In answer to my question yesterday to YS:
A full size orchestra (about 104 players) may sometimes be called a "symphony orchestra" or "philharmonic orchestra"; these prefixes do not necessarily indicate any strict difference in either the instrumental constitution or role of the orchestra, but can be useful to distinguish different ensembles based in the same city.
Miss YS - you were right!!! :)
Saturday, August 19, 2006
My Weakest Link
At the interval of BBC Prom47 yesterday, YS and I were busy studying the brochures featuring up coming concerts at RAH. We have been attending quite a few concerts this year as we wanted to make the most of our final year in London. There were three concerts that caught our eyes, one is particularly expansive as it features John Barry and the 10 Tenors. We were under the impression that we had been splurging quite uncontrollably on concerts and since we had some time at the interval, I took out my organizer and started listing out the concerts I’ve attended for this year and did some quick accounting for my expenditures.
Here goes:
Classic FM Live 24.00 pounds
Mama Mia! 32.50
Cyrano de Bergerac 8.00 (standing for Placido Domingo)
Marriage of Figaro (ROH) Free (Live screening at Trafalgar Sq)
Filmharmonic 15.00
Showboat 32.50
Sleeping Beauty (ROH) Free (BD gift from YS)
LSO+Sarah Chang Free (BD gift from LP)
BBC Proms 47,61,64,69 62.00
= 174.00 GBP [201 pounds if I include the gifts]
We always got the most value for money seats, and very often the cheapest ones for these shows with blocked view. It’s incredible how much it all adds up to in just 8 months. Scary. Brrrrr. But after the initial shock I am still pretty tempted to go for the following shows (getting cheapest seats of course) so lets see how much damage it MIGHT do to my pocket. (Disclaimer: These are show that survived the painful elimination, and I only looked at one venue)
15th Sept RPO 60th Anniv.Gala 10.00
21st Sept Classic FM Live 12.00
23rd Sept Peter and the Wolf 10.00
28th Sept John Barry & 10 Tenors 28.50
7th Oct Four Seasons by candlelight 11.50
12th Nov Best of Broadway 8.50
17th Nov Martha Argerich & Dutoit play Ravel 5.00
27th Nov Nutcracker (St.Petersburg Ballet) 22.50
That’s an additional 108GBP, bringing my potential concert expenses for 2006 to
282GBP = 846 SGD
Wow. Okay. The damage is going to be quite substantial I guess. I’d better do some further elimination.
***************
On a lighter note, YS and I finally got our long-standing query answered yesterday.
IS LSO or RPO better??
Previously we’ve always heard RPO at Royal Albert Hall and the LSO at Barbican. We were more impressed by the LSO but thought that their performance might be assisted by the superior acoustic engineering of the venue.
Last night’s Prom was meant to give the two orchestras a fair evaluation. Since we are very familiar with the acoustics of RAH and always sat in the rear circle, in the same area (cheapest, obviously), the comparison should be pretty fair by all accounts.
Not surprisingly, we came to the same conclusion independently. Before the first piece by Shostakovich was finished, YS turned around and we exchanged knowing smiles. It was very obvious to us that LSO was indeed the better orchestra. Their strings were beautiful and technically exquisite. Maybe because it’s a symphony orchestra, their wind section is smaller but and every musician played like a soloists in his/her own right. They have one of the best group of percussionists I’ve seen (not that I’ve seen many) but I’ve always found their performance mesmerizing, whether it was at barbican or at RAH.
It must not be an easy task playing for Valery Gergiev, the Russian conductor for the all Russian Prom last night. From the way he conducted, I could tell that he was very demanding of the sounds he could draw from each instrument and was extremely sensitive to the atmosphere that the music creates. Whenever he pauses between the movements, the whole hall would pause with him. Whenever he punches the air and pushes the orchestra to pour in more emotions, more intensity into the music, the orchestra pushes its boundaries of mastery and delivered for him.
