Lifted on the wings of sound

Musical traditions from all corners of the globe come to Bangkok in October. Make sure your ears don't miss out

Since its inception in 1999, Bangkok's International Festival of Dance and Music has served up one of the richest diversities of musical genres the world has to offer. Last year, we were thrilled by salsa from Cuba, tango from Argentina and Indian music. This year's festival offers even more, with four different musical traditions set to exhilarate Bangkok audiences courtesy of Britain, Russia, Austria and Portugal. All these performances are scheduled for October, so check the programme and make the most of your time there.

Opening the musical segment of the festival is "The Blue Planet Live" on October 3. This theatrical concert promises a new musical experience - it's a live show with a giant high-definition screen and accompanied with a full-scale orchestra and choir.

The screen portrays the editor' best cuts from the award-winning BBC nature documentary "Blue Planet". The show presents amazing ocean film sequences of marine species in their natural habitat: majestic whales, spinning dolphins, quirky deep-sea creatures. These scenes are accompanied by music from an orchestra and choir that attempt to capture the broad spectrum of emotions evoked by the ocean denizens' follies and foibles.

The Emmy Award-winning score was composed by George Fenton (Oscar nominee for film scores of "Gandhi", "Dangerous Liaisons", "Cry Freedom", "The Fisher King", "Anna and The King". The show is conducted by Richard Harvey, the composer of the movie scores of Suriyothai' and 'Naruesan 4'.

On October 7, Ekaterinburg State Symphony Orchestra & Chorus of the Ekaterinburg State Opera and Ballet Theatre, one of the oldest opera theatres in Russia, is here to perform a programme under the baton of Mikhail Granovsky from the Bolshoi Theatre.

Famed for its balanced and beautiful sound, the orchestra will first perform Borodin's Symphony No 2, the composer's most important large-scale work. It's believed that when Borodin composed this symphony, he had historical Russian knights in mind. Each movement displays power, playfulness, lyricism and liveliness. Part Two is Beethoven's final complete symphony, Symphony No 9. It was the first major one to use vocals and the choral finale, with words from the poem "Ode to Joy" is often referred to a 'symphony within a symphony'.

Next is a concert by the Vienna Boys Choir on October 12. The choir has four travelling groups, each named after famous Austrian composers associated with the choir's history. Founded by Emperor Maximilian I in 1498 to sing exclusively for the court, at mass and on state occasions, the choirs are of equal standing. Tours, appearances in Vienna and recording projects are shared among them. Each has a choirmaster, two tutors and prefects who travel with the boys. For this Bangkok concert, the Haydn choir will be in town.

The 25 singers of the choir range in age from 10 to 14. They are a mixed bunch: the boys come from Vienna, Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg, from Germany, France, Hungary, Japan, Singapore, and even from Australia. They are all blessed with pure soprano voices and transparent harmonies.

Their songbook covers centuries and, after becoming a private institution in 1918, very different styles - from medieval hymns to Strauss to pop (including The Beatles).

The last performance sees fado music returns to the festival once more. Two years ago it was Mariza, the world's foremost exponent of the singing style called fado, who amazed the Thai audience. This year it will be the turn of Katia Guerreiro, "Best Performer of Fado 2010" and one of Portugal's bumper crop of fadistas. She performs her first concert in Bangkok on October 13, courtesy of the Portuguese embassy.

Fado is urban Portuguese blues traditionally sung in smoky tavernas and accompanied by Portugal's indigenous, sweet-sounding, 12-string guitar. It's widely believed that the Portuguese royal court brought fado with it when it returned in the mid-19th century from a decade's exile in Brazil. The lyrics embrace saudade (loosely translated as "nostalgia") and its nuances - longing, happiness, sadness, love and pain.

Guerreiro's alto voice and her ability to pull around the tempo of songs in dramatic surges - alternately wistful, flirtatious, heartbroken or in full-throated vibrato - is perfect for the intimate drama of Lisbon fado.

In 2010, Guerreiro received the highest accolade for a Fadista - the "Best Performer of Fado" award - from the Amalia Rodrigues Foundation. Her songbook is selected from the great contemporary Portuguese poets and she will be backed by Portuguese guitarra (a type of 12-stringed mandolin), classical guitar and double bass.

All concerts kick off at 7.30pm at the Thailand Cultural Centre. For details and ticket prices, go to www.BangkokFestivals.com. Book seats at www.ThaiTicketMajor.com or call (02) 02 262 3191.