Photos taken during rehearsal at Esplanade Recital Studio. Celluloid Concertos was performed on 17 Dec 2009 to a full-house audience. Many thanks to my friends and students for your support! Eagerly awaiting the next re: mix performance.

What was Lang Lang’s first musical inspiration? Tom and Jerry.

Lang Lang’s story – Journey of a Thousand Miles – is one of Monkey King as his conqueror of fears, almost inhumane practice schedules (yes, even talents need to practise.. a lot..), big sacrifices by hopeful parents and the immense pressures they face, a child’s desperate longing for his mother, and how some luck always comes in handy. This child-prodigy-to-pianist-superstar story is dramatic and inspiring, not only offering a peek into the mind of an imaginative, passionate individual, but also teachers, politics in music, and differing musical and societal cultures. All these set in a very personal, easy-to-read form.

And of course, musical tidbits that should not be missed, such as:

Just as if I became overly conscious of the act of breathing, I would interfere with the natural flow of my breath, if I became overly conscious of the act of playing, I would interfere with my natural instincts and ability. “It is a matter of allowing yourself to feel a flow that is both inside the music and inside you,” he told me. Try not to try, I kept telling myself. And little by little, I got the idea.

- Lang Lang reflecting on advice from Professor Zhao Ping-Guo, his second teacher at Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music

As I played, I felt that he wasn’t judging me but was, rather, appreciating me. He wasn’t looking for what I did wrong but was acknowledging what I did right. When I was through, he had comments about certain phrasings, but he presented them as suggestions rather than commands. He was gentle, and in that sense he reminded me of Professor Zhu. He motivated not by fear but with love – love of the music, love of his proteges, love of the very act of teaching.

- Lang Lang on Gary Graffman, his teacher at Curtis

Follow your own path, be your own man

- Christoph Eschenbach to Lang Lang, on negative critiques

Daniel (Barenboim) taught me that emotions are indispensable ingredients in performing music but that overwrought emotionality can be injurious. The first job of the interpreter is to understand the structure of a piece. Structure is all.

- Lang Lang

Many thanks to Fritz Quartet for providing me the opportunity to guest play in, for a wedding at Chijmes Hall on 5 December. Tze Chuan, the first violinist had another engagement so Yaw Chang took over while I filled the second violin post. In one way or another we have all worked together before – in re: mix with Yaw Chang; Max the violist who is my brother; and Johnny the cellist whom we played together in a quartet in the Aberdeen International Youth Festival (2005) in Scotland!

…..

Also caught them in action at the Esplanade Concourse for their “Celebrate December” performance on 27 December.  In their own words, it was a “subtle” affair, where they played familiar favourites such as “You Raise Me Up”,  “What A Wonderful World” and the intricate Andante Cantabile from Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet no. 1 (brought back memories of the Aberdeen International Youth Festival again where we played this for the chamber music competition). The audience turnout was very good – guess some quiet contemplation was in order after all the shopping/celebrating /feasting madness.

Fritz Quartet official website

Fritz Quartet events blog

A very backdated post considering the week of Pierre Amoyal and the performances by New York Philharmonic were in October, but better late than never, I suppose.

A very ardent fan I was, travelling all the way to the Conservatory Concert Hall at NUS, 3 days in a week to catch violinist Pierre Amoyal perform with the Camerata de Lausanne; perform at his solo recital; and conduct a masterclass for students of the YST Conservatory of Music.

The Camerata de Lausanne led by Pierre Amoyal, performed Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik – clean, light and tight. What really blew me away that night was Nino Rota’s Concerto Per Archi. The hauntingly beautiful melody line in the first movement tugged at the heartstrings. With such fine musicians, Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings was yet another moving account.

Their September performance of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, at Moscow:

Nino Rota’s Concerto Per Archi, performed by Frankfurt Strings:

A change in timing caused me to miss the first hour of the masterclass that Pierre Amoyal conducted, but even then, it was an interesting 2 hours, all the way up to the time he had to leave to catch his flight, though the Strad stayed in the case throughout as well. (fortunately I caught his lunchtime recital the day before). Some snippets (non-verbatim of course!):

• Dynamics – differentiate between p and pp
• Romanticism – French vs German vs Roumanian etc. The French kind is the controlled, speaking (with reference to the beautiful French language), intellectual type
• Bach – seriousness
• Bow – use of bow all the way to the frog; bow speed >> projection (ah, very familiar words from Mr Foo too, who studied at the Conservatoire de Lausanne with Amoyal)
• Dvorak – simple, down-to-earth
• Left hand fingers – use finger tips for fast passages to get cleaner sound

The New York Philharmonic’s coming to Singapore was almost celebrity-like. Thanks to Kyong again, I attended the full-house concert featuring violinist Frank Zimmermann. With Brahms Violin Concerto and Mahler 1 in the programme, it was a heavy affair but the audience lapped it all up. Long standing ovations were given for the Mahler performance, which was monumental. Read review by Lynne Huang.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

“The string sound (…) was gorgeous as it meandered from one climax to another.” — Straits Times Life!From the great era of the Golden Age of Hollywood, comes some of the most haunting and captivating melodies ever to have graced the silver screen.

Join re:mix, Singapore’s “…hippest crossover group” (Straits Times, 23 Dec 2008), Music-Director/Violin-Solo Foo Say Ming with Singapore piano virtuoso Lim Yan, as they pay tribute to great Hollywood features which centred around the colourful and tumultuous lives of their musician-characters.

