Pro Musica Quartet

Sunday 14th May, 5pm

Pro Musica Quartet

Leo Phillips, violin

Tasana Nagavajara, viola

Rueychai Saengow, violin 

Iris Regev, cello

Sunday 14th May, 5pm

Haydn String Quartet no. 62 in C major op. 76 no. 3, "The Emperor".

The six quartets of opus 76 form the last works for quartet by Papa Haydn, the father of the string quartet and the sonata form, as we know it. All six are mature and substantial works. 
Number 3 is called the 'Emperor' after the second movement, the theme of which is the melody of the German national anthem. 

Tchaikovsky, String Quartet no. 3 in E flat minor, op. 30

This work was written in 1876, when the composer was 36 years old, around the same time as the First Piano Concerto. It was written as a tribute to Tchaikovsky's friend, the Czech violinist, Ferdinand Laub, whom Tchaikovsky called, 'the best violinist of our time' and who had died in 1875. Both the opening and the slow movements are elegies to the great violinist. The final movement is bright and lively. Tchaikovsky is rumoured to have said, "At first I didn't like the final movement. But now I think it's quite good."

Both works were selected by Tasana as part of Pro Musica's tribute to his Majesty, King Bhumipol.


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

Before the Van Cliburn

Friday May 5th and Sunday May 7th

Yury Favorin

Competitor, 15th Van Cliburn Competition, 2017

First Prize, Gyorgy Cziffra Foundation Competition, Vienna

Queen Elizabeth Competition, Belgium, prizewinner

First Prize, N. Rubinstein Competition, Moscow

Friday May 5th, 6pm 
Two Masterpieces in B flat (major and minor)

Beethoven, Sonata no. 29 in B flat major, op. 106, Hammerklavier

This monumental work was completed in 1818, when Beethoven was stone deaf and required visitors to communicate with him by written comments in his notebook. According to biographers, Kinderman and Cooper,  Beethoven's "...inward powers of imagination now gained new strength, as the great sonata abundantly reveals". Quoting wikipedia, The Hammerklavier "... is often considered to be Beethoven's most technically challenging piano composition and one of the most demanding solo works in the classical piano repertoire". This a challenging work which, if well performed, would take a competitor to the final round of a competition. No doubt, Yury will give such a performance.

Rachmaninov, Sonata no. 2 in B flat minor (original version). 

This famous work was revised twice: once by Rachmaninov and once by Horowitz. There is much debate as to which is the best edition. Some say that too much was cut out of the revised editions. Others claim that the original edition is much more challenging, technically. We heard Eva Shen give a great performance of the revised edition, last July. Come and here Yury performing the original edition and make up your own mind. 

Sunday May 7th, 5pm 
Russian music throughout the 20th Century

Music in the 20th Century was dominated by the Russians (of course with some great exceptions). We will hear a survey of great works for piano by Russian masters, both known and unknown but brilliant.

Prokofiev 4 etudes, op. 2 (1909)

Enfant terrible casts a menacing grin

We begin in 1909 with a short work written by the 18-year old Prokofiev, who had already established himself as a formidable pianist not to mention a source of irritation for his professors and fellow students at St Petersburg Conservatory.

Shostakovich. Sonata no. 1, op.12 

Blood on the keyboard

This early work was written in 1926, when Shostakovich was a teenage student at the Leningrad Conservatory. (Also driving his professors crazy.)  According to musicologist, James Leonard, "the sonata is one of the most brutal and modernist works Shostakovich ever composed." One of his friends reported seeing blood on the keyboard after the first performance! No doubt, the reference was metaphoric, but you get the idea.

Feinberg Sonata no. 6 op. 13 (1923) 

"The Lost Atlantis of Russian Music"

Samuil Feinberg was famous in his day as a concert pianist and transcriber of Bach. However, he wrote 12 sonatas, many of which are works of genius. According to 'Hexameron' a reviewer on Amazon, "Feinberg's oeuvre is the Lost Atlantis of Russian music." I concur. I have spent months listening to the sonatas of Feinberg and have been trying to persuade every visiting musician to learn some. It is with great pleasure that Yury will perform the most popular of the collection, Sonata no. 6. It was written in 1923 and performed by the composer at the 1925 Festival of Contemporary Music in Venice. Igor Stravinsky was said to have attended the performance. 

