Category: Music
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Critique of the Gould Plan for the Abolition of Applause and Demonstrations of All Kinds, a.k.a GPAADAK
Pianist Glenn Gould’s proposed plan for the Abolition of Applause and Demonstrations of All Kinds need reviewing. Its implications may be critical for the future of classical music.
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‘Twas the night before…
The Gold Medal preliminary rounds. Obviously there’s naught to be worried about, but I just wanna write here that I feel very happy that I’m no longer stressed about performing. Even tackling something as huge and challenging as Rach 2, I feel excited to play it. Somehow, while practising for this competition, I’ve found out…
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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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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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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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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…
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Concert Review: BBC Proms Opening Night
Thank god for the return of full-capacity theatres and concert halls! Thank god for the return of promming! Managed to get a hold of two Promming tickets online (thank god for online ticketing systems!) this morning and so was able to join in the celebration of the return of a live audience to the BBC…
Literally Left-handed 