Gugnin Victorious

Winner of the Sydney Competition
February 10th and 11th
Encore concert Monday 13th, 6pm

First Prize, Sydney International Piano Competition, 2016

First Prize, Gina Bachauer Competition, 2015

First Prize, Piano,Valsesia International Music Competition, 2014

Second Prize, International Beethoven Competition, Vienna, 2013

Friday 10th February, 6pm

Solo Recital

Schubert: Sonata no 17 in D Major, D 850. Written in 1825 at Bad Gastein, "brilliant and bold", according to Presto Classical. It is also Schubert at his most reflective and playful. 

Desyatnikov: 'Reminiscences from the Theater'. Leonid Desyatnikov is a modern Russian composer, born in 1955. His style is lyrical, humorous and jazzy, with allusions to Bach's Goldberg Variations, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky and others. 

and

A selection of etudes from Chopin, Liszt and the great Croatian composer, Boris Papandopulo.


Saturday 11th February, 5pm

Chamber music with Tasana Nagavajara, Iris Regev and Andrey

Rachmaninov, Trio Elégiaque n°2 op.9 

This remarkable work was composed as a tribute to Tchaikovsky, who died in 1893. The trio was written and performed within a few months of Tchaikovsky's death. It was revised twice, the latest version, being the one we will hear, was revised in 1917. The work is remarkable in that resembles Tchaikovsky's A minor Trio in both structure and style, with many allusions to other works from Tchaikovsky while being highly original. This is a grand and polished work, dramatic, sumptuous and profound. Ajarn Tasana selected the work as a tribute to HM King Bhumipol.

Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition. Mussorgsky's masterpiece and one of Andrey's most brilliant tour de force signature pieces. Andrey played this piece on his first visit to Eelswamp in 2014. His performance brought the house to its feet. After three  years, it is time to hear it again. 

Encore concert Monday 13th, 6pm
Selections from previous concerts and other works: Usual terms: 500 baht if you have attended either or both 10th or 11th, otherwise 1,200 baht. All proceeds go directly to Andrey. No catering. Wine may be brought into the room. You may bring your own.

Andrey Gugnin is a graduate of Moscow Conservatory where he studied with Vera

Gornostoyeva, teacher of Ivo Pogorelich and Van Cliburn Competition winner, Vadym Kholodenko, to name a few. I first heard Andrey in 2013 in Vienna, where he was competing at the International Beethoven Competition. He was the first overseas pianist whom I invited to Eelswamp and he has returned to visit us every year to great acclaim. 

Since coming second in the Vienna Competition, Andrey has won two major international competitions. Last year Andrey was victorious in the Sydney International Piano Competition, one of the major international piano competitions held in 2016. He won five prizes in the competition: First Prize and four other prizes, including best piano concerto and best violin and piano sonata. In 2015 he won first prize in one of the major US competitions, the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition. 

Tasana Nagavaja is Director of the Pro Musica Orchestra in Bangkok and a member of the

Silpakorn University Faculty of Music. He is the former concertmaster of Bangkok Symphony Orchestra and was a student of the Menhuin School in Switzerland. He is a regular collaborator with Eelswamp, having played here twice with French duo Dimitri Papadopoulos and Alexandre Vay, as well as with Andrey.


Iris Regev is an Israeli cellist currently working with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra. She was previously a member of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and studied at the Juilliard School in New York. She has collaborated in chamber music with Pinchas Zukerman and Vadim Repin, among others.

Iris Regev

Reservations: 1,200 baht for one concert. 2,000 baht for both. Email asiachart@hotmail.com or call 038 069681 office hours. Due to limited number of places payment must be received before the day.

Directions to Eelswamp: search for 'Eelswamp' on google maps. Directions can be found at the bottom of this page: http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-music-room-at-eelswamp.html

Taxi service to Eelswamp: Grabtaxi not recognizing Eelswamp at the moment. 

