Author: jeremy chan
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Dürer’s Artistic Journey
Today I went to visit the exhibition on the famous 15th-century German artist Albrecht Dürer’s journeys throughout Europe they were showing at the National Gallery. I was getting really excited to see all the many characters he managed to draw on his very populated canvases until I realized the famous miniaturist from around the same…
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Boss passage of Rach 2: completed!
Today, as I start stressing about Gold Medal prelims next week, something finally clicked and I managed to play the most difficult passage in the whole of Rach2! The definition of being able to play something difficult is when you no longer find it difficult. Today I got to that stage with this nightmare passage…
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Coding and translations of Tolstoy
The other day I was having a drink with some friends and one of them happened to be someone I haven’t seen since my undergraduate days. I was happy to find out that he is now studying Digital Humanities at UCL. After explaining (vaguely) what his degree means, he told me he has just completed…
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A Musician’s Search for Meaning
Without that anchor, I would be lost in sea, unsure of what all that practice had led up to, all that time spent trying to read dots on a page and then reproduce them on ivory keys. And then I would probably drown in a sea of self-doubt. I may sound dramatic but when anxiety…
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Ralph Fiennes’ performance of T. S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets”
Ralph Fiennes is most known for his performance of Voldemort in the Harry Potter series, so watching him perform the dark and existential Four Quartets was quite a jarring experience…or perhaps it was fitting…
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The concert as a spiritual journey
s a greater force at work than the emotional effect of the musical pieces chosen. The separate pieces lose their individual significance as they merge into something greater, a power of pure sound, passion and even mysticism.
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Franck violin/cello sonata?
Just finished listening to the replay of Anastasia Kobekina and Jean-Selim Abdelmoula’s Wigmore Hall recital. Am reminded of how good the quality of recording is nowadays. Only downside of watching through a screen is I can’t really clap by myself in a room. It’s just not the same, you know? Anyways, they performed Franck’s infamous…
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Austria trip day 1: Vienna and first impressions
Servus! Finally! To be able to travel again! And not in fear of closing borders, but in anticipation of relaxing afternoons and marvellous sights! Two hours on a plane with a mask is a small price to pay. There were stresses and uncertainties leading up to the arrival–what if they don’t accept my vaccine card…
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Living and breathing music: my experience at Chetham’s International Piano Summer School
I definitely felt that I briefly lived in a reality suspended slightly above normal life during those five days, an experience which has created a deep impression that I hope will last as I return to London…
Literally Left-handed 