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Rachmaninoff Piano No 3 in D minor Op 30

Sometime in Dec 2009 while I was on leave from work for almost a month, I was introduced to a new fellow HiFi fraternity while on one of my regular visits to HiFi wonderland. He was there to test out an equipment and the owner asked what he would like to listen to and he mentioned classical and a CD of Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 3 was lying on the coffee table and he suggested why not try this as it is something he is familiar with. This was my second encounter with a HiFi fan that loved this piece and the other person actually brings a recording of this piece around HiFi shops as a reference sounding board. The shop owner introduced me to his customer as one that loves classical music and he said to me that surely I must have this piece as it is almost like staple food of classical music. I did not answer his question as Rachmaninoff was not on my list of favorite composers and I only vaguely remembers his signature Piano Concerto No 1. Not wanting to be embarrassed, I told myself that I must go find out more about this piece and do some serious listening.

To my pleasant surprise, I found that I have 2 full recordings of this piece and decided to start listening to it and at first, I must admit that I was of the opinion that this piece must be an acquired taste like durians; you either love it or hate it and there is no two ways about it. The piece fell off my listening priority for a few weeks and one late evening or shall I say wee hours of morning whilst I was in a contemplative moods, I turned on Apple IPod and was intending to listen to Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 1 but accidentally swipe the click wheel too quickly and it landed me on his Piano Concerto no 3 and suddenly, the beginning motif seems to catch my attention and I listen on to all the 3 movements and it began to grew on me. It must not have been the superior sonics as I was listening miniature Altec Lansing speakers attached to my IPod and it was an old recording by famous pianist Van Cliburn and therefore it had to be music. Moreover, it was a live recording with a somewhat nosier audience or perhaps the sound engineer was lacking in skills in removing the audience noise from the recording. Some of my HiFi friends told me that there are basically two categories of HiFi fans, those that listen to the equipment against those that listen to the music. I try to strike a balance between the two and this is perhaps the reason I ended up with a decent size library of about 1400 classical CDs.

After listening to all 3 movements for a second time, I think I am beginning to like this piece like never before. The next day, I listened to the second recording I have by Zoltan Kocsis with San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under the hand of Edo deWaart. This recording was slightly faster paced than Van Cliburn version and between the two, I preferred the latter one as it the tempo seems to jive better with the melody and more emotive as possible to Kocsis catch the 'A' train tempo.

Not long thereafter, during one of my online shopping, I chance upon a live recording of this piece by world renown Chinese pianist Lang Lang version of this piece and in it went to the basket and it arrived at my door step a few later thanks to the snow storm plaguing USA coupled with the Christmas season. I was pretty surprised as I expected the version by Lang Lang to be more exuberant than normal as with most of his pieces but he surprised me with a tempered playing style that was much closer Van Cliburn and I check my CD player to make sure that I had the right CD and it was correct.

A bit about the origin of the piece. As Dvorak has his symphony no 9 'New World' as he composed it in USA, there is some parallel between the two. Rachmaninoff was to have a grand tour of the about 30 cities in USA arranged for him and he wrote this piece specifically for the tour. However, due to sudden death of his USA concert tour sponsor and he thought that the deal was off but it was not to be the case as Rachmaninoff actually contracted with the company and not the dead person and he was obliged to full-fill the USA tour. He wrote most of the entire piece in continental Europe and finished it save for the cadenza. An ingenious Rachmaninoff prepared a cardboard to mirror the keys of the Piano and he wrote the cadenza silently so to speak while crossing the Atlantic to USA on ship that took days instead of hours by air now. On the opening night, he played his silently composed cadenza for this first time to much acclaim of the audience not knowing the background. He swore never to have such a close shave again.

This piece was to become a much loved and requested piece of music during the tour and also subsequently when he left Russia motherland for good for USA to escape the communist revolution taking place then. He lived his last days in USA and never got a chance to return back to Russia that he so loved.

For those of you that are keen, here are the details of the 3 CDs from which I have used to write this commentary:

1.Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 3 Lang Lang-TELARC SACD-60582 (SACD)

2.Rachmaninoff/Prokofiev/Van Cliburn-LIVING STEREO 82876 67894 2 (SACD)

3.Rachmaninoff: Complete Works For Piano And Orchestra-Philips B00005O83Z

Have a good listen to this piece composed around the turn of 1900 and be patient and the bouquet would unfold slowly but surely onto you like all good wine and perfurme that takes time to mature and cannot be rushed.

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

Beethoven Piano Concerto No 1 in C major Op 15-In memory of Michael Chan Khay Ghee

It is close to a year now since my maternal grandpa has passed on on 1 March 2009. It is with much trepidation since this is Chinese Lunar New Year week as it seems only yesterday that I visited him during Chinese Lunar New Year of 2009. Shortly thereafter, pneumonia took my grandpa away as he fought to fight the infection fiercely. I shared many of my younger days as a teenager with grandpa because we shared hobbies like HiFi, organ playing and photography together. He was also someone that I admired from a far as he has rode the roller coaster of life having made a small fortune and losing it all during his 40s ate a humble pie to be an employee to put food on the table for the family. To me, it is the hall mark of dexterity.

