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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

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

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.

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 3 Op. 72 / 79: Unfinished Business

Tchaikovsky died in 1893 under questionable circumstances. Some attribute it to cholera and others to committing sucide through taking poison. Whatever the circumstances surrounding his death, he definitely left some unfinished business. He started writing his third Piano Concerto in 1892 and till the time of his death, he has only finished the first movement in Allegro brillante leaving the remaining two movements in Andante and Finale unfinished. However, he signed off "The end. God be thanked." at the end of the original manuscript of the first movement which seems inconsistent with a composer that have another two more movements to write. As a speculation consistent with the suicide theory surrounding his death, it could be that life was becoming so unbearable that he could no longer bear to live to finish the remaining two movements before bidding goodbye to this world. Tchaikovsky did not lead a very regular live as there were rumours about his homosexuality as well as his marriage to Antonina Miliukova supposedly as a cover for his homosexuality.

Taneyev attempted to complete the last two movements of the unfinished work by providing the orchestration to it after the death of Tchaikovsky. The completed work as published as Op 79. However at the premiere of this work on 19 January 1985 in St Petersburg, only the original first movement was played. Perhaps as a mark of respect to the original composer Tchaikovsky.

In 1956, Bogatryryev made another attempt on a different plane by creating a four movement symphony by combining the three movements of the piano concerto done by Taneyev with a Scherzo from Tchaikovsky eighteen pieces for piano Op 72. This synthesis has transformed a Piano Concerto to a Symphony and in my opinion might be far from what Tchaikovsky intended the piece to be.

I would be going to Singapore Symphony Orchestra concert with pianist Stephen Hough and conductor Zhang Xian to listen to their rendition of this controversial piece on 10th July 2009.

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

Childhood

When I was young kid in primary school, friends were people that inject the fun factor into my life mostly and at times a little bit of sorrows when we fight or quarrel sometimes over the most petty of matters. I grew up in public housing in Singapore widely known as HDB where about 80% of the population of Singapore are housed in. During that 1970s, most of these housing were very monolithic and crammed but there were ample open spaces for us kids to amuse ourselves in. When amusement hour comes, you can find the open spaces littered with children out at play. Although we were economically challenged to some extent, there was no lack of fun. With a few marbles, a couple of sandbox ( not of the corporate variant ), holes on the sandy pit and a few play mates and we have a game of marbles. It was to a certain extent an integrated resort for kids as the end in mind was to end up with as much marbles as possible by winning them over from your friends. Of course, there would be winners and losers, good and bad days as in all games. Sometimes, these games do end up in squabbles over whether there is a foul or not or whether there was any cheating by squatting beyond the permitted line in the sand. As we are of varying age and size, normally, the ones with longer limbs have an advantage but shooting skills does play an important part as well. Besides marbles, we also played football but of a different variety. As most of us were too poor to afford a proper football, a cheap plastic ball with foot wear to mark the goal post with the height element missing. It is normally played on cemented floor or along the corridors.

I began to recollect my past as I watched China marked the anniversary of the terrible earth quake that took and re-arranged many lives in Chengdu about 1 year ago. A dated news footage of children playing happily against a backdrop of the ruin days after the terrible earth quake oblivion to the misery all around. In that sense, the poor neighborhood that I grew up was in a sense the backdrop of the ruin with many families literally living from pay cheque to pay cheque and a day's delay could mean much hardship. However, when we kids were at play, I could recall very few if any displayed any of that misery. Perhaps it is a special ability bestowed on kids to enable them to cope better in such situations. Such abilities seems to wear out gradually as we mature with age.

In that sense, there is something magical about childhood that perhaps we ought not only to cherish but also to preserve and live by as appropriate.

Dedicated to my two children Deborah Lye and John Ross Lye.

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

Litigation Discovery

If you cannot hide something, try burying it in a pile of rubbish and give it away. Hopefully your opponent will not find it.

Arthur Andersen executive must have been influenced by the Singapore psyche when he ask everyone to 'FOLLOW LAW' and destroy all things outside document retention window.

