Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra

Entrancing! Tantalizing enough for me to hunger for more. Alas, it's 400km away, with erratic schedule. Still, it's a little comforting to read in thestar that the Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Philharmonic Orchestra will be touring to Penang in this coming December. For one, I really, really, really, desperately would like to watch this particular performance. What interest me more than the music itself (the playing will always be faultless to my untrained ear), is the faces of the Malaysian youths, the selected few, maybe blessed with some degree of talent, but no doubt possess supreme degree of discipline and self motivation that is not driven by dirty money, but pure passion. If only I could draw the secret of their bottomless determination, maybe I can unlock the issue of the lacking of it in me.

The performance on the 1st Sept was an attempt to mutate or rather to integrate our wayang kulit into orchestra, part of the celebration in conjunction of our country 50th Independence Day.

"A truly innovative event! See how a western style orchestra interacts with one of the most iconic of all Malaysian art forms: wayang kulit, in a concert filled with folklore and fantasy. Malaysian composer Adeline Wong draws the two together in her ground-breaking Empunya yang beroleh Sita Dewi."

"Empunya yang beroleh Sita Dewi", revolves around the famous timeless "Ramayana" episode, where Sita, the wife of Rama is abducted by the demon-king Ravana. The music follows these incidents: the lament of Sita and Rama, leading towards the battle of Rama and Ravana, and finally closing with the return of Sita. I think this would be my first close up with wayang kulit, not counting those that I've seen a few inches from TV screen. I enjoyed the subsequent classical pieces which were conducted by MPO principal conductor, Matthias Bamert. One interesting fact which MH got from a music enthusiast friend of his a few days ago, is that, upon the end, just like a concert, the audience will be rewarded with "bonus" performance if they applaused wholeheartedly enough. We did have our encore. :)

Ticket is cheap, ranging from RM20 to RM80, courtesy of Petronas. This probably one of the best thing Petronas did in the effort to give something back to the society, for the titanic volume of natural resources they sucked from our motherland.

On the lighter note, I was glad that I had this food for soul after Jogoya, which otherwise might be a waste of money on the bland food of the latter, in comparison.