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i am “in search of… [dashing] talented intellectual musicians!“, i declared to f the other day… musing over the fact that i DO have an utterly deep soft-spot for such creatures. of course, f was adamant that such persons are very rare, indeed. i refused to be dissuaded… challenges are attractive in ways we know far too well; that the rewards are reaped with more enjoyment when sought with fiery passion.

i was really only embarking on my ‘wee’ mission, which germinated in my subconsciousness possibly since infancy… but i seem to have discovered one, not quite a week since i professed about it! not bad for progress, eh?

the musical knight is Yevgeny Sudbin, russian by birth, and a rising star in the world of piano soloists… his performance last sunday provided a refreshing musical discourse on the influences that modern composers derived from their predecessors. progressing through the baroque, to the classical and romantic eras… he introduced lesser-known post-romantic Scriabin’s rather flamboyantly emotional sonatas… suffused with the quirks and idiosyncracies of Chopin’s tenderness, the angst-ridden Beethoven, the folksie-rhythms of Liszt… and the romance of Rachmaninoff… mingled into a nearly modern classic-jazz fusion… utterly mind-blowing stuff.

i was also rather taken by the fact that Yevgeny reflected on the life and influences of the composers, who penned some of the technically challenging pieces he chose to perform… trying to appreciate their intentions… the experiences that shape their musical creativity, and his interpretations of those pieces that he studied and played… this added personal touch kind of bridges the distant formal communication of a concert programme and the actual performance… and it’s certainly something quite positively refreshing.

i’ve been extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to hear some incredibly talented artists (e.g. András Schiff, David Helfgott, Sarah Chang, Alfred Brendel, Ralph Kirschbaum, Leon Fleischer, Anne Akiko Meyers, etc.) render some profound interpretations of the great masters…
although, i think, it is even more incredible when they are able to offer you a reassessment of your pre-conceived partial view of the works of those classical masters; e.g. that of Mozart, who is hailed as the child-prodigy and who is known to have penned heavenly music… yet despite the fact that his works are very often prettily composed and diverse in similar (but never the same) themes and variations… they don’t always pull my heartstrings, for i feel that they are often played, coldly (whether intuitively or interpreted as such)… and somewhat distant.
what violin virtuoso Anne-Sophie Mutter did in her performance on wednesday was quite refreshing… adding colour, texture and depth to the notes of Mozart’s violin sonatas and making them more rousing and alive than i’ve ever thought his music could be capable of.
i first heard of Anne-Sophie as a little girl/ teenager growing up in singapore… i heard her name being annouced over the radio programme (very likely the short-wave BBC world-service that my papa fiddles with…) and then her playing… and always wondered who this incredible person, and where germany might be… and whether i will ever get to see her and hear her play, live… someday.
i did so last wednesday evening… saw her walked onto the stage in her beautiful blue floral-print mermaid dress with her accompanist Lambert Orkis. they only briefly took their positions and began their repertoire without hesitation… there’s something powerfully alluring in her playing which kept me captivated… (even when some audiences left their wretched cell-phones on! utterly annoying twats…) … and even made me reconsider my partiality towards Mozart’s composition.
perched up on the closest balcony, with a splendid view of the musicians, i could admire Anne-Sophie bowing, and fingering all the notes across the finger board of her beautiful instrument, and watch her anticipation of various phrases… i love the intimacy… which one doesn’t really get in a larger orchestral setting. pity though, that there aren’t many such performances throughout the year… although, it is probably good for my wee pocket… =C) for i am a sucker for inspiring artsy stuff…
nearly reaching the end of her Mozart tour… her last stops are in the US… with 3 different programmes to choose from, she delighted the audience with a selection of violin sonatas in A, C, E flat, G, and B flat. i particularly enjoyed her 2 encores… when she played the Menuetto from Mvt 3 of the Divertimento in D (K. 334) with such passion, and the lyrical slow movement of the sonata in E minor (K. 304)… it was perhaps where Mozart meets Bach… soulful and penetrating… and even more wonderfully so, because Anne-Sophie Mutter enjoyed herself too.

