When pondering how to spend a weekend afternoon, a classical music performance might not be high on your list. But, if you've buffed up on when to applause (clue: wait until at least three other people have started and not stopped), ironed your smart-casual shirt and respectable jeans and arranged to have enough time to get all the way out to the quiet old streets of Lad Phrao, Sala Sudasiri Sobha might just change your mind.
You needn't be a classical enthusiast to appreciate the effort that has gone in to making this Sala a rich and inviting celebration of music. From the moment you pull into the quiet courtyard halfway down the leafy Soi 41 of Lad Phrao road you feel the bucolic warmth of the understated, fresh wood entrance way. Arrive anytime before the performance begins to find people enjoying canapés and refreshments in the reception hall in the left wing. The reception hall also serves drinks and assorted cakes after the concert, where you'll get a chance to mingle with the performers as well as the other guests.
The house is a labour of love for the Yontararak family and their royal patron, Princess Sudasiri Sobha, starting as just a simple music school the building has expanded out over the last thirty years to accommodate twenty-five grand pianos and several, smaller ensemble rooms for gatherings and private performances. The family are all musical and the children find their way onto the concert programs often.
The concert hall is intimate, the acoustics designed to bring the audience closer to the performance, and seats around 200 people in the pit and mezzanine. The stage is backed and flanked by two storey high floor to ceiling windows allowing light to dance in between the gaps in the hanging grommet curtains and seemingly bathes the stage in golden warmth.
Behind the reception a pathway runs up the side of an internal garden walled with Iberian style arches and columns. The path leads back to the school, which is open and guests are free to walk around and spy in on a piano lesson or singing class.
Whether you're a genuine lover of the genre or a fan of music in general you'll find Sala Sudasiri Sobha welcoming and thoroughly unpretentious. There's a wide variety of piano, flute, harp and classical guitar performances to look forward to over the remainder of the year, here's whats on over the next two months.
Coming up during August and September
On the 16th, Japanese pianist Moto Shibui performs pieces by Bach, Rachmaninov, Chopin and Liszt.
On the 23rd, gifted Thai flutist Chatchawarn Atthakijokosol, Slovenian flutist Alenka Zupan and Thai pianist Pana Yontarak will perform pieces by Mozart, Friedrich Kuhlau and Franz Doppler amongst others.
On September 6th celebrated global phenomenon Ang Li stops by on her world tour to perform some of her stellar repertoire after concerts in Korea and the Philippines and before heading on to the USA.
On September 13th there will be a performance by a flute and horn quartet, and on September 21st Hiroshi Matsushima and Paul Cesarczyk of Mahidol University's music department will perform pieces by Schubert, amongst others, on the flute and classical guitar.
All of the concerts begin at 7:30pm with drinks and nibbles held in the reception from 6:30pm, dinner is served afterwards. All of the proceeds from the concerts and other events held at the Sala Sudasiri Sobha go towards their charity The Gift of Life Foundation which helps sufferers of blood disease.
To get there
Head up Lad Phrao road to Soi 35 and turn inside the Soi; continue down until you see the sign for Ladphrao 35 Yaek 2 (it's slightly hidden so don't go too fast or you might overshoot) halfway up Yaek 2 turn right and you'll see signs for Sala Sudasiri Sobha. You can also take Lad Phrao 41 and and turn left onto Yaek 7. For those of you driving there's ample parking space and those taking public transport there's a minivan to and from MRT Lad Phrao.
Originally posted at:
https://bangkok.oneplace.events/articles/review/sala-sudasiri-sobha-classical-music-in-bangkok