Concert Packed Week
Well, coming to Vancouver has it's benefits. Yes, food is a huge one, but the number of concerts and theatre shows that are available to us has grown ten fold.This past Thursday evening, we headed downtown to see....... no... not Madonna (she was performing her first concert in Vancouver a few blocks away that evening for a sold out audience of 50-60 thousand) but Lang Lang, the famous Chinese concert pianist who performed during the Opening Games this past summer.
It was full house that evening and traffic was a bit crazy that day because of MADONNA. Anyhow, Lang Lang opened with Schubert's Sonata in A which took up about half the program. This piece, in my opinion, really showed off his capacity technically and artistically. His pianissimo and fortissimo range was amazing. I don't think I've ever heard a softer touch. He followed with a Bartok Sonata after intermission which I wasn't too keen on. Mind you, I don't really enjoy playing or listening to Bartok to begin with. Anyhow, another fantastic demonstration of his technical abilities. Makes you really believe in practicing technique (shudder). After the dissonant sound of Bartok, was Debbusy. I originally thought he was going to be playing Au Claire Du Lune but he didn't... it was a variation I think.. but I'm not sure. I'm not all that familiar with Debbusy's work. After Debbusy, the composer I had been waiting for... Chopin! My favourite. He performed Polonaise in A flat Major which I have heard many times before. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations. I felt he sped through it and did not provide the justice that it deserved. The ornamentals he played flawlessly but they didn't have the opportunity to shine because he was going so fast! I read a review saying the purpose was to "energize" the audience.. but that just .... I don't have words.
I was a tad peeved off that evening with the audience because they were SO restless. During his pianissimo sections (which were very soft), it was extremely hard to really follow along because of all the shuffling, moving and whispering going on in the audience. ARGH. There were many in the crowd who were not frequent classical concert goers because they clapped between movements (in fact, Lang Lang decided not to remove his hands between movements because of this.. he would keep his hands at the piano and just continue on into the next movement). The other thing that irritated me was the stupidity of some of the younger Chinese girls there.. actually, one in particular who took a picture of him WHILE HE WAS PERFORMING even though they explicity said at the beginning of the concert that "pictures are prohibited". It seems like she thought that her boyfriend had turned the flash off, but that was not the case. It made me really want to slap the backside of her head when she proceeded to take ANOTHER picture about 10 minutes later. Ugh.
Anyhow, enough complaining. Onto my next concert adventure. Last night, we went to see Our Chinese Heart at the GM place downtown. There were about 15 celebrity artists including the likes of Kelly Chen. Not a bad concert, better than I expected. I thought there would be a lot more off tune singing than there actually was. HEHEH. The mayor of Vancouver was there and I was really impressed at his attempt to do the interview with the MCs in Chinese. He did a pretty great job, I must say :)
Alright. We are off to view some open houses that we will never ever be able to afford. *sigh*
Signing off from rainy Vancouver!
posted by jaryee @ 1:10 p.m.
2 Comments:
How can u missed out MADONNA's concert?..:P But Lang lang was great too!
hahahahahahah heard she danced 2 hours straight non-stop.
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