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Max Bruch Violin Concerto No 1 Op 26 in G minor-Financial Reward

Much has been said that most artist die a pauper only to have their works attain popular acclaim after their passing. There is a slight twist to this fairly popular violin concerto by German romantic composer Max Bruch or rather that his violin concerto which was his most famous work of the about 100 compositions that he wrote during his lifetime of about 82 years. He actually saw this work attain popularity during his lifetime but he was not to be sufficiently rewarded for it as he sold the rights to this concerto for a one time payment as it was not well received during its premiere as he could have wanted to cash in on whatever he could lay his hands on financially. Having a lawyer for a father Max Bruch must have appreciated the consequences of his outright sale of his work though his father did not practiced law for a significant period and spent a large part of his career as a police chief.

Another significant aspect is that he reached a career fork very early in his life of having to choose between painting or music as he was talented in both. It seems that he made a right decision in choosing music. The other significant part is his love for violin although he started his music career on the piano. He once remarked that the violin can sing a melody better than a piano and that melody is the soul of music. He composed a total of 3 violin concertos but it was his first violin that sealed his fame as a composer.

On his ancestral roots, there has been some speculation that he has a Jewish bloodline instead of Germanic bloodline for which he was very proud of. This was partly due to one of his composition Kol Nidrei that has some hebrew over tones. He went to great length to refute this and he was also a Bismarck sympathizer in terms of his plan to achieve unification of Rhineland.

Although the concerto was set against a minor key it was more melodious than melancholic in nature. In fact, some would say that there seems to be some parallel between this violin concerto and that of Mendelssohn's violin concerto which is also keyed in minor. This could have it roots as Mendelssohn was not only his contemporary but a good friend of his. Being a flag bearer for romantic era style of music, he vehemently resisted the contemporary 'Neudeutsche' of his time which promoted a darker and more complex style as opposed to his more traditional and folk style.

I have the following recording of this concerto:

1.Two of which is by violinist Yehudi Menuhin. One of which is with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Adrian Boult and the second accompanied by London Philharmonia Orchestra under the baton of Walter Susskind.

2. Soloist Ruggiero Ricci with London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Piero Gamba

3. Kyung-Wha Chung with Klaus Tennsedt conducting London Philharmonic Orchestra

4.Janine Jansen with Riccardo Chailly conducting Gewandhausorchester.

5. David Oistrakh with London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lovro von Matacic

6.Shlomo Mintz with Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado.

Of these recordings, my favorite is the version by David Oistrakh as his interpretation seems to be the most melodic of them all in my opinion. Janine Jansen plays it in a very emotive manner while both recordings of Yehudi Menuhin is most probably technically the most faultless.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter.blogspot.com

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. Copyrights of all contents in this blog belongs to Peter Lye unless stated otherwise.

Friedman vs Keynes Joke

"With Milton Friedman as your economic adviser, you have nothing to worry about the threats from a few hundred million hostile Arabs."

by John Kenneth Galbraith ( A Keynesian champion ) answering an Israeli reporter on his view on the appointment of Milton Friedman as an economic adviser to Israel.

Tchaikovsky Symphony No 4 Op 36-Fate and Commentary

Of the 6 symphonies that Tchaikovsky composed, it is quite common to group 1-3 as the first group and 4-6 as the second group. The 4th symphony here presents a defining departure from the 1st group of symphonies in that Tchaikovsky starts to be confident of his own style to depart away from the strict Germanic symphony style and combined it with the more tuneful romantic era. In fact the 1st movement is quite long at about 20 minutes that some would classify the first movement as a symphonic poem with 3 additional movements instead of a symphonic work with 4 movements.

The second unique feature of this symphony being that Tchaikovsky actually penned an accompanying commentary to the composition which is rather rare and one of the reasons could be that he is dedicating this symphony to his patroness Nadezhda von Meck and the commentary could be something requested by her. This act like a sort of a double edged sword. For one, we have access to the original intent of the composer to the various passages. However, it also constrained subsequent music interpreters the latitude to impute their own reading of the symphony. The beauty of symphonic work lies partly with the mystique and multifaceted properties that makes it evergreen.

Thridly, there is some parallel between the symphony and Beethoven's Symphony No 5. Both start with a signature motif of ta ta ta ta that is repeated in various form throughout the symphony. Tchaikovsky himself made mention of this parallelism and also gave a an explanation that both symphonies are about fate and both happen to be fairly melancholic and penned in the minor scale.

