A very close family friend of ours who was a prominent and extremely successful barrister recently decided to retire to go back to school. He has chosen to study archaeology, one of his passions, and has just started his first year. I imagine the whole experience – the learning process, the integration into a strange environment where kids speak a language you’re no longer able to relate to, the unfamiliar IT tools – is all very exciting, but also extremely stressful for someone who left college over 30 years ago.

I definitely wouldn’t like to be in his shoes, although it was a close call for me. No, I didn’t discover a passion for archaeology; rather, as I was selling my business, I gave serious consideration to going back to school. I was of course very tempted to take a course in music, but also in history, which was my best subject when I was in secondary school.

I didn’t want to join a normal course since I couldn’t see myself seated next to kids who are practically my children’s age. I’d considered the adult learning programmes given by the local universities, but after some reflection I gave up the idea for two main reasons: I hate homework, and didn’t wish to give up my flexibility to travel.
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When bass vocalist Alexei Tanovitsky visited Hong Kong to perform Wagner’s Die Walküre, he was heard coughing and choking onstage. Similarly, following his concert in Hong Kong, Tom Jones was forced to cancel the remainder of his Asian tour due to laryngitis. Not to mention all the performances I attended where an apologetic notice informed the audience that in order to “accommodate” the performing artists, the temperature of the performance hall had to be raised. And there are probably others—performing artists or otherwise—getting sick after visiting Hong Kong. So what is happening to Hong Kong, Asia’s self-branded world city? World city of what?

In Hong Kong, you need to bring a coat indoors.
Air conditioning is on full force even when it is only 10°C outside.
There is no way to adjust the temperature because all landlords compete to have their central air conditioning on full blast, since cool is apparently glam.

In Hong Kong, there are buses everywhere.
We might be considered lucky to have such a great public transportation system.
But most of the time, our buses are old and almost empty, and they create traffic jams and poison our air.
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E15 is the name that has been given to the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, by journalists who were struggling to pronounce the full name properly. The nickname is derived from the somewhat daunting number of letters that come after the E.

So why am I grateful to E15? Well, I was scheduled to be in London the week of the eruption and as usual, all my concerts had been planned and tickets booked. I was awaiting my date with Mark Padmore at the ENO with excited anticipation, along with the meeting with Il Turco in Italia at the Royal Opera House, not to mention dinner with my children at Jamie Oliver’s new restaurant. But suddenly there I was, bags all packed and my flight cancelled!

Despite the disappointment, I consider myself very lucky to have been stranded at home. Just think of all those travellers forced to extend their stay in a foreign city, unable to fulfil their personal and professional obligations. It must have been a very stressful time.
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I became a Bach fanatic in the late seventies when I discovered Glenn Gould, though I came to appreciate Bach’s choral music at a much later stage, first with the Cantatas, then the Mass in B Minor and lastly, the Passions.

Many years ago, when I was part of the Ladies’ Committee of the Hong Kong Arts Festivals (a group of ladies looking after the performing artists), I was fortunate enough to oversee the care of one of the foremost Bach specialists, Philippe Herreweghe, as well as his orchestra, the Collegium Vocale Gent.

They performed two concerts for the Festival: Bach’s St. John Passion and the Mass in B Minor. Both concerts were memorable, though I was particularly moved by the St. John, this being my first discovery of this remarkable piece, as well as the first time I had the privilege of hearing Mark Padmore. Mark has a great voice and poignant lyricism, and his control of the intonations is exceptional, with detailed phrasing and colouring. He is also an extremely moving evangelist. Since then, I have been an unconditional fan of the St. John Passion and of Mark Padmore.
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No, I did not go to the Hong Kong Stadium, decked out in fancy dress, shouting and singing, flag in my left hand, can of beer in my right. In fact, I was sitting in front of my computer, trying to finish my article about the London Handel Festival, when my son came up and turned on the TV to watch the Sevens final.

