Sunday
The lesson I learnt today is that time-management is essential for everything in life. With the exception of God's help, everything in life revolves around time management. And to people who demands one's time just perhaps days before an event, causing oneself to get stressed etc etc, sometimes we must put our foot down and learn how to say no!
WORD OF THE DAY: Profligacy
Reckless extravagance
Quote: The extravagance and general
profligacy which he scrupled not to lay at Mr. Wickham's charge, exceedingly shocked her; the more so, as she could bring no proof of its injustice.
-- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Speciale - Konzert
Lang Lang Musical Concert
On 7 January 2012, Golden Village featured 2 of Lang Lang’s special performances which were compiled into a movie. The two and a half hour movie only available at GV Grand and GV Vivo was in commemoration of Franz Liszt's 200th birthday, whom Lang Lang claims to be his piano hero.
In an exclusive behind-the-scenes video, Lang Lang shares that he was exposed to Liszt's music at the age of 2, while watching one of the episodes in Tom and Jerry cartoon where Tom played the famous Hungarian Rhapsody No.2. Since the age of 5, Lang Lang declares that he has been playing at least one of Liszt's works almost annually. Liszt works are not easy, even the easiest of them requires maturity of at least a 12 year old, but for a toddler to learn them is no easy feat, showing the maturity and sensitivity for music Lang Lang had at a tender age.
The concert-movie showed 2 performances of Lang Lang. The first at the iTunes festival held in London at the Roundhouse. It was unique as all the audience were standing for the whole hour Lang Lang was playing. He played 9 pieces in total all composed by Liszt except for 2.
La Campanella
Un Sospiro
Theme & Variation from Paganini
Romance
Standchen (by Schubert)
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15
Consolation No. 2
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6
Encore: Wiomung (by Schumann)
Lang Lang's strength is his ability to play chords powerfully and running notes with a brilliance unlike any other. He is also very good in changing the mood drastically from fierce to playful to accented, loud to soft, etc. Sometimes, I feel that he is more concerned with enjoying himself and impressing others with his skill instead of really intentionally interpreting the piece musically and playing out the soft parts delicately.
In particular, having performed the Un sospiro before, I felt that there were some parts where Lang Lang did not interpret correctly, which is an example for the point I had mentioned above. Although the piece intends for the melody to be played out, it will not do to overdo it, especially for the last line of chords which should be played softly and singingly. However, Lang Lang totally shocked me but playing it faster and louder as the music got to the end. It really stunned me to think that all the parts I had strived so hard to play softly, he played it explosively without a care in the world.
In the 2nd part of the movie-concert, Lang Lang performed the majestic Concerto No. 1 in B minor with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He said that it felt more like a homecoming as he started out with them. It was with they who brought them to China where his whole amazing career flourished and his performance at the Beijing Olympics wowed the world. The movie ended with an encore of an orchestral version of Happy Birthday which was extremely unique and made the whole concert seem like a birthday party in memory of the amazing composer.
Overall, it was an interesting experience watching a concert in a movie form and I learnt many lessons from it through the different angles the movie portrayed Lang Lang in. For example, the fingers, the eyes, the facial expressions, all within the same movie. This enabled me to observe me more things than what I actually could in a normal concert hall recital. One uncomfortable point about the movie theatre setting, was that the sound was very loud to the point of discomfort, as it was played in a normal theatre sound volume which can be harsh on the ears during the loud portions.
Labels: konzert, word of the day
; 1/08/2012 06:03:00 AM