I have been listening to Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 1 for over a month and has fallen in love with the piece and felt a certain connection between this piece and the sweet memories I had of my grandpa although I could not put a finger to it but would try explaining it. What got me started on the frenzy for this piece was the purchase of this piece played by Dutch Ronald Brautigam with Swedish Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra conducted by a British Andrew Parrott. What got me to purchase this SACD was the removal sale at HMV and having heard Brautigam I thought I cannot be too wrong with my selection. The CD went home with me as usual without any listening done as I normally buy a few at a time and do not want to bother the sales person too much as we have sort of become familiar with each other and greet each other on first name basis. As I gravitate towards the piece, I went hunting in my humble CD collection and found that I have 7 full versions of this piece in my collection not counting excerpts as I usually buy the full works. The 7 CDs are as follows:

1.Beethoven : Les Concertos (Zacharias/Hoelscher/Schiff-Vonk/Masure)-EMI 0946 367578 2

2.Beethoven KlavierKonzerte Nr. 1 & 2 (Argerich/Philharmonia Orchestra/Sinopoli)-DG 445 504-2

3.Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 3 (Michelangeli/Weiner Symphoniker/Giulini)-DG 289449 757-2

4.Piano Concertos 1 & 2 (Aimard/Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Harnoncourt) Warner 2564 63779-2

5.Beethoven Piano Concertos 1 & 3 (Brautigam/Norrkpoing Symphony Orchestra/Parrott) BIS SACD-1692

6.Beethoven Klavierkonzerte Nos. 1 & 4 (Lang Lang/Orchestra de Paris/Eschenbach) DG 477 6719

7.Alfred Brendel Plays Beethoven (Brendel) VOX BOX CDX3 3502

As in the case of Chopin's piano concertos, his second piano concerto in B flat major Op 19 was actually written before his first piano concerto but the second piano concerto got published first and therefore had a lower opus number of 15. There is some opinion within a small camp of Beethoven experts that claim otherwise stating that just before the inaugural concert of the piece, it was discovered that the piano technician has tuned the piano a semi-tone below and therefore Beethoven had to play his so-called second piano concerto a semitone higher in C. However, this line of reasoning has limited following and we shall assume the posture of main stream wisdom.

The piano concerto is divided into 3 movements with a cadenza in this first movement. Beethoven himself penned 3 versions of the cadenza and of all the recordings I have, only Zacharias attempted to improvise on the cadenza and most of the other recordings made use of the original cadenza written by Beethoven. Argerich used the shorter but more difficult of the 3 versions of the cadenza together with Brautigam and the rest used the slightly longer cadenza written by Beethoven.

The first movement in Allegro con bio have the orchestra introducing the piece as usually done in concertos with the exception of a few. The piano enters with the motif that is to be the cast for much of the first movement. This motif is repeated through the various instruments of the orchestra and also with some transposition to other keys as far away as E major and then comes what seems like an abrupt end of the first movement at around the 9th minute and thereafter the motif transforms into a motif that seems far removed from the initial motif but works its way towards the initial motif towards the end of the movement for a final resolution of the movement. Of worthy mention in this movement is the amount of air-time devoted to the solo clarinet but not substantial for it to qualify as concerto of that genre.

The second movement in Largo is not a popular part of this 3 movement concerto but I must say that Lang Lang has done the second movement justice by juxtaposing his emotions into this very lyrical, romantic, waltz and slower movement. I have always equated Lang Lang's style as being over zealous in most of his other recordings but this took me by surprise. Perhaps I should have the conductor Eschenbach to thank for as you never know who is the master in a concerto; the conductor or the soloist and I still have not resolved this differential myself. I think it is more important for the conductor and soloist to have good chemistry.

The third movement in Rondo is the fastest of the 3 movements with a march like celebratory twist. Some have attributed this to the influence that Mozart's musical style might have influenced Beethoven citing similarities between this movement and Mozart's concerto K.491 as a case in point. Whichever way the debate falls into, I love this grand movement as it gives the concertos a final resolution as a celebratory concerto that is sometimes used in occasions like weddings. To add, there is quite a few humorous or cheeky sections in this movement.

Now back to the hard decision if there is a fire in the house and I only have time to save one of the 7 CDs, which would I choose. My choice would be the version by Argerich from Argentina. Her playing might not be technically as brilliant as Michelangeli, as exuberant as Lang Lang or have the originality of Zacharias but she seems to string the 3 movements very well into a complete concerto.