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Romantic Bach and Beyond

Winner of the Bach Competition plays Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Ravel

Encore concert: Monday 23rd, 6pm. Details below

Daniël van der Hoeven
second visit to Eelswamp

First Prize and Gold Medal, YPF National Dutch Piano Competition in 2010

Winner, J.S Bach Competition, Würzburg, 2013

Bärenreiter Prize, International Bach Competition, Leipzig, 2014

Second Prize, Seattle International Piano Competition, 2015

Friday 20th January, 6pm - sold out

Romantic Bach: The Seven Toccatas BWV 910 to 916

'Flamboyant', 'virtuosic', 'romantic', would be just a few words to describe these seven early works by Bach. He wrote the Toccatas in his early twenties after his hike to Luebeck to hear the great organist, Buxtehude, who was a master of improvisation. Hence the toccatas.  

The toccata is a musical form of sweeping passages in improvisatory style with constantly changing moods. On the piano they lend themselves to a romantic interpretation. Each of Bach's toccatas contains an introduction in toccata style; sometimes flamboyant, sometimes contemplative. There follows a contrasting fugue, often an exuberant moto perpetuo - Bach at his best! 

These are highly enjoyable works, full of contrast, and it will be a great opportunity to hear them all. Plaudits to Daniel for undertaking to perform the whole cycle for us.

Toccata in F Sharp Minor, BWV 910 
Toccata in C Minor, BWV 911 
Toccata in D Major, BWV 912 
Toccata in D Minor, BWV 913 
Toccata in E Minor, BWV 914 
Toccata in G Minor, BWV 915 
Toccata in G Major, BWV 916

Sunday 22nd January, 5pm 

Mozart, Beethoven, Ravel

Mozart, Sonata no.14 in C Minor, K457

Mozart's cataloguer, Ludwig Koechel, described this sonata "Without question this is the most important of all Mozart’s pianoforte sonatas. Surpassing all the others by reason of the fire and passion which, to its last note, breathe through it, it foreshadows the pianoforte sonata, as it was destined to become in the hands of Beethoven." Indeed, it has been said that this sonata is the prototype or inspiration for Beethoven's Pathetique.

Beethoven, Sonata no. 8 in C Minor, op.13 "Pathetique"

This is one of Beethoven's most popular early sonatas, written when the composer was around 27. It was written 14 years after Mozart's C minor sonata and is often said to be modeled on K457, which we will hear before this sonata. 



Beethoven, Sonata no. 22 in F major, op. 54

This is one of Beethoven's best kept secrets. It is a short work in two movements composed in 1804, around the time of the 5th Symphony. It is perhaps overshadowed by its two titanic neighbours: no. 21 the Waldstein and no. 23 the Appassionata. Nonetheless, it is a remarkable and highly original work. Beethoven scholar, Donald Tovey, had a special liking for it:

"[I]ts material is childlike, or even dog-like, and those who best understand children and dogs have the best chance of enjoying an adequate reading of this music; laughing with, but not at its animal spirits; following in strenuous earnest its indefatigable pursuit of its game whether that be its own tail or something more remote and elusive."

Indeed, the final movement is a bubbly moto perpetuo, which could easily bring to mind a dog chasing its tail!

Ravel, Gaspard de la Nuit 

Scarbo, the goblin

Ravel's great three-movement, programatic, masterpiece is based on poems by Aloysius Bertrand. It is in three movements, Ondine, Le Gibet and Scarbo, the last of which is one of Ravel's most virtuosic creations, said to be a rival for Balakirev's Islamey. 

Ondine, the water nymph

Daniël van der Hoeven (1985) was born in Amerongen, the Netherlands. He studied piano at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Netherlands and at the Conservatoire Superieure in Paris. 

In 2013, he was the winner of the International J.S. Bach Competition in Würzburg, Germany. In October 2015 he won second place at the Seattle International Piano Competition, competing against 88 other pianists. Other prizes include the YPF National Dutch Piano Competition in 2010 (1st prize and Gold Medal), Lagny-sur-Marne International Piano Competition in 2015 (2nd prize), International Bach Competition Leipzig in 2014 (Bärenreiter prize), as well as finalist diploma at the international piano competitions of Gorizia (Italy) and Malta. 

