Three masters to premiere at SOSL

Keiko Kobayashi returns to conduct the SOSL for the fifthsuccessive year. Keiko’s demanding yet charismatic style ofconducting draws the best out of the SOSL. She will wield the batonin a program which premieres two pieces of music, “ScenesPittoresques” by Jules Massenet and a new composition by EijiSuzuki of Japan. The concert will commence with Beethoven’simpressive Piano Concerto No. 3 and will include the much lovedStrauss’ Overture Die Fledermaus.

Tanya	Keiko	Suzuki

Keiko enjoys an excellent working relationship with the SOSL. Under her baton the musicians are empowered by the confidence shebuilds up during meticulously executed rehearsals. She is able tobring out glowing playing with rich and melodious sounds from allsections of the orchestra. Keiko Kobayashi has also won over themusic loving public during the last four years. Her vivacious,energetic style of conducting is riveting and fills the audience witha sense of expectation and exhilaration.

The PremiereConcert will showcase the World Premiere performance of Japanesecomposer Eiji Suzuki’s composition, based on Sri Lankan folk tunes.Mr. Suzuki, one of the foremost contemporary Japanese composers, willbe at the concert to hear the first performance of his newcomposition. This piece of music was composed as part of thecelebrations for the 60thanniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Japan andSri Lanka.

Die Fledermaus(The Bat) is Johan Strauss Jr.’s most beloved operetta. The comichumour and energy of the operetta is captured, in spirit, in theoverture. The music, a cascade of scintillating melodies from theoperetta, has frequent and rapid changes of tempo and mood. It hasbeen described as “Strauss, at his melodic, toe-tapping best”.

JulesMassenet’s “Scenes Pittoresques” will also be premiered inColombo at this concert. This orchestral work is considered one ofMassenet’s most popular. It is a collection of four contrastingmovements that have been described as follows: “Thefirst movement of this "picturesque" suite is a lightmarch, the second an even lighter waltz. In both of these, gentle,graceful wisps of melody are draped across the orchestra. With thethird movement, "Angelus", we move to something moresubstantial, a beautiful hymn-like song emphasized at times withstriving orchestral tutti. The last, "Bohemian fete", is awhirligig of pretty tunes in the grand French operettic tradition.”

Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3is one of the most frequently performed pieces at Gala Concerts andFestival Openings with celebrity soloists.

The first soloistwas Beethoven himself. Scholars have written that this piece ofmusic was composed after Beethoven had started to lose his hearingbut it did not prevent him from playing his own music in public ordamage his status as the greatest pianist –composer in Europe. Thefirst reviewer of Beethoven’s Piano Concert No. 3 suggested thatthis challenging composition would not only require a technicallyproficient pianist but someone who plays with emotion andunderstanding to bring out the best in this work.

Dr Tanya Ekanayaka, oneof Sri Lanka's most distinguished and internationally acclaimedclassical pianists, has all these attributes. She has beendescribed as a “musician of rare ability” whose “pianism isfresh and powerful, technically assured and emotionallypersuasive”(Prof. Peter Nelson, Head, Department of Music,University of Edinburgh). Tanya’s FTCL Pianoforte Performance Review noted that “Beethoven’s volatile personalityas expressed in the Waldstein sonata was well understood andexpressed…..This was a powerful and sensitive performance”. InMay 2012 Tanya had her debut solo performance at the John F. KennedyCenter in Washington D.C. following an invitation by the KennedyCenter for the Performing Arts. In June she performed to a full houseat the Asian Society Concert Hall in New York. Soon after her concertin Colombo, Tanya will rush back to the U.K. to give her second solorecital at London’s St. Martins-in- the –Field.

Awonderful opportunity to experience not one but three great musicalpersonalities - our own Tanya Ekanayaka on the piano and, from Japan,conductor Keiko Kobayashi and Eiji Suzuki, one of its most acclaimedcomposers. Don't miss the SOSL’s Premiere Concert on the10th of November, 2012.