As we all know, bonding and sharing time is extremely important in the parent-child relationship, so I tore myself from my computer to watch the final with Gabriel. In any case, I couldn’t really concentrate with the TV on. I opened a bottle of champagne, prepared some snacks, and settled down next to my baby (who is over six feet tall, by the way), my head nestled on his shoulder.

However, I’m the first to admit that I know nothing about the Rugby Sevens. I have never understood why a bunch of big boys got so excited about running round after a ball, be it in a game of rugby, football or soccer. Staring intently at the screen, all I could see were guys running at an incredible speed, throwing the ball to each other, being caught by other guys, tearing each other’s clothes, grabbing each other’s limbs, falling about and generally making a big mess, just to get the ball to the other side!
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My mother had a passion for piano since a young age, and as she was born into a modest family, she had to beg her parents for extra money in order to get piano lessons, which were considered a useless luxury in those times.

When I was born, she already had a career, and was teaching at the Shanghai conservatory. It was important and evident for her to pass on her passion to her children so that we wouldn’t be deprived of such an important element in our life.

Paul, my brother, started taking violin lessons when he was five. I never understood why he did not get to learn piano, and found out later that for my mother, violin was more “masculine,” while the piano, for her, was a more “feminine” instrument. Thus, I started piano lessons under my mother’s personal supervision when I was three. According to her, I was so very gifted that it would have been a waste if we waited too long for me to begin my training.
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I met my dear friend Guy in the early ’80s in Paris. We were young, innocent (at the very least, I was), fearless and full of foolish dreams… and then I moved to Hong Kong.

Over the past 20 years, we met several times: in Paris, Hong Kong, Montreal or London. And even after months or sometimes years of separation, every time we meet, it is like we just left each other the day before, and were able to pick up our conversation, feelings and bonding immediately. Guy is the most refined and delicate person I know, and probably the most knowledgeable in classical music.

The time we spend together could entail a nice lunch in a gourmet restaurant, a stroll in a museum, or just a walk through London streets, having him show me the hidden treasures of the city. It is always very inspirational to experience art and music with him.
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I always exercise to music, and Anthony, my better half,  kindly took the time to transfer all my music (yes, all) to my computer, so here I am every morning, stretching to Chopin’s nocturnes, weight-lifting to Vivaldi’s Sacred Music, or sweating to Bach’s Brandebourgeois.

Then one day, out of the blue, my computer went kaput, and I suddenly felt so lonely without my music, yet having to deal with my daily training.

Out of despair and looking for an easy solution, I turned to internet radio, which has a very extensive list of all sorts of topics and music. I stopped at the first decent-looking channel available, which was Sky fm, the music of 80′s…

Now, here I am again, counting beats this time to the soundtrack of Madonna, Gloria Gaynor, Michael Jackson, Barry White, etc, and it is like voyage down memory lane. I’m back in Paris, having evenings at Club Sept and Bus Palladium, squandering hours at the Palace or Les Bains Douches, reaching early mornings at Keur Samba.
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I am in love with YouTube. I am not here to advertise for the website or extol its virtues, but I must say that without it, I wouldn’t have discovered many classical music clips, featuring great musicians and beautiful pieces from composers whose existence I had never known.

A very good friend sent me this clip of Plácido in China, with a Chinese singer, Song Zuying, and… Lang Lang.

I think as a Chinese person, one would have mixed feelings while watching this video. This is a traditional folk song, and though Song Zuying sang marvellously, she had this ridiculous outfit, which might fit the song (I can’t say for sure as I would need to go into extensive search online) but it made her look like a greeting hostess at a Chinese amusement park. Read more…

After a prolonged gestation, Interlude was finally launched on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010. This is actually the day that I started sending out my first announcement emails.
 
First, I want to thank all those of you who gave me extremely valuable comments and suggestions. Among the most interesting ones was a suggestion for special section for children with recommendations on events, composers and pieces.
 
Or, perhaps, the need to add a “New to Classical Music” section where more experienced music lovers can guide the “younger” ones into the appreciation of music.
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