Towards the end of the performance, the atmosphere was simply electric. Valery Gergiev conducted the entire Tchikowsky Symphony No. 6 in B minor scoreless, and when he finished, none of the musicians on stage moved a hair, bows in mid-air, lips on mouthpieces, the stage froze with him and so did the audience. I cannot remember another moment where some 6000 people in the audience would hold their breaths collectively, staring at the tensed profile of the conductor, and have every sensory node soaking in the residual musical atoms floating through the air. The power that he held over the audience in that final 30 seconds had to be experienced to be believed. And because of him, I finally believed that some music could be breathed in.
Here goes:
Classic FM Live 24.00 pounds
Mama Mia! 32.50
Cyrano de Bergerac 8.00 (standing for Placido Domingo)
Marriage of Figaro (ROH) Free (Live screening at Trafalgar Sq)
Filmharmonic 15.00
Showboat 32.50
Sleeping Beauty (ROH) Free (BD gift from YS)
LSO+Sarah Chang Free (BD gift from LP)
BBC Proms 47,61,64,69 62.00
= 174.00 GBP [201 pounds if I include the gifts]
We always got the most value for money seats, and very often the cheapest ones for these shows with blocked view. It’s incredible how much it all adds up to in just 8 months. Scary. Brrrrr. But after the initial shock I am still pretty tempted to go for the following shows (getting cheapest seats of course) so lets see how much damage it MIGHT do to my pocket. (Disclaimer: These are show that survived the painful elimination, and I only looked at one venue)
15th Sept RPO 60th Anniv.Gala 10.00
21st Sept Classic FM Live 12.00
23rd Sept Peter and the Wolf 10.00
28th Sept John Barry & 10 Tenors 28.50
7th Oct Four Seasons by candlelight 11.50
12th Nov Best of Broadway 8.50
17th Nov Martha Argerich & Dutoit play Ravel 5.00
27th Nov Nutcracker (St.Petersburg Ballet) 22.50
That’s an additional 108GBP, bringing my potential concert expenses for 2006 to
282GBP = 846 SGD
Wow. Okay. The damage is going to be quite substantial I guess. I’d better do some further elimination.
***************
On a lighter note, YS and I finally got our long-standing query answered yesterday.
IS LSO or RPO better??
Previously we’ve always heard RPO at Royal Albert Hall and the LSO at Barbican. We were more impressed by the LSO but thought that their performance might be assisted by the superior acoustic engineering of the venue.
Last night’s Prom was meant to give the two orchestras a fair evaluation. Since we are very familiar with the acoustics of RAH and always sat in the rear circle, in the same area (cheapest, obviously), the comparison should be pretty fair by all accounts.
Not surprisingly, we came to the same conclusion independently. Before the first piece by Shostakovich was finished, YS turned around and we exchanged knowing smiles. It was very obvious to us that LSO was indeed the better orchestra. Their strings were beautiful and technically exquisite. Maybe because it’s a symphony orchestra, their wind section is smaller but and every musician played like a soloists in his/her own right. They have one of the best group of percussionists I’ve seen (not that I’ve seen many) but I’ve always found their performance mesmerizing, whether it was at barbican or at RAH.
It must not be an easy task playing for Valery Gergiev, the Russian conductor for the all Russian Prom last night. From the way he conducted, I could tell that he was very demanding of the sounds he could draw from each instrument and was extremely sensitive to the atmosphere that the music creates. Whenever he pauses between the movements, the whole hall would pause with him. Whenever he punches the air and pushes the orchestra to pour in more emotions, more intensity into the music, the orchestra pushes its boundaries of mastery and delivered for him.
