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Schumann 200th Anniversary-Kinderszenen Op 15 No 7 in F major "Träumerei/Dreaming"

The week has been very interesting for me as I started my gear shift on my new job and started to explore new possibilities. It was also because of my job that necessitated me to re-connect with someone I know long time ago whom I know to be very passionate about classical music. After the business talk with him was done, I asked him where was he on the classical music front and told him that I have just written a review of Chopin Etudes earlier this week because this year is Chopin 200th year anniversary as he was born in 1810. He then asked me how about Robert Schumann and I said I love his music as well sad that he had a rough ride in life living part of his life being institutionalized in a mental asylum but he has Clara as his wife who stood by his side come what may and also a good friend Johannes Brahms. This was where we sort of disagreed, his took the view that Brahms was there more because of his love for Clara rather than for Schumann himself. Since the scholars cannot agree on this, we agreed to disagree. He then reminded me that this year is also Schumann 200th year anniversary but most probably forgotten because Chopin might have been a larger personality than Schumann. Since I love Schumann music as well, I shall help elevate it by writing about it and hopefully more people would notice it thereafter.

Schumann like Chopin love the piano. Whilst Chopin composed exclusively for the piano or pieces that involves the piano, Schumann likewise did the same until 1840 when he started to compose other genre. I previously wrote a review of his Symphony No. 4 and also noted then that Schumann was an avid composer of piano music.

I have always touted the maxim that one should listen to the complete work to appreciate the beauty of the entire composition and not listen to snippets of popular movements but I would have to break my own rule and start writing on a snippet here. The piece Träumerei or Dreaming is taken from the seventh piece of his Kinderszenen or Scenes from childhood Op 15 composed when he was about 28 so it must have been his re-collection of his childhood. This piece was made popular when it was adopted the theme song for the 1944 movie on Robert Schumann. It was titled by the film director as Song of Love to signify Clara's love for Schumann. Perhaps the director did it deliberately due to the movingly romantic hues of the piece or out of ignorance of the background of the piece.

Since then, the piece has appeared in various arrangements in addition to the original piano arrangements. Some of the arrangements that I have come across are cello/piano, violin/piano, orchestra/cello. The piano arrangement has also been graded as a grade 3 piece by ABRSM and therefore within the capabilities of most pianists.

1.Cello Adagios,Decca,Bruno Canino/Lynn Harrell,2:54 CD1 Track 9

2.Travels with my Cello,Philips,Julian Lloyd Webber, English Chamber Orchestra, Nicholas Cleobury,3:32 Track 4

3.Ultimate Violin,Decca,Arthur Gruimax,Istvan Hajdu, CD5 Track 4,2:33

4.Schumann: Piano Works,DG,Wilhelm Kempff, CD2 Track 20

Of the 4, I still like the 4th recording though it is dated and sonically not that great because of the state of technology then. It is clean, crisp and transparent. Wilhelm Kempff though a noted pianist during his era has been touted by some of his critic as being just average in terms of his Schumann pieces but I think most probably to this piece as it is a grade 3 piece and how wrong can a maestro go on such pieces. The version by Julian Lloyd Weber with the English Chamber Orchestra did not go down too well with me as the arrangement seems to be too cluttered as I feel that the beauty of this piece is in the clean and simplistic arrangement but played with lots of emotions and melancholy and it suits either a piano only arrangement or a violin/piano or cello/piano. In particular, I thought the cello/piano version by Bruno Canino and Lynn Harrell particularly melancholic.

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

Chopin Etudes Op. 10 No 3 in E major "Tristesse"

As we celebrate Chopin's 200th birthday as he was born in 1810, I began collecting and more importantly listening to Chopin pieces because being a al cheapo, retailers were offering Chopin pieces at a discount. I have written previously on Chopin Piano Concerto and his Nocturnes, I shall now embark on another genre of his composition; Etudes. Etudes translated into English means study or more correctly studies in Piano. Chopin is about the only composer that centered all his works around the Piano. Even his piano concertos, Cello concertos etc all had a strong piano part in it. The Piano is used by other composers because of its polyphonic nature to minimick an orchestra and other genres like quartet etc but Chopin saw the Piano as a performing platform by itself rather than a means to try out new multi-player genres.

