10 Sep 2008

Photo credits: http://otterman.wordpress.com

Many thanks to the friends and supporters who have taken time to attend the concert held at The Plaza, National Library, at Victoria Street today. Thanks to those who have sent in the well-wishes too.

It has been enjoyable to play in the concert, and to play for the audience. I hope they have enjoyed the concert and the music as much as I did.

One look at the programme for this concert, and one could tell that it focuses on familiar tunes.

ROSSINI The Barber of Seville Overture
LLOYD WEBBER Symphonic Reflections
H. ZIMMER The Pirates of the Caribbean
JOHN WILLIAMS Schindler’s List
ROSSINI The Thieving Magpie Overture
A. SILVESTRI Forrest Gump Suite

I am pleased to hear that Chun See said that he has 'enjoyed himself thoroughly', and Siva rated the concert 6 out of 5! Siva has a post that he had written while the orchestra was rehearsing.

My favourite would be the Forrest Gump Suite, partly because it was a well-known movie when I was a teenager, and it was one of those few movies that I have had watched back then. I am also attracted to its simple yet captivating introduction and its rousing ending. Generally, the arrangement was good.

Schindler's List was another piece of music that touches me. Please pardon me, I generally have a love for melancholy tunes. We were playing the original orchestral compositions by John Williams himself, written for Itzhak Perlman. That meant quite some sum of money paid for the scores.

The two Rossini's overtures are very technically challenging for the double bass player. Our tutor said that even professional double bass players would need to play through those challenging parts in the Rossini's overtures before the rehearsals, simply because those challenging parts are not meant to be sight-read. Thank goodness that there were some easier parts in these two overtures so I could still have some time to relax and prepare mentally for the challenging parts. Rossini does write pretty effective overtures. I particularly like the colourful sounds that are created through his compositions.

I used not to like playing the Webber's Symphonic Reflections arranged by Bruce Chase. I like Webber's music in general, however I did not like the arrangements of Symphonic Reflections which was done by Bruce Chase. Anyway, Andrew Lloyd Webber has done a great job writing such captivating melodies that eventually, I have learnt to tolerate the arrangement and focus on the nice melody lines written by Webber. I don't know why, the tune from Webber's Memory kept ringing in my mind, after the concert while I was on my way home.

The Pirates of the Caribbean was fun to play. I tried to approach it by playing it in a rugged manner. I believe that would suit the music well.

After the concert, I managed to steal some time from keeping the instruments to catch up with Siva, Chun See, acroamatic and A. I managed to also speak with one of my colleagues SR who came for the concert.

Later the night, before I headed home, I met one of my friends, ML, by chance when I needed to take a light meal so that I could take some medications. It was a pleasure to meet her by chance.

Last but not the least, let me end this post by pointing you to a YouTube link of an snippet of an interview with Itzhak Perlman on John Williams' Schindler's List. You could also listen to Itzhak Perlman's rendition of Schindler's List: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueWVV_GnRIA&feature=related

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Updates:

And I've found a YouTube video of Katica Illenyi playing John Williams' Schindler's List on the violin. I've found her rendition pretty moving. For your listening pleasure.