Towards the end of the performance, the atmosphere was simply electric. Valery Gergiev conducted the entire Tchikowsky Symphony No. 6 in B minor scoreless, and when he finished, none of the musicians on stage moved a hair, bows in mid-air, lips on mouthpieces, the stage froze with him and so did the audience. I cannot remember another moment where some 6000 people in the audience would hold their breaths collectively, staring at the tensed profile of the conductor, and have every sensory node soaking in the residual musical atoms floating through the air. The power that he held over the audience in that final 30 seconds had to be experienced to be believed. And because of him, I finally believed that some music could be breathed in.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Dedication 2
Your Heart My Heart - 张栋梁
你会不会也想我
我苦苦在思索
找不到 一丝一毫线索
我记忆碰出花火
开成了你的轮廓
照亮我 一分一秒寂寞
只怕人海太辽阔
转眼就错过
有些话不能再拖
趁现在要对你说
Chorus:
Your Heart My Heart
闪烁幸福围绕着你
围绕我银河里我们不寂寞
Your Heart And My Heart
你爱我 就不要再退缩
My Heart 我的世界让你掌握
Your Heart My Heart
别迷惑
爱情再清楚不过我只等
这一天你会说
说爱我
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LedJ9nk7CY
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Song Dedication
只因为你 - by 张栋梁
从清晨露出微笑的金黄
我知道我不会再孤单
看你为我绽放的脸庞 放在心上
有了你我的世界不一样
童话里幸福终结了忧伤
你是我最靠近的坚强
有你陪我自在地遨翔 抬头仰望
天空变成一座游乐场 世界更明亮
Chorus:
只因为你我情不自禁 闭上眼睛
心里想了想还是你
不让你离开我的手心 呵护着你
幻想着 紧抱在我怀里 (抱在我怀里)
只因为你我情不自禁 这样为你
证明我不再 孩子气
如果有一天我们老去 寸步不离
回忆里如镜子都是你
Okay, despite a depressing day, I must say that it does help having someone listening to my grumbles at the end of the day (*cough cough* not that i grumble everyday) and just being there/ around/ everywhere for me. :P
Dunno why, but every time this song plays on my PC I'll think of you darling. It's like telling me that all the hardship will be worth it at the end of the day. Maybe I should brand it my motivation anthem. *chuckle*
My dedication to you dear. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mg2qeMbDpY
从清晨露出微笑的金黄
我知道我不会再孤单
看你为我绽放的脸庞 放在心上
有了你我的世界不一样
童话里幸福终结了忧伤
你是我最靠近的坚强
有你陪我自在地遨翔 抬头仰望
天空变成一座游乐场 世界更明亮
Chorus:
只因为你我情不自禁 闭上眼睛
心里想了想还是你
不让你离开我的手心 呵护着你
幻想着 紧抱在我怀里 (抱在我怀里)
只因为你我情不自禁 这样为你
证明我不再 孩子气
如果有一天我们老去 寸步不离
回忆里如镜子都是你
Okay, despite a depressing day, I must say that it does help having someone listening to my grumbles at the end of the day (*cough cough* not that i grumble everyday) and just being there/ around/ everywhere for me. :P
Dunno why, but every time this song plays on my PC I'll think of you darling. It's like telling me that all the hardship will be worth it at the end of the day. Maybe I should brand it my motivation anthem. *chuckle*
My dedication to you dear. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mg2qeMbDpY
I need a mood lifter!!
Gosh, one weekend with no social activities and I’m feeling down already. It was with such high spirits that I started the weekend, cooking for 3 days on Friday night, planning to hit some 10-15 pages of my thesis over the next two days but somehow everything fell short of my expectations.
For unknown reasons, I woke up really early on Saturday (8.30am instead of my usual 1pm and I think I slept at 3am the night before??). After calling my Mom, MX, and Eggie, I just couldn’t concentrate on what I was doing. Was still feeling the ache in my bones (mom says I might be fighting off some mild flu virus) and worrying about the weather tuning cold (JH brought his electric heater down for me but even that didn’t help much).
Words just didn’t flow.
I thought I could remedy the situation on Sunday but I woke up (I must stress - naturally) at 3pm on Sunday. Got a rude shock because when I first glanced at my clock without my glasses, I got the impression that it was only 15mins past noon. Well, after the usual routine of feeding myself, getting a shower and settling into writing mode, the hours just flew by without my knowledge. Before long, the weekend is over, a back log of unwritten pages hanging over my consciousness and a tired frame feeling extremely unprepared for the week ahead packed to the brim with experiments. New experiments. Not the ones that I'm so accustomed to that I can even do them in my sleep.
And despite my best efforts, the experiments failed today.