Cheers,,,,Peter Lye aka lkypeter

My Humble HiFi Setup

The pictures listed above is my current humble Hifi setup and I am very pleased with the sound. All power cable are Golden Strada #201 except for iTransport and BenchMark. iTransport because it uses special transformer and BenchMark because I ran out of funds :(

For Lazy Listening

1.MacMini CoreSolo with iTunes or Wadia iTransport i170 with Apple iPod Touch 64GB or SqueezeBox3

2.Toslink Cable to Benchmark DAC1

3.RCA unbalanced Acrolink to Modwirght SWL36.5

4.2 pairs of RCA unbalanced Golden Strada #201 to Wyred4Sound MC2X250,2X125 Biamp

5.2 pairs of Music Strada #79 speaker cable to Vandersteen 2CE Signature speakers

For more serious listening usually on weekends and holidays on SACD

1.Marantz SA11S2

2.RCA unbalanced Acrolink to Modwirght SWL36.5

3.2 pairs of RCA unbalanced Golden Strada #201 to Wyred4Sound MC2X250,2X125 Biamp

4.2 pairs of Music Strada #79 speaker cable to Vandersteen 2CE Signature speakers

I can say that I am at home with the sound now especially on classical music.

Cheers,,,,Peter Lye aka lkypeter

Resurrecting Dead Musicians-Rachmaninoff/Gould/Karajan

Through the marvel of technology, audio-visual engineers has been able to resurrect dead musicians from their grave and have them re-perform their pieces. I was first exposed to this by a friend Ray who told me me a special CD of Rachmaninoff plays Rachmaninoff which is not done by the usual re-mastering of old vinyl or master tape through post processing to rejuvenate the sound and remove static noise inherent in recording technology of that era. He asked to me look for the CD on his behalf but I failed to find it in a fine music store in downtown Singapore. For those of you who are interested in this recording, you can visit www.zenph.com.
During the visit to the music store, I was casually browsing through the DVD section which is very unlike me as I have so called dedicated myself to stereophony and does not wander into un-chartered waters of DVDs, surround systems etc. as my limited reasoning and knowledge concludes that with only a pair of ears, you can only handle sound from 2 speakers. Being an al-cheapo, I started with the discount section and saw 3 DVDs of Karajan ( who has passed away ) going for S$9.95 each and I must confess that it was the sticker price that drew my attention more than anything else. On reading about the DVD, I was fascinated that this was not a re-mastering of his old recording but a sort of re-performance. I shall quote from commentator Tobias directly as I cannot find a better way to describe it.

"Sony BMG Masterworks have announced the release of 3 special DVD sets to commemorate the 100th birthday of Herbert von Karajan. The DVD boxes will be released on April 5th of 2008 and comprise video footage of Herbert von Karajan conducting all nine symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven, symphonies 4, 5 and six by Tchaikovsky as well as Richard Strauss’ Tone Poems. The label announced the DVD sets as a visually appealing extravaganza, which had received additional audio treatment through a very special re-recording procedure: “With an intricate speaker matrix, a well-levelled signal was generated on stage to trigger the room acoustics”, Sony BMG Masterworks explained. “In direct relation to the source material the room signals were then re-recorded with an orchestra-like microphone array and newly balanced – a technology spearheaded by a team around sound engineers Philipp Nedel and Michael Brammann at the Philharmonic Hall in Berlin and the Musikverein in Vienna – two main performance sites of Karajan’s career and also two halls world-renowned for their acoustics.” Almost 20 years after his death in 1989, Herbert von Karajan thus continues to be one of the record company’s and the entire classical scene’s most profitable brands."

On reaching home, I slotted the DVD into a Pioneer DVDS969AVi which was the flagship of Pioneer's range of DVD players many moons ago. This was hooked up to my stereo system via a digital coaxial cable to my Benchmark DAC and etc for the audio portion and through a HDMI cable to my flat screen but I set the volume down the flat screen to zero as putting it on mute will entail having a nagging "mute" insignia on screen which I detest but have not found a way to overcome it except to turn the volume down to zero. As explained above, the audio reproduction was fascinating unlike any re-mastering that I have heard. However, the video portion was a bit of a let down as Karajan was almost perpetually placed at the left hand side of the screen and my explanation being that the video mixing engineer could have either fallen asleep on the job or something to that effect. I spent the next 3-4 hours enjoying the 3 DVDs until the wee hours of the morning at considerably loud volume but I am lucky that there is some distance separating me from my neighbors plus some of the additional effort I put in to keep the sound mostly trapped within my room. Done the al-cheapo way again with materials from the neighborhood DIY store. Otherwise, I would have neighbors telling me off or calling the police or perhaps I have very understanding neighbors. With a certain excitement, I brought the 3 DVDs to Ray and told him about what I found and lent him the 3 DVDs and it has been with him since and I do hope it is because he enjoys it and not collecting dust in his home. This is what I call commanding Karajan from his grave for a re-performance. Luckily, I did not hear or see anything eerie while enjoying the 3 DVDs in the early side of morning like 3am.