As with most artistic works, its premier at Saint Petersburg by Nikolai Rubenstein was not very well received. Because Tchaikovsky was not present at the premier, he only had second hand account from Rubenstein that the symphony was well played and keeping him in the dark about comments from some critics that found the symphony brilliant in parts but less impressive overall. However, this symphony has grown in popularity that it is quite a staple in the programs of many concerts as well as being widely recorded as well.

This symphony was also composed against Tchaikovsky personal backdrop of his failed marriage and could therefore account for the strong measure of melancholic nature. The other famous piece that Tchaikovsky composed right after this work was his all time famous and only violin concerto and perhaps there are shades of this symphony present in his violin concerto.

The few recordings that I have are as follows:

1.Neeme Jarvi conducting Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

2.Kurt Sanderling conducts Leningrad Symphony. 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.

Of these recordings, the version by Neeme Jarvi is sonically better that the other two being a more recent recording and also being done on SACD. However, my favorite is still the interpretation by Karajan seems to bring out the melancholy in the piece very well without being technically too off mark in my humble opinion.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter

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

Free Market and Economic Tsunami of 2008

In October 2008, I wrote an article about Lehman Brother fallout and in it, I quote "In 1993, the much respected Alan Greenspan went before the US Congress to testify in his capacity as chairman of the Fed that the government should leave the credit derivative market to its own devices as it serves to transfer risk from those who cannot afford to carry it to those are willing to take the risk for a price.". Being a free market advocate, 2008 has been a year of much unlearning and humbling acknowledgement that free market is not all that perfect and to coin Adam Smith's famous "Invisible Hand" as the be all and end all in terms of market pricing except that he also have a caveat on the hazards of monopolies undermining the greater good of mankind. Milton Friedman in his book "Free to Choose" strongly advocated that "markets always work and only market works" and therefore doubt "government intervention" could ever serve a useful purpose.

All these economists are my heroes and I still do believe them to be fundamentally correct in their posture on world economics but would place the following caveats in light of the events unfolding before our eyes in 2008.

Firstly, in light of the break down of the credit derivative market bring down with it Lehman Brothers as well as AIG, I think that Greenspan could be wrong about leaving the credit derivative market un-regulated. I think there is a marked difference between market regulation and market intervention although the two seems to be similar but their differential makes its practice a world of difference. Regulation has to do with setting up rules of engagement for market participants, increasing price transparency and reducing product differentiation factors, ensuring proper market clearing and making buyers and sellers 'blind' in terms of counter-party by guaranteeing counter-party ability to full-fill the trade. This is normally done through a regulator like SEC and an exchange like NYSE. It is important to note that the regulator and exchange should preferably be two separate entities to ensure that they do not land into a conflict of interest situation. In addition, the regulator like SEC must be government controlled but the exchange like NYSE can have its ownership in the hands of the market. This is what I meant by governmental market regulation. Government market intervention on their hand is the participation of the government either directly or indirectly as a market participant. Examples of which are government ownership of enterprises that provides goods that are also provided by private enterprises. The key here is that the goods can or are already provided by private enterprise and therefore, there is very little reason for governmental participation in the market. The exception would be 'public goods' which Milton Friedman also agreed should be produced by government. Conceptually, public goods such as policing, fire safety, major infrastructure that is enjoyed by all and sundry in the economy like parks, roads, fire service,education etc and are necessary for a community to function properly.

Secondly, there is an issue of time frame by which these concepts are tenable. In most if not all cases, the economic concepts will apply in the longer run rather than in the short run. There is general consensus in the economic community that in the shorter run, there could be price disturbances and market imperfection. However, the period of such shorter term market imperfections in terms of the intensity of the impact as well as its duration could make such models untenable as the economic tsunami during such period could have far reaching social and political impact that could de-stabilize a society beyond redemption. Chief amongst the shorter run social ills like unemployment and stagflation could destroy a whole generation before time could be in time to heal it. Economists have long recognized these situations and even labelled them as business cycles. In the past century, we have witnessed a few of these major ones that like in the years 2008, 1998, 1973 and 1929. Of course there are some who will argue that such cycles were made worse by inappropriate governmental intervention for example the monetarist camp and the keynesian camp on whether pump priming and controlling money supply as key to ridding out such cycles successfully. For the free market to always work and the market is the only workable solution, we will need a solution to the issue of business cycle for which there is no common consensus on what is right and workable.

