Economics Business Music Politics Altruism

Dichotomy Between Private and Public Thoughts as a Measure of Pluralism

Recognizing the dichotomy that exists between private and public thoughts suddenly caught my attention as I sorted out the number of occasions in which I myself has on a conscious level attempted to keep my private thoughts from the prying eyes of the public either through a non-participative level or even betray it publicly through sheer denial or expressing a contrarian thought. The frightening thing is that such behavior has at time been a placid involuntary reaction that bypasses the cerebral much like how my eye lids shut in reaction to bright lights. It is only on conscious reflection that I realizes it. So this dichotomy between private thought and public thought is a reality.

Pluralism takes many forms like cultural, political, value etc. I am pursuing pluralism in a broader sense of existence, acceptance and real tolerance of differing, alternative or opposing thoughts within a society.

What are the linkages between the two and why the degree of dichotomy between private and public thought is one of the many means to measure pluralism within a society?

Firstly, in a more pluralistic society, the dichotomy between private and public thoughts would be narrower as there is more tolerance and therefore removes one of the many barriers for transparency. The populace would be more willing to go public on their private thoughts as the repercussions for doing so is less damming.

Secondly, on a more positive note, a more pluralistic societal norm also tend to reward divergent thoughts and therefore provide a more fertile landscape for divergent views to not only grow privately but also to come out in the open more readily.

Thirdly, there is a difference between pluralistic society and a multi-variate society. A multi-variate society is a society where people differentiated along various lines like race, religion etc exists in a melting pot together and does not necessarily means that it is a pluralistic society. More often than not, a multi-variate society tend to be less pluralistic and tend to exhibit a synthetic tolerance because such divergence without pluralism provides for a potential flashpoint for societal unrest. Therefore, it is not uncommon for laws on equal opportunism, affirmative activism and legal framework to diffuse such differential. Most of these tend to narrow the opportunity for individual to go public with their private thoughts especially if it would lead to trespassing of the legal framework. Synthetic pluralism tend to thrive in such societies with strong fault lines that could fractal easily. Such societies also tend to be either a migrant society that resulted from a convergence of a multi-variate nature often without a strong sense of nationhood as such values takes time to take root. Sometimes, such multi-variate society can also be the result of artificial political delineation that forces such a formation or the close proximity with a history of violence between them.

Pluralism is not necessarily a final destination nor a nirvana to be pursued with an endless wit but a form of ideal with its root primarily from philosopher Isaiah Berlin.

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. Peter Lye

Economic Recession-Inflationary Spiral vs Confidence Crisis-Singapore

The written world is full of recessionista that I thought hard about contributing further to it? The markets seem to react to bad news with a vengeance and good news is being question marked all over that it normally barely moves the market. In such a climate, the down draft is definitely going to be stronger that the bullish tendencies.

Great economists like Alan Greenspan has always put forth evil that lurks behind the inflationary spiral as the most difficult to tame and goes all out to combat it with the weapon of choice which is the FED discount rate. The basic premise being that price stability is important for the growth of the economy in the longer run. That I fully agree with.

However, the reverse which is hardly spoken about is what I would term as a confidence crisis like what we are very much experiencing right now. It is almost like the mirror image of the inflationary spiral ; business expect revenue to be bad therefore hold back on their investment and staffing level leading to lower business volume both upstream and downstream. The consumer that expects to have a rough ride in terms of retrenchment, pay cuts etc will also scale back on spending and all this would translate itself into self full-filling recessionary overtone.

Between the two evils, I believe confidence crisis is the larger of the two as a consumeristic outlook is easier to tame and we have many weapons in our arsenal to fight the inflationary spiral tooth to nail.

In a confidence crisis, our ability to spend our way out of a recession is hampered by issues like shrinking multiplier effect in a recession and for a small and fairly open economy like Singapore, there are further issues of leakages as we tend to import almost everything and the domestic economy is of limited size and amplitude thus eroding the classical economics virtue postulated by Keynesian.

Moving over to the monetarist viewpoint, it also suffers from episodes like liquidity traps like what is happening in Japan where the interest rate is nearing zero and monetarist end up with a very blunt tool to fight the confidence crisis. There are of course other policy options like trying to increase the velocity of currency by having the government help the banks to under write part of the credit risk in the hope of the banks being more prepared to extend credit to the businesses and consumers to lift us out of the confidence crisis. A first round of such policy has been put in place in Singapore with limited success as bankers hardly budge on easing credit as they have learnt how fast toxicity can build up in their balance sheets which will at some point in time needs to be de-leveraged in a painful manner like now.

