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 Jenny Lee 李嘉盈 read more... | What is love?Clara Schumann
3 Romanzen, Op. 22 (1853) 
 Helen Fisher, a Canadian-American anthropologist and human behavior researcher, is a leading expert on the biology of love. She divides the experience of love between men and women into three overlapping stages: lust, attraction and attachment; each involves the increased release of certain chemicals in the brain. I respect her research, but it just sounds too scientific for me. During the holiday of Chinese New Year, I saw a movie, ‘The Flowers of War’; by the end of it, I finished a whole pack of tissue paper. It talks of 12 prostitutes and a boy, sacrificing themselves to save the lives of the convent girls, in Japan’s ‘Rape of Nanjing’ in 1937. It shows the noblest side of the human soul. This makes me think: love, perhaps, is the unselfish concern for the good of the others. In music, I thought of Clara Schumann.Leave a comment >> |
 Marco read more... | Bach for the New Year Happy New Year to all! What better way to begin the New Year than listening to Bach in a concert you did not expect to be in? On the evening of the 31 December, having wondered from café to café in Soho for the entire afternoon, we were not only highly caffeinated but also looking for a nice place to see the new year in. Wigmore Hall was running a wonderful programme of Bach cantatas and the 5th Brandenburg Concerto, but tickets had been sold off for weeks. Thanks to three strangers who were kind enough to go find something else to do that evening and returned their tickets, we managed to sneak in at the last and listen to an excellent presentation of the Retrospect Ensemble. |
 Janetread more... | Nadja and Astor – What a combination!Las 4 Estaciones Portenas (The 4 Seasons of Buenos Aires) (arr. L. Desyatnikov for violin and strings) 
I have long had a love affair with Astor Piazzolla’s music. Several years ago I heard the wonderful recording of Le Grand Tango for cello and piano performed by Yo Yo Ma. Written in 1982 and dedicated to Russian cellist, Mistislav Rostropovitch it was premiered by him in 1990 in New Orleans.I was transported by the piece and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the music to play it myself. I fell in love with the driving syncopated rhythms and the beautiful melodies, perfect for the soulful voice of the cello and The tango rhythm is simply an 8/8 common time signature, but it is transformed when it is grouped in three accented groups 3/3/2. It becomes passionate, unrelenting, unrestrained and the ending of Le Grand Tango leaves both the audience and the performers breathless. |
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