinner could inspire me. That piece of music usually is a record, or musical photograph of what was happening around the writing process. And if I want to express something so deep that words are not able to do, well, music is always the best means to do it. Music is so powerful to express things that can't be done in words, and mostly it's about the pain so intense inside. And in writing music for and about someone, usually I realize more things about myself in that piece. That's why the act of composing can be so scary, sometimes. Sometimes. ............................................................................................................................................ Ah yes, I am also playing some of those "dedicatorial pieces" in my concert next October 20th. Still not sure which ones, though. I am doing a survey through twitter about which are the favorite ones. You can tweet me at @anandasukarlan ... just let me know which ones you like me to do in the concert. If more people want the piece, certainly I'll play it/them. More info about the concert, and ticket reservations, please contact my manager Chendra at 0818 891038 or ycep@yahoo.com

The truth about the number 12+1

Yeah I don't even dare to write that number, but I should openly, honestly tell you that that number terrifies me, and have had (negative) effects on me. There is even a name for the fear of number 12+1, and that is TRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA. I suffer from it. I wanna write this entry after the correspondence with my pianist friend Henoch Kristianto whose CD of his interpretation of my Rapsodia Nusantara is just released and is the talk of the week at the moment, telling him that I was (and still not finished) writing both Rapsodia Nusantara no. 12 and no. 12A (I haven't made up my mind whether it will be numbered as such or 12+1). He wrote : 12A! Oh, come on, you believe that kind of stuffs? Hehe, why not even go with a horror theme for no 13? And I answered in my next email : About 12A, yes yes, I am very afraid of that number, 12+1 . And if Shakespeare, Arnold Schoenberg and even JESUS CHRIST fell upon it, why shouldn't I? ............................................................................................................................................ Well I'm gonna tell you the facts, the real facts of what happened with William Shakespeare & Arnold Schoenberg. I don't have to explain about Jesus Christ since we all know that that number originally came from him and his disciples, which made a total of 12+1, and one of them (Judas) betrayed him. With Shakespeare, suicide occurs an unlucky 13 times in his plays. If I still should give you some examples, the most famous ones occur in Romeo and Juliet where both Romeo and Juliet commit suicide, and also in Julius Caesar where both Cassius and Brutus die by consensual stabbing, as well as Brutus’ wife Portia. And WS, I am sure, was very conscious about this unlucky number when he wrote Romeo and Juliet, which is a love story that ended in failure. Here we go: ............................................................................................................................................ Do you know how old (or better rephrase it: how young) was Juliet when she fell in love with Romeo, and then committed suicide just a few days later? As the story occurs, Juliet was approaching her fourteenth birthday. She was born on "Lammas Eve at night" (August 1), so Juliet's birthday is July 31. Her birthday is "a fortnight hence", putting the action of the play in mid-July. So, she was 13. And notice the inversion of that number with her birth date. Her name is JULIET CAPULET. Check how many letters does it have. And in order of appearance, Juliet was the thirteenth character to appear on stage (ok, ok, she comes out together on stage with her nurse, but still...). Romeo referred (or called her name) 14 times, and the last time he did was when he was dying. So you can count how many times it was before he killed himself. Now those facts I wrote just from memory, there are more things that involve this unlucky number. ............................................................................................................................................ And to top it all off, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre burnt down in 1613 after a cannon shot set fire to it during a performance of Henry VIII. OK, that year was perhaps just coincidental, but still .... ............................................................................................................................................ With the composer Arnold Schoenberg, it was more terrifying. He himself knew that that number would kill him. Indeed, he was born on September 13th 1874 and died on July 13th, 1951. His triskaidekaphobia possibly began in 1908 with the composition of the thirteenth song of the song cycle Das Buch der Hängenden Gärten Op. 15. Moses und Aron was originally spelled Moses und Aaron, but when he realised this contained 13 letters, he changed it. According to friend Katia Mann, he feared he would die during a year that was a multiple of 13. He dreaded his 65th birthday in 1939 so much that a friend asked the composer and astrologer Dane Rudhyar to prepare Schoenberg's horoscope. Rudhyar did this and told Schoenberg that the year was dangerous, but not fatal. But in 1950, on his seventy-sixth birthday, his friend, mentor, and fellow composer and musician, Oskar Adler wrote Schoenberg a note warning him that the year was a critical one: 7 + 6 = 13. This stunned and depressed the composer, for up to that point he had only been wary of multiples of 13 and never considered adding the digits of his age. He died on Friday, 13 July 1951, shortly before midnight. Yup, Friday the 13th, 76 years of age. Schoenberg stayed in bed — sick, anxious and depressed all day. In a letter to Schoenberg's sister Ottilie, dated 4 August 1951, his wife Gertrud reported, "About a quarter to twelve I looked at the clock and said to myself: another quarter of an hour and then the worst is over. Then the doctor called me. Arnold's throat rattled twice, his heart gave a powerful beat and that was the end". Gertrud Schoenberg reported the next day in a telegram to her sister-in-law Ottilie that Arnold died at 11:45 pm. I took all these data and some exact quotes from his biography by Hans Stuckenschmidt. ............................................................................................................................................ So now you have my reason of not writing my 13th Rapsodia Nusantara. In fact, I've been writing two Rapsies at the same time, and since I like to write a set of variations for my rapsies whose numbers are a multiple of 4, BOTH Rapsy 12 and 12A are a set of variations, and both are based on just 1 folktune, just like the 4th Rapsy is based on the song Buka Pintu, and the 8th on O Inani Keke. And I've been enjoying writing both rapsies very much, since all the pianistic ideas that can't be valid for 1 Rapsy can be applied to the other Rapsy. I planned to write both just 2 weekends ago, thinking that I would need a few days or a maximum of 1 week to finish them, but apparently I am still working on them. It's already 10 days now. But things are going well. And yeah, there have been some small misfortunes happening in this year that ends with the unlucky number, but overall, I am happy and productive. One of the happiest moments of this year is, of course the release of this CD by Henoch. Those Rapsies sound as I never imagined they could sound Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBKjNO2fm50 . And I am excited to give a solo piano concert again for the Jakarta public after almost 3 years not doing so. Jakarta public? Well, I heard from Chendra my manager that piano lovers from all around Indonesia are already booking tickets for it. Put the date in your agenda: Sunday, October 20th at 4.30 p.m. at Aula Simfonia Jakarta. Yup, when it's over, you go out of the hall and you still can watch the nice sunset. That's why I am playing my light n sweet Sunset pieces too, apart from 6 numbers of Rapsodia Nusantara. Which ones? I still dunno. It's still more than 2 weeks from now.