Chopin composed a total of two sets of Etudes published as Op. 10 and Op. 25. Our attention is focused on the third piece of the first set of Etudes which has been named "Tristesse" by Chopin himself which means sadness. Some scholars are of the opinion that this piece was composed when Chopin heard that his motherland Poland has been occupied forcibly by the Russians but this does not seems to tie in chronologically as there were more facts pointing to the entire Op. 10 being published when he was 23 years old which is before the Russian occupation. Anyway, sadness is the theme of this piece no matter what the root of his sadness. The fact that Chopin put a name to this piece is of significance as he did not name all this Etudes save for a handful of them.

This piece is also known for its romatic fluidity as Chopin himself commented later on in his life as follows. "In all my life I have never again been able to find such a beautiful melody." I actually thought his Piano Concerto No. 1 as his greatest piece of work always but anyhow, the maestoro opinion counts more than mine. Herbert Weinstock in his biography on Chopin that "if it is realtively easy to play, it is maddeningly diffcult to play well." Actually this comment most probably refers to the Theme portion of the piece as the other two portions; Variations and Iterations are no child's play with some of the more difficult chromatic chord manipulations. Chopin has actually meant a steady 2/4 beat of Lento ma non-troppo but many interpreters has taken liberty in following their heart instead of pursuing technical excellence over the years. I tend to agree as the later recordings has a more varied tempo then the older ones and I find the more modern recording more befitting style wise for playing this beautiful romantic piece. The same biographer also went on to comment that "No lesser pianist should play it except to himself." This makes it like the Bible that can be plainly understood by laymen but has enough depth to drown many a biblical scholar.

Enough about the generalistes of the piece and I have done a comparison of the piece with the following. I have decided to excludes transciptions for other instrueents and cross over versions. Please forgive my purists pursuit o this note as cross over artists occupy a different part of my heart when it comes to music and this is a very peronal opinion.

1.Chopin:The Complete Etudes, Earl Wild, Chesky Records 4:30

2.Chopin the Complete Works, Garrick Ohlssohn, Hyperion 4:20

3.Chopin Etudes, Murray Perahia,Sony Classical, 3:51

Chopin Etudes, Murray Perahia,Sony Classical

4.Favourite Chopin, Vladimir Ashkenazy,Decca, 4:21

Of these 4 pieces that I have listened over and over again, my vote goes to Ashkenazy as he seems to playing though Chopin;s hand literally. Technically, Perahia is most probably the most consistent. I find the Earl Wild a bit over the top in terms of personalizing the piece by injecting his entire being into it. Ohlsson who is a well regarded Chopin figure seems to have something missing overall in the piece although I cannot fault any portion of the piece but the sum of the parts somehow did not add up.

I shall try to continue to write on Chopin after having bought quite a number of Chopin CDs of late and tune in soon.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter.blogspot.com

"The Pianist"-Chopin Nocturne No. 20 in C# Minor-Sequel

Some weeks ago, I wrote on the connection between Chopin Piano Concerto #1 and the high acclaimed show "The Pianist" which was played towards the end of the show. Chopin Nocturne No. 20 in C# minor Opus Posth is the other piece which the famous Polish director Roman Polanski has chosen for the film. Not a surprising move that both pieces are by Chopin who is Polish like he is. In fact the show centered around Polish/Jewish life in Nazi occupied Warsaw during the Second World War. There were some debate about how many Nocturnes Chopin actually wrote and it would be 18, 20 or 21 depending on which persuasion you belong to.

The first 18 Nocturnes were common ground held by all and sundry as being Chopin. However, some question marks were placed over Nocturnes 19, 20 and 21 for a few reasons. Firstly, there was no solid evidence beyond any shadow of doubt that Chopin has endorsed them. Secondly, there is some circumstantial evidence based on the style and third party accounts on these pieces that point to him being the composer. Because of this debate, these 3 Nocturnes were assigned larger numbers although they point to an earlier conception but the gestation was most probably long and the delivery of dubious nature.