Perhaps, it is during times like these that we need strong leadership with an equally strong mandate from the people not only measured by the polls but by how the leadership can inspire the populace to a greater cause in life and paint a believable light at the end of the tunnel or a rainbow after a storm. Such leaders are normally born and not bred in ivy leagues of the world. Although I do not condone what Adolf Hitler has perpetuated during the second world war, there is much to be learned from his ability to rally people to a cause. Another good example is Robert F. Kennedy but it is unfortunate that his was short lived. Winston Churchill; the wartime prime minister of Britain was another with great ability to rally the populace. Perhaps, this time, Barack Obama would save us.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter.blogspot.com

Mozart Clarinet Concerto K622-The Famous One

I was introduced to this piece by my colleague and lets just call him by his nick name "Ah Lau" as I have not sought permission to include his name. He is far from being what a typical "Ah Lau" and has a strong interest in classical music and also engages in bird photography. A cultured person in that sense.

I did not know that this 3 part clarinet concerto has been used on numerous occasions as a them song of several movies especially the 2nd movement in Adagio. This could partially explains the familiarity of this piece with the general populace especially the second movement and it is definitely one of the many good means to get introduced to classical music.

This concerto is very lyrical and easy on the ears. In a sense, it is like the twin brother of Carb Sav in wine terms as it is difficult to go wrong and difficult to be very right as well. Please do nor mistaken that this parallel is to belittle Mozart but in praise of his wisdom and artistic capability to appeal to both the so called cultured and the general populace.

I own a total of 5 versions of this piece and the 6th is borrowed from "Ah Lau". Here are my humble comments about the recordings.

1. This recording made by Wiener Philharmoniker under the baton of the famous Leonard Bernstein with Peter Schimdl on the clarinet. It is a good display how a strong conductor could impose his interpretation on the piece. It actually helps a lot that this concerto does not have a cadenza where the soloist takes centre stage. Very coherent recording.

2. The second recording is an old one by conductor Thomas Beecham with soloist Jack Brymer and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra accompanying. This is one of the slower interpretation and it could be that in that age, it is played that way. The recording moved me and it fairly emotive in character in my humble opinion.

3. Karl Leister partnered Neville Marriner conducting his Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Just the opposite of the former piece; this recording appear a bit rushed especially in the first movement. The saving grace is the second movement where is good balance of technical brilliance and lifting the spirit out of the piece experience if I may say.

4. If lyricalism is your cup of tea, you must listen to this recording by soloist Jacques Lancelot and conductor Jean-Francois Pillard. It is a very soothing recording to play as background music while you work especially the second movement. I can put the second movement on repeat for many times and not get sick of it.

5. If you want to hear the soloist on the pedestal even in a piece without a cadenza, it would have to be the recording by soloist Martin Frost, conductor Peter Oundijan taking care of Amsterdam Sinfornia. Martin Frost definitely shows who is the boss in this recording as it was very soloist and clarinet centric. The orchestra seems just to play a small accompaniment to Martin Frost brilliant interpretation of the piece. I do find it overwhelming at times though.

6. This last piece loaned to me by "Ah Lau" with Anton Pay on the clarinet and Christopher Hogwood doing his stuff with The Academy of Ancient Music is my favorite as it appears to be sonically well balance even though the Martin Frost recording being an SACD is supposed to be better but the miking could be too pronounced perhaps due to the close miking for the soloist in the Frost recording. In addition, the soloist, conductor seems to be one spirit in this recording.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter.blogspot.com

Age of Intelligence

Economically speaking, man's journey through the centuries has been classified into a few broad ages by economists.

It started with the Agrarian age where the economy was centered around agriculture and farming.

With the invention of the steam engine, the world was propelled into the industrial age. During this period, the emphasis was around the the ability to mass produce quickly and cheaply with the steam engine and subsequently other form of engine to leverage the productivity of mankind. The notable events include Henry Ford's first mass produced Model T car.

The birth of the computer brought us into the information age where the adage information is power reigns supreme. The information age not only brought with it the power of information but it also transformed thinking from a product based to a service based denominator as it is one of the earlier industry to venture into the outsourcing paradigm. Instead of buying a printer, ink to print reports, in the the service age, it would be buying a printing service that would provide the printer and ink, maintenance service for the printer and at times even the paper and charge on the basis of number of printed pages.