Papers, papers, papers

I really dunno what to do with all this rubbish (read: my music). These days I've been unearthing loads of papers, scribbled with pencil, of all the music I wrote in the past. I remember once, in my polyphony class during my conservatory days, as usual we had to write a polyphonic piece as our homework for the week after. It was a 3-part fugue. My friends were complaining about writing one with a week deadline, while I handed out 10. Yup, TEN. And I told my professor to choose which one was the best, to be given a mark. He was surprised, baffled, irritated and amused at the same time, of course. And I kept on writing fugues, invenzioni and all those polyphonic rubbish whenever my brain is suffering from this crazy hyperactivity until this date, and most probably until I die. Now I usually finish a fugue in 3 voices (that's my favorite, though I wrote some up to in 5-voices, and once in 6-voices) in 1 hour, and even worse, I can take another piece of paper and write ANOTHER fugue, just after a break of having a cup of coffee or eating some chocolate. Or write a song, if I read a poem. Or any other piece of sh*t. Some (I must say, most) of them aren't that good, but I just don't wanna throw them away. And from those polyphonic homeworks, I have at least 100 pieces, from invenzioni, sinfonias, fugues, double fugues, canons, you name it. Anyway, this weekend I'm gonna sort them out and copy the ones I consider "ok" to "tolerable" neatly on the computer. What a nerd.

