There was a pervading sense of mystery and uncertainty as the Bandung Philharmonic concluded Krakatoa, a musical composition by Stacy Garrop, at the Hilton Hotel, in Bandung, West Java.

The concert left the audience picturing the plumes of volcanic ash that erupted from the mountain in 1883 and caused major changes to the globe’s climate.  

The devastating eruption of Krakatoa, a volcano in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, was, in Garrop’s interpretation, captured by an orchestra that excluded a brass section.

“Immanent”, the pieces first movement, was dominated by string instruments producing indistinct yet harmonious sounds, capturing the atmosphere of insecurity that was experienced as the disaster loomed.

In the second movement, “Eruption”, the percussionist several times rubbed a bow against a gong, which alongside the brief rumbling accents of the string section, created a sound reminiscent of growing volcanic activity.

After the climax, which signaled the gigantic explosion of the volcano, the rhythm of the percussion slowed — Garrop’s way of interpreting the moment when the thick volcanic ash filled the sky, bringing darkness.

Violist Michael Hall played a cadenza to illustrate the mountain’s moments of rest, with the soloist and viola professor at VanderCook College of Music in Chicago demonstrating his harmonic techniques in the third movement, “Dormant”.

The combination of Hall’s high tones and the sound of the full orchestra captured the mix of enthusiasm and hesitation people must have felt before resuming everyday life in the wake of the mighty eruption.

It took one year for Garrop to finally present her work to the public. With the aid of a grant from the Barlow Foundation, the United States composer cooperated with Michael Hall and Bandung Philharmonic conductor and musical director Robert Nordling to stage her latest composition
in Indonesia.

“When we received the grant to write these pieces, Michael told me one word and that was ‘volcano’. So I did some research into the area [Indonesia] and came across Krakatoa,” Garrop said.

In addition to foreign compositions, the orchestra also performed Aki Manggul Awi, a work by versatile Bandung artist Tan De Seng, which was arranged by Fauzi Wiriadisastra, a local composer and co-founder of the Bandung Philharmonic. While the original piece was written to be performed with a traditional Sundanese instrument called kecapi and flutes, at this concert it featured only wind
instruments.

Nordling, with 65 orchestra musicians, opened the concert with the national anthem, “Indonesia Raya” (The Great Indonesia), followed by Edvard Grieg’s “Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 Op. 46”, which was divided into four numbers — “Morning Mood”, “The Death of Åse”, “Anitra’s Dance” and “The Hall of The
Mountain King”.

As the fluttering of flutes began and the other instruments responded, “Morning Mood” captured the scene of sunrise in a village, where dew drops cling to leaves and the blue sky emerges.

For “The Death of Åse”, Nordling used the string and brass sections to create a dark, gloomy and distressing atmosphere. This was juxtaposed with the third number, “Anitra’s Dance”, which featured the use of a triangle to create a sound reminiscent of a champagne glass being struck by a spoon to draw attention at a party, before the scene turns to confusion, as captured by the quick accents of the string players.

For the final number, “The Hall of The Mountain King”, the audience was taken on a journey of feelings from peacefulness, to sadness, madness and humor. The piece was originally intended to enliven the drama Peer Gynt by Hendrik Ibsen, about a man who shirks all responsibilities and finds himself in trouble.

There was a sense of excitement in the air during the rendition of “Night on Bald Mountain” by Modest Mussorgsky, based on the arrangement of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The performance was intense, and created the feeling of being chased by something unnerving and enormous.

Everything suddenly came to a halt when a triangle was struck, followed by the crashing of cymbals. The soothing sounds of the violins and cellos then gradually offered a feeling of hopefulness to conclude the final part of the story of sorcerers, who are forced to take flight as the sun rises, symbolizing the never-ending nature of expectations.  

The first performance of the Bandung Philharmonic in 2018 received a warm response with 700 seats occupied in the hotel’s ballroom for the Krakatoa concert.

The concert was the orchestra’s seventh performance since its debut in 2016. The orchestra, the first professional orchestra in Bandung, is set to stage three more concerts at the hotel this year.

Nordling, who is also the founder and musical director of the Bay Chamber Symphony Orchestra in San Francisco, said the Bandung Philharmonic had remarkable appeal, with the diverse backgrounds of its players and the variety of compositions it performed making it distinctive. The Bandung Philharmonic performs a new piece of music by an Indonesian composer at each of its concerts.

“Many orchestras play new pieces of music in their season, but not too many play a brand new piece at every concert. That’s something we are very proud of and something the players of Bandung Philharmonic should be proud of,” Nordling said.

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