Why Somtov Sucharitkul brought the Thai orchestra back to Oldenburg

Last year it was just a joke.

For the 2021 event, the Oldenburg Film Festival invited Somtou Sucharitkul, one of Thailand’s most renowned classical composers and conductors, to perform at the world premiere. Teacher, a Thai horror film starring Somtou as a murderous driver. “Some call it typecasting,” jokes Somtow, who also wrote the film’s screenplay.

But instead of just going to the red carpet, Somtov invited members of his youth orchestra, the Siam Sinfonietta, which plays Teacher – Join him. Together, they thrilled the crowd at the festival’s opening and closing ceremonies, performed the film’s music, and paid tribute to Oldenburg’s 2021 guest of honor, Italian genre master Ovidio Assonitis (tentacles, behind the door).

“The kids had never seen anything like it, coming to Oldenburg opened the door to a completely different world for them,” says Somtow. “When they came back, they were telling the rest of the orchestra how amazing it was. So I was looking for an excuse to go back. “

Somtow found his excuse on a convenient birthday. 2022 marks 160 years since Germany and Thailand established diplomatic relations, an anniversary the director was able to capitalize on with concert dates across Germany, culminating in, you guessed it, two performances in Oldenburg.

The Siam Sinfonietta, this time with 50 members instead of just 25 last year, opened the 2022 Oldenburg Film Festival on Wednesday night with music from the 1977 sci-fi classic. capricorn oneRespectfully Capricorn Directed by Peter Hyams, the subject of this year’s Oldenburg retrospective.

But the members of Sinfonietta 2022 are not the same engineers as last year’s festival. Shortly after returning from Oldenburg, the Thai orchestra received its first major film role: a performance in Todd Field’s classical music drama. Tar With Cate Blanchett. The orchestra appears in the final scenes of the film and acts as a powerful distortion of Field’s epic oeuvre.

“Children [of the Sinfonietta] “We had a really amazing year,” notes Somtow, “and it started with this weird and wonderful experience in Oldenburg.”

For this year’s final performance, Somtow and Siam Sinfonietta will pay homage to the music of Bernard Herrmann, the legendary composer who created Low Woodwinds, which opens. Citizen Kane (1941), Violins That Scream They Fear Psycho (1960) and the haunting saxophone reflecting Travis Bickle’s inner turmoil Taxi driver (1976).

According to Somtow, Herman’s music was the soundtrack to his childhood. “My mom couldn’t afford a babysitter, so when I was very young, she sat me down in front of the TV and put on these movies, including Vertigo s Psycho“, remember. I think I saw Psycho Eight times when I was really, really young. Music had a big influence on me.”

Reflecting on Herrmann’s influence on film music, Somtow notes that “he invented so much that we now take film music for granted. [All] Film composers use light motifs to represent different characters, but he was the first to do it in a symphonic way, so you can close your eyes and listen to the entire film and know exactly what it is and know the emotions of the film.

Somtow was particularly interested in interpreting Hermann’s 1946 report Anna and the King of Siam. “Bernard was inspired by Indonesian and Balinese music, not Thai, so the music sounds as strange to Thais as it does to Western audiences,” he says. “It’s pretty wild. And very, very interesting. ”

Siam Sinfonietta members didn’t grow up watching Bernard Herrmann films as babysitters, so Somtov said he needed to find a way to impress them with Herrmann’s music and accompanying films, which he had in the audience at the time.

“I would tell them: this song they are playing now was the first time a woman was seen in a black bra in a movie. Or it was accompanied by the first scene of the toilet tank on screen,” he says. “Her eyes widened: it was magical.”

Somtow and Siam Sinfonietta try to bring back some of the magic in Oldenburg for their big encore performance.

“Oldenburg is really like no other,” says Somtow. “I feel comfortable here, really at home. As soon as I left, I looked for an excuse to come back.”