A short note to all winners, my colleagues

Just came back from Surabaya, after the exhilarating, exciting and inspiring National Vocal Competition Tembang Puitik Ananda Sukarlan (TPAS) for the whole weekend last week, organized as always by its initiator, Amadeus Performing Arts and its director Patrisna May Widuri. My impressions? Too much, too many to be written in words. Basically, I am more than happy to listen to all (yes, ALL) participants. Their vocal techniques are pretty accomplished. The only problems for some of them lie on their understanding of the music they sing, the interpretation and the grip for the style of the music. But each vocalist has something in them, and if I were obliged to write music for their voice, I know what kind of music suits for each and every one of them since they all have strong characters. As I always say, I can catch any elements in every artists in of all sorts and quality to inspire me. ............................................................................................................................................ But what's next, for those enthusiastic young vocalists, especially the "winners"? Well, I guess they should know that the last week's competition is the lightest, easiest thing they have done for their career, nothing compared to the real competition that awaits them now: the real life competition. It is right now that the real competition starts. Yes, of course all, or perhaps 99,9% of all musicians having a musical career today had gone through some kinda competition, whether it is purely as such, or auditions of some kind. While competitions are something normal in Europe, the Americas or already in many countries in Asia, it is still quite new in Indonesia, where we had, and still have the tradition of engaging artists based on family relations or friendships, not on objective qualities of the musician. For my new Violin Concerto to be premiered next month with the Nusantara Symphony Orchestra I had to hold an audition through youtube, and the winner was a young violinist of 17, Amadeus Giovani Biga who I didn't know at all before. I wouldn't be able to get his kind of quality among my relatives or friends. Many musicians are still weary, not to say afraid, to join one, and I even cannot think of a competition for instruments other than piano and voice here in Indonesia. Even some music teachers still prohibit their students to join one for being afraid of "losing". Well, if the only thing that matters is being the prizewinner, then I would discourage you to join one. Imagine, there will be only one, yes ONE winner among all the participants, no matter if there are 10 or 100 participants. What's the use, then? The answer is that being the first, absolute prize winner in a competition does not guarantee anything. Oh, then competitions are even more useless? Whazza diff between being the winner and the losers? Wait, wait. Read my thoughts further below and hope you'll understand my point. ............................................................................................................................................ TPAS hopefully would serve as the first step of their looong musical career journey upwards. Our previous (TPAS 2011) winners have gone to different directions, all upwards. Indah Pristanti (Senior Female winner) continues her voice studies in Vienna. Adi "Didut" Nugroho is enjoying his new career, not far from singing: becoming the conductor of the ITB University Choir, and still sings some times. Evelyn Merrelita stays in Surabaya, but is now the darling of our capital city; she's been invited several times to be a soloist by the Indonesia Opera Society, Nusantara Symphony Orchestra in Jakarta and all 3 of them have had the leading roles in my chamber operas. ............................................................................................................................................ But is it that nice 'n easy? Oh no, my dear. There is one thing that no competitions in the whole universe could do to filter the best musicians, and that is ATTITUDE. You can sing until all the windows break, you can move your fingers on the piano faster than the speed of light, you can win all the competitions on this planet and the others, but if your attitude is not exemplary, you won't make it as a musician. I will tell you the real truth: the more you become successful, the more "friends" you will have. Those "friends" will try to pull you down, since you are higher than them. They will stab you in your back, since that is where their position is: behind you. They laugh at you because you are different or outstanding, coz they want you to be the same as anybody else. They like to talk bad things about you, and if they can't find bad things, they will invent them, coz it comforts them, it soothes their worries. Remember : they don't hate you. They really really adore you, so much that they want to become you. It's called envy, and it comes from admiration, but a negative one. And you can defend yourselves from those things, my friends, with your attitude. The only way to eliminate your enemies is to make them your friends. Now, THAT you don't learn in ANY music schools on this planet. Remember, they consider you better than them from the musical point of view. But if you don't have a good attitude, you are definitely worse than them. As a human being. And in the end, that's what counts. Unfortunately, the most common mistake for upcoming young musicians is mingling with other people's business. You know why? Coz what people think or talk about you is NOT your business at all, it's THEIR business. So let them do their business, and you, my friends, yeah, you go on with your life. You, my friends, have a wonderful future ahead of you, having such big talents and coming from the richest country in the world which I am proud of. Show the world how great is Indonesian culture, and how you can give something that nobody else can give. You don't only share music in your life. "Behold, I do not give lectures or a little charity, When I give, I give myself. I exist as I am, that is enough" (Walt Whitman) ............................................................................................................................................ Winners of the TPAS 2013 are listed at https://www.facebook.com/groups/361289260607185/ . Congratulations not only to Isyana Sarasvati, Theodora Amabel Beatrice, Widhawan Aryo Praditha & Nikodemus Lukas Hariono who won 1st prizes in their respective categories, but to all participants. By daring to participate and challenge yourself, you are already a winner. At least for me, coz I'm like that too, and I'm proud to have you as my colleagues and friends.