Not sure why but all these mention of re-performance against re-mastering gathered momentum . Ray had a new acquisition of Glenn Gould's re-performance of his 1955 Bach Goldberg's Variations recording by first using sophisticated computer technology to MIDI like files. The main difference being that standard MIDI has only 128 bits resolution but this modified form has a resolution of 1024 bits. This makes it possible to be almost equal to Glenn Gould's fingers and legs. This modified MIDI was feed into a modified Yamaha DISKLAVIER to accept the 1024 bits. This modified grand piano is then place in a concert hall to get the ambience and reverberations of a concert hall. The files were then fed into the grand piano and the keys and pedals then move in almost exact manner in which Glenn Gould would have done so in the 1955 recording. Microphones were placed around the piano and hall and recorded and transfered to CDs like a normal modern recording except that the you have Glenn Gould's ghost playing it instead. For a full description, visit www.zephn.com The re-performance enjoyed the advantage of current recording technology plus a stroke of genius of a dead musician Glenn Gould. I happen to have a 1981 Glenn Gould recording of Bach Goldberg's Variation done a few months before he died and both Ray and myself came to the conclusion that the two recordings sounded different sound wise as well as playing style. Perhaps an older and dying Glen Gould in 1981 has a different perspective to the piece as opposed to his 1955 recording. I am still searching for the actual mono recording of his 1955 recording so that we can conclude whether it is the MIDI re-production technology that made it sound different or the artiste actually played it differently. Perhaps the difference could be due to the piano used itself. I do not have the brand or model of the Piano used in the original 1955 recording but the re-production was on a Yamaha Grand and the 1981 on a model 'D' Steinway.

The latest re-production technology was also an introduction by Ray and it was a Telarc re-performance of Rachmaninoff playing his own compositions and recorded on music roll in 1930. I thought that Thomas Edison invented recording on Vinyl but was surprised that before that, there was a technology called music roll which was essentially rolls of paper and as the pianist plays on a special recording piano, holes were punched on the paper roll to indicate which keys and pedals were in play. Rich households then usually have a 're-producing piano' and by feeding the music rolls into the re-producing piano, the piano would play by itself as if the recording artiste was playing it. Wayne Stahnke has managed to lay his hands on some of these music rolls as many of these have vanished or destroyed over time. He then wrote a special computer scanning program to scan these ancient music rolls into a computer and then re-produced these music rolls again as the originals were in too frail a state to be used. For pieces that he has multiple copies, his special computer program would actually make a comparison of the different versions and make an approximated guess of what is deemed the most correct. He next managed to find an ancient Bosendorfer 290 SE re-producing piano and had it restored to its almost original condition. The new music rolls were then fed into this piano and modern microphones were used to record the sound produced by it. Do visit www.telarc.com for more details.

I stand amazed at the ingenuity of our human specie in raking up these new ideas to so call resurrect the dead musicians back to for a re-performance. As for my friends in the legal fraternity, it would be interesting to have a hypothetical debate on who owns the intellectual property rights of these works. Perhaps, if I am brave enough, I would openly make copies of these recordings and post it on the internet and see if a legal suit would come my way. I have looked up the covers of all these 3 recordings and they have copyrights attributed to their respective record company but wonder if it would stand in court.

Cheers,,,,Peter Lye aka lkypeter

Saint Peter @ Pearly Gate-Legal Angle

Four death row criminals appeared before Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates and he asked them have they been honest in their life and their answers are as follows:

1. I was honest to the prosecutors and landed here after a lethal injection.

2. I did not lie under cross examination and had my death sentence commuted to life sentence and ended here after a gang clash between the inmates.

3. I replied factually under cross examination and got my death sentence commuted to life sentence with parole possibility but was killed by my victim's relative outside prison wall.

4. The prosecutors asked the wrong questions and was pronounced innocent and lived to a ripe old age until old age took me here.

Have a good laugh. An original joke by lkypeter aka Peter Lye

Choo Hoey Returns - Many Happy Returns

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) last Friday was aptly named Choo Hoey Returns. It was a concert that I was looking forward to not so much for the program but for the conductor Choo Hoey whom I have grown to be very fond of as it brings back many old teenage memories as I grew up listening to his performances when he set-up the SSO in 1979 when I was just a teenager starting to appreciate classical music. I would have wished for the concert to be at Victoria Concert Hall (VCH) instead of the newer Esplanade Concert Hall as SSO first home was VCH and had recently moved to Esplanade Concert Hall from VCH when it was completed. This would have completed the nostalgia. Perhaps Singaporean should cherish the old whilst keeping in step with her development.

Choo Hoey is no ordinary conductor. Back in 1979 when he first agreed at the bequest of former Minister Dr. Goh Keng Swee to help setup SSO which is the first for our little island state, he was doing well in the West but gave up his little ambition to pioneer SSO. For this, I am ever grateful to Choo Hoey for the instrumental part he played in the birth of SSO. Being a guy, I also grew up admiring the ever gracefully dressed Lynnette Seah who has been with SSO as long as Choo Hoey I think. She is currently co-leader for SSO. I must say that whilst many lady musicians in SSO chose to wear pants, I could hardly remember a concert seeing Lynnette Seah in pants. She is ever so elegantly dressed during concerts.

The first piece was a french piece Printemps by Debussy. It is a piece that I am not familiar with and it was my first hearing of the piece. I read from the program commentary by Marc Rochester that Printemps in french is closely equivalent to Spring in english. He continued that it is a controversial piece because the original score was destroyed and Debussy had no intentions of resurrecting it and was being resurrected by another musician named Henri Busser. I like the piece and would most probably go look for it to add to my collection. Choo Hoey was his usual effervescent self making it both an audio and visual treat for me.