Look at the stars,
Look how they shine for you,
And everything you do,
Yeah, they were all yellow.
I came along,
I wrote a song for you,
And all the things you do,
And it was called “Yellow.”
So then I took my turn,
Oh what a thing to have done,
And it was all “Yellow.”
Your skin
Oh yeah, your skin and bones,
Turn into something beautiful,
You know, you know I love you so,
You know I love you so.
I swam across,
I jumped across for you,
Oh what a thing to do.
Cos you were all “Yellow,”
I drew a line,
I drew a line for you,
Oh what a thing to do,
And it was all “Yellow.”
Your skin,
Oh yeah your skin and bones,
Turn into something beautiful,
And you know
For you I’d bleed myself dry
For you I’d bleed myself dry
It’s true, look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for,
Look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine.
Look at the stars,
Look how they shine for you,
And all the things that you do.
— © Coldplay —

i couldn’t get this out of my head yesterday… sucha lovely song… ain’t it?!
<! http://www.alwaysontherun.net/coldplay.htm#5
*ps: i just remembered that a year ago, i was @ the concert!

i had a wonderful dance class last tuesday evening… leaving me buzzing in my head as i cycled home to a nice refreshing shower… and a great feeling of… oooh i love dancing!
i will never forget the first dancing debut i premiered as a wee toddler at the kindergarten (german spelling here) that me brothers and i went to… a bunch of toddlers from the 3-4yr-old class were (probably randomly?!) selected to dance a waltz-like set-dance in couples probably for the Christmas concert at the Church which ran the kindergarten … the whole affair of the waltzing seems, in retrospect, slightly pompy (like austrians; my act of stereotypy) and civilized for such tenderness… and to bring in a comparison, my 2nd-elder brother was dressed up as a red-indian in his class dance in the same fanfare, which i think was probably a lot of fun, if not more… in fact, i never got to see him in his performance, and i wondered if he, mine! but mummy made papa take photos of us, and so we have evidence to prove i am not making this up! =C)
what i fondly remembered was that there was a pair of twins in my dance and they both wore pink ballet slippers in the actual performance, which completely intrigued me from the moment i took notice of their perculiarity… i was instantly fascinated by the slippers… partly because i kinda thought i liked the colour pink, and partly because i thought they made you dance even more sweetly… i honestly don’t remember who my tolerant partner was… but i presume (hahah!) he must have been rather dashing… we all looked beautiful in the pictures… and i had a lovely new white (or was it yellow?!) dress and black (?) mary-janes to match… and i have no doubt that i absolutely enjoyed myself in the performance… it’s great being 3! you don’t really care who’s watching… as long as your parents are out there witnessing your spectacular display of some potentially budding talent! OR just simply supporting you in making a fool of your poor self at such a tender age!
what i came out of the experience was that i found dancing or prancing about very fun, probably because it’s great having an equally good-dancing partner… and i SO wanted a pair of ballet slippers and to LEARN how TO DANCE in them!
that wish eventually came true, if only quite a few years later… after trying to move like a cat and tinkering bits of Pink-Panther theme with my fellow Yamaha mates in the annual music-school concert, and after some years doing what they called “Chinese Dancing” at the primary school, an extra-curricular activity, which was run by two very scary chinese women, one of whom was also my Chinese teacher, who HIT you with a WOODEN ruler or THREW the chalk-board DUSTER at you for not remembering how to write your newly learnt character (those were days when hitting was acceptable as a form of punishment — many adults thought it was okay… but i, and other sensible beings, thought it was ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING and inhumane!)… all these traumatic experiences, and you wonder why i hate school and rote learning (and a particularly evil piano teacher i had)?!… and finally after we relocated to another home closer to the ballet school i got acquainted with the Royal Academy of Dancing syllabus and what would be my first introduction to the FRENCH language from a wonderful dance teacher.
to be honest, i didn’t realise how difficult classical ballet would be… despite seeming effortless! i entered the whole ballet-thing very very late compared to my peers who have either got themselves out of it, or stayed on with their weekly classes, and as such, i had a lot (like YEARS!) to catch up… and a new vocabulary in a new language to learn, and that’s not as if i wasn’t having enough trouble with English and Mandarin Chinese…