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking

These last few days have been a great week in learning lessons for me. Life lessons. About love, about friendship ... and betrayals. It is known that for there to be betrayal, there would have to have been trust first. Everyone suffers some bad betrayals in their lifetime. The trick is not to let it destroy your trust in others when that happens. Don’t let them take that from you. Emotional pain is worse than physical pain, and the worst emotional pain, I think, there are two : unrequited love and betrayal. The scars are deeper, and they last longer. Betrayal is the thing never easy to handle and there is no right way to accept it. It was like being left alone in the desert without water or warmth .. by your good friend. And the more successful you are, the bigger the probability of being betrayed. In Indonesia, we have the saying : The wind blows harder in the heights. ............................................................................................................................................ These last 2 days I have been re-reading Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. A great work which I already put aside for so many years, giving way to my other Shakespeare favorites : A Midsummer Night's Dream or Romeo & Juliet. Julius Caesar is the perfect masterpiece dealing with betrayal, being murdered by his most loyal and trusted friend, Brutus. “For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel: Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him!" And of course those phrases which appear thrice, which should always remembered by all of us in this mortal life: "Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, And Brutus is an honourable man" . Grab the original speech, or browse it at google. You'll feel the power of repetition. It is perhaps the cleverest, and most powerful speech ever written in history. And alas, several times in my life I have forgotten it. ............................................................................................................................................ This little grey matter in my head has not only absorbed the entire Julius Caesar for the last few days. I've also re-read many poems of Walt Whitman, and one of them is Out of The Cradle Endlessly Rocking, which inspired me to doodle some notes which turned out to be a new, short piano piece with the same name. The poem describes a young boy’s awakening as a poet, mentored by nature and his own maturing consciousness. He watches a pair of birds nesting on the beach near his home, and marvels at their relationship to one another. One day the female bird fails to return. The male stays near the nest, calling for his lost mate. The male’s cries touch something in the boy, and he seems to be able to translate what the bird is saying. Brought to tears by the bird’s pathos, he asks nature to give him the one word “superior to all.” In the rustle of the ocean at his feet, he discerns the word “death,” which continues, along with the bird’s song, to have a presence in his poetry. I don't put any bird's song in my music, I just took these lines as the base of my inspiration : ........................................................................................................................................... O you singer, solitary, singing by yourself—projecting me; ................................................ O solitary me, listening—nevermore shall I cease perpetuating you; ................................. Never more shall I escape, never more the reverberations; ............................................. Never more the cries of unsatisfied love be absent from me, .......................................... Never again leave me to be the peaceful child I was before what there, in the night, ....... By the sea, under the yellow and sagging moon, ............................................................. The messenger there arous’d—the fire, the sweet hell within, ........................................... The unknown want, the destiny of me ............................................................... ........................................................................................................................................... And while I write the music, I discovered that the pain of unsatisfied love and betrayal feels the same. They even strike the same spot in our brain, I think. And as a person bearing Tourette & Asperger Syndrome, they both give the same effect in my emotional situation, which confuses my feelings. So, as I am baffled by my own feelings these days, I hope I can understand it clearer through my music. Or perhaps the listener would understand my feelings better.