Biblical truth-It is what inside your body that kills rather than what is outside

Before ligation, oops I meant litigation, keep everything external and throw away all things internal.

When in doubt, talk instead of write or better still include the eagles so it becomes privileged.

In Pride and Prejudice, better to be WITHOUT PREJUDICE then die with PRIDE

copyrights by Peter Lye aka lkypeter - I wrote them myself but if anyone would like to claim ownership, you would have to proof that it existed before this time and this is why I sent this email to friends as evidence of its existence.

Life is a Breathe Away - Dedicated to Dr. James Yip

This short prose is my dedication to Dr. James Yip of NUH who performed a heart procedure for my daughter recently in Mar 2009.

Life is a Breathe Away by Peter Lye dedicated to Dr. James Yip

Life starts with the our first breathe
Life ends with our last breathe
Birth defines the start of life
Death defines the end of life

Moment by moment
Life is lived
Measure by measure
In equal measure
Hasten nor Delay

Naked we Arrive

Naked we Return

Clothed in Between

Finery for Some

Rags for Others

Parents and Child

Always Matched Supernaturally

Neither have Choice

Love one Another

Respect as Minimum

Placed in Situations

Good or Bad

Choice or Fate

Happiness or Sorrow

Choice is Ours

Complete Life Control

Only in Dreams

Everything is Fated

Not a Reality

Control whatever Possible

Mark to Market in a Turbulent Market - Reasonable but not within Reasonable Doubt-April 2009

Bloomberg reports that "But the accounting change, which incorporated a proposal that would bring about US$ 900 Billion onto the lenders' book....." on the impact of such a change on the top 19 financial institutions in US which includes banks and insurance companies.

The whole practice of mark to market to instill transparent financial reporting seems reasonable and very prudent. During the mark to market process, assets are being assessed at the prevailing market value instead of the book value. Any differences that result from this exercise is taken into the profit and loss of the period normally as an extraordinary item either as a write-down or gain. The backbone of such an ancient practice rest upon the fact that the market is the correct reference point.

For listed assets, the practice seems more objective and transparent after one of the many prescribed valuation method is chosen and applied consistently based on a gambit of open, closing, average etc prices provided by the exchange and we have the valuation of the asset. For other forms of assets, objective 3rd party valuers are called upon to provide a valuation of the asset which seems less objective compared the listed assets. As for off balance sheet items, the valuation becomes more murky for some of the more sophisticated synthetic instruments, it takes a Phd in mathematics to unravel only the basis let alone the value and the counter party risks can go through the roof without a mediating exchange to guarantee and clear the trades and so as to allow market participants to trade on a blind basis as far as counter party risk is concerned.

Now that we have arrived that mark to market is a good discipline to adopt to ensure more transparent financial reporting, we shall now shift the burden of proof the other way round and for those opposing this cause to cast reasonable doubts especially its applicability in a turbulent market like what we are facing now.

Firstly, we have to proof beyond reasonable doubt that market price is a true reflection of value. On the surface, it seems that the battle is won hands down in a capitalistic view of things. Adam Smith's invisible hand and how the selfish pursuits of individuals will result in the overall goodness for everyone has not only been challenged in the communist and socialist camps but has also been quietly questioned in the capitalistic camp on its effectiveness. Chief among them is the recognition that in the short run, market prices might not be a a good indicator of value as the market does goes into a sticky phase at times before converging at a point where supply meets demands. In addition, it also pre-supposes that there are sizable diversified market participants and liquid enough market of both buyers and sellers to prevent the market from being cornered or being illiquid. One example being that it is not uncommon for some ETFs to trade against their underlying index. I believe there are enough evidence to cast reasonable doubt to the jury on this count.

