Just got news that my maternal grandpa has just been hospitalised today for possible infection as well as low potassium salt in his blood that is dangerous for his heart. My grandpa has meant a lot to me as he has palyed an influential role in my life when I was young in the following way:
1.He was the person that introduced me to HiFi when I was a little under 10 years old and it is a hobby that I have carried all this while up to now. He would spend much time with me over the weekends to borrow records from the record library and make analogue recordings onto open reel tapes of our favourite songs then and recycle the open reels over and over again. He is also the one that taught me the finer art of appreciating the differential in HiFi sound. I will always be grateful to him for this and I would remember the times that we have together into the little hours of the morning listening to music and HiFi.
2.My organ playing was also because of him. He was the one who bought the organ and got me interested in it. It was also through organ playing that I learn to appreciate music to a larger extent.
3.He has shown me what it is like to live a life of plently materially and fall from grace materially and yet be able to hold his head up high inspite of his economic challenges. He went from being a boss who rides in sports car,living in good districts and hob nobbing with the who's who in town to living in HDB and working for others and riding a humble Honda cab motorbike. He has managed to live with the economic downturn without being bitter at the turn of events in his life and enjoy what he has gracefully. It takes a lot of mental and emotional strength to weather such situations and he did well in my mind.
Although not everyone in the family might agree with my opinion of him, I believe that everyone of us have our strong points and our challenges in life. I would want to learn from his strength and build on it and as far as challenges, we can learn not to repeat them in our own life.
Cheers to you Grandpa (Michael Chan)...Pete
Concerto Pour Une Voix(Two Angels) by Saint-Preux
I used to play this french composition on the organ when I was a teenager and feel in love with it. It has a bit of baroque question and answer as well as neo-classical complexity in some parts but what I love most is how the main and counter melody blend into each other.
Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye
This is one of the pieces that until today, I can play almost 90% of the song from memory and considering that it was some 15 years ago that I started playing this piece.
I have been looking around for a decent orchestra recording of this piece but could not find any in Singapore as most of the recordings are vocals and done in pop style without the counter melody and therefore does not do justice to the composer Saint Preux.
Perhaps it is because it is french and might have a limited following in the anglo-saxon influenced part of the world. If you find something interesting on this, drop me a note.
Thanks.
Peter Lye aka lkypeter
Tchaikovsky Symphony No 5 Op 64 -Providence
Tchaikovsky penned this symphony in happier time of his life. It can be interpreted as his gratitude for the providence in his life by a super being. Many music critics opinionated that this symphony is most probably the weakest of his 6 symphonies although it won critical acclaim with the general public.
In literature speak this symphony can be termed as a comedy instead of a tragedy as the 4th movement or the finale ends with a celebratory or triumphant in the nature of a major scale. This symphony has also suffered a middle child syndrome as it as squashed between the beautifully crafted 4th and the mysterious and dark symphony No 6. The symphony does rise to the occasion on its own merit and popularity.
In addition, the symphony makes very good use of transposing the the movements alternating between E minor for the 1st movement, D major for the second movement and A major for the 3rd movement. The fourth movement or the finale has an interesting structure as it starts on E major, transforming itself itself into E minor and ends the symphony on E major. The transposition has been done beautifully especially for the finale as one can hardly hear the transposition unless one pays very lose attention to it. To me this is the brilliance of Tchaikovsky ingenuity as composers normally use transposition to attract attention but Tchaikovsky did it the other way round. In addition, this symphony has its signature melody began in the 1st movement to resonant progressively all the way to the finale.
Leningrad Orchestra has very strong connection to this piece as Tchaikivsky conducted the premiere of this work by conducting the Leningrad Symphony, Perhaps, this could be the reason why this orchestra has always been rated very well for this piece. Another interesting aspect of this piece happened in 1941 and midway through the concert for this piece in Leningrad, the Siege of Leningrad. In the midst of bombs being dropped on the city, the orchestra and conductor stayed on faithfully till the end of this 46 minutes symphony. Perhaps we should add bravery, martyrdom and call to battle,
I have the following recording of this piece as follows in order of my preference:
2.Mravinsky conducts Leningrad Symphony. Mravinsky is greater interpreter of Tchaikovsky symphonies and what could you ask for anything more as Leningrad Orchestra premiered this piece with the composer as conductor. Sonically not as good as on initial hearing as it was done in MONO but after a few listening, my opinion of MONO recording begin to change.
