1st two days

Correction, Summer Piano Institute.

Besides this entire week has been a joy. Didn't kill me much, although there were unhealthy moments. Last Saturday was Christopher Taylor's concert, where he played the People United Will Never Be Defeated!, a near one-hour long piece in a theme and 36variations form. I had the score with me throughout, thanks to Dr Chang!

Yay. And I got to know everyone at the meeting and tea session that was a few hours before the concert.

Taylor also played the Goldberg Variations, composed by the man in the limelight this year, Johann Sebastian Bach. Here's some trivia:

"...[the Count] ... often stopped in Leipzig and brought there with him the aforementioned Goldberg, in order to have him given musical instruction by Bach. The Count was often ill and had sleepless nights. At such times, Goldberg, who lived in his house, had to spend the night in an antechamber, so as to play for him during his insomnia. ... Once the Count mentioned in Bach's presence that he would like to have some clavier pieces for Goldberg, which should be of such a smooth and somewhat lively character that he might be a little cheered up by them in his sleepless nights. Bach thought himself best able to fulfill this wish by means of Variations, the writing of which he had until then considered an ungrateful task on account of the repeatedly similar harmonic foundation. But since at this time all his works were already models of art, such also these variations became under his hand. Yet he produced only a single work of this kind. Thereafter the Count always called them his variations. He never tired of them, and for a long time sleepless nights meant: 'Dear Goldberg, do play me one of my variations.' "

Ok.

I'm continuing this after 2 days simply because I've been struck lazy recently.

Today is MONDAY, start of the APCG week, where there's no school. I shall continue writing about the Institute week.

During the tea session where we were introduced to each other everyone of us peeps were shy so we didn't talk much, but at the end the situation changed. So we were all handed packages containing our nametags and access cards, and schedule for the WHOLE WEEK.

Mr WeiBoon is a genius. Now it's easier to follow. (I have yet to pay him ticket money, cannot keep owing people money)

The next day (Sunday) we - YST people - watched a rerun of Dr Hecht and Mr Tiu's duo concert, played with the most detail as per usual. Had individual practice for the next 3 hours before I went for the Scherbakov concert, the last piano concert of the 2008 Singapore Piano Festival. Went for the pre-concert talk, which featured Pianophiles like Mr Phan, Dr Chang, and two others I can't remember.

Concert was rad, but I felt the transcription of Beethoven's 9th symphony was too boring for me to take. Orchestration is a huge factor in maintaining interest - with the different timbres and colours for the human ears to engage in, orchestration definitely is a big part in the business.

But once we have an exact copy on the piano, with no attempt to ornamentate it or even make it more 'showy', this is the result.

I slept halfway through the 9th.

Shall stop blogging here...