The second piece had Lynnette Seah playing a very familiar piece Tchaikovsky only Violin Concerto. I have about 10 full versions of this piece on recording and have heard it live in concert countless time. Familiar is the piece but it is not an easy piece and pile that with the easy comparison as this piece has been remarked by some as being recorded to death. Although the piece opened with gusto under Choo Hoey, Choo Hoey was his usual style in conducting concertos allowing the soloist space and ensured that the orchestra stayed as an accompaniment rather than the lead role. This is not easy approach to adopt as Choo Hoey is a larger than life conductor on stage but when it came to concertos, he knew the orchestra station. SSO under Choo Hoey did very well in this light but my favorite for this piece is still with Julia Fischer. I have reviewed this piece at Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major Opus 35 last year.

The final piece after the interval was the last symphony that Dvorak wrote in his homeland before leaving for America. It is Dvorak Symphony No 8 with Symphony No 9 nick named The New World having been written in America. This Czech piece was very gallantly played by the SSO watching Choo Hoey directing SSO was an equally if not a bigger treat for me. When the piece was completed, the audience was clapping zealously and Choo Hoey had to hold the hands of Lynnette Seah out of the stage otherwise the night would have gone on and on.

Why Many Happy Returns for this article is because the starting and ending pieces were happy pieces. As for the middle piece by Tchaikovsky, it is most probably one of melancholic as Tchaikovsky wrote it shortly after his disastrous marriage perhaps as a cover rumor of his being gay. In addition, personally it brings back many happy teenage memories. I remembered once taking my date to a SSO concert and she was so straight jacketed by the audience silence that she could not wait for the concert to end. Perhaps this is the reason why we did not end up together but neither is my wife a person appreciative of classical music.

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

"The Pianist" and Chopin Piano Concerto No 1 in E Minor Op 11

Photograph of Chopin by Bisson, c. 1849

The 2002 show "The Pianist" by director Roman Polanski is about the real life experience of a Polish/Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw in the second world war and how he managed to survive whilst other Jews around him perished at the hands of the Nazis. The first thing that strike me about the film was its opening and ending not that there isn't anything substantial about the show. In fact, the entire show had my eyes glued to the screen reminding me about the atrocities of war and ears to the nicely paired background music that accompanied it.

The opening and ending had Szpilman playing Chopin pieces under different circumstances. The opening was of him playing the piece at the Polish National Radio Station midway when Nazi bombs started littering the streets of Warsaw and how he held on and continued playing albeit at increasing tempo until the piano was destroyed. The ending shows a post war concert of him playing the same piece.

Chopin wrote two piano concertos in his short life but many romantic piano pieces. Perhaps the good dies young and the wicked suffers a longer sentence on planet Earth. This piano concerto was written after his second piano concerto but was published first and therefore had a lower opus number of 11 as opposed to 22 for the second piano concerto.

The piece has 3 movements. The first starts with a longish orchestra introduction that puts the pianist twiddling fingers or nervously waiting for his turn to show his skills. Have been to concerts and saw videos of this piece and has watched varied postures taken by the pianist during this anticipatory start some of which are worth a laugh or two. At the ripe moment, the pianist enters with a very loud first minor chord and thereafter to finger runs along the piano as it is very Chopin to be very notes centric rather than chord centric like Rachmaninov or Tchaikovsky. Some sources have it that Chopin aptly named this movement Allegro maestoso not that it will be a walk in the park for the maestros but rather only maestros need attempt this walk.

The second movement is both romantic and fairly lyrical and clocks in at roughly half the length of the first movement which runs for about 20 minutes. It does seems to me that this second movement is more like a bridge to the finale with most of the glory of the piece being exhibited in the first movement.

The finale is a Rondo that thunders in with an orchestration starts just like the first movement before bringing the concerto to a grand finale.

If orchestration is your meat, best to look towards Beethoven, Mozart or even Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninov but the beauty of this concerto likes in the striking piano parts that can almost stand on its own as Chopin is primarily a pianist at heart and it shows in this piece where his heart lies.

I spent the last few days going through my collection to hunt for various recordings that I have of this piece and was nicely surprised that I have 7 but I thought 8 as one is missing somewhere. Was able to do so as I have almost ripped all my classical CDs into iTunes and could search at light speed compared to going through the CDs on the rack. The 7 recordings are as follows:

1.Garrick Ohlsson with Kazimerz Kord conducting the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra recorded in 1997. Ohlsson is considered one of the living Chopin experts on two counts on having recorded the entire Chopin repot-ire and having won the Chopin Piano competition himself.

2.Olga Kern with Antoni Wit conducting the same Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra recorded in 2004. Olga was a gold medalist at the 11th van Cliburn paino competition and she has a slightly wider range of composers centering on more Russian composers like Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov.

3.Martha Argerich with Charles Dutoit conducting Montreal Symphonic Orchestra in 1998. Argerich name is on the top top list of pianist and her rendition of this piece blows my mind away.

4.Nikolai Demidenko with Heinrich Schiff conducting The Philharmonia recorded in 1993. I have seen Demidenko live and he is very balanced and technical in his ways as in this album.