Wagner, not Robert but much more complicated

Since I am a huge fan of Natalie Wood, you might think that I would write about Robert Wagner, her famous husband who is thought to be involved in the drowning of this incredibly beautiful actress. I was totally, madly in love with Natalie Wood in my teenage years, watching her in WestSide Story. I didn't care whether someone else dubbed her voice for her singing, I was just blindly in love. She was the symbol of perfection, every inch of her. I was in fact quite a fan of Robert Wagner too during his peak of fame, when you couldn't turn on the TV without seeing him in either It Takes a Thief, The Switch or Hart to Hart. But I was, obviously, pretty upset when things turned ugly with his involvement in the death of the fallen angel. ............................................................................................................................................... No, no, it's Richard I wanna talk about. This year (2013) is the 200th anniversary of the birth of this great composer. Great, sure, but also a megalomaniac anti-Semitic, extreme right-wing personality (how could one become a great artist and extremely right-winged at the same time?). Richard W. wrote an anonymous essay, Das Judentum in der Musik, arguing that Jews were ineligible to practise art. He later had the tract reissued under his own name. He abused Jews routinely, according to the diaries of his second wife, Cosima (who was the daughter of Franz Liszt), and based the devious characters of Mime and Beckmesser, in part at least, on caricatures of his least favourite Jews. ............................................................................................................................................... Richard died when his son, Siegfried was only 13. Siegfried Wagner (who was therefore the grandson of Liszt, the most macho of all composers in history who'd slept with hundreds, if not thousands of women) was gay or at least bisexual. He became the lover of the English composer Clement Harris for the rest of their lives. He later married a woman, and continued the Wagner tradition of defending the extreme right wing in Germany. Siegfried invited Hitler to Bayreuth in October 1923 and, after the following month's failed Munich putsch, supplied him in jail with home comforts and, it is said, with the paper on which he wrote Mein Kampf. Bayreuth during the Third Reich became a national shrine. All these, in spite of his declaration : "Art reaches us through the heart, and God gave hearts to all human beings." Following in his father’s footsteps, Siegfried Wagner was also a composer, but his operas, although popular during his lifetime, never entered the standard repertoire. In 1896 Siegfried began conducting at the Bayreuth Festival and from 1906-1930 was the festival’s sole artistic director. In Siegfried’s controversial 1930 staging of his father’s opera Tannhäuser, he boldly embellished several scenes with shirtless male teenagers. ............................................................................................................................................... Writing my Wagner's Restless Nights, commissioned by the Indonesia Opera Society to be premiered next September by the French pianist Frederic D'Oria-Nicolas and the Ananda Sukarlan Orchestra forced me to study his way of composing the motifs of Tannhauser and Ride of the Valkyries. The last time I did it with his music was during my student days in the conservatory in Den Haag, where I became passionately obsessed with his music for Tristan und Isolde. In this new piece of mine I did a rather complex polyphony of marrying both themes from the Ride and Tannhauser prelude. I realized then how he was so ahead of his time especially in his orchestrating methods, combining instruments which no man has done before, such as that heavenly Tannhauser prelude. I always thought that many of Wagner's music is "over-orchestrated", but studying these two works certainly changed my idea about his music. That's the manifestation of Walt Whitman's sayings: Simplicity is the glory of expression. It is simple, but Wagner used harmonies not used before. Ideas can only be developed fully when it is simple. It is the development which can be sophisticated. Sophisticated and simple can be at the same time. Anyway, writing this piece also made me to rethink Wagner's music since I totally made a new orchestration, which include a prominent piano part. The piano has never been Wagner's beloved instrument, so I have to be careful to make a kinda mutation from Wagner's musical seed, not to make a grotesque Frankenstein-ish monster out of it. Things can go terribly wrong!