This was soon followed by what is known as the experiential economy championed by economist Joseph Pine and James Gilmore who wrote 'The Experience Economy' in 1999. In it, they chronicled the development of our economy from the agrarian, industrial, service and finally to what they termed as the experience economy using the analogy of how birthdays has meant different things through the ages. In the Agrarian economy, it centered on the flour needed to make the birthday cake. In the industrial age where things are largely mass produced, it was on buying the pre-mixed ingredients to reduce the time needed to bake the cake. As it progresses to the service age, it was likely to be buying a ready made cake and having it delivered as a service to the birthday venue. With the further transformation of the economy, the birthday is likely to entail a celebration at a fast food joint like Macdonald with organized birthday games, food and a magic show to entertain the kids and the cake is thrown in free.

As economic distinctions progresses and becomes less tangible, we begets the question on what shapes the economic offering of our day? Having pondered in it for a while, I postulate the age of intelligence. While the marriage of telecommunications and computers which herald us into the age of information and the 'Death of Distance' as written by Frances Cairncross. Knowledge on tap being available almost anywhere, anytime in the abundance that puts information available on the internet in terms of terabytes upon terabytes and search engines like google and yahoo making finding knowledge easier. Surely information and its smarter descendant knowledge can no longer be a formidable differentiator. If I need to find out which year George Washington was born and with ready access to internet, almost anybody with some basic information age skills can tell you that it is 1732.

Welcome to the age of intelligence whereby the key differentiator is intelligence in itself and no prize for this answer. How is intelligence different from all its predecessors?

Using part of the economic distinction model developed above by Pine & Gilmore, I would use an old world analogy to describe the this new paradigm and thereafter add further dimensions which is central to the understanding of the age of intelligence.

In terms of economic function, we have seen the progression from extract in the agrarian, make in the industrial age, deliver in the services age,stage in the experiential age and perhaps discover in the knowledge age. In the age of intelligence, it is likely to be problem solving. Problem solving differentiates itself from discovery knowledge in the additional dimension of applying the relevant knowledge to solving a problem. In the old adage of knowledge is power on the job, it not longer applies as in the age of intelligence, the differentiating factor would lie not only in the ability to acquire knowledge which is fast eroding in the age of ubitquous internet which makes knowledge readily available on tap but forming solutions through intelligent use of knowledge.

In the agrarian age where the produce is mainly farm based, the time dimension becomes critical as most products are fungible. Into the industrial age where the emphasis is on mass production of durables like cars, consumer white goods etc, the time dimension becomes less important as the produce are more tangible. The transition into the service economy brings back the importance of the time dimension to a higher level of criticality whereby the produce is intangible and cannot be stored. What is not consumed is lost along the time continuum. With memorable experience as the hall mark of the experience economy, the time dimension sort of flip flop back some what but on slightly different scheme in terms of sustainability after consumption. The age of intelligence is a combination of permanence and fungibility. Permanent in the sense that once a solution to a problem is found, it can be readily applied over and over again and fungible because the problem is also likely to change requiring new solution.

Mother nature was the centre of attention in the agrarian time from the condition of the soil to the weather and the natural mix of animal and plant habitat that determines the produce of the day. So the saying of the day is let nature takes it course as man kind is very much at the mercy of nature. As men progress into the industrial age, destiny became more deterministic as the major produce of that period centre on products that are less dependent on mother nature. Perhaps as an antidote to the wave of similarity that mass production of the industrial age generates, the service era majors on the customizability as opposed to 'me too' syndrome of mass production. In order to appeal to the heighten experiential senses of the experience economy, personalization wins the day as emphasis is on being able to create a unique and long lasting experience for the consumer. Learnability becomes the key in the knowledge age but as we turn the corner into the age of intelligence, assimilability of knowledge becomes key as knowledge itself does not transform but once assimilated into its eco system or context, it illuminates.

The role played by buyer and seller also plays an important transformation through the different economic era as highlighted by Pine and Gilmore above. To take this concept further, the role of buyer and seller ended with that of a stager and guest respectively in the experiential economy. In the knowledge economy, the seller is likely to be a patent, copyright or trademark owner playing the role of a licensee and the consumer a licensor as originality of knowledge is key. However, in the age of intelligence, the seller is likely to be a provider and the seller a client like in the service economy. The key differentiator from the service economy is the emphasis on uniqueness rather than quantifiability and repeatability.

We would explore the implication of the age of intelligence in my next installment of writing.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter.blogspot.com

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

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