This piece was conceived as a Piano Nocturnes but has been delivered in a few arrangements like and arrangement for Piano and Violin by the famous violinist Nathan Milstein that many are very critical of and it is also the shortest clocking about 3 and a half minutes compared a shade above 4 minutes for the original. This could have been due to the limitation of 78 rpm LPs that could not accommodate pieces beyond 4 minutes. Craig Leon also did a concerto for violin ( and perhaps the harp should also be acknowledged as it is fairly visible throughout although mainly as apogees )arrangement with an orchestra. In this concerto like arrangement, the orchestra party is very subdued so I would not dare call it a concerto but only concerto like.

The piece is definitely very melancholic in nature throughout that suddenly transforms into a major keyed chorus pointing to lushness and hope before falling back to melancholic minor again. Chopin like some composers like Haydn like to have a false ending and in this piece, it happens roughly just after the 2 minute mark. It is not uncommon to have some audience starting to clap at this juncture. If you do not want to be embarrassed or be a faux culture vulture, beware of this bear trap but one can always give an excuse that Chopin is not on my radar.

For this review, I listened to five different versions; 3 were based on original piano only arrangements played by Vladimir Ashkenazy, Garrick Ohlssohn and Yundi Li all of which are very renowned pianist with Ohlssohn and Li having some claim to being Chopin sub-specialist especially Ohlsson who has recorded the entire Chopin collection; Nathan Milstein arrangement played by violinist Ruggiero Ricci and pianist Ernest Lush which is also not small standing in classical music fame during their era; last but not the least, we have an violin Joshua Bell that some critics has labelled as having gone to the dark side in Star Wars speak as being a classical crossover artist with Craig Leon himself conducting the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

I have always loved Ashkenazy both as a pianist as well as a conductor and his handling of this piece is very emotive and involved and yet way ward technically given how equally he has executed the odd numbered notes like the triplets and thrills. For Ohlsson's version, you should pay pay very close attention to volumetric control for a piece that has many single noted accents. His control of the sustain pedal is also extraordinary well done so that there is enough of it to create legato like without sounding muddied. What surprise me most was Yundi Li which I have commented as normally being overly zealous but he showed control and maturity in this piece. The album is very recent as it was only recorded in November 2009 and January 2010 in Zurich. Perhaps he could have matured with age or the cold wintry months has evoked his melancholicism into the piece.

Joshua Bell's playing concerto like arrangement was hard to fault and yet difficult to put a handle on what was exceptional. The most obvious grace so how well Craig Leon controlled an almost oblivion to let the violin and harp shine in the piece and rightly so. Although the recording quality of the playing by Ruggiero Ricci of Nathan Milstein arrangement together with Ernest Lush was my favorite although the background hiss is visible in these older recording. Ricci's bowing was as if the bow was an extension of his hands tugging at his own heart strings. I am now a little confused if Chopin intended this piece for the piano only or transfer-ably between the piano and violin as a piano does not have the legato of a violin. The violin on the other hand does not have the overlapping sustain and reverb effect possible in a piano

Enough comments about the pieces and now for those who might like to have the exact recordings that I used:

1. Ultimate Chopin 5 CD set - CD3 Track 6 - Vladimir Ashkenazy - Decca 475 8046

2. Chopin the Complete Works by Garrick Ohlsson 16CD set - CD 9 Track 9 - Hyperion CDS44351/66

3. Frederic Chopin - Complete Nocturnes - Yundi Li - 2 CD set - CD2 Track 8 - EMI Classics 5 099960 839121

4. The Essential Joshua Bell - 2 CD set - CD1 Track 3 - Sony/BMG 0 886970 741620

5. Virtuoso Violin - Ruggeiro Ricci - 2 CD set - CD1 Track 13 - Decca 458 191-2

Happy listening. Cheers Pete aka lkypeter

Symphonic April Fool

The day 1st April has been a day of jokes or joke of THE day in the year. Whatever its origin, I never bothered to find out but when I started my interest in composer Jospeh Haydn, I found out that he was born on 1st April 1732 but some musicians have actually opined that he was born the day before instead and the 1st April date was a joke. However, the more widely accepted date of his birth is 1st April 1732.

Haydn broke the record of having composed the most numbers of symphonies; to be exact 104 in all. I have been trying to collect his full collection of symphonies but it was effort in vain as it was 104 too many. I came across a complete compilation of all his 104 symphonies in one of the online stores in UK and it was recorded by a single conductor and orchestra; Adam Fischer conducting the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra on Brilliant Classics (99925) on 33 red book CDs. Did some poking around on the internet and found this be to pretty well recommended and decided to take a click of faith and swiped out my credit card to order it together with some other CDs and part of the order arrived yesterday which contains the 33 CDs Haydn set. How timely for this article.

