INDONESIAKININEWS.COM - On Sunday, September 29, 2024, Jakarta received the honour of a visit from one of the world's respected classic...
Jakarta warmly welcomed Katalin Kramarics, a flutist born in 1977 in Budapest, Hungary who now holds the position of principal flutist of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Leipzig (Germany).
She is also a Pearl artist, a famous brand of flute instruments, and indeed her short visit (merely three days) to Jakarta was sponsored by Pearl Flute.
Arriving in Jakarta on Saturday only to rest, Sunday was hectic but most productive day for Katalin Kramarics (and for all flutists of Jakarta!).
The event celebrates the 15th anniversary of Jakflute, founded in 2009 to serve as a meeting point for flutists living in Jakarta.
But not only a birthday celebration, that day has been ordained as "Jakarta Flute Day" due to Ms. Kramarics' visit! Since 12 o'clock noon she has been holding a seminar, also with Pallop Kaewpradub, a flute technician from Thailand. At 14.00 she held masterclasses for flute, and starting at 16.00 she held a concert with the Jakflute group until 18.00. All activities took place at Bina Musik Jakarta who is the main collaborator of this event, in the Menteng area, Jakarta.
Katalin Kramarics plays a Pearl Handmade Maesta 14K Gold Flute. She started playing with orchestras in 1999 in the Orchesterakademie der Münchner Philharmoniker. In the season 2001/2002 she was a soloist of the Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK, and since 2002 she became a member of the Gewandhaus Orchester in Leipzig, and at the same time, of the Gewandhaus wind quintet.
In her visit to Jakarta Katalin Kramarics performed pieces for flute and piano by Johann Sebastian Bach, Carl Reinecke and ended her performance with music of Franz Doppler performed with all the members of Jakflute. The pianist accompanist for Bach and Reinecke was Hazim Suhadi. Jakflute group, which consists of flutes of all sizes and registers (and flutists of all ages), performed musical arrangements of North Sumatran folksongs (arranged by Aubrey Victoria Pratama) and a medley of Ismail Marzuki's songs arranged by Fero Aldiansya Stefanus.
If Katalin Kramarics was the star performer of the day, the star composer should go to Ananda Sukarlan, who unfortunately could not attend the event due to his work in judging the Piano Nusantara Plus Competition that took place the same day. Sukarlan's 7-minute virtuosic piece "A Sicilian Diary" for three flutes was performed by Jakflute members Metta F. Ariono, Marini Marnoto (both founders of Jakflute) and Ryan Limanto
"A Sicilian Diary" has been one of Ananda Sukarlan's widely performed musical works since its creation in 2011.
One of its celebrated performances was by the trio consisting of prominent flutists Diana Morgan, Denis Bouriakov (principal flutist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra) and Jim Walker who is John Williams' favorite flutist and has played the solo flute in more than 700 movie soundtracks such as Seven Years in Tibet, Amistad, Far and Away, Memoirs of a Geisha, Bicentennial Man, Jurassic Park and many more. One of their performances is available to watch on YouTube.
In Europe it has been played among others by the Dutch flutist Wendela van Swol with different partners. On YouTube there exists a video of her playing with Stefano Agostini and Mauro Rossi. Wendela van Swol has been, and still is a great champion of Ananda Sukarlan's flute pieces, and is also the dedicatee of some of Sukarlan's works for flute or piccolo, namely the three pieces that comprise Trilogia Mitologica, each based on paintings by Titian, John William Waterhouse and Jusepe de Ribera.
The flute has been a pivotal instrument for Ananda Sukarlan. His half-an-hour orchestral work, The Voyage to Marege' (2017) for two indigenous Aboriginal musicians and orchestra, has a 6-minute section similar to a flute concerto. At its latest performance the flute solo part was performed by the Argentinian prominent flute soloist Santiago Clemenz at the Borobudur Temple during the G20 Meeting of the Cultural Ministers.
His newest musical work for flute is "The Springs of Vincent" which is a cycle of 4 pieces for flute and piano, each based on a painting by Vincent van Gogh, all painted during springtime. "During my student days at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Den Haag, I frequently visited the Gemeentemuseum and also Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. One of the painting that made a huge impression was 'Flowering Garden with Path', and everytime I returned to observe it, the recurring melodies and chords popped inside my head. I was amazed how much that music stayed in my head and triggered to sound again when I wrote this music and looked at those paintings again through Google Art Project, 30 years later, now in Indonesia", explains the composer on the program note of this piece which will be released by Warner Classics, already recorded by its dedicatees at the end of this year.
"The Springs of Vincent" for flute and piano are dedicated to Spanish musicians, flutist Eduard Sanchez and pianist Enrique Bagaria whom Sukarlan deeply admire.
Certainly we all expect a full-blown concerto for flute and orchestra by the Indonesian maestro, sooner or later!