He has performed in Carnegie Hall, New York, the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Romania and Poland. He has recorded two well-received CDs with works by Prokofiev/Bartók and J.S. Bach. Currently he teaches at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. This is Daniel's second visit to Eelswamp. 

Reservations: 1,200 baht for one concert. 2,000 baht for both. Email asiachart@hotmail.com or call 038 069681 office hours. Due to limited number of places payment must be received before the day.

Directions to Eelswamp: search for 'Eelswamp' on google maps. Directions can be found at the bottom of this page: http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-music-room-at-eelswamp.html

Taxi service to Eelswamp: we recommend Grabtaxi

Monday 23rd January, 6pm 

Encore concert 

Selections from the previous two concerts. Only 500 baht for those who have attended either the 20th or 22nd, otherwise, 1,200 baht. All proceeds will go directly to Daniel.

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Eelswamp Calendar 2016

Calendar 2016

January

Sunday, 17th January, 5pm


Piano and Violin Looping

Christopher Janwong McKiggan, piano
Robert Landes, violin

Deails http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2015/12/and-now-for-something-completely.html



February 

Andrey Gugnin's Third Orbit

Friday 5th: Gugnin solo piano: Highlights: Chopin etudes op 25 and Medtner Sonata Romantica

Saturday 6th: Gugnin and Tasana: Violin sonatas: 


Beethoven: Kreutzer Sonata 

and 

Cesar Franck Violin Sonata

Details: http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2015/12/gugnins-third-orbit.html




Sunday 7th: Mrs Gugnin and Kazutaka Shimitzu  

Mozart Concerto for Flute and Harp in trio form with Gugnin accompanying. 

French works for flute and harp.







Details: http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2015/12/gugnins-third-orbit.html



Monday, 29th February  

Laura Alonso Padin, 

Spanish Songs and Opera Ariashttp://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2016/02/spanish-soprano-sings.html






March

Sunday 6th

Julie Bees, piano

Beethoven: Waldstein Sonata
Chopin: 24 Preludes op. 28

http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2016/02/bees-plays-chopin-and-beethoven.html









Sunday 20th 

Korean pianist, Junghwa Lee, piano

plays Mozart, Schumann, Debussy and Chopin.



    
http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2016/01/junghwha-lee-plays-mozart-debussy.html




Sunday 27th

Anupama Bhagwat, sitar, plays the magnificent Malkauns and other ragas
with Sandip Ghosh, tabla

http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2016/01/another-sitar-genius.html



April


Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th 

Michael Tsalka - Big Bach: Two of Bach's greatest: Goldbergs and Art of Fugue, on piano and harpsichord.

Details: http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2016/01/big-bach.html 



May


Tasana Nagavajara, violin
Pornphan Banternghansa, piano


Sunday, 8th May, 5pm



Mozart: The Four Viennese Sonatas of 1781
http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2016/03/mozart-free-and-infatuated.html June



June

Thursday, 2nd June, 6pm
Michele Benuzzi, harpsichord
Handel, Friends and Forefathers
A program of 17th and 18th century music 

"a level of tonal beauty that is unsurpassed"

"...suitably exuberant, willful virtuosity."

http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2016/05/handel-friends-and-forefathers.html




Sunday 12th, 5pm                                        cancelled
Marina Horak, piano

"professes her art with striking conviction" ... Nadia Boulanger

'Slavic Dreams and Dances' music by Tchaikovsky, Szymanowski, two lesser know Slavic composers and a healthy dose of Chopin Mazurkas.
http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2016/04/slavic-dreams-and-dances.html




Friday, 24th June, 6pm

Graf Mourja, violin

Paganini: 24 Caprices

http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2016/05/paganinis-24-caprices.html


July

Sunday, 3rd July

Eva Yulin Shen, piano

All Russian program

"...one of the best pianists of her generation" 

Yuli Turovsky, Borodin Trio (1976 – 1993) 

http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2016/05/sunday-3rd-july-5pm-eva-shen-piano-all.html

September

September 9th and 11th

Sobolev returns with partner: Beethoven-Liszt symphony no.3, 'Eroica' and works by Medtner, Shostakovich, Bizet and Brahms, including works for four hands.

