The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The National Radio of Spain has chosen Anandamania, composed by Santiago Lanchares and played by Indonesian-born pianist Ananda Sukarlan, to represent Spain this June at the International Rostrum of the UNESCO Music Council in Vienna. This is the second time Ananda will be involved in this international event.
Anandamania is, as the title suggests, written for and dedicated to Ananda Sukarlan by prominent Spanish composer Santiago Lanchares (b. 1952). It was premiered earlier this year at the Auditorio Nacional, Madrid, during Ananda's recital of the complete works of Santiago Lanchares for the piano.
The recital was attended by, among others, the Indonesian Ambassador, and received a standing ovation by the audience, and by enthusiastic critics in Spanish newspapers. Broadcast live on the Radio Nacional de Espaa, one week later it was decided that the recording of the virtuoso and brilliant Anandamania would be the Spanish representative to compete internationally at UNESCO for 2003.
Further performances of Anandamania played by its dedicatee have already been scheduled in many cities across Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the U.S. If all goes well this season, Anandamania will become the most popular Spanish solo piece for the piano -- it will be performed live in more than 20 cities around the world less than six months after its world premiere last April.
According to a press release, all the competing musicians are new, and therefore are not widely known to the public. It is unusual for a new work to gain immediate popularity, as Anandamania has done. Ananda himself is the first foreigner to represent Spain.
Ananda represented Spain before in 2001, with another piece dedicated to him by brilliant young composer Jess Torres (born in 1965). At that time, he shared the nomination with the Orquesta de Radio y Television Espaa and principal conductor Enrique Garcia Asensio playing Torres' Concerto for piano and orchestra, which won the Queen Sofia Prize in 2000.
However, it is not the first time a foreigner has represented a country. This happened many times before, as when Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen represented the U.S. (conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra) and New Zealand composer Lyell Cresswell won a prize while representing the UK.
If Anandamania wins the UNESCO Prize, its world premiere recording will be broadcast in at least 30 countries.
Spain has never won this competition. ""We really hope for good news this time! One advantage we have is that Anandamania is by far the most popular and widely known piece among the other competitor pieces, and the jury should take that into account,"" said Sonya Pedriza, a representative at Ananda Sukarlan's office in Spain, by e-mail on Friday.
Every year, the UNESCO Music Council holds a competition in which all UNESCO member countries participate, choosing the best recording of the year by its classical radio station for the competition. The winners are broadcast across all radio stations in every member country.
Under the plan, the competition's jury -- representatives of the national classical music radio stations from all over the world, while from Spain, it is Mr. Jose M. Berea, an executive of the Radio Nacional de Espaa -- will meet on June 15 and announce the results at that date. No jury member may vote for the candidate of his own country.
At present, Ananda Sukarlan has also recorded the piece on CD, along with the complete piano works of Lanchares, to be released early in 2004.
Meanwhile, Ananda maintains a busy schedule. He will stop by in Jakarta -- a performance of Anandamania is planned for July 18 -- just before he launches his Australian and New Zealand Tour, and is also scheduled to be back in town to play Beethoven's Emperor concerto with the Jakarta Symphony Orchestra on Aug. 13. A day after the show, he will depart for Spain to perform in the summer palace of the Royal Family on Aug. 17.
