Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is a musical piece written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. However, it renders as "a little night music" in English.

Yesterday evening, I watched the Schumann Symphony Spectacular Symphonic Fantasy at the Esplanade concert hall, in which Vietnamese-Canadian pianist Dang Thai Son performed Chopin's renowned Piano Concerto no. 1 in E minor. The first piece was Schumann's Manfred: Overture, Op. 115, and it was an eye-opening experience to see an entire orchestra playing live from a within a three metre radius. The Schumann piece comprised flowy melodies, rendering it very soothing and palatable, and (of course) an excellent warm-up for the attentive listener and connoisseur.

After it'd ended, the orchestra (it was the SSO, by the way) shifted the chairs and instruments and prepared for Thai Son's performance. A few moments later, the sudden increase in luminosity of the stage lights heralded the arrival of the guest pianist. And there were loud applause, whoos and even hysterical screams of the piano prodigy's name.

Then, there was complete silence. And adrenaline started rushing in.

String sounds constituted the first part of the piece, and it was only after a few minutes into the music when Thai Son actually started playing the piano part. And boy was his rendition remarkable! His light, loose wrist and nimble, long fingers meshed to produce one of the most dexterous playings I've ever seen (of course Cziffra can also do that), and his perpetually relaxed yet still body complemented his musical awesomeness completely. Seating about four metres away from him, I watched his movements in awe, secretly admiring his gentle wrist (Thai Son later during supper called it shinayaka) and tantalisingly quick fingers. Of course, my ears were also listening to the very beautiful Chopin music. It was funny, though, that sometimes, when the music had accelerando, I would experience a nerve-racking frisson, hoping that Thai Son would not make a single mistake in his seemingly impeccable rendition.

After the concerto, Thai Son encored Chopin's nocture in E-flat major, bringing the loud, cheering crowd to a silence, where all one could hear was only Chopin's timelessly stupendous yet inexplicably aristocratic music.

And after that, the crowd cheered, and cheered much louder than before.

Indeed, what an exciting, awesome evening of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.

(Oh, my piano teacher also brought my brother and me to Barossa, which is just outside Esplanade, to have supper (until 2315 =/) with Thai Son and some other friends. Barossa serves good pizza and pancakes. Do try it if you ever have a chance!)

Labels: music

Today's entry is on food. And what I do after waking up at 0630 every morning.

If you're sufficiently intelligent, you can probably tell that I do make my breakfast every morning. Anyway, I have seriously been eating Western food every morning, ever since I returned from California. I usually eat oatmeal (cereal), cornflakes and omelette, and drink lemon tea/red tea/ green peppermint tea (depending on my preference on that particular morning).

I have to admit I'm getting a tad sick of making the same food every morn. That's why I've gotten myself some beef slices and oreos today.

I hope tomorrow's breakfast will be greater than today's. :)

(P.S. Vietnamese pianist Dang Thai Son will be performing with the SSO 30th January 2010 (evening 7 PM). It'll definitely be a great performance, so don't give it a miss if you will happen to be free that day.)

Labels: food

I went for a walk with Kaiyuan this morning. Peter Kaiyuan Yang is a scholar from my school, and was my classmate for the past two years. We really have a lot in common, which (probably) kind of explains why and how we can actually get along so well. Anyway, both of us enjoy playing the pianoforte and research. He'll be doing Biology in the Raffles Academy of Biology and Music in the Music Elective Programme later this year (after orientation).

Labels: nature

I usually find sleeping the happiest moment of a day, but I guess I've been enamored of music since two days ago, that I chose to listen to music for the past two nights, instead of sleeping. I listened to Daniel Powter's "Daniel Powter" while jogging this afternoon, and two days ago I listened to the Glenn Gould recordings of Bach's "Goldberg Variations". Two nights ago, I was listening to lounge music online, in particular Esquivel's music. Oh, I did something else yesterday night however.

I think American and European music are beautiful in general, but I think I still prefer the latter to the former. I'm more into classy and classical stuff, I guess.

I do sometimes wonder whether I'm innately an Arts person. I am a self-proclaimed foodie (I like good food), and I have a very sensitive tongue and very sensitive ears, respectively to differentiate normal food from good food and detect subtle peccadilloes in playings of keyboard music. And I also love drawing, though I have not been drawing since 3 years ago.

Oh, and I slept at 9 PM yesterday night, so there was no music for me that night. Which means I shall listen to more music tonight.

Labels: music

I love books. Books contain timeless, interesting knowledge that enhance my understanding of the world. Just imagine if all the world's books were stored in a Chupa Chups container, like Chupa Chups lollipops; then each book would be a uniquely flavoured lollipop, and when you open the book's cover to begin reading, it'd be like sucking on the lollipop, feeling and tasting its sweetness (or it could perhaps even be bitter like coffee, astringent like tea , sour like lemonade etc.) every single moment. And this container would also be infinitely large, for it not only contained the currently existing literature, but also many other newly-flavoured lollipops whose productions are still incomplete.

I feel rather proud of myself, to have completed 4 books within the past two months. They are:

1. Simple Genius by David Baldacci
2. Dead Man's Footsteps by Peter James
3. Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson
4. The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time by Mark Haddon

I'm currently one-third through "Black Holes and Time Warps - Einstein's Outrageous Legacy" by Kip Thorne. It's fairly interesting, albeit a tad too confusing at times. I might stop reading it for a while, inasmuch as I feel like reading a Mathematics text.

(P.S. Black holes are interesting. It'd be cool if I could travel into and hover above the horizon of one, and experience "infinite time dilation", or, simply put, time freezing in action [what an oxymoron].)

