A cantabile touch is the sine qua non of excellent piano playing, I have observed. According to my teacher, listening (to the sound of the music) is crucial in the development of a musical cantabile touch.

Looking at how he strokes the keys in a gentle manner and listening to the beautiful music produced, it makes me wonder how much time and effort he devotes to mastering the art of piano playing.

I need to work harder.

Labels: music

Poetry in Music: Annes De Pelerinage: Italie, Ferencz Liszt.

Composed in the later years of his life.

Labels: music

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

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