5.Yund Li with Andrew Davis conducting The Philharmonia recorded in 2006. Yund Li is also a Chopin Piano medalist like Olga Kern.

6.Lang Lang with Zubin Mehta conducting Weiner Philharmoniker in 2008. Lang Lang is a very successful pianist from China having recorded extensively with many renown conductors and orchestras. Perhaps the loud and some egotistical ways gets filtered into his interpretation making it over exuberant. I just hope that attraction of money and fame does not tip him into the dark side of pop-ciscal as in giving classical music a pop interpretation in future not that he has done it now.

7.Polish pianist Alexis Weissenberg with Stanislaw Skrowaczeski conducting Orchestre de la Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire recorded in 1967.

After a couple of days of intense listening, my vote goes to Martha Argerich as she shows she is in control of the piece and yet lets the emotions deliver the musical message. On first hearing, I was about to strike it off my list due to the orchestra start which I felt was a tinge too fast but she and Dutoit does tango well as there is very little signs of struggle between the pianist and the conductor/orchestra.

Left Brain Right Brain

Heard this joke from one of my kids that purports that is was their original and not a re-post.

There is nothing right about my right brain and my left brain has nothing left!

Shostakovich Symphony No 1 in F Minor Op 10

It is often said that great works are followed by sequels of disappointments and finally unfinished business. In the case of Shostakovich, his first symphony is more like an insight to greater things to follow as he wrote a total of 15 symphonies in his life time.

Symphony No 1 in F minor with an Opus number of 10 was written during his teenage years but the symphony showed no sign of childishness or undefinedness due to biological hormonal transformation that plague many teenagers. Maturity and insight into larger social and political issues seems to underline the symphony against a backdrop of social and political transformation under the newly minted Soviet communist regime and power transition from Lenin to Stalin. The minor scale of a dark canvass belies the piece. This was punctuated by many mysterious and surprising corners through clever plays of the timpani and inter-plays between brass and woodwind sections.

The drum roll that begins the four movements gives one an expectation of the start of a triumphant or regal piece but it quickly blends in with the first 3 movements of mystery and surprises with the repeated drum roll making a few rounds before ending on a note of what seems like an end of a significant event that is neither jubilant or dark. This suspenseful insignia of Shostakovich was to follow his many pieces that left both political intrigue or the largest politico-musical scandal of the communist regime as it begin to unfold before modern day Shostakovich interpreters.

There is also a hint of romantic era influence in between the mystery shrouded piece. The composer was said to be under the weather emotionally and was institutionalized in an asylum and thought to have attempted suicide during the 1-2 years of writing this symphony.

Although he was poor, Shostakovich is believed ( not by his contemporaries but modern day scholars ) to be a firm believer of the merits of the democratic/capitalist system and the devil that underlies the communist regime. Although nothing much is known about his religious beliefs, Karl Marx maxim that religion is the opium of capitalism is not likely to be one of them. Some say that they hear a cry for justice out of a summary execution and you be the judge.

The piece was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic in 1926.

Prelude to the Music of Political Sarcasm

Dimitri Shostakovich lived during the era where Stalin ruled over communist Russia. He was one of the few composers to have gained the stamp of approval to use music as a tool to rally the country into the communist cause. Now that the Iron Curtains are down and much more exploration is done on his music, there appears a lot of sarcasm embedded in his so called nationalistic symphonies. When I read about this, I jumped up in enthusiasm and decided to give his music a deeper look as I have always though it was just typical neo-classical genre with their complex form that eludes their character.

This is just a short prelude as I have armed myself by going out to buy his complete 11 symphonies as I already have some of his violin concertos and other minor music. With lots of Coke, a good listening ear and reading up, I shall be putting pen to paper on my discoveries soon.

In our language 'Akan Datang' or coming soon.

Late now and I have to sleep

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

Music and Politics-Dvorak Symphony No 9 in E minor Op 95

I recently went crazy about Dvorak Symphony No 9 in E minor Op 95 or aptly named "From the New World" as the Czech composer wrote it during his stay in America and it was premiered also in New York by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The name Dvorak has been sort of a tongue twister as I never learnt correctly how it should be pronounced and would quietly go look for the piece on my own on the shelf instead of asking for assistance at the risk of embarrassing myself.

I personally have 5 complete versions of this piece and the last version and sixth version I heard and saw over the internet was very special in that it was performed by the premiering Orchestra New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Lorin Maazel in Pyongyang, North Korea in 2008. The significance being that the New York Philharmonic Orchestra is the first foreign orchestra to perform in this very closed country. This sort of qualify it as being music diplomacy.

The live recording done in Pyongyang and widely telecasted and netcasted had almost 100% audience discipline with hardly any audience nuances like coughing etc audible and it might as well have been a studio recording as such. Normally, you sacrifice a bit of imperfections in live recordings for the added exuberances of the performing artist but this live recording could have been as cold if not colder than a studio recording. Perhaps it could be that the recording was done during winter or the political climate was not right. Lorin Maazel also did not seems to display a very involving performance himself. In fact, the conducting could be described as somewhat aloof and remote. Not the usual style of Maazel. Although the symphony is keyed in minor but it is no where near melancholy and does have colorful passages in terms of the native American folk music influence.

