Monday, January 23, 2006

For once in my life over here at NAFA, excluding the time I had to write reviews, I actually sat through a concert without falling asleep! Whoopee!!! Congratulations to myself... *pats own back.

Mr Valentin Schiedermair is the reason for me not sleeping during HIS concert. His acheivements written on the programme notes together with his very professional get-up when he walked onto the stage "caught" my attention. And there I was, sitting in the third row, entranced by his piano playing. He repertory for the concert consisted of pieces from famous musicians of the Classical and Romantic eras, such as Handel, Beethoven, Chopin and Lizst. I am familiar with some of the pieces which he performed, thus, hearing him play them brings them out into a whole new light for me. At the end of the concert, everyone was clapping, cheering, "screaming" and whistling like crazy, as if they were attending a pop concert. Well, I got to admit that I was one of those clapping like mad. Heehee...

Anyway, he gave us an encore by playing a piece by Lizst's rival Mr. Can't-remember-what's-his-name. A piece with Spanish themes, aptly entitled, in English, "Souvenirs from Southern Spain". Again, we clapped, cheered, "screamed" and whistled. He went in, came out, and gave us another encore. This time, a Nocturne by Chopin. And this time, some of us had the good sense not to cheer or screamed or whistle above 1 d.p., otherwise we would be staying back for another half-hour. He made a hand gesture with his right hand as he was seating himself at the piano for the last time, telling us "a little bit more". It is that kind of hand signal where there is a gap between you thumb and index finger, just like when you are estimating the length of 10cm. So, that was what he did. He finally ended the evening with "Flight of the Bumblebee". The beginning bars got most of the audience jumpy. He did not even announce the title of the piece! We are so intelligent... Hahaha! How lame...

So, that was the end of a wonderful evening. Two of my friends/coursemates, JLC and LZQ bought Mr Schiedermair's CDs and I loan my permanent marker to JLC for him to autograph with. So cool... And he is so tall. Typical European... I saw a small Salvatore Ferragano box amongst his things backstage when we went to get his autograph. The box is probably to keep his cuff-links. So rich. So cool... Of course, he is a professional concert pianist. A pity I will not be able to attend his masterclass on wednesday afternoon as I have another class to attend at the same time. Sad sad... Anyway, that is okay. I can never stand masterclasses, always falling asleep, excluding the time when I had no choice but to stay awake just to take down notes for a review. Hahaha!

So, I got LZQ to burn the CD for me, which he already did while I was typing this. You see, there is this little thing called... FREELOADING. Muahahaha!!! :P

I was feeling happy and contented-like on the bus home. Unfortunately, I was feeling a little unbalanced when I alighted the bus. Now, I have this horrid headache, causing me to feel very giddy. Damn...

And so, I will go off to sleep soon. Thank goodness I will be having lecture at 10am for only one and the half hours.

Lunar New Year, a.k.a Chinese New Year, a.k.a Spring Festival, is in 6 days time and I already got my New Year clothes. Yay! :) Happy! Oww... Stupid headache.