With music from the great black-and-white classics as Intermezzo(1939), Dangerous Moonlight (1941) and Humoresque (1946), be transported back to the era of the luminous Ingrid Bergman, Joan Crawford and Leslie Howard:

Intermezzo for Violin and Orchestra
(Heinz Provost)
Warsaw Piano Concerto
(Richard Addinsell)
Tristan and Isolde Fantasy for Violin, Piano, and Orchestra
(Richard Wagner – Franz Waxman)

re: mix also pays special homage to the great actor/violinist Charlie Chaplin in presenting Darius Milhaud’s Le Boeuf Sur Le Toit (The Ox on the Roof) for violin and Orchestra, which was originally composed for one of his silent films Cinéma-fantaisie.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

Spending my Thursday and Sunday nights at the arty-farty Old School atop Mount Sophia to rehearse re: mix’s upcoming performance, Celluloid Concertos. Besides my teacher Mr Foo’s violin solo, we have, arguably Singapore’s busiest piano virtuoso, Lim Yan as well. So what’s with “Celluloid” ? A quick Google “define: Celluloid” search reveals:

• highly flammable substance made from cellulose nitrate and camphor; used in e.g. motion-picture and X-ray film; its use has decreased with the development of nonflammable thermoplastics
• film: a medium that disseminates moving pictures; “theater pieces transferred to celluloid”; “this story would be good cinema”; “film coverage of sporting events”
• artificial as if portrayed in a film; “a novel with flat celluloid characters”
  wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

So, a rather apt title then!

Some of the music were originally written for orchestra and thus re-arranged by our local composers, one of them being Chen Zhangyi who is at Peabody now.

The music is haunting… captivating… and even……. weird….

Gareth and Susan held their wedding solemnization luncheon on 20 Sep 2009 at Space @ My Humble House (at the Esplanade) and I was engaged to play at their event.

Performed for 30 min as the guests were arriving, then another 30 min after the solemnization as the guests were enjoying their lunch. Played a mixture of classical pieces such as Schubert’s Ave Maria, Bach’s Air and ballads like Moon River and Can’t Help Falling In Love. The familiar Mendelssohn’s Wedding March created fanfare for the bride’s march-in.

Once again thanks to Gareth and Susan for your engagement and photos!

Here’s my student, Erika, playing the Happy Birthday song for her sister! Much effort went into this video – putting on make-up, doing a couple of re-takes due to nervousness, and some soothing and bribing of a little boy at home – but it finally came out fine! Happy Birthday Erika’s sis!

The inspiration behind MKU Remote Control (Dunman High School String Ensemble’s May concert) ?

Was trying out my violins (let’s call them: mr. lousy, ms. ok and mr. good) again tonight and the uncanny feeling hit me yet again – why does it feel so much easier to play in tune on mr. lousy and ms. ok, compared to mr. good? (mr. lousy bought for experimenting and lending to students; trained on ms. ok for most part of my life; mr. good is on loan since last year) Then it just hit upon me to measure the string lengths, and voila,  mr. good violin has a longer string length (most probably due to my own adjustment of the bridge when experimenting with different strings) compared to mr. lousy and ms. ok. Went online for more information and with great relief, adjusted mr. good’s string length to the “standard” 328mm.

Links for future reference:

Joseph Curtin Studios: Set-up and Adjustments

Violins & Violinist, Stop – Neck – and String Length

As usual, got distracted by other articles, and uncovered these gems for “preservation” as well.

But now, and finally, what of the teaching of appreciation? My answer is that for the sake of the children and of music do not try to teach it; although you might try to educate it. That is, don’t try to describe it or to explain it into the children, but try to bring it out of the children.

…

“Appreciation,” says Plato, “is not capable of expression like other branches of study; but after long intercourse with the thing itself, and after it has been lived with, suddenly, as when the fire leaps up and the light kindles, it is found in the soul and feeds itself there.”

The Teaching of Appreciation of Music
By Max Schoen, Ph.D., Carnegie Institute of Technology

Attended another performance by re: mix. This time, with Offshoots, re: mix shows that they are not just about “crossover” music, yet, still not all “traditionally classical”. What with minimalist John Adams’ Shaker Loops’ hynoptic sonic effects, and Kelly Tang’s 2 Contrasts for Solo violin and String Orchestra that was – if I could say so – a fusion of classical and jazz/blues! (which brings to mind Kelly Tang’s Tang-ology heard at the Jeremy Monteiro with T’ang Quartet concert earlier this May). Mr Foo’s Devil’s Trill was safe but totally enjoyable. Much more detail in Mr Chang’s review (I especially agree with the annoying electronic keyboard and Mr Foo’s rather entertaining terpsichorean moves .

Cancelled the night’s classes to watch Ms Tang Tee Khoon’s PORTRAiTS recital. With the popular Kreutzer, Brahms’ heavy and romantic A major and one of Ysaÿe’s challenging and violinistic Solos, it was a good evening of sonatas which attracted a fair bit of audience, who also came to hear the fresh new recipient perform on the nation’s Guadagnini. Mr Chang’s review.

With all that “serious” music, it was refreshing to have caught JUMP (thanks Kyong again!), a Korean comic martial arts performance that is just plain hilarious and impressive. Do catch it if you have the chance!