That's What Friends Are For

Friends, real friends, apparently are not only there when we need them. My friends are also my source of inspiration. Many short pieces of mine are dedicated to my dearest friends, and mostly they are written very quickly in a burst of inspiration. Those pieces count as those which are the closest to my heart, besides the numerous pieces i wrote for my daughter Alicia Pirena. As I always say, music (at least mine) is a record, or a still photograph of things, events and people that have happened and crossed our path in real life. ............................................................................................................................................... I am excited by the project which my pianist friend Henoch Kristianto is doing now. As I wrote in my previous entry, he is recording my Rapsodia Nusantara pieces. For now he is working on 6 of them : nos. 2,3,4,5,6 and 10. All 6 of them would take 40 minutes of the CD approximately. When Henoch needed several "lighter" pieces to fill up this CD, i immediately thought of these pieces from the series of Alicia's Piano Books. I myself put them in "cycles" or groups. "5 Friends" are those which are using my friend's names or initials as the motif to be developed in the piece, while the character of each piece was determined by something that I saw, felt or wanted to evoke from that particular person. The Germanic system of naming the notes starts from A to G (yeah, we've got only 7 notes, so it couldn't go further). I then had to continue further with the alphabet as the notes go higher (although i sometimes used the note B for the letter H, as the Germans call it as such).And then some exceptions, such as D for the letter R for Re, E for the letter M for Mi, and E-flat for the letter S pronounced as Es, the German note for E-flat. ............................................................................................................................................... Another continuing cycle will be "Love Songs". I have written about some of the pieces in my earlier entry of this year, check this out : http://andystarblogger.blogspot.com/2013/05/is-music-really-food-of-love.html ............................................................................................................................................... My "Lullabies" are, in fact, the most truthful representation of what is sounding in my brain. What is sounding there, in fact, is the twinkling music box. Most of my music is a transformation of that music box. In fact, THE WHOLE WORLD for me is a music box. Obviously, the last few weeks have been an intense correspondence between Henoch and me. I'd like to paste here some lines from my emails to him concerning notes about some pieces, hopefully it would be useful for you who would like to play them too : ............................................................................................................................................... And about the rest of the pieces for the CD, you made a good point there! I think then the crucial ones are the 5 musical names, the lullabies, and at least 3 love songs (Unexpected Turns, Differences Unite & the Little Variations which was written for the film Romeo & Juliet). They also have varied technical difficulties, so pianists from all levels would enjoy it (the lullabies are quite easy). Those ones in Alicia's book are the ones written for piano, the rest of "dedicatorial" pieces are for different instruments. So there you have them, quite complete. If there is more time, the sunset pieces would be nice, but let's concentrate on the musical names, lullabies & the love songs first. ............................................................................................................................................... I then have to tell you some interpretative & corrections on those pieces : For Adam G : the beginning section is meant to sound like 2 music boxes : one (the LH) is very very distant, and the other (RH) very close to your ear. So pls make the RH quite "marcato" (In fact I wanna say "percussive", like a vibraphone or so), not lyrical. Bar 4, still use the una corda so it gives the effect of unclearness, and please just take it off when the tune suddenly appears in bar 5. As much pedal as poss, just change when it gets quite disturbing, or when the chord changes. And it should sound like a machine (although yeah, of course a kinda phrasing is inevitable, especially for someone as musical as you). The effect is kinda like a lullaby, but more hypnotizing. Bar 23, the LH is cut off by mistake in the published score, all those are in fact chords with an interval of 5th, so from the 1st chord they are : B-F# , G-D, A-E, F#-C#, B-F# . This piece sounds strange, yeah, but it's one of my favorite piece hehehe .. yup, I AM that strange .... ............................................................................................................................................... A Little Light Music on the name EDITH : I would like to have a clearer difference of tempo between the introduction (like a slow waltz) and the Allegretto con tenerezza. ............................................................................................................................................... Lullaby for Jessy : one note missing at bar 32 : RH plays an octave D (the lower line of bar 31 should end in D in bar 32). ............................................................................................................................................... Two corrections on "Differences Unite" : the point of the piece is that everytime LH plays 2, RH plays 3. So, in bar 9, 2nd beat, LH should just be 2, not a triplet. And bar 14, also 2nd beat, the LH should also be playing only 2 chords. ............................................................................................................................................... And it goes without saying that all the lullabies have the purpose, literally, to make people sleep. They are not meant to be played in a concert, but recording them is a perfect vehicle to listen to them. So if you doubt about the tempo, then remember one thing : the slower one is always the better. ............................................................................................................................................... I should one day write a piece on H-E-N-O-C-H , but for now you are the dedicatee of my longest and most complex piece for piano anyway hehehe ... ............................................................................................................................................... And as I wrote in my last entry, that last sentence wasn't just a wishful thought ..

Busy ... doing what?