I have listened only to the first CD which contains his first 5 symphonies and it was my first time hearing these 5 symphonies as I my collection tendered to sway towards his later symphonies especially those composed in London. It is always very refreshing to hear the embryonic works and contrast it with the later works to see the progression overtime. In classical music speak, symphonies is largely considered the epitome amongst genres like concertos, sonatas, suites, songs etc as it is normally the most complex genre of classical music.

Although Haydn cannot be credited with the title of inventor of symphonies but he was the earliest to championed the genre to a level of popularity and sophistication that no one can hold a candle to. In my opinion, Haydn is most probably a systematic and tradition bound musician as he has sticked to the 4 movement rule for symphonies for most of his symphonic works. Even in cases where he uses the 3 movements template, there is a almost consistent fast/slow/fast transition between the movements typical of this genre.

The link between Haydn and Mozart has been widely debated but I would lean closer to the understanding that Mozartis not likely to be a disciple of Haydn as the two rarely meets physically as they were in different places and both have a healthy dose of respect for each others music. Haydn has remakred that "Mozart is the greatest composer of the world" shortly after the premiere of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Mozart likewise dedicated a set of 6 string quartets to Haydn. During his relatively shorter life on planet earth, Mozart composed a total to 41 symphonies and this by no means a feat considering his contribution to other genres like Operas, Concertos etc.

The next person on my list is Beethoven who was a pupil of Haydn. Although he only composed 9 symphonies during his life time besides other classical genres, but his name supersedes that of Haydn and Mozart if we were to do a random street straw poll of whom you think are the most popular composer of classical music. Perhaps someone might want to take this up as an experiment? Part of the reason could be the all time popularity of his 5th and 9th symphonies that has been the subjected to many treacherous interpretations by many crossover artists.

My last worthy mention which is most probably as important as the former 3 is Brahms. He was the youngest of the 4 composers and it is in my opinion the torch bearer for symphonic genre as symphonic music has had its renaissance and was beginning to waiver in popularity with the accent of modernistic music by the likes of Liszt. Although he composed a total of 4 symphonies, he has stayed faithful to the symphonic genre by sticking to the tradition bound symphonic structure under the onslaught of modernist and neo-classical appeal of the public. He could have been a good politician as he has done this not so much by throwing insinuations with modernism and neo-classicalism camp but by promoting how good symphonic work is. This is no easy task for a man that has a complex love life. Brahms was good friends to the Schumanns in good and bad times. Robert Schumann has not been a very emotionally stable person and has attempted suicide and was institutionalized in a sanatorium till his death. But Clara Schumann was a model wife in seeing and supporting Robert Schumann in good and bad times. Brahms is believed to have an interest in Clara Schumann but I guess his friendship and his personal moral high ground has prevented him from pursuing Clara romantically even after Robert Schumann's death. The friendship between Brahms and Clara never went further than being platonic although they were good friends and this created a very deep internal struggle in Brahms and this is evident in some of his music as you listen to it closely and with your heart instead of your mind. Brahms did very little by way of commenting on his works and hardly any pre-manuscripts can be found as it seems that Brahms has intended it to be such and destroyed all his work in progress leaving mostly only the final rendition behind.

If I have a life maxim, I would love a Haydn/Mozart like character to grow it. A Beethoven like character to take it to the next plateau and for a Brahms like character to keep the flame going. As for a spouse, it would surely be a Clara like character of in sickness and health, through rich or poor.

Good Friday. Cheers,,,, Peter Lye aka lkypeter.blogspot.com

Beethoven Symphony No. 6 in F major Op. 68 "Pastoral"

Beethoven wrote a total of 9 symphonies ( some say 10 but the 10th is unfinished ) but only 2 of the symphonies were named by him; symphony No. 3 named "Eroica" meaning heroic and symphony No. 6 "Pastoral". Some might want to add symphony No. 9 as 'Ode to Joy' but remember that it only applies to the chorale part and not the symphony and there is little evidence of Beethoven naming it on the score except that he is adapting a poem written by Schindler of the same title. I therefore do not consider it a named symphony as such.