starting directly at the middle of grade 3, i advanced on to senior levels, got to dance 2 roles in the Nutcracker production one year, and finally got chosen to take the board exams when i was still at secondary school. at Sylvia McCully’s you don’t simply take exams; she kinda picks you, and you are asked to consider if you will embark in the preparatory classes… it is little wonder that it meant a lot to me…
this whole exam-procedure was very different from my experience with music lessons… which has left me with a big emotional scar and is an experience that i am still trying to cope with after all these years. suffice to say, it certainly helped mould the inner being i have become… and i am glad for standing up to what i think is right… and thankfully, my passion for all things musical was not dampened in the process…
it took me rather long to decide about the exam… i ABHORE exams… and my awful experiences with attaining certificates of musical aptitude have made me weary of such pursuits… and then, there was school, gym-training, and music lessons — which i might have stopped taking (by then) as a very naughty but necessary rebellious act of will; i shall call it self-preservation… the amazing thing was, once i’d made up my mind, i even paid for the whole endeavour with my modest red-packet savings (money one gets from Lunar New Year as children) … and i worked real hard on it… and on making sure i didn’t neglect the other bits of my school-life.
unlike my dance partner who took the exam with me, i was a complete amateur in such formal dance critique… she was very confident… and technically much stronger, but i guess i excelled in areas which were less classically constrained… the free-expression parts in the new syllabus; where one got to listen to some 32-bars of music and you were to express yourself in your own way throughout and end up in your own kind of a pose… i absolutely loved it. so, despite being new to the whole thing, i did better than anyone expected… scoring a few marks lower than my partner, who ended up with the best score that year, yet, i got to join her in receiving the highest grade… i couldn’t believe it!
although that was the very first and the only dance exam i’ve taken and though i had a couple of serious ankle injuries from gymnastics… i didn’t really stop dancing… even if i had to say goodbye to my dance teacher and head offshore to experience life in another part of the world… in a way, the whole dancing episode i had while i was growing up in singapore was probably an experience which marked a few significant changes in my life!
while away from home, i danced at the college in wales in international evenings put up by students, i embraced scottish ceilidhs, and sought ballet classes like the ones i had at Ms McCully’s even though i have never found any quite like hers… i even tried modern dance in germany despite being very hopeless with the language… but none of them was quite like the dance classes i grew up knowing… and appreciated while i was away.
it wasn’t till i came to the usa, and spotted dancers rehearsing in the floor above a hardware store in the Saint Paul City Ballet one evening in early winter (while i was walking towards the bus stop with my groceries from WholeFoods, along Grand) when it occured to me that maybe they might have open adult classes i could go to and meet new people… it was also a place i could get to without a car!
and so i discovered to my happiness, that the adult classes were very similar to those i had bade goodbye to a decade ago… and in addition, i learnt too, that these classes have a long history and tradition that dated back to the old russian school of dancing which is nearly as old as the history of ballet itself… in fact, the ballet school in st. paul has it’s roots in the Ballet Russes, which is a ballet company set up by Diaghilev in 1909 who with his choreographers, kept the art of dance alive in times of revolution, and whose vision and passion in the arts revived ballet in the western european cities, linked many musicians and artists together in the creation of his ballet productions, and is one of the main persons who introduced classical ballet to the new world.
thanks to divine happenstance, i recently watched the documentary of the surviving prima-ballerinas/nos of the Ballets Russes, released as a zeitgeist film on my flight back to the UK, and was amazed by the challenging experiences that these talented dancers had gone through… and how they could survive on so little; fuelled primarily by their passion for dance…
but perhaps there is, in everyone, an innate need to be challenged and to want to dance and express themselves through movement… whether or not you think you are good at it. indeed, i do think it would be wonderful if everyone, and i mean everyone… could simply “Dance as though no one is watching you… (Souza)” … so go on, i am *not* watching!