It's been a busy month so far! Am trying to recapitulate what has happened since the Ananda Sukarlan Junior Award. ............................................................................................................................................... Immediately after the competition finished I at last managed to work with Willy Haryadi, my sound engineer, in editing & mixing my orchestral work ERSTWHILE. It was the first recording of my orchestra, the Ananda Sukarlan Orchestra, and I must say it doesn't sound bad. The orchestra consists of young but very enthusiastic and technically accomplished musicians. The recording is still now in a studio for its mastering process. ................................................................................................................................................ We also did an audition, through youtube, for violinists who I'd like to be the soloist for the premiere of my Violin Concerto. The winner is a very talented 17-year-old Amadeus Giovani Biga ; he played my solo violin piece Relationships which is a set of variations, done for a violin with scordatura on the G-string. Check his playing here, and I am sure you'd be as impressed as I was. I guess, with his age, he has experienced some kind of complicated relationships that inspired him to understand this piece :) . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QlfNte4TC8 . He will perform my Violin Concerto with myself conducting on October 28th this year, and I am working hard in finishing it. ................................................................................................................................................ Wait, wait ... working hard in finishing it? Yes, but I am sort of stuck. Instead, I have been writing some "occasional" pieces, hoping that some of those pieces would trigger me to come back to the violin concerto. Apart from finishing & revising all my chamber works for strings to be published next week (it's in printing process at the moment), I wrote very quickly several pieces for piano. That's how funny life is: I am always inspired to write pieces which are NOT obligatory (read: commissioned, or paid). Money apparently doesn't inspire me, the lack of it does! Two of those short piano pieces are based on initials, one is "Randy Ryan" of which you can read in my previous entry, and the other is called, funny enough, Not a fugue, No, but they still complete each other. The title is a response to the emails that pianist Henoch Kristianto and me interchanged. He is busy recording 6 of my Rapsodia Nusantaras at the moment (I will tell you which ones they are when the CD is about to be published, hopefully in September or before), and he is recording my shorter piano pieces (all from Alicia's Piano Books) to fill up the CD too. I told him that I should one day write a piece on H-E-N-O-C-H , but for now he is the dedicatee of my longest and most complex piece for piano (Rapsodia Nusantara no. 4). He answered "Tune on my name? Well, better make it a fugue if you ever want to do it someday. I am having a lot of fun with some you've made." I wanna take a break from writing fugues that bore the listeners to death, and since we are doing groupings of some pieces which can be grouped together in Alicia's Piano Books, I had the idea of writing him a piece that can fit in all those groupings. Therefore, this piece can be included in the cycle "Friends", "Sunsets" ot "Love Songs". It can even be a lullaby, considering the repetitive figures made by his wife Yenny's name. Yeah, the piece is built on 2 motifs, on Henoch's and Yenny's initials. There is a photograph at Henoch's facebook, where he and Yenny were sitting in a beach (I think it was somewhere in Australia) and the colours of the sky and the sea (which are amazingly quite similar, a kind of greyish blue) triggered a sound of a chord which appears persistently throughout the piece, which is built on the interval of 4ths and their inversions and transformations. I remember feeling that colour too in England during the summertime, which made me feel like having a deja vu when I wrote the piece. ................................................................................................................................................ Back to the Ananda Sukarlan Orchestra, the Indonesia Opera Society commissioned me to write a short piece for piano & orchestra based on themes from Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries and Tannhauser. I decided to call it Wagner's Restless Nights and it is going to be premiered in his annual Opera Gala, sponsored by CIMB Niaga Bank, in September this year, by the fabulous French pianist Frédéric D'Oria- Nicolas, and I will conduct it with my orchestra. So, in fact I am working on 2 works at this moment: the Violin Concerto and this kind of short piano concerto. Wagner's Restless Nights is going very well, I just love doing fantasies and throwing somebody else's themes into a whirlwind, as I have been doing with my Rapsodia Nusantaras which has numbered 11 for now. It's the Violin Concerto which is stuck. But hey, I am a Gemini, and we Geminis like to have everything in pairs. And sometimes those pairs don't resemble each other at all, one is nice and tamed, while the other can be a problematic rebel!

