To celebrate the auspicious occasion of King Vajiralongkorn's 70th birthday on July 28, a fantastic, brand new Concerto For Alto Saxophone And Orchestra was commissioned and performed by the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra (RBSO) at the Thailand Cultural Centre on July 22. Composed by Thailand's foremost classical composer Prof Narongrit Dhamabutra, the soloist was a musician of truly worldwide stature, the Greek virtuoso Theodore Kerkezos.
Narongrit's musical style is typically full of vitality and sparkling orchestral textures, and his brilliant output has formed an important backbone of the RBSO's repertoire since the 1990s. Not only regarded as Thailand's most significant living composer, he is also generally recognised regionally as one of the most significant composers in Asia as a whole. This new piece displayed all the familiar characteristics of his fertile, inventive mind, but was also marked very clearly by the mature voice of seasoned experience.