Guess that’s why I’m so apathetic.
For unknown reasons, I woke up really early on Saturday (8.30am instead of my usual 1pm and I think I slept at 3am the night before??). After calling my Mom, MX, and Eggie, I just couldn’t concentrate on what I was doing. Was still feeling the ache in my bones (mom says I might be fighting off some mild flu virus) and worrying about the weather tuning cold (JH brought his electric heater down for me but even that didn’t help much).
Words just didn’t flow.
I thought I could remedy the situation on Sunday but I woke up (I must stress - naturally) at 3pm on Sunday. Got a rude shock because when I first glanced at my clock without my glasses, I got the impression that it was only 15mins past noon. Well, after the usual routine of feeding myself, getting a shower and settling into writing mode, the hours just flew by without my knowledge. Before long, the weekend is over, a back log of unwritten pages hanging over my consciousness and a tired frame feeling extremely unprepared for the week ahead packed to the brim with experiments. New experiments. Not the ones that I'm so accustomed to that I can even do them in my sleep.
And despite my best efforts, the experiments failed today.
Guess that’s why I’m so apathetic.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Crabs. Bagels and Steps
Chili crab
Went for the Tiger Beer chili crab festival at Old Truman Brewery last Sunday and went away rather disappointed. The crabs were not fresh and the sauce was too watery. Nothing like the rich, hot and thick chili crab sauce that we are used to. The Laksa was a greater disappointment because they made the soup so diluted that I could hardly taste anything. Ever tasted bland Laksa??
Brick Lane Bagel Shop
Well, apart from the food bummer, I quite enjoy walking through the brick lane street market and also the bagel shop that ‘hao nan ren’ Clement brought us to. There are two bagel shops there and the white one is supposedly better than the yellow fronted one. I had the smoked salmon with sour cream bagel and it was cheap and good. Highly recommended!! =P
Transverse time
The library gate was locked before 11pm yesterday and lots of students had to make a detour like myself. When we finally got to the other end of college one of the girls met her boyfriend and he commented that it took her 4 mins to walk there. I was curious about the length of time it actually takes to transverse the college hence I counted the number of steps to walk from one end of the NHM to the other. It took me 464 steps, which works out to be about 4 minutes if I had taken 2 steps every second. No wonder I’m always late when meeting YS. Haha.
Then this morning I went insane and counted the number of steps I take to walk to college, door-to-door. It was around 2400 steps. Ha! Kind of regretted counting because psychologically it got more draining as I got closer to my destination. That should teach me a lesson to only remind myself of the ‘remaining time’ instead of ‘elapsed time’ if I ever run a marathon!
Went for the Tiger Beer chili crab festival at Old Truman Brewery last Sunday and went away rather disappointed. The crabs were not fresh and the sauce was too watery. Nothing like the rich, hot and thick chili crab sauce that we are used to. The Laksa was a greater disappointment because they made the soup so diluted that I could hardly taste anything. Ever tasted bland Laksa??
Brick Lane Bagel Shop
Well, apart from the food bummer, I quite enjoy walking through the brick lane street market and also the bagel shop that ‘hao nan ren’ Clement brought us to. There are two bagel shops there and the white one is supposedly better than the yellow fronted one. I had the smoked salmon with sour cream bagel and it was cheap and good. Highly recommended!! =P
Transverse time
The library gate was locked before 11pm yesterday and lots of students had to make a detour like myself. When we finally got to the other end of college one of the girls met her boyfriend and he commented that it took her 4 mins to walk there. I was curious about the length of time it actually takes to transverse the college hence I counted the number of steps to walk from one end of the NHM to the other. It took me 464 steps, which works out to be about 4 minutes if I had taken 2 steps every second. No wonder I’m always late when meeting YS. Haha.
Then this morning I went insane and counted the number of steps I take to walk to college, door-to-door. It was around 2400 steps. Ha! Kind of regretted counting because psychologically it got more draining as I got closer to my destination. That should teach me a lesson to only remind myself of the ‘remaining time’ instead of ‘elapsed time’ if I ever run a marathon!
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