Last night I went to the George Weston Recital Hall for Fou Ts'ong concert with Clark; thank goodness he got there 5min right before the concert started, just saw him running in a suit and a tie, all drenched in sweat. Anyhow, the concert was certainly worth clapping my hands to the point which they were tingling with pain. Fou Ts'ong looked like a shrimp with the crooked back; he was extremely thin, wearing what seemed like a fading dark cyan Chinese parallel-buttoned jacket and a pair of glove-ish thing on his hands, only revealing 10 fingers. He played 2 Haydn sonatas, 1 (relique) Schubert sonata - which sounded pretty cute; I've never listened to Schubert's piano sonata before - a Chinese suite, 3 Chopin mazurkas and a Chopin sonata (I know, a lot of sonatas). After the worthwhile hand-aching ovation, he encored a Chopin prelude. Apparently his technique wasn't as good - but I mean, being a 70 year old, having the courage of performing in the public is already very rare; and he practises EIGHT hours a day for his recitals - however his sound was among the best I've ever heard, especially Marche funebre... I closed my eyes while he was playing that piece, I felt I was in heaven. Can't describe with words, can only be experienced.
Wonderful concert it was.
This morning got up early again, worked for 2 hours and then went on the subway with Ross and Parthi, got off at St.George then met up with Ivan, Valerie and Matthew C. 'on the steps' of the Royal Conservatory. Yes, we were touring around University of Toronto with our tour guide Matthew. Stopped here and there, Matthew helpfully introduced the important places and little jokes of UT; took many pictures, lastly went to the Edward Johnson Building to check out practice room but unfortunately it was passed the opening hours and we couldn't get in... it was cold and chilly, but I loved it. I can't wait to get out of Woburn; I've got no life here. (for pictures, click HERE)
My former blog server (http://www.mblog.com/) can no longer provide free service which means if I don't pay, my account will be deleted with 6 months worth of blogging... ='( This is such a catastrophe. I hope blogger won't do the same.
Very busy weekend, and competiton next Tuesday... my hands were having a little cramp, they are super unstable... I have no idea how to survive the competition. Mom got me a new performance dress, it's all pinkish. Very bright. I lost the pair of performance shoes which I bought in July... have to get a new pair; a pair without any heels.
I've been listening to Lang Lang's Rach 3 and Yundi Li's recording (thanks to Ken), they are great. Lang Lang's version of Rach 3 is the fastest and clearest, especially during that cool octave passage. I realized that other than rolling eyes, licking lips is another habit of Yundi's when he plays; although I'm not sure if he still does it. Fantastic recordings.
I can't wait for La Valse.