Gennady Banshchikov (b. 1943), Sonatas nos 3 and 4

"Amazing musical masterpieces"

Yes, there are great composers who are still alive. We heard Andrey Gugnin play a brilliant work of Leonid Desyatnikov in February. Now we will be treated to two works by another highly respected Russian composer. According to Russian musicologist, Maria Kholodova, 

"Gennady I. Banshchikov is one of the greatest composers of our time. His works captivated the audience long ago and now his works are attracting more attention of researchers, opening the world of amazing musical masterpieces of this composer from St. Petersburg."

I second that opinion. Banshchikov wrote five sonatas. They are all excellent. Yury offered a choice of two. It was a difficult choice, but I have chosen Sonata no. 3, which is the most substantial, and Sonata no. 4, which opens with a soothing Barcarolle and ends with a raucus Bartok-like folk dance. 

Captivating stuff! Do join me for this special recital. 

Yury Favorin 

Yury Favorin is another outstanding young Russian pianist from Moscow Conservatory. He has been selected to participate in the 15th Van Cliburn Piano Competition, in Texas, a few weeks after he visits us. The Van Cliburn is one of the most important competitions in the world. Of 290 applicants only 30 were selected for the competition.

Yury graduated from Moscow Conservatory. His teacher was the great pedagogue, Mikhail Voskresensky (who was also the teacher of Eelswamp favourite, Sergey Sobolev). Yury has a string of prizes in his resume and has played in major venues around the world. 

Don't miss this opportunity to hear Yury. If he wins the Van Cliburn (good chance!), it will probably be our only chance!

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 now working. Just enter "Eelswamp" in the destination box.

A member of 

Official media partner

Bach Trio Sonatas and Mozart's, Beethoven's and Schubert's last

Bach's Trio Sonatas
and the last sonatas of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert

Two programs

Friday March 31st and Sunday 2nd April

Michael Tsalka, piano 

Second Prize, Nikolai Rubenstein Comeptition, Paris 

"...exemplary interpretations, flexible and with subtle nuances" Musicalpointers

"Tsalka showed almost incredible virtuosity throughout...” (Berkshire Review, Boston and New York)

Friday, March 31st, 6pm 

J.S. Bach, The Six Trio Sonatas, BWV 525- 530, transcribed for piano. 

These delightful, chirpy, works were originally written for organ but their popularity has inpsired many musicians to transcribe them for other instruments and groups of instruments, for example, for wind ensemble and for guitar and harpsichord. Bach's biographer, JN Forkel, said of the trio sonatas:

"One cannot say enough of their beauty. They were composed when the author was in his most mature period and may be considered as his chief work of that description."

Sunday, April 2nd, 5pm

The last sonatas of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert

Mozart, Sonata no. 14 in C minor, K457
Beethoven, Sonata no. 32 in C minor, op. 111
Schubert, Sonata no 21 in B flat major, D. 960

Each of these works is the final statement of each composer in the piano sonata form. They are all mature and iconic works.

Michael Tsalka is an Israeli pianist and early keyboard performer. He graduated from Tel Aviv University, Scuola Superiore del Trio di Trieste, Italy and Temple University, Philadelphia. Tsalka has won numerous prizes, awards and fellowships in Rome, Bayreuth, Bonn, Paris, Genoa, Calabria, Sardinia, Tel-Aviv, Chicago, Red Wing in Minnesota, Berlin, Mexico City, Kuopio and Philadelphia.