Secondly, we shall examine how mark to market itself can serve as overly strong draft forces that could cause chronic declining markets to suffer a pre-mature self full-filling crash or for a bull market to spin inflation out of control through a inflationary spiral. However, it seems to work just fine when the market is relatively stable. It is liken to the doctor that is always not when needed most. Whether in a bull or bear market, mark to market is needed to have a realistic measure and a compass on where it is headed valuation wise. This is also where on a micro basis, mark to market is likely to become an innocent by stander but on a macro basis, it can be the very pill to poison either a bull or bear market. The practice of cross equity holding amongst companies is a fairly common phenomenon especially in countries like Japan. These mega corporations in Japan known as Zaibatsu are on the the surface competing with each other in the market place but a closer examination of their shareholding is likely to bring us into a spider web of complex cross shareholding which can make their share prices impregnantrable or stabilized in the short term but could grow into a bubble that would burst suddenly either way positively or negatively when valuations defy the most common logic. During the height of the Japanese real estate bubble, it was estimated that the value of the land on which the royal palace sits in Tokyo is equivalent to the value of all properties in the state of California.

There are various versions of this joke on engineers, lawyers and accountants in circulation and here is my recent construct. An engineer, lawyer and an accountant happened to visit an optician for a color test. As the optician use the flip charts which uses varying polka doted colors to form numbers to be deciphered. The first number on the flip chart was supposed to be the number 9. As these 3 gentlemen were no ordinary kinsman but were recognized as being captains in their field with their names on the signboard of their sizable firms and therefore did not give a straight forward answer to the optician like all and sundry. The engineer said that the number appears to more like a 6 instead of a 9. He reasoned that depending on how the optician has angled the flip chart. The optician reaffirm his answer as a 6 and told him that it was actually a 9 and he protested that it was the optician's fault for not positioning the flip chart properly and therefore the reference point was setup wrongly and it was not his fault. Next came the lawyer who said that it can either be a 6 or a 9 depending on whose point of view; yours or mine. The now impatient optician replied it is you who is having the test and not me and the lawyer interjected politely that it is a 9 in that case. The optician nudged him on saying that at least the lawyer is not color blind. The accountant baffled the optician when he told the optician that it can be any number or even an alphabet depending what the optician ordered.

Valuation, pricing and markets are so important for our capital market to function well that we sometimes need very basic commonsense to unravel the highly complex. We should not allow a change in accounting treatment to write US$900 into the books of the top 19 financial institutions in the US nor shall we allow the ancient straight jacketed rules to ruin fortunes and livelihood of many overnight. What we need is a return to good old commonsense.

Social Safety Net Determinants

I use to think that social safety net is only relevant or practised effectively in states with a strong socialistic and communistic doctrine but as I give a bit more leeway to the meaning of social safety net to include activities of a philanthrophic, altruistic, religious, political and philosophical origin, the heaven seems to open before me.

Basal Dungeon Level/Poverty Line
My fundamental believe being that no matter how criminal, immoral or inhumane a person might be, there exists in each of us an intrinsic in-culpulability to help lift a fellow being from a basal dungeon to an acceptable level of survival as we each perceived it to be. The basal dungeon level is not an absolute concept but a relative one. Many economists and sociologists has attempted to define this as the poverty line along monetary and quantitative lines. This is very useful as it makes it possible to translate the concept into actionable points in determining how help should be apportioned. However, in distilling a concept into a quantitative illustration some important intrinsic qualitative elements are also removed in the process. Firstly, the basal dungeon level is a micro concept that is applicable on a personal or a monolithic social group rather than a macro concept with wider and more polarized applicability. An elderly wearing clothing consisting of a variety of patch work ( other than the fashion statement of the day ) in a relatively well off suburb like Rodeo Drive would most probably has reached beyond the basal dungeon level in that community to warrant a helping hand be it a contribution in terms of a coin drop of sort. However, in more impoverished parts of Africa, such a person is very unlikely to be offered help. Secondly, the concept is not the absolute or relative social distance between the person in need and the potential helper. It is not a absolute distance because a millionaire is unlikely to be moved to help a middle class person athough the absolute distance can be large, it is definitely not a charity case. Neither is a relative distance applicable because relativity would require us to define relative to what. Basal dungeon is basically a level that would trigger one group or person to help the other as a result of a conscience trigger. Thirdly, it is not a stable level that transcends time and space as the level changes over time in line with changes in the social political norms. However, the concept transcends time and space as it is there from the time of recorded history till now and not likely to vaporize into thin air in the foreseeable future.

