Baton in hand, Louis will take you on an European tour
View(s):By Joshua Surendraraj
Conducting music is an art, whether orchestral or choral. Thus with the task of setting the tempo and ensuring the correct entries by the ensemble, the conductor has a huge responsibility in his hands and the ability to shape the entire performance.
Talented young pianist Louis Perera will take up the orchestral baton when he conducts ‘Musical Excursions’, a programme of ecletic music selections from the Renaissance to the early Twentieth Century at the Lionel Wendt theatre, on Sunday, September 4 at 7 p.m.
Louis Perera (right) conducting the strings. Pic by Indika Handuwala
The programme will feature the works of great composers that are not the standard choices. “We really go around Europe in this programme; it’s a mix of composers that are familiar like Mozart and Beethoven and composers that are familiar all around the world except for here,” Louis told the Sunday Times earlier this week.
The orchestra of 34 talented musicians will be led by Ananda Dabare. It was a busy Tuesday evening, as the strings section of the ensemble practised at the Goethe Institut, Colombo. Watching the musicians rehearse was a treat and the energy Louis gave out was definitely interpreted by tthem. “When you feel that it is right to play… play,” he told them.
The first piece on the programme is French composer Ravel’s ‘Pavane for a dead princess,’ written in 1899, followed by Prokofiev’s ‘Overture on Hebrew Themes,’ and Mozart’s piano concerto 24 in C minor and then Béla Bartók whose Romanian dances fascinate Louis.
“He was Hungarian and went around Europe with these huge sorts of machines, recording folk tunes across the villages, their melodies and rhythms,” Louis says, adding that here was a Hungarian composer, writing Romanian folk dances. “This is fascinating – it gives me a lot of research to do. How the dances were probably danced and things like that, so we could get a feel of how to perform them,” he says.
Finally, the concert will showcase Beethoven’s First Symphony, which Louis explains was composed between the Classical and Romantic period and has elements of composers like Haydn and Mozart, but is so typically Beethoven. “This was because the audiences those days expected a piece to start at home. But Beethoven starts the piece far away from home, in a different key. There is a lot of searching going on, until Beethoven says ‘this is where I’m taking you’,” Louis says.
The piece is a real adventure and it’s very exciting and extremely fun to play. “Orchestral musicians love playing that symphony. It’s really jolly, exuberant and exciting,” he adds.
Louis was 15 when he decided to pursue music. “I originally wanted to be a doctor because I enjoy my science,” he tells us, adding however, that it’s music that really motivates him. “It is something I know I can do every single day of my life,” he says.
Although he is not new to the music scene in Sri Lanka, having had several piano recitals, this will be the first time that Louis will also be conducting.
Having completed two years of study at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, he is currently preparing his application to commence training as a conductor. Tickets and the Box Plan are available at the Lionel Wendt Theatre, and also on www.lionelwendt.org, (reserved seating – Rs.3,000, Rs. 2,500, Rs.2,000, Rs.1,500; balcony, unreserved seating – Rs.750).