Concert, Competition

Watched the NYSE concert yesterday!

I noticed some really good ensemble players, and of course good soloists, but all in all it was a satisfactory concert.

We started the concert off with a Haydn Quartet, the usual classical starter, and it was a starter for what was to come for the rest of the evening. I personally felt the tone was strong, although some of the harmonies turned out sounding wrong because of the not-so-solid bass line.

And then we had another quartet from the same period - Mozart's this time - this was a Secondary 3 quartet and their performance was up to standard. Pretty ordinary though, although I can put to blame some of the audience-cringing parts to the not-steady bass-line

There were performances that were really imbalanced and thus good, and some ensemble players stood out...Trio in D (played by Marie, Naijing and Melissa) was almost flawless, except for teeny-weeny snippets of slip-ups, but nonetheless they all were together on every beat. Structurally clear, stylistically correct, and organised and agreed-upon techniques.

Advantine - by Serge Lancen - being modern, was understandably dissonantal, and not by any fault of the performers. I was definitely not used to the suspensions used (not forgetting the consecutive perfect 5ths in 'Cherry Blossoms'). However the section with the 'Silent Night' motive was amazing if readers are reminded that it was a bass quartet performing this, and they made the best out of it although a lack of instrumental contrast was in front of them.

Earlier in the first half was a reminder of RV-RISE's Christmas Concert with Cao Yun and Elissa Wong playing Ave Maria (Ave Mart was a typo I suppose). A timely reminder that Christmas is coming!

Going back to the 1st half of the concert, the composition by Ho Chee Kong brought a new contrast to the classical music presented in this half of the concert, with three Chinese instruments and a cello. Nonetheless, for those classical ears out there who have rarely heard consecutives perfect 4ths and 5ths, this was the time to cringe. But I thought it didn't quite bring out the mood that the title was supposed to give - 'Cherry Blossoms'

Divertimento in E featured the Secondary 3 trio (Fiona, Kimyung, Audrey), of which I was given a very lousy image of a performance way before the concert started. However it turned out contrary to the performance I had in mind. I only wished they selected a different style to perform though, considering we have altogether 6 classical quartets and trios - none of the performers' faults though.

I noted a few good ensemble players, two of them from the last Quartet in A by Mozart - Koh Hui Lin and Joan Fun - the latter being Shangxuan's professed beloved and later denied saying he was joking but later saying that she was indeed his beloved and so on and so forth. But special mention goes to them because of their good ears, for ears are the second most important assets of the musician (after the fingers, look at Beethoven). Although there was a slip-up (I think) the second violinist and the viola quickly caught up and all was alright. The good ears were mainly related to their adjusting of tuning to the cellist (again). They did well to wrap up the concert.

Although Mr Sze wasn't here in Singapore to watch the concert, I'm sure he would have a positive overview of the concert also. But no bets given though.

A good concert to end a good day.

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Saturday, 8 December

I woke up terribly late this morning to miss half-an-hour of the quarter-finals of the Artist category! However when I first entered the theatre I heard an old favourite piece of mine (which I've already perfected to a degree that I was able to play the piece without any comments from Mdm Fang last time) - Allegro de Concierto! I thought I could play better than it though.

There was a solid rendition by a Shaun of the Bach-Busoni Chaconne in D minor, and there was something so fantastic about it that it didn't feel boring at all for roughly 20 minutes. Everything was there, except for him looking into the audience when someone made a sound. Maybe he thought that the judges had stopped him. In any case, his playing was solid, stylistically correct being one of the major factors in piano playing. It combined the beautiful contrapuntal style of Bach, and the virtuosity of Busoni, and I thought it was a perfect combination. Kudos to him! He got in to the semi-finals.

Of course I have to mention Andre Kwon, (No. 1), who performed my second favourite piece of Chopin (after Andante Spianato) - the 'Heroic' Polonaise! Yes and he got into the semi-finals too, expectedly.

I missed Han Ching's performance, but I know that she had 3 Liszt pieces in her competition repertoire, and her technique was brilliant. She made it into the semi-finals too.

The downside for the YST students was that Imma didn't make it, but I suppose the competition was pretty strong.

Tomorrow is crunch day, for it is the semi-finals of the Intermediate and Senior categories! Pretty big for me considering I can participate in both categories although I chose not to this year.

For those who have been asking why I did not join this year's Competition (which numbers a lot), I had:
1) YST audtion
2) New York trip
3) LRSM exam

Of which all of them were successful and I decided to take a break off my shoulders. So these are the reasons I didn't participate.

For now, let's all wait for tomorrow to come!