Boston Symphony at Carnegie.

"Boston Symphony tickets, Boston Symphony tonight, any one?"
I thought I was going to miss the chance to listen to Jewish pianist Daniel Balenboim when I was told that the ticket were sold out earlier in the morning. However, I still came back to try my luck. And, luck was, indeed on my side. I would complain about the heavy rain pour in the evening and being swore by rude impatient New Yorker in the subway station, but I would not complain about the price of the ticket. Because, first of all, the seller sold it to me although there were 4 other people wanting to buy it. In addition to that, he knew that I was looking for a ticket since I walked out from the ticket office that morning.... (I know what you are thinking, what a creepy guy)

Anyways, the point is, I got to listen to Daniel Balenboim. And also Boston Symphony under James Levine's baton. I was so happy that I don't care about all the odds that cross my will.

The concert began with a surprise- conductor James Levine and Pianist Daniel Balenboim performed a piano duet Fantasy by Schubert. Both are world famous conductors, skillful pianists, and big guys sitting parallel at the piano. Although they may look awkwardly crowded at the piano, I could hear unusually breathtaking phrasing, colorful atmosphere, artful pause, and smooth cooperation of voicing and accompanying texture. I felt like being brought into a different world (maybe of fantasy) while closing my eyes to listen. That was what makes the performances fabulous: One symphony conductor and one opera conductor utilized all their imaginative talents :)

After that, Beethoven Piano Concerto was performed. Pianist Daniel Balenboim performed with great palette of tone color. He has a great lyrical sense maybe because he had been conducting opera singers. The tension and release of the music was powerful and touching under Borenboim's fingers and Levine's baton. Something new that I had learnt is, Levine actually sit at a swing stool to conduct. It was kind of weird but after I googled him online, I found out that he had a health reason for that special setting.

As a conductor also, pianist Balenboim has a strong and unique sense of rhythm in performing. And aria style of approach to lyrical lines.He is undeniably a maestro :). Anyone who can be his student is so darn lucky.

After the intermission, Balenboim remained at the piano bench, Elliot Carter's "Interventions for Piano and Orchestra" was premiered. That was an artfully stimulating modern piece. After the performance, a birthday cake was presented to the stage, and the 100th year-old american composer was invited to make a wish and blow the candle. In the program book, Carter shared that "the rite of spring" by stravinsky inspired him to become a music composer. And Carter is a composer who composes more and more as he gets older. Anyways, it was a great honor to witness a composer mentioned in my music textbook in real person celebrating his 100 birthday after his new piece. That was a great historical moment but I didn't bring my camera :( darn....

And the last piece performed by Boston Symphony was Mr Carter's inspiration in becoming a composer- "The Rite of Spring". Because it was very disharmonic and percussive, most audience couldn't appreciate it. Who said music has to be pretty and in rigid harmony? The percussiveness in "The rite of spring" actually challenges the audience with its extreme intensity, energy, and dynamic. It actually sounds dangerously adventurous and yet amazing as ever.

Maurizio Pollini's Piano Recital at Carnegie "Perspective Series"

Italian Pollini is a respected figure in piano world for his undefeatable and terrific accuracy musical memory and athletic piano performance. I was personally amazed at his recording of Three Movements of Petroushka composed by Stravinsky. I had been longing to watch/listen to his live performance since I've listen to that recording (to figure out how many fingers he has LOL). Last year fall, I was lucky enough to attend his solo recital in Carnegie Hall.


While the audience applauding, Pollini walked enthusiastically toward piano bench and then smiled and bowed to greet the audience. From his smile, he looks like an innocently charismatic person.

Pollini opened his recital with Beethoven Sonatas: Tempest Sonata, and Appassionate.I think his performance of the sonatas were energetic but steady and careful but fabulous.In short, he "rocks". However, the aria beginning of the Tempest Sonata first movement sounded a little unsure of himself. But of course, he didn't hit a single wrong note, so that makes his performance perfect in certain sense :) because maybe audience will agree that they don't pay that much of money to hear wrong notes. LOL

After the Beethoven pieces, he proceed with a set of Chopin's Mazurkas.It actually surprised me to find lyrical side of Pollini's performance. In fact, in my personal opinion, although I like Yundi Li's performance style in general, Pollini performed this set of marzurkas better than Yundi Li's (note: Yundi Li performed a different set of Chopin's Mazurkas earlier in his own recital at Carnegie)

Then Schumann's Fantasy were performed. This time though, Pollini sounded a little emotionally confused. Maybe he hit all the right note. I kind of lost myself in figuring what Schumann was trying to "express" through the piece.

Then his performance of virtuosic Chopin's Scherzo in b-minor was very athletic and robotic in general. His digital accuracy seemed carefully calculated. However, he seemed to ignore the atmosphere that the Scherzo conveys.

As a sincere gratitue to the audience's eager support (his recital tickets were all sold out), Pollini gave 3 encores to end the afternoon recital. They were Chopin's Nocturne (forgot the opus number, but my favorite one), Revolutionary C minor Etude,and Etude in C sharp minor. Please note, he played the etudes with "NO SWEAT". Looking at his appearance, he may be an old guy but he is definitely pianistically "fit".

Thoughts after Lang Lang's performance with New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center

Lang Lang is a real performer in Performing art field. He is sensitive to audience's who have unopened minds to classical music. If you want to draw a classical outsider's interest to classical music, you should bring that outsider to watch Lang Lang's performance. Classical music is like opera. For people who don't know anything about it, it is quite a pain to watch or listen to it.

Lang Lang, as a classical music "insider", he made an effort to reach audience who don't understand classical music with his extraordinary "body language". His extra-musical "choreography" transmit to audience messeges of a composer. Especially audience who are not sensitive enough to the meaning of certain arrangement of sound in classical music context. l as a classically trained pianist, frankly, was very much distracted by Lang Lang's unrelevant "extra musical choreography". However, I realized that Lang Lang has a respectable pianistic skills. As I closed my eyes, I still was able to perceive a descent interpretation of Beethoven's piano concerto by Lang Lang.

So, I must say that, Lang Lang, as a piano pieces performer, realistically realizes the difficulty of ordinary person in understanding classic music. And thus he creatively incorperates extra-musical choreography so that audience can understand a composer's work without sacrificing the quality of the real pianistic skills. So, Lang Lang does have a mind of "businessman" whom is sensitive to the need of different crowds and bring a different crowds to enjoy classical music. Or I should say he opens door of classical music to a very different field of audiences.

Not every classically trained pianists are brave enough to breaks this wall to convey a composer's artwork through unconventional way. I must say that most "well-respected" pianists, the pianists who won a lot of piano competitions are those who are not very creative at performing. Most of them are very much robot whom just do what was instructed, without a "creative mind" whichi, literally doesn't really belong to "performing art field". Art means creative, original. Dance is a performing art too. You can choreograph a dance. But why not a piano performing? If piano performing should be ideally doing what is instructed perfectly, piano performing should not be a performing art but a sport where the concerns is all about physical strength and intelligence at accuracy.

Schedule for a Piano Lesson at TEN PIANO STUDIO