Symphony No. 3 was started as a tribute to Beethoven's hero Bonaparte but when Bonaparte crowned himself emperor, Beethoven lost most of the respect he has for Bonaparte and changed it to Eroica which can be translated to Heroic roughly. I shall reserve my comments to a later date.

What prompted me to write on this Symphony is because it was premiered on 22nd December 1808 and both 21st and 22nd December are birthdays of two men that is very close to my heart and for privacy reasons, it shall remain so. Some of you reading it might be able to guess but please do not comment on the names and respect the privacy please.

Beethoven's 9 symphonies occupy such a large turf in classical music arena that Stefan Kunze commented that "it was the standard against which the claims of all serious symphonic were measured." I could not agree more although the likes of more contemporary symphonic composers like Shostakovich and Schnikte has taken symphonic music to a very new dimension especially with Schnikte.

To start off, symphony No. 6 is peculiar as it has a total of 5 movements instead of the standard 4 movements structure. His other symphony that has 5 movements is symphony No. 9 but I am not sure some would agree with me that the finale Chorale as an adjunct to the 4th movement rather than a movement by itself. As the father of symphonic genre, I guess you reach a certain stage where the person becomes the rule of the day rather than the statutes.My thoughts are that Beethoven might have intended it to be a 4 movement symphony because he placed the schezro in the 3rd movement which is normally followed by the 4th and last movement. However, Beethoven might want to avoid his composition to end up as another tone poem which has become so overly used that Goethe commented " Painting sounds with sounds - thunder, crashing, plashing and splashing has become detestable". This is purely speculation based on circumstantial backdrop against which surrounded Beethoven at that time.

The first movement is to convey his arrival at the pastoral which is the country side as it was commonly known in his time. The feeling is one of cheerfulness as it might have been a large contrast to the city of Vienna where Beethoven was staying at that time. The very subtle entrance could also mean an entrance into quietness and tranquility. There seems to be a parallel with his symphony No. 5 structure wise of letting a single motif move from one part of the orchestra to the next like starting with the strings, followed by woodwinds and finally with the brass section.

The second movement and also the fourth movement is where Beethoven got himself in a tone poem fashion most probably to serve as canvas rather than the painting itself. These 2 movements are bipolar in that the second movement seems to portray the beauty of the country side. The fourth movement on the other hand paints how a thunderstorm could change the canvas of the country side so much just like it does in the cities where he was more accustom save for some sarconant differences in the two places.

The 3rd movement must have been the most beautiful dance of all the dances he has composed in my opinion. The dance starts leisurely and simply perhaps to give the dancers time to admire each other before it launches itself into a romantic heart wrenching melody that could turn any heart of stone to jelly. Thereafter comes the more demanding parts to the dancers to concentrate on the music and their steps. The ending is grandiose and launches straight into the 4th movement. Time to take a back seat and enjoy the music. The 4th movements is also punctuated with many dramatic kettle drum parts where it punctuates the tune with strong and staccato type beats mimicking the storm.

The 5th and the last movement is where the symphony finds resolution in the form of man and nature having a happy co-existence and respect for each other. Perhaps Greenpeace might consider it as a possible tune for their occasions.

I spent a good part of my Sunday listening to all 5 versions of this symphony that I have in my collection. What I find interesting is that for most Beethoven pieces, the more recent recordings tend to play on a faster tempo than older recordings but it is the reverse for this symphony in that the later recordings are played much slower.

The versions that I have are as follows and album art and fuller details would follow as it is about bed time for me now.

1.Beethoven 9 Symphonien - Herbert von Karajan,Berlin Philharmonia. DG

2.Beethoven Shmphony 5 & 6 karajan gold-recent re-issue of the above recording done in 1982

3.Harnoncourt, Chamber Orchestra of Europe-Warner Classics-Winner of best classical album in 1992.

4.Osmo Vanska, Minnesota Orchestra-BIS-SACD Award winning also

5.Andre Cluytens, Berlin Philharmonia-EMI

If I am not mistaken, the version by Vanska listed in number 4 is about the slowest of the 5 interpretations.

Cheers,,,, Pete

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

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

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