this entry is much over-due… as with my update on my trip to the UK, as with my update on my neverending ski-annecdotes…
oh well.
if there’s one thing (among others which i can recall!) which i didn’t get to do when i was back in the UK, it was to go to the theatres and orchestra halls… that used to be quite a norm… but i was out of luck… the spectacular Edinburgh Fringe and the outstanding Edinburgh International Festivals didn’t start till late july / early august and most of the interesting bits at the London Royal Opera House were long snapped up before i got there… and then just when i left the 2 great Russian Ballets are performing during the same season! how unfair! i would love to watch either a Boshoi or Kirov… in fact, i truly admire the Russian ballet style (which has a nice combination of French, Itallian and native Russian influences) and am very glad to have gone through some of its schooling…
but apart from technical rigour, ballerinas rely on music to express themselves… and it is music that is the topic of my blog entry.
SOMMERFEST is here in the Twin-cities… and while resident conductor, Osmo Vänskä, takes a wee break from the scene we have Andrew Litton, who leads the summer concerts. i got to learn about this series of musical events nearly 3 weeks after it started… partly because i was away and partly because i was busy trying to settle back into the ’swing’ of things… which i am still struggling… but J, my classical-music-loving colleague and all-things artsy/literary-friend at work thought i needed to be educated about this annual experience and checked on me about my awareness… to which i responded flabergasted. i have undoubtedly missed some chamber concerts i’d like to have attended!
nevertheless, i got a free ticket and used it to catch <a href=”http://www.anneakikomeyers.com/biography. Anne Akiko Meyers dazzle the audience with a beautifully alluring rendition of Barber’s String Concerto, and Litton playing Gershwin with much enjoyment… Gershwin is a genius.
then, as one thing often lead to another, i discovered that Dave Brubeck would be in town for a night with his quartet!
my encounter with Brubeck’s jazz is, like most things in my wee life, quite random… yet, there is, at times, beauty in apparent ‘chaos’… i stumbled upon Dave and Desmond’s Duets some years ago when i was back in Edinburgh, visiting from Germany… while i really enjoy jazz, i didn’t know much about the jazz-scene… i didn’t even know how amazing Dave Brubeck is… my vocabulary for jazz was pretty much limited to Ella, Louis, Billie, Nina, and Keith Jarrett… and even today, i can’t claim to have a better knowledge… perhaps a wider exposure… but like many of my cds, they are acquired simply because the music appeal … no matter how obscure the composer, or performer might be… a rule that pretty much works miracles!
those who are familiar with Brubeck and Desmond will know their hits, “Take5“, which Paul wrote… and “Blue Rondo a la Turk“, which Dave penned while on tour in Turkey… these two numbers are synonymous with their names… but i like the ‘lesser-known’ ones… like “Alice in Wonderland”… “Blue Dove” and his solos. it is rare to hear him play these days and while he gets even older, these public performances will become even more special… but i’ve never heard him live before… so when one gets a chance to enjoy the Dave Brubeck Quartet perform… you don’t simply pass the opportunity over… unless, of course, the odds are working against you… the concert was completely SOLD OUT by the time i discovered about it and inquired at the ticketing office… while i expected its popularity, i didn’t expect that there won’t be any tickets left particularly when the performance was scheduled on a tuesday… refusing to accept this fact, i pestered the ticket office personnel on the phone… and just as i was inquiring if there might be any possibility of any tickets appearing from ‘returns’… the chap over the phone said that 2 tickets just came up on the system… YES!!!
the lucky ticket got me into the concert hall with a view of Dave Brubeck pretty close-up… i could see him from his back tinkering on the Steinway, Michael Moore on the bass, that was when Bobby Militello didn’t block my view with his jolly large boggie woogie when he’s having a wee break from playing the sax or the flute… and Randy Jones drumming up rhythms… it was AWESOME… just simply enjoying the fact that the people on stage were all having a ball of a time playing these numbers:

of the selection of blues the audience got to enjoy, i think i really grew fond of the “Theme for June“… it was composed by Dave’s brother, Howard… and offered lots of soulful lyrical phrases for the pianist to express himself… it got me wondering what a “theme for may” might be like… hmmm… but one thing i was certain was i felt 100% better after being at the concert… and my splitting headache (from lack of sleep!) disappeared! a bit of jazz a day keeps insanity at bay… hah!
although some people would beg to differ… and some believe that Mozart’s music is a marvellous antidote to life’s stress… good thing that there’s a plethora of gorgeous music out there… but i have to admit that some of Mozart’s pieces are really quite remarkable, particularly when you hear them perform live in a bigger setting than it is actually written for, ie. the modern chamber orchestra as oppose to a quintet. … with subtle changes in the thematic contours of the melodies, Mozart is able to create some pretty pieces with a dramatic side to them, rendering a modern catchiness to them and a lasting attachment to his name.
but i am a little bias… and i still prefer BACH and jazz… and modern romantiques… like Rachmaninov, Ravel, Debussy…etc … and the beautiful rhythms you find all over the world… oh yaaah….

THU-duum-DA DEEEEE TWee-thAAA .. .. .. THU-duum-DA DEEEEE TWee-thAAA .. .. .. THU-duum-DA DEEEEE TWee-thAAA .. .. ..

— and you keep doing that by just stomping with your feet and slapping your hands on your heels and clapping… and if enough people join in, we’ll have a great rhythmic symphony of body movements…

i paid a visit to the new moma after some 5 years since i was there… between 4-8p.m. on TARGET-free-Fridays… it was packed! 5 years ago i thought we got in free with a voluntary contribution… 5 years ago things were less security-hyped… 5 years ago… i thought the museum-building felt more friendly… less ‘enclosed’ and less walled-up… more OPEN, free, spacious… it’s just me… i could be conjuring it all up for all you know!
i had fun though, but i think i might prefer the old moma… where i took some of my favourite black-&-white photos with the lovely old manual canon AE1… 5 years ago?! time certainly flew…

there are certainly lots of new pieces at the museum and some old favourites… i certainly like my Monet water-lilies in large canvases… and i love the pretty patterns of shadows… and the interplay of people and spaces… isn’t that huge Miro (far-right of the stitched pics collage) colourful?!
but what really caught my eye and stuck in my memory are two very lovely pieces by the Austrian artist who was rather modern for his time, Gustav Klimt: Hope and The Park… that looked much lovelier in the museum than they do virtually.

may i humbly recommend Sir Murray Perahia’s sensitively rendered Goldberg Variations by none other than one of my favourite composers of all time… J. S. Bach… purely for your listening pleasure… of course… over a cuppa, naturally! =C)

this is the Alexander Calder mobile [above] that is hung in the east-wing of the national gallery of art in washington d.c. and a few smaller works (methinks by him too) that render the lovely shadowy-play with the lighting [below]… they share some resemblance to Henri Matisse’s paper cuts (mentioned below) but the wonderful thing about these mobiles is that as they move, their structures alter and the shadows change ever so subtlely… and yet they remain in equilibrium…
i also got to see some of Mark Rothko’s canvases… although i suspect my favourite of his is hung in the Ludwig Museum of modern art in Cologne, Germany, near the Dome Cathedral…
it was unfortunate that the exhibition of Henri Matisse’s paper cuts was closed when i visited the gallery… for i am rather fond of the french artist… i love his colorful vibrant creations… and can only be thankful for the chance to enjoy some of his works when i was inter-railing through the south of france some 8 years ago…

how you use it to perceive and capture the world…