Franz Liszt

Grande fantaisie di bravura sur La clochette de Paganini, Op. 2 (1834)

Grandes Etudes de Paganini, S141/R3b
No. 3 in G sharp minor, “La campanella” (1851)

Franz Liszt
credit: http://americanlisztsociety.net/

by Georg Predota

The 3rd Hong Kong International Piano Competition, held over roughly 2 weeks in the fall of 2011, has come and gone. Organised by the Chopin Society of Hong Kong and financially supported by various business interests and taxpayer money, this event once again succeeded in assembling a highly distinguished panel of jurors, not merely world-class performers, but simultaneously exceptional musicians, first-class teachers and educators. For the first time, the Hong Kong Philharmonic graciously agreed to participate and Howard Blake — of flying snowman fame — was expressly commissioned to provide a competition piece. Yet at the end of the day, the only thing that distinguished this event from countless such gatherings of aspiring keyboard acrobats — which have invaded musical stages worldwide with the ferocity of pedal fungus — is the fact that it was held in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, somebody forgot to tell the organizers.
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by Nick Frisch

For Westerners who wonder aloud whether Asia might save classical music’s declining fortunes in the West, Friday night is the sort of thing they have in mind. When the Berlin Philharmonic kicked off Taipei’s weekend with a gripping rendition of Mahler’s 9th Symphony, the spectacle was not limited only to those with tickets to the National Concert Hall, the downtown venue where Sir Simon Rattle wielded his expert baton. In an unusual act of public outreach, the Berlin Philharmonic allowed a live simulcast of the performance to stadium-style venues across Taiwan, including the near-capacity 15,000-seat Taipei Arena (臺北小巨蛋).
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by Nick Frisch

Warren Mok and Yuki Ip (from right) as Sun Yat-sen and his first wife Lu Muzhen in the opera Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Credit: Opera Hong Kong

Hong Kong made history this month, hosting the world premiere of the former colony’s first homegrown grand opera, “Dr. Sun Yat-sen.” Not only is its namesake Cantonese; so were the composer, librettist, and much of the cast. Opera Hong Kong’s first-ever original commission, “Dr. Sun” was accompanied by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, an ensemble of traditional instruments known for tackling contemporary works.
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Oct 10, 2011

Karol Szymanowski

Nocturne and Tarantella, Op. 28 (arr. M. Skoryk) – Nocturne

Szymon Laks

String Quartet No. 3 – I. Allegro quasi presto

Concerts in Hong Kong
Oct 8, 2011
Szymanowski String Quartet No.2
Mozart Divertimento K.136
Laks String Quartet
Beethoven String Quartet Op.18, No.2

Oct 9, 2011
Szymanowski Nocturne & Tarantella
Ravel String Quartet
Chopin Etude
Beethoven String Quartet Op.59, No.2

Andrej Bielow – Violin I
Grzegorz Kotów – Violin II
Vladimir Mykytka – Viola
Marcin Sieniawski – Cello
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Aix-en-Provence 17th August 2011
On the 3rd of August, I saw Sokolov live at the 31st International Piano Festival of La Roque d’Anthéron. What a delightful concert it was! I have heard a plethora of superlatives about the playing of the 1966 winner of the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition. What happened after the concert? I found myself contributing to those superlatives too!
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Aix-en-Provence 12th August 2011
It would be difficult not to mention Jacques Loussier when we think of cross-disciplinary music. For over half a century, the classically trained pianist has become the icon of a particular genre of music bridging classical music and jazz: he transformed J. S. Bach by ‘jazzing Bach’.
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When Fernando Chui Sai On took over the political reigns of the Macau Special Administrative Region in December 2009, he not only promised a speedy recover for the gaming industry, but also voiced his unbridled and continued support for local cultural and creative industries. While obviously pleasing the moguls of luck, this commitment to maintain, or even diversify Macau’s cultural strata – by which he undoubtedly means the broadening of Macau’s economic base – is nevertheless highly significant. At a time when European cutbacks for the Arts are reaching alarming levels, and when US-American organizations are more or less successfully negotiating the special interests placed upon them by all-consuming corporate sponsorships, can this seemingly outdated model of comprehensive governmental support for the Arts still hold validity in the 21st Century? It might be possible to formulate at least a partial answer by looking at the Macao Orchestra.

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Aix-en-Provence 12th May 2011.

Interdisciplinary studies have had a long tradition in music. Examples range from operas and ballets, to instrumental pieces based on a borrowed theme (e.g. Liszt’s La Campanella), to musical ideas derived from another subject (e.g. Second Viennese School’s serialism). Many important developments in music in the 20th century have also benefited from exchanges between music and other media of arts such as painting, literature, and movies. In this article, I would like to talk about a concert I went to a few weeks ago themed as ‘Mozart Ellington’ at the Grand Theatre in Aix-en-Provence.

The Grand Theatre was only recently built in 2007 and adopted an architectural style that combined the classic and the modern. The structure of the building is modern, with sandstone faces and huge glass walls, giving it a Mediterranean feel with a slight Art Deco twist; and the exterior is composed of curved surfaces, emitting a feeling of unending waves. The main theatre’s basic layout is very similar to that of an Italian opera house, with a performance platform in the front, a large stall low in the middle, and three vertical levels of open box seats in the shape of a horseshoe on the sides. The interior is simple and elegant, marked by the uniform use of red textile (seats and carpets), natural panels (wood), and white ceilings and columns.

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Aix-en-Provence, 12th March 2011.

In my previous article I wrote about the Ogdon-Stokowski recording of Brahms’ first piano concerto. Here, I would like to write about the performance of the concerto with consideration to the original score.

The concerto, Op. 15, was finished in 1857; but it began rather earlier and had taken forms such as a symphony and a double piano sonata before finally becoming a piano concerto. Unfortunately, there were no known surviving copies of the earlier forms as Brahms was very obsessed with destroying draft copies of his own work as well as his compositions that he deemed unworthy.

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