Singapore
There is general believe that social safety belongs to the government alone and not body else. However, there are enough evidence both empirical and otherwise that this is not the case. I live in Singapore where the official ideology of socialist democrat is actually closer to capitalistic democrat as the leadership has make no apology in public that Singapore is a meritocratic practitioner in terms dividing the fruits of our labour. There is general perception that the social safety net is very thin in Singapore and the government has made it very clear to the populace that having seen the social safety net framework degenerate the motivation to work and the economy, Singapore shall not follow in similar light. However, over the years as the Singapore economy develops and accumulates fiscal surpluses to be in a position to afford some safety net, the government has over the years especially during the tenure of Goh Chok Tong as prime minister, dished out narrow and directed safety nets liken to a fishing by rods and line rather than broad based ones like fishing with nets. I see this as a deterministic shift in fundamental thinking as the government slowly but surely start to acquire heart ware. Some of these schemes includes the Medifund scheme to help the poor pay for the cost of essential medical care, dollar for dollar matching contribution to selected charities etc. One interesting means that the government has contributed to the social safety net in a less obvious showing which is I think is a deliberate attempt is though the innovative use of co-funded help schemes for various areas deemed to be much greater in need like innovative structuring of health care financing which might not be perfect but at least is affordable, of fairly high quality and not a drag on the economy unlike in the US where health care has become such a huge part of staff cost that it is a major factor affecting their economic competitiveness on a global basis. These Singapore cases underlines the fact that social safety net need not be narrowed to more direct transfer payments like unemployment payments or absolute freebies like free health care, education etc that more often than not lends itself to over consumption. On the note that such narrow schemes leaves a lot falling through the crack, my thinking is that like line and rod fishing, it is meant to bait and catch the more needful ones rather than a broad based safety net that would able to cast a wider net but would also end up with a lot of garbage in the process as well in the form of non-deserving recipients. Your choice.

Japan
In the case of Japan where I used to visit on a very frequent basis in my previous job where the visible governmental safety net is so thin that it is as good as none. In addition, the certain pride that the Japanese culture infuses into the work ethos makes it almost socially not acceptable for the populace to even be seen to be consumers of such safety net. In those years there during the early 1990s, there is a stark difference between Tokyo and New York as the streets are relatively void of beggars and homeless people compared to New York. It baffles me how was this possible with such a thin safety net. I slowly begin to understand that job for life philosophy results in less redundancies and retrenchments which I view is also a form of safety net that is enacted by way of social norms rather than governmental regulation. We can debate on end on the economic and business poison that such a system can breed but no safety net is without cost to the economy and society. One of the feature of the TOPIX which is the de-facto securities exchange of Japan and the largest in Asia, it has one of the lower beta compared to their counterparts in the west and one of the reason is the complex web of cross share holding between the giants of the economies call Zaibatsu and their subsidiaries as well as a very centralist macro economic planning by way of good coordination between the Ministry of International Trade and Industry ( MITI ) that even the Zaibatsu rarely go against MITI. One rare exception is Honda which was persuaded by MITI to concentrate on motorcycles and reduce their involvement in automobiles but has done almost the opposite.

Philanthrophy/GINI
Philanthrophy in terms of participation by percentage of the populace as well as percentage of the GDP, US beats Europe by a large margin. There are various studies done to explain this differential including factors like how the GINI index which measures the distribution of wealth, differentiating tax incentives for philanthrophy, old and new money as Europe tend to have more old money compared to US, immigrant society in US versus a more monolithic society in Europe. The factor that stands out is that on a ideological level, Europeans seems to be more socialistic but in practice on a personal level, US seems to put money where their mouth is rather than paying lip service. In response, the Europeans would argue that either the government is doing such a good job or they have contributed to a large part through taxes ( which are not voluntary whereas philanthrophy is ) and there so less need for private philanthrophy.

We all have a part though not always a deterministic one but a key part in shaping social safety net for our society either on an ideological or macro platform by our votes or privately on a personal and group basis. Give it a thought went you next see someone deserving of help.