Labels: books

Sometimes, I just want to tell the world how much I want to be different. Being different gives you so many privileges which others do not possess. It also makes you feel special, as though God has chosen you amongst others to be that one unique individual. Yes, I secretly wish I could solve the Goldbach Conjecture; travel in a rocket into outer space and experience time dilation; get pulled by overwhelming gravitational force into the dark, enigmatic abyss of the black hole, and somehow inexplicably successfully escape; or even create new theories to explain our world, just like how Lofti Zadeh created Fuzzy Logic to resolve ambiguity. I want a different experience; I want to be different.

I'm almost certain that hard work begets this difference, but a part of me also wants to possess the genius that separates Einstein and Feynman from many other prominent physicists, Erdos (with the oomlaut above "o") and Zadeh from the rest of the mathematical community, and perhaps Newton from his counterparts during 17th Century. I want it so badly that, if I could possess it, and that my possessing it only lasted for a few seconds, I would forsake everything just to experience that instant, and live that fleeting moment for an eternity.

And just in case I will never possess this natural gift bestowed upon by God himself, I shall put in twice - or even thrice - the amount of effort, and work towards my ideal self. Till then, I must not be decadent, for true happiness only lies in my future.

Labels: thoughts

(Facebook post)

To Ernest, Sundays had always been unmeaningful, with piles of worksheets, tutorials and notes to complete and peruse. With the sometimes mundane church service, during which he has to listen and pay full attention to the pastor. With the amount of precious time wasted on walking back from and to Thomson Plaza for dinner and lunch.

Fortunately, that impression only lasted until last Sunday, 10th January 2010.

At 5PM on the 10th, Ernest's family headed to Robertson Walk to dine in Hogs' Breath Cafe; more precisely, to celebrate his 18th birthday. He had not known about the special arrangement, until the entire family walked into the colourful yet surprisingly ambient steak house.

Ernest was shockingly delighted that nobody else was dining in the steak house. At least I'll feel less embarrassed during the birthday song part, he thought secretly.

A few moments later, everyone else had arrived, and the waiters started taking orders from everyone.

"May I have a garlic mushroom Prime Rib Steak, please?" Ernest ordered.

They served him an Aussie-sized steak with healthy vegetable salad and broccolis.

For the next two hours, Ernest and his family dined, wined and ate cheese cake, amidst the frequent casual discussions on Western food, Literature, Arts, Mathematics and, haha, Chinese Language.

At about 10 PM, everyone sang the birthday song for him, and he couldn't hide his natural, genuine, whole-hearted smile any longer. He was simply overjoyed.

Sundays will never again be the same for Ernest.

생일축함니다, 흉! (saeng il chuk hamnida, hyung)

Labels: Birthday

(Facebook post)

I've been extremely energetic and hyped after returning from California, USA. The trip was really awesome, and I've also made many new friends.

It'd certainly be incongruous to talk about whatever's happening after the California days without first sharing about my America experience; so here's what I've gleaned from this memorable family vacation:

I used to think American food was mostly junk food, with the "cockroaches and worms" burgers, oily fatty fries and all. However, I had the chance to eat very good food in Las Vegas and Los Angeles (San Francisco food also wasn't bad). On the first evening, we had Mexican tacos and Subway cookies, and boy, the cookies were really delicious (It was a pity we didn't try their Mexican burritos). On the second evening, just before we went back to our hotel, I bought myself a cup of hot chocolate from a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store. It was entirely excellent - the smooth brown texture was thirst-inducing, and the thick, viscous, chocolatey taste was as good as that of Rittersport chocolate, with an aftertaste which seemed to last perpetually. In sum, it was a good warm treat in winter Los Angeles. Then, at Las Vegas, we had dinner at a posh and classy (not to mention the delightful ambiance) steakhouse in Paris, one of the plethora of hotel casinos in "Sin City". I ate French bread for appetizer; Wagyu beef steak, medium-cooked, and bona fide escargot for my main course; and, to complete my decent European-style dinner, crème brulée and lime sorbet for dessert. At San Francisco, we mostly ate Oriental food - Chinese dim sum, Thailand cuisine, and Asian style buffet dinner. I guess it was also fairly good, except it wasn't strikingly tasty vis-à-vis the Western food I'd eaten in LAX and Las Vegas.

Another thing I recall very well is the general attitude and behaviour of the Americans. They were mostly friendly, if not hospitable. Their restaurant service was, in my opinion, very fine. The frequent "thank you"s and "you're welcome"s are all but a small facet of their excellent service. I guess it's not really surprising tipping is an American practice after all.

Of course, I've also experienced many other aspects of the American culture, but I'll reserve some of my personal opinions to myself. (View my photo album "California, US (2009)" for other parts of my American adventure)

Anyway, I'm now back in Singapore, after having returned from California last Saturday noon. Of course, I had a very bad jet lag, having slept and woken up at 12 AM and 5:30 AM for the past couple of days. I am probably still suffering from the jet lag, since I'm feeling a tad tired.

I've been eating significantly more these few days; my breakfast for Sunday, Monday and today comprised omelette, pancakes, cornflakes, hot chocolate, red tea and bread. I guess I'm really contemplating too much America, and unable to revert back to the (good?) old days.

Oh, I still have my Singapore Science and Engineering Fair report to edit. I guess I'll stop here.

Call me incoherent. Because I really am.

(By the way, to all of my US friends, I really think America's an excellent place! Your people, service and culture have all left me with a great impression of your country; I guess this impression will be an eternal one!)

Labels: Vacation