A demisemiquaver note post-Ananda Sukarlan Junior Award

An advice for those who want to organize a piano competition : don't organize a small one. It is as exhausting as a big one. This year's Ananda Sukarlan Junior Award (ASA Junior) is not even half the scale of our bi-annual Ananda Sukarlan Award (always held in even-numbered years, starting from 2008) in terms of number of participants, prizes, repertory, duration and number of jury members (usually there are 5 sitting as judges, and now we were 3, but qualitywise it wasn't inferior at all. I humbly asked my highly admired pianist friends Henoch Kristianto and la sempre dolce Nathania Karina to be with me judging and I deeply appreciate their excellence in evaluating the participants). But I felt exhausted anyway, though satisfied. The ASA Junior was made possible thanks to the collaboration of Yamaha, to which I was appointed its Brand Ambassador. The winners are all from Surabaya, and the surprising fact is that they all come from the same institution AND teacher, that is Rosalinawati Iman (brava!). I must honestly say that Rosalinawati is for me a newcomer, I just heard about her last year, when some of her students won in another piano competition.Her students show both mastery of techniques and high musicianship and understanding. Ayunia Indri Saputro won the Junior Category, while the Elementary & Little Elementary was won by the brothers Hagen and Hamond Rahardjo. And then the Piano Duet category (which didn't attract that many attention apparently) was won from 2 young pianists from Medan, Carina Surya & Josephine Tjuatja. ............................................................................................................................................... A special note I'd like to dedicate to Michael Anthony, an 11-y.o. blind and autist child who reached the 9th rank among the finalists. He touched the audience's hearts, especially when he played my birthday piece I wrote for my daughter Alicia when she was 11. He proved that if you really love something, you can get it. There's no excuse. I wish that "something" could be changed into "someone". :( ............................................................................................................................................... Now we focus on the 2014 Ananda Sukarlan Award, the tough one. So tough that many have compared it with "The Hunger Games", therefore I'd wish our future participants "May the odds be ever in your favor!". A tough repertory too for the Senior category : they are asked to choose between my 8th and 10th Rapsodia Nusantara to be played in the final round; virtuosically speaking, they would just be the same! And it is indeed, unfortunately, like that sad ABBA song, The winner takes it all, the loser has to fall. In fact, we never want it to be like that, but a piano (and therefore any other instrument) competition is a reflection, or a taste, of a real life competition, where the winner indeed takes it all. The losers do NOT have to fall, as we could see in our previous competitions, but it was the winners that have proven their musical values in this tough world of piano music. Inge Buniardi (2008 winner) just toured Russia and gave her debut at the Carnegie Hall while now pursuing her Doctorate at the University of Kansas, Edith Widayani (2010) is going around giving concerts too (she'll go to Bogota Piano Festival sometime next month) while receiving scholarship for her Master's at the prestigious Eastman School of Music at this moment, and our youngest winner (2012) Randy Ryan was just accepted at the Juilliard School of Music. Not a bad future at all for Indonesia's classical music! ............................................................................................................................................. Last Saturday night I was partying with Edith, Randy and Stephanie Onggowinoto (both Randy & Stephanie in fact shared the 3rd prize at ASA 2008, 4 years before Randy won the 1st prize, at last, in 2012) and their lovely families at Mr. Budi Sabini's residence. We missed Inge Buniardi as she's having a holiday in Europe now. It was a really nice party, with great food and wine too, and it's been such a long time that I enjoyed a purely musical party like that. The last one I remembered was during my student days! We talked only about music, played piano in turns, and Edith & Randy even played each a half of Schumann's Carnaval. This is also the first time in years that I enjoyed playing the piano in a party. Anyway, I just realized that I have written short pieces, for both Inge and Edith's (who played hers in the party) birthday presents, not only as 1st prize winners (it wasn't written anywhere that the 1st prizewinner will have to suffer a piece from me!) but as great musicians and great friends they've turned out to be in the post-ASA period. So, I owed one to Randy and I promised him to write one. I wouldn't wait for his birthday, which is coincidentally almost the same as mine: his is June 9, and mine is June 10. I got already a vague concept of the piece during the party, a piece using his name, with a basso ostinato borrowing from Michael Jackson's Thriller, which is my all time favorite song (Randy's name generated a rhythmically funky piece which reminded me of that really catchy Thriller basso ostinato). On my way home I read the lyrics of Thriller, you know, about "the beast that is about to strike and no one's gonna save you", and that gave me the idea of writing not a Prelude & Fugue but the other way around. In fact, the Fugue would serve as a Prelude to the beast that is about to strike. I was happy that that piece was written down (I think the happiness was also due to the mix of the Australian wine I had in the party plus the Scotch whisky I took in my appt. before composing). I tweeted at 1.23 a.m when I finished the Fugue, and at 2.18 I finished the postlude, and sent Randy, Edith & Steph directly, since I put their names in the score too, as a remembrance of that really cool party ... and a hope that we'd repeat it again soon. We work hard, but we party hard too!