He performs throughout Europe, the USA, Canada, Asia, Russia, and Latin America. Previous engagements include performances for the Boston Early Music Festival, the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, Bellas Artes Theater in Mexico City, the Hermitage Festival in St. Petersburg, Konserhuset in Stockholm, St. Denis Festival in Paris, the Filharmonika Orchestra in Manila, the Trinity series in New York, and interviews and performances for radio stations in Hong Kong, Chicago, Buenos Aires, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Munich, Stockholm, Amsterdam, and Jerusalem.

Michael has recorded 15 CDs on Naxos, Grand Piano, Ljud & Bild (Stockholm), Brilliant Classics (Amsterdam) Paladino (Vienna), and IMI (Israel), including a recording of the Goldberg Variations.

Reservations: 1,200 baht for one concert. 2,000 baht for two. 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

 A member of 

Official media partner

1685

Sunday, 12th March, 5pm

Michele Benuzzi, harpsichord

"a level of tonal beauty that is unsurpassed...quite simply, phenomenal." Tomkins Forum

plays

1685: The Three Baroque Greats

Sunday, 12th March, 5pm

Three great Baroque composers, Handel, Bach and Scarlatti, were born in the same year, 1685. Renown harpsichord player, Michele Benuzzi, will return to Eelswamp with a program of great works by these three composers. He will play the Sassman spinet, which has a wonderful, lusturous tone and fills the music room at Eelswamp.

Bach: Partita No.1 in B flat, Bwv 825

Handel: Suite in D minor, Hwv 837 (theme used in Barry Lyndon)

Bach: Partita No. 3 in A minor

D. Scarlatti: Sonata in A, K208 and Sonata in A, K209

Bach: Lute Suite in E minor, Bwv 996

Michele Benuzzi is an Italian harpsichord player. He studied at the University of Pavia and Royal College of Music in London and is a prize winner in the Yamanashi International Harpsichord Competition in Japan. Michele gives concerts throughout Europe, Australia and New Zealand and the UK. Among his recordings, a collection of works of JW Haessler was described by Christopher Brodersen, of Fanfare, as deserving "... the absolute highest recommendation".

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

"A Formidable Achievement"

Maria Lettberg

plays Scriabin - Beethoven - Chopin - Liszt

One of the top Scriabin specialists in the world

"... a formidable achievement finely recorded." Bryce Morrison, Gramophone

"...total identification with Scriabin’s idiom deserve(s) nothing less than our highest rating." Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Maria Lettberg is a Swedish pianist who lives in Berlin. She eschewed the traditional gladiatorial road to fame by competition and instead devoted herself to producing unique recordings. She is one of two people to have recorded the complete solo works of Alexander Scriabin. 

Her 8-CD boxed set was described by Gramaphone as 'a formidable achievement'. It is rated 4.5/5 on Amazon. Some of the review comments:

"...as close to a gold standard for this music that you're going to get."

"Her range and color is extraordinary!"

"Lettberg's interpretations are without peer"

 "...this wonderful pianist has come to release his (Scriabin's) full genius! All the voices are finally clear."

Friday March 3rd, 6pm

Pan Scriabin: A Tour of Scriabin from early to late

Sonata No.1 Op.6 f-Moll
Vers la flamme“ Op. 72

Etüde C sharp minor Op.2 Nr.1,

Sonata-Fantasie G sharp minor (Op. Posth.),

Waltz in D flat major (Op. Posth.)

Mazurka E minor Op.25 Nr.3

Rêverie Op.49 no. 3

Prélude Op. 51 no.2

Sonata No.9 Op.68

Etude Op.8 no.11 B minor

Etude Op.8 no.12 D sharp minor

Sunday, March 5th, 5pm

Beethoven-Liszt-Chopin

Beethoven, Sonata No.17, Op.31 No.2 in D minor, The Tempest

Chopin, Ballade No. 1 g-Moll Op. 23

Franz Liszt

Sonetto 104 del Petrarca

Sonetto 123 del Petrarca

La Lugubre Gondola No. 2

Vallée d'Obermann

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 now working. Just enter "Eelswamp" in the destination box.

A member of 

Official media partner

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. 

 A member of 

Official media partner

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.

 A member of 

Official media partner