Blog post here http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2016/08/sobolev-returns.html
September 30th and 2nd October - cancelled regrettably, due to a hand injury

Aleksandar Djermanovic: plays Medtner, Prokofiev, Scriabin and Liszt's, Années de Pèlerinage, Italie, complete.


October 

Trios and Cello Sonatas 28th and 30th

Dimitri and Alexandre return to play with Tasana
Two Schubert Trios and Russian Cello Sonatas.

http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-schubert-trios.html


November


Friday 18th and Sunday 20th

Evgeny Starodubtsev returns with two programs:
1. Medtner Forgotten Melodies op. 40, Brahms Four Piano Pieces op. 119 and Beethoven Sonata no 13. op. 27/1 and Sonata no 31, op. 109
and
2. Twelve Preludes and Fugues from the 24 op.87 by Shostakovich.

For more details: http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2016/10/a-great-russian-pianist-awesome.html 

December

Sunday 4th December, 5pm

Kanae Furomoto, piano, plays music inspired by Shakespeare

http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2016/11/inspired-by-bard.html

Friday, 16th, 6pm
Andrew Simon, clarinet
Warren Lee, piano

Brahms, both sonatas for clarinet and piano, op.120 
and works by Debussy and Saint Saens.

http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2016/11/an-evening-of-clarinet-delight.html


Tentative Calendar 2017

January: Daniel van der Hoeven, Bach Toccatas (Complete)
February: Gugnin and Tasana: Prokofiev violin sonatas 1 and 2
March: Maria Lettberg, piano: Scriabin
April: Michael Tsalka, piano and harpsichord, Bach and early French music
May: Ilya Kondratiev, piano and Erzhan Kulibaev, violin
June: Hélène Tysman: Chopin, Ravel, Debussy, Bach
September: Ani and Nia Sulkhanishvili, piano duet
October: Andrew Tyson, piano
November: 

An Evening of Clarinet Delight

Andrew Simon and Warren Lee,

play both Brahms Clarinet Sonatas 

and works by Debussy and Saint Saens

"...[Andrew] is one of the finest players I’ve heard ...competitive with the best of the best.” - Jerry Dubins, Fanfare Magazine

"Flawless technique..." 

American Record Guide

“superb pianism… a wonderful sense of colour and impeccably controlled articulation” Straits Times

Friday, 16th December, 6pm

Debussy, Rhapsody no.1 for Clarinet and Piano

Brahms, Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in F minor, op. 120 no.1

Saint Saens, Clarinet Sonata in E Flat, op. 167

Brahms Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in E-flat, op. 120 no. 2

The Two Brahms Clarinet Sonatas were written in 1894. They are the last chamber works of Brahms and both masterpieces. Their richness is aptly summarized by a reviewer on Amazon: 

"the utmost attention to form and structure, thrilling polyphony, and, above all, beautiful melodies"

Andrew Simon is a graduate of the Juilliard School and has been principal clarinetist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic since 1988. New York Times music columnist Allan Kozinn compared him to the late clarinet legend, Benny Goodman, in reviewing his Carnegie Hall debut. 

Warren Lee: is a graduate of the Royal Academy and a Steinway Artist. He won first prize and Grand Prix Ivo Pogorelich in the 1995 Stravinsky Awards International Piano Competition. He lives and teaches in Hong Kong

Reservations: 1,000 baht per person.

Email asiachart@hotmail.com for reservations. For more information call 038 069681 during office hours. Due to limited number of places payment must be received before the day.

Directions to Eelswamp: can be found at the bottom of this page:http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-music-room-at-eelswamp.html. If you haven't been to Eelswamp before I strongly urge you to find the venue before the day of the concert.

Taxi service to Eelswamp: we recommend Grabtaxi

A member of 

Official media partner