I attended the Philharmonic Winds concert on Sunday. They are still as impressive and musical, enjoyed the sound and blend of the wind orchestra.
They played rather "unfamiliar" tunes to the general public and in wind band literature. Nonetheless, I enjoyed most of the pieces except the Saxophone concerto. The tone of the Sax is definitely rich and good, but I think the concerto was a bit over my head, as in, I didn't know how to really appreciate it.
There was a piece from czech and it was certainly the most entertaining to listen to. The conductor spent a couple of minutes interpreting the work before setting out to perform the entire piece; talked about the Russian invasion and the use of various instruments and techniques to represent certain activities/people.
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A link: This is one of those weeks I rehearsed under several conductors in a short span of a few days. Different conductors bring out a different sound from a group, and I think this "sound" aspect can turn out to be quite important.
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I rehearsed a modern interpretation of "The Butterfly Lovers" today, not the oriental version, it's an european one, written for Erhu and Wind Band. The piece is composed based on the same oriental story, but given a modern/western interpretation. It's interesting but can't help but feel that some of the parts just don't seem to form a nice scene to me. Well, it could be because subconciously I still think the Oriental version still reigns! And believe me not, I think those younger members of the band have never heard of the story before!
Generation g a p !
John Golland's Atmospheres is such a beauty! Superb composition. Period. It's a little like the 4 elements thing that my quartet is trying to do, brings the music and the interpretation to the next level! Playing it is an immense learning experience, hope I can get hold of the Cor Anglais soon!
4 comments:
Do like the conductor's way of conducting? I've seen him conduct during one of the beautiful sunday series and I think that he makes weird movements with his conducting.
Sometimes I do not know what is he conducting. :p
Mr. Leonard Tan, you are talking about? I think he has good gestures to the musicians, perhaps the strokes are not all interpretive to the audience, but certainly works well on the players. I'm also sometimes puzzled by Daniel Barenboim's gestures. Too Cheem. Ha ha +)
Maybe its me but that time during the performance I seen, I distinctly remember the members are out of sync with the conductor. He is conducting, but the members are playing faster than his conducting.
And his conducting a little weird. There was once he was not even conducting. He was just swaying his body. After that, I got a bad impression of him. :p
Not to startled you. But he's going overseas to pursue his Doctorate soon. =)
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