Chicago Symphonic Orchestra-I have two versions from this orchestra. An older recording under Fritz Reiner and the second recording being conducted by James Levine. Although the Reiner version being made in the 1950s suffered from higher noise floor, RCA did a good job in re-mastering it and the playing was also more melodic then dramatic compared with the later recording by James Levine with the same orchestra. Chicago was also the place where Dvorak spent most of his time whilst in America and it was also where he felt more welcomed compared to New York. Perhaps, there is less competition for the lime light as Chicago is a smaller city.

The other 3 recordings are made on the European continent where Dvorak was born. Witold Rowicki did an outstanding job leading the London Symphony Orchestra on this piece with the right amount of emotive highs and lows and the timpani playing is well accentuated on this piece but some have a different opinion as an over bearing out of control percussionist.

Neeme Jarvi lead the Royal Scottish Orchestra to a triumphant mood with very good brass and woodwind portions especially the french horn playing was very regal fitting of such a piece. The final recording by the Swedish National Orchestra lead by Thomas Dausgaard is most probably sonically the best sounding being one of the more recent recording enjoying better technology and it is also a very technically well framed by Dausgaard under his 'Opening Doors' range of recording done for BIS.

I am glad to have married music and politics by this article on my blog. Happy weekend.

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

The Singapore Pledge Debate

The Singapore pledge has moved from becoming a daily ritual during my school days to grow on my altruistic ensemble over the years. I heard somethings about a parliamentary debate on the pledge on the car radio. Shock pulled my other part of my body from my bed a few kilometers away. No danger as my wife was driving and I was desperately trying to catch up on lost sleep.

I decided not to read a singe shred of this topic so that I can form my own opinion unadulterated by you reporters and journalists alike. No pun intended. Up to now, I have kept this faith and will launch into penning my thoughts on such topics in an unadulterated manner.

To me the pledge represents a couple of things namely:

a. A state that we would like to arrive at at year X in the future.
b. A common compass to point us towards the year X destination.
c. A common moral goal post for a secular society polarized across various divider like race, religion, language and social standing.
d. Justice is blind and fair. (the lady with a blindfold on top of old supreme court has always caught my attention). Not the woman but the concept it conveys.

Singapore is a young nation whether you use 1819 or 1959 or 1965 as birth years. Not only that, the multi-ethnic composition right from the start did not help and a sprinkling of riotous events along racial and religious lines did not help. It seems that the low flash point thinner to glue the society together as one never had a chance and the low flash point thinners were used in the raw with disastrous results as we look back using our rear view mirror and hopefully wiser.

On why the pledge written by Rajaratnam and revised by Lee Kuan Yew should stay the way it is to allow it to sink deeper roots a few more generations for it to be internalized in the future generations. I am not suggesting that we continue on a track and not change it for old time sick to bring us all into destruction. By not changing the pledge which we have very little reasons to do so after such a short period will transmit to the younger generation the meaning of sacredness and longevity of some of our institutions. Seeing my two kids grow up and the youths that I interact with, it seems that we need not worry about them adopting to the fast changing environment that is becoming second skin to many of them but to root them in the areas that needs longevity together with their dynamism transform Singapore into unique society in the world and no longer the little red dot as we are commonly known as.

On the question of equality, there seems to be an existing dichotomy like granting the Malays in Singapore certain special privileges. And if I read it correctly, the ruling party might be concerned that the pledge might be used as instrument to rally SIngaporean into one be made to polarized the nation and allow racial overtones color our largely islamic and Malay geographical neighbors. Many countries like New Zealand, USA, Canada,Malaysia and Australia practices some form of first nation rights to certain groups to varying degrees.

This could also have been prompted by religious activism world wide and this worries me too and in a secular society, we should at all times be able to live as one people with different races, religion and practices. Tolerances, understanding, and respect shall be hall marks by which we live by.

Schumann Symphony No 4 in D minor Op 120

Schumann music has not figured very much on my radar for unknown reasons but one day while at a music store, I was introduced to his symphonic works and I decided to give it a try. It was interpreted by Eliahu Inbal and was like love at first sound. I could not figure out why but I recently learned that we might be hard wired to some musical forms unconsciously. In that experiment, they got a volunteer who loves Bach music. Played some obscure pieces from both Bach and Beethoven and ask the person to choose which composer each piece belongs to. It came as no surprise that the participants were able to get the correct composer most of the time as the two composers belongs to different eras with markedly different styles. However, there were some wrong answers also.

In a second series of tests, they now put the participants insides a MRI machine and used special ear phones to play the music to the participants while taking an MRI of their brain. The ear phones had to be special as nothing metallic would survive an MRI machine. The participants were also equipped with an A/B switch to indicate whether the music was Bach to Beethoven. The percentage of right and wrong answers were about similar. Two notable observations were made during the experiment. Firstly, the MRI almost consistently showed two markedly different patterns according to the composer and very little differential between pieces by the same composer. Secondly, even when the participants gave the wrong answers, their brain seems to have gotten the correct answer according to the image on the MRI.