Thirdly, we come to the issue to what is the correct and equitable distribution of economic wealth and woes in a society. Gini's coefficient is commonly used to measure the dispersion of income in a society. The greater the coefficient, the greater the gap between the rich and the poor in a society. Of late, there has been a re-thinking of Gini's coefficient accuracy in portraying the state of the rich poor gap as it measures only income and not wealth but this a minor detail.

Generally, we can see that on a global basis, there seems to be little significant trend pointing to an upward or downward trend of this coefficient but we do note that for USA which is one of the louder proponent of free market that the coefficient has risen over time since world war II. It is also interesting but not surprising to note that when economies like China move from centrally planned to free market, we can see a marked increase in the coefficient as the free market economy takes shape over time. An interesting thing point to note that the coefficient for the Nordic countries has been on a downward trend and these are the countries with one of the higher effective tax rate globally. What I see missing is a correlation between the Gini coefficient and business cycle and perhaps I should take up this challenge when my circumstances allow me to. However, to me a lack of demonstrable correlation between business cycle and the Gini coefficient is worrying enough as I would expect the Gini coefficient to be southward bound in tandem with the business cycle as non-linear or a northward bound Gini coefficient would mean that the poorer shouldering a larger share of the economic downturn of a business cycle. This could actually have societal instability if the impact of on the poorer segment becomes unbearable or there is a general lack of economic equalizers in terms of either transfer payments,estate duties or equal opportunity rules in terms of access to education and employment opportunities that allow for mobility both ways across the rich poor continuum.

In concluding, I would only say that although free market might not be perfect, it is most probably the best that is available to us. The secret lies in how we fine tune this wild animal of the free market to behave in a socially acceptable to all humanity.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter.blogspot.com

Grandpa Hospitalised

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.

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:

1.Bernard Haitink Concertgebouw Orchestra. This recording is very listenable but not unique.

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.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter

The US Presidential Elections-A Simple Singaporean Viewpoint

Over the weekend, I had an interesting back and forth email exchange with my close friend who was born in Singapore but had since given up her red identity card for a green card after marrying an American and has been living in Atlanta which is the capital for the southern state of Georgia. Atlanta is also dear to me as it is home to my favourite drink Coke. I must first profess that any racial or religious mentioned in this article is not to accentuate and amplify the racial and religious issues but merely to pen down the state of the union on where such issues stands. I am pro affirmative action in achieving equality along all lines including racial and religious lines.

This state is interesting in that it is both predominantly non-white and part of the bible belt. From reason standpoint, the bible belt tend to belong to the Republican due to their conservative stand especially on being anti-abortion which tend to win them popular votes. Being predominantly non-white, I would reason that racial lines would draw them towards Obama on the Democrats ticket. At the end of the day, the results partially spoke for itself as the state of Georgia went to the Republican candidate. I could read the results in many ways and one of which is that America has grown up in terms of racial equality in that a predominantly non-white state did not vote along racial lines The other way is that religion issues has won the day. A third alternative being that there are other factors that could have affected the results.

Firstly, I was shocked to hear that polling day is NOT a national holiday in the world's champion of democracy. Although I have been to America numerous time, I have always assumed that polling day is a national holiday to allow citizenry enough time and opportunity to vote. I was wrong. Democracy does have a voice and voters have to take time off work on their own private account to vote as not all companies are lucid enough to grant time off for voting. This could be part of the reason why the voter turn out has been fairly poor compared to other democracies around the world. It is either American could not be bothered or there is just too much barrier to the poll station. I was told that some queue up for as long as 3 hours to vote and I salute these brave souls especially in these tough economic season where time away from work might not be too popular. To me it is a resounding mandate for Obama to win by both a large majority and having record voter turn out.

Secondly, it is one rare occasion for a single party of have a clean majority sweep of the presidency, senate and house of congress. Americans, I believe still stand by the maxim that absolute power corrupts absolutely and this could be one of the reason why it is rare to a single party to have control over the presidency and both houses thereby leaving less check and balance. Another indicator is the freedom to bear arms as citizenry as no government is infallible. Perhaps it is the unprecedented economic backdrop of a looming crisis on a scale and complexity not seen before and therefore, it is better to have a coherent government rather than a balanced and divisive government that could make unpopular but needful policies difficult to carry out. Perhaps it is the stomach that won the day as what the use of being a free but hungry man.