3.Karajan with Berlin Philmoniker because Karajan is also known to be a Tchaikovsky authority. You cannot fault his technically prudence approach to this piece tempered with a good dose of emotions.
I have acquired another version of this symphony in April 2009 as part of the Chandos 30th anniversary set. It is the well acclaimed performance by Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Mariss Jansons. The piece has a good balance between good sonic quality being recorded in 1984 and the brilliance that Mariss Jansons breathe into this Tchaikovsky piece. It is now my facourite.
Peter Lye aka lkypeter
Tchaikovsky Symphony No 6 Op 74 “Pathetique”-Final Hours
Tchaikovsky Symphony No 6 Op 74 “Pathetique”-Final Hours
I have always wondered how would I spend my final hours on mother earth. In any case, it depends whether my departure comes suddenly like in an accident or a heart attack or through a pro-longed terminal illness where there is much fore notice for me to plan it. In the case of Tchaikovsky, he died of Cholera which could be classified as an illness that does not give him much time to plan his final hours. However, scholars stand divided over whether the circumstances surrounding his death could be a masked suicide. This is because at the time of his death, there was a Cholera epidemic and a man of his economic standing and intellectual knew better to take pre-cautions not to drink un-bioled water. The possible motivation for his suicide was noted to be threats to expose his homosexual affairs with some of his students. This provides a fairly strong motivation as Tchaikovsky has tried to mask by homosexuality by a proper marriage which ended disastrously and also resulted in him attempting suicide earlier then.
My reasoning tend to favour the former opinion that he did not take his own life initially as there are much more better ways to commit suicide than to drink un-boiled water but my opinion changed after listening for many times the last symphony he composed before his death nick named “Pathetique” which he himself premiered just nine days before his death. The symphony comes in four movements here is why.
The first movement starts with a dark minor theme and round the middle of this movement, the music tones down to almost a dead silence followed by a rude awakening by a sudden outburst of the timpani. To be, this could be a sign that the composer is trying to explain that he was confronted with something of great impact to his life suddenly.
The second movement is a very very unique in that it is timed in 5/4 which is almost unheard of in classical music but the brillance of Tchaikovsky makes this oddly timed movement very liquid and unless one listen observantly, you will not notice the 5/4 signature like the louder contemporary song Take Five which also share the same 5/4 time signature. This could be the Tchaikovsky trying to mirror his last 'dance' or celebration before his planned departure and being Tchaikovsky, it has to be unique.
The third movement is a march of sort that surprisingly does not contain much evidence of celebratory or triumphant theme like in most marches. To be this could be his own funeral march.
The last movement re-develops the theme started in the first movement and gives it a good finality but in a fairly dark manner like how most tragedy would end. To me it could be remorse on the part of Tchaikovsky that he has to take his own life.
I am neither a music scholar and what I wrote above is a figment of my own imagination and there are no solid ground to base it own but it is a very emotive outlook after listening to the symphony.
I have 4 recordings of Tchaikovsky Symphony No 6 and what I wrote is based on these 3 recordings.
1.An awe powering interpretation by Karajan conducting Berlin Philharmoniker.
2.A later recording by Charles Dutoit conducting his lovely Montreal Symphonic Orchestra
3.A sonically good recording because it was done recently by Paavo Jari conducting the Cincinnati Symphonic Orchestra.
4.The ever famous old recording by Evengy Mravinsky conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic recorded in the 1950s. Nothing like having Russians interpret a Russian work.
My vote still goes to Mravinsky version for its very involving interpretation of the work. However, sound wise, do not expect much from a recording done in the 1950s. I would like to listen to Karajan recording of this piece with the Berlin Philharmonic as it has also been rated as a good interpretation and anyone out there that has heard it let me know.
Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye
Peter Lye aka lkypeter
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