Would love to acknowledge the owner of the above experiment but I could not recall the names and my apologies. My point being that perhaps I am hardwired to like Schmann symphonies without knowing.

Getting back to music, the symphony no 4 has two versions ie the 1841 and heavily revised 1851 with the latter being the more commonly played and recorded version. My collection of this piece quickly grew from 1 to 6 of which only 1 is the 1841 version. It was also opinionated by some Schumann experts that symphony no 4 was actually a heavily revised version of his symphony no 3 but after much listening to both, I cannot hear the similarity personally.

I would start with the Eliahu Inbal version with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Schumann being a German and Inbal being Jewish and given the history of the two races, it is interesting that music can be a common denominator that glue things together. This version is more subdued interpretation right from the first note. Inbal most probably considered the circumstances surrounding the composer when the piece was written and the fact that his wife Clara Schumann is said to have a hand in the revision closer to his death after an attempted suicide. A widow under those circumstances is more likely to be more subdued mood wise as she internalize her husband death.

The version by Riccardo Muti with the New Philharmonia Orchestra also mirrors that of Bernstein and this is perhaps because the recordings were done at about the same time.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt did a fairly recent recording with his Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and this is most probably what I would term as a catching the train interpretation tempo wise. Sonically, it has the advantage of better recording technology and also a markedly larger orchestra.

Thomas Dausgaard and Swedish Chamber Orchestra is next on my list. I have this on SACD and with a smaller orchestra, it actually sounded sweeter.

Although I have not heard the 1841 scoring, some might say that the scoring of the earlier 1841 version is like an uncut diamond and perhaps the beauty is most probably in rawness and capturing the initial intent of the composer.

The more authoritative version by Leonard Bernstein with Vienna Philharmonia is quite the opposite interpretation with gusto and much extremities of emotions throughout the piece. Perhaps Bernstein is registering the probable mood swings that Schumann was going through in his final hours of life. This is also a live recording and the audience sounds very disciplined or the sound engineers did a good job to mask it.

The last version is most probably one of its kind. I got this piece second hand off the internet and it happens to be a recording made at the bequest of the German Bank West LB when they sponsored the concert in Dusseldorf where the composer once lived. The conductor was Hans Vonk that has recorded this piece with Czech Orchestra before but this one was with a German Orchestra. The entire liner notes was in German and rightly so as it is supposedly given away as a memento to guest of West LB at the concert. I do not wish to trace its origin further but it is a good recording with enough energy to move my heart strings.

For my lawyer friends out there, Schumann actually wanted to be a lawyer but decided that he is more suited for a musical career. Perhaps one of the reason his symphonic pieces are not heard that often is because it was recorded that he was not a good conductor but I think one need not be a good conductor to write good symphonies.

Lastly, for my more religious friends, Schumann is a so called atheist it was documented that his life was the pursuit of wine women and song although his wife Clara continued to carry his torch even after his death.

The Wisdom of Crowds-Singapore Election Perspectives

Sir Francis Galton who is a half cousin of the Charles Darwin and a person steep in aristocracy and the study of inheritance of intelligence during the early 1900s was surprised that the crowd at a county fair was able to guess the weight of an ox better than the estimates of the cattle experts at hand. Although no single guess of the crowd and cattle experts were correct, the mean of their collective guess of the crowd was more accurate than that of the cattle experts. For Francis Galton, this was not only a surprise but most probably represented an unlearning of his basic belief in the superior wisdom of the intelligentsia proxied by the aristocrats of his time relative to the wisdom of the crowd.

Many years ago, the elder statesman of Singapore; Lee Kuan Yew once made a comment that perhaps there should be a re-examination of the 1 man 1 vote system which is the cornerstone of democracy. Such a comment by a politician would have been equated to a politician committing career hara-kiri. However, in Singapore Lee Kuan Yew was commended for his candor in being willing to surface such a sensitive topic for the public to start pondering about. The topic did not take much root and died a natural death on the media and eventually in much of Singapore.

It was an old Washington Post editorial where Francis Galton experiment was mentioned that revived my memory of the comment made by Lee Kuan Yew. What unsettled me was that Lee Kuan Yew have a few parallel in terms of beliefs with Francis Galton with both of them being highly intelligent, influential members of society and thought leaders. In addition, the topic of inheritance of intelligence has also some parallel in the 'Graduate Mother Scheme' that has been abolished. This scheme provided off-springs of graduate mothers priority points in getting into choice schools. This scheme was relatively short-lived as it saw opposition not only from non-graduate mothers who were dis-advantaged by it but also by the graduate mothers themselves I believe on an altruistic heart chord of preserving the scared equal opportunity for all and sundry. At least it proves that political apathy has not gone as far into the woods as some might have thought. To be fair to Lee Kuan Yew, it was a Ministry of Education policy and not entirely his making.

Perhaps, we all should be mindful that though the 1 man 1 vote system is not perfect, it is most probably the best that we have. To me, this is so scared that most attempts to improve the system will more likely injure it than do any good to it and perhaps should be considered an out of bounds topic for a long time.