My selection of the State of Georgia is a personal one as I have been there and have a close friend there. My next choice of state is more deliberate; the State of Massachusetts. The capital of this state Boston is very unique town as it has produced the most number of nobel laureates as well as home to many of the country's ivy league schools. I would say that on this count without checking the census, the per capital wealth and income is likely to exceed that of Atlanta. Again this state has defied one norm of the richer generally tend to vote for Republican and one of the reason is that they tend to favour tax cuts which tend to favour the richer more economic wise. This has been shrink wrapped into a popular postulation of Reganomics or supply side economics that has largely gone out of fashion and thought leadership. I salute the voters of Massachusetts for not voting according to their pockets but for a higher calling of the good of America. Perhaps the strong academia population could have an effect on the level of altruism in the voters.

All said and done, my approach is too simplistic to be a viable gauge of the actual current that carried Obama to the White House but the simpleton mind could only process that much of complexity. Lastly, those who are in my inner circle of friends who grew up with me as a student will know who I am talking about in Atlanta. No prizes for the right guess.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter.blogspot.com

Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor Op 64-Nov 2008

Mendelssohn wrote two violin concertos at two ends of his career both of which are based on the Minor scale. The first one written at the start of his career is aptly named Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in D Minor which shows traces of his teenage youthful exuberance whilst his final violin concerto is marked by emotional depth and quest for perfection. This is reflected by the fact that Mendelssohn took about 7 years to refine this major work of his that comes in three movements of about 25 minutes in total. The piece starts with a substantial Allegro con fuoco with strong melody lines followed by a leisurely Andante ending with a shorter but definitive finale. The thematic development and evolvement of the signature tune of the first movement progresses well through the three movements into the finale.

This concerto exits in two main forms; the original 1844 version which was autographed by Mendelssohn and dedicated to violinist Ferdinand David and the more modern and familiar version that is more widely played. The two versions is differentiated from each other in terms of tempo, orchestration, solo parts and orchestration mainly. I have a slight preference for the modern form instead of 1844 version as the modern version seems to be more coherent melodically but I must admit that perhaps familiarity bias could be the reason as the 1844 version is not widely recorded.

I have heard the following recordings of this piece:

1.Isabelle van Keulen with Lev Markiz conducting Amsterdam Sinfonietta (BIS)-1844 version

2.Janine Jansen with Riccardo Chailly conducting Gewandhaus Orchestra (Decca). Incidentally, the premiere performance of this piece in 1845 was Ferdinand David accompanied by Gewandhaus Orchestra.

3.Kyung-Wha Chung with Charles Dutoit conducting Montreal Symphony Orchestra. (Decca)

4.Shlomo Mintz with Claudio Abbado conducting Chicago Symphony Orchestra (DG)

5.Yehudi Menuhin with Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos conducting London Symphony Orchestra (EMI)

6.Akiko Suwanai with Vladimir Ashkenazy conducting Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (Decca)

7.Ruggiero Ricci with Pierino Gamba conducting London Symphonic Orchestra (Decca)

8.Pinchas Zukerman with Pinchase Zukerman conducting St Paul Chamber Orchestra(DECCA)

Of the seven recordings listed above, my vote goes to the version by Janine Jansen as it has a good balance between good playing and great sound as it is a relatively newer recording that benefited from newer recording technology. The version by Yehudi Menuhin is an old EMI recording so sonically, it is not so great but this recording has one of the best solo playing by Yehudi Menuhin but there seems to be a tension between the soloist and the orchestra vying for the limelight. The version by Kyung-Wha Chung with Charles Dutoit conducting Montreal Symphony Orchestra is a coherent recording with very good chemistry between soloist and orchestra and this could be due to the fact that Kyung-Wha Chung has been bedfellows with Charles Dutoit and Montreal in a number of recordings and performance and so is more familiar with each other.

You be your own judge and let me know what you think.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter.blogspot.com

Lehman Brothers Afterthought - Peter Lye 11 Oct 2008

Lehman Brothers Afterthought - Peter Lye 11 Oct 2008 - lkypeter.blogspot.com

On September 28, I wrote an article on whether the financial meltdown and concluded that it was mainly a regulatory failure. I would like to further this cause by examining some the of events in the past that could have contributed to the melt down and whether there was possibility in averting this crisis by having the right party make the break glass warning soon enough. I am a free market proponent and have Milton Freeman and Alan Greenspan as gentlemen for which I admire much for their thoughts and actions in their professional space. However, the unfolding of the recent events has lead me to re-think on the sufficiency and adequacy of the free market system in all things sundry and how then do we decide what should or should not come under heavier scrutiny and control. I can still remember vividly that Milton Freeman said that the best thing that the government can help the economy is by staying out of it in his book Free to Choose.I am not proposing a communistic state of affairs but that our free market system near perfect but not perfect and might need some fundamental adjustment for it to be relevant in the coming centuries.

One thing that occupies my mind these couple of weeks is Lehman Brothers and whether the ensuing action and in action might have contributed to the crisis. The American government stand on not being held hostage because a bank is to big to fail is a good policy to hold onto as it can set the wrong precedent and cause a larger breakdown of our financial systems. The various financial melt downs in the past has indeed shown that some of these institutions are too big to fail with wide ranging ramifications on the public at large but we must never never yield to this as the equity of the entire rescue no matter how hard we try will be very very inequitable to the population at large.

The Lehman collapse have a few special ramifications that could have contributed to the credit crunch as follows:

1.AIG is on of the major originators of credit default swaps that is estimated to run into the trillions based on its par value but AIG actual exposure could be a fraction of it. In this case, it is anxiety of how big this fraction is that can kill the market system of trust.

2.These credit default swaps does not have an orderly clearing house to ensure that trades are properly settled and this brings to bear that most of these are bilateral contracts that are kept out of the purview of the public especially on exposure to such instruments. Therefore, we can get current situation of trust no one leading to a credit squeeze. Although the central banks have done a great job in bring down their respective discount rates and windows and through open market operations to re-purchased their own sovereign bonds to increase the money supply. However, both of these are not working as we witness the normal con-tango relationship between discount rates and inter bank rates going in almost opposite directions. The LIOBR overnight, and shorter term 1 -3 months rates has sky rocketed in-spite of lowering of the discount rates. My explanation for this gap is not a case of simple demand and supply but that the counter-party risks has increased tremendously and the differential to a large extend represent this risk premium. No banks are saying they are not exposed neither are they saying they are. So the free market makes a guess and this is reflected in the risk premium it tags on them.

3.It is bad enough that the credit default swaps does not have a clearing house, to add injury to the whole episode, neither does it have a formal exchange either so that the prices are open and there is a fairer valuation of the instruments. Price disclosure is also not as transparent in exchange traded instruments. Price opacity does not help in these times as well.

Given the situation above having the benefit of a rear view mirror that the policy makers largely did not have, would I have recommended a rescue of Lehman instead of letting nature takes its course into bankruptcy? The answer is a resounding no to the rescue as it would create too much of a precedent. We are now eating the bitter pill of its consequence but the market will heal in time as these instruments are de-leveraged in due course and we can then separate the wolves in sheep clothing from the sheep and get rid of them again with some more pain before the market reaches some equilibrium.

In 1993, the much respected Alan Greenspan went before the US Congress to testify that in his capacity as chairman of the Fed that the government should leave the credit derivative market to its own devices as serves to transfer risk from those who cannot afford to carry it to those are willing to take the risk for a price. I do not think that Greenspan was wrong in the second instance but I am not so sure about the first instance of leaving the credit derivates market to its own device. We should not throw away the baby away together with the bath water. Credit derivates does have a role to play in risk transference however as it grows to such proportions, we should perhaps consider having an exchange to improve transparency and also a clearing house whereby trades can be cleared in an orderly fashion and prevent a bubble effect.

Last but not least, we have to decide how the credit rating agencies which have tremendous market and pricing power in ensuring their fair and proper participation in the market. It cannot be like the stock analyst in the stock market as their pens are much much more powerful than that of the stock analyst.

I do not have all the answers or even part of it but write this with a view that encourages communal participation in shaping our children's future as ours might already be too late as these reform takes time to materialize.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter.blogspot.com