Friday, December 08, 2006
Jean-Yves Thibaudet & Charles Dutoit
Oh man, tonight's concert is the best concert I've ever been to!!!
Jean-Yves Thibaudet is amazing, simply amazing!!!!
Okay, let's get rid of the boring stuff first...
So decided to head to Circullar Quay for coffee/work. Just when I got to the Starbucks there, they said their Cheer Party just started! So because I ordered a Chocolate Hazelnut Cake, I got my Caramel Java-Chip Frappacino free (but only if you got the Tall size)! So yay, free coffee and more confirmation that just about anything at Starbucks beats Gloria Jeans... The cake didn't taste as the one I had at Capitol Theatre though, tasted more like a mooncake today. Anyways, sat there for around 1 hour... reading, highlighting and summarising what must be half of the stuff I printed today at uni.
Walked to the Opera House, nice bright sunny but cool evening weather!
There was quite a queue forming when I got to the box office around 7pm. When I got my tickets, turned out I got even better seats that I originaly thought. Must have misheard the guy on the phone, coz it turns out I'm in Box V instead of A! My seats were probably the best in house!!! Well around there... 1st seat of Box V which is the second box left of the concert hall. Unlike the first box seat, it's also behind the piano, but 30 degrees off to the right of Jean-Yves so we're not blocked by his back. I could see his hands, well both of his hands if I looked at the extremely polished keyboard backing! Super good seats... could even hear his pedaling!
So collected tickets, had to check in my crumpler. Headed to the back for pre-concert talk. Learned that left handed in Italian is "sinistro" which is the root word for sinister! Got reminded how I thought my brother was evil when we found out that he was left-handed and for a few days, I was trying to get him to hold things with his right hand instead... think he was like 3 years old then?! =P
Okay, I'm such the sua-ku lah, didn't know Piano Concerto for Left Hand means you can ONLY use your left hand, his dexterity and stamina is simply amazing. He didn't once falter throughout the whole piece. After seeing his left hand fly through everything, I was so damn relieved for him that he had an interval to recuperate.
Was so moved by Liszt's Totentanz, my favrourite piece of the night. Just when you thought nothing could top the Ravel, the Liszt came right after the interval and I just sat in my sit completely still, my ears trying to absorb as much of the soundwaves as humanly possible while my eyes tried to follow the blur that must have been his hands.
Charles Dutoit is really animated, his conducting's quite humorous at time, quite distracting, hee! I kept imagining him as Gimlee from LOTR during some of the Rachmaninov. On the other hand, Ashkenazy's all smiley and cute coz he's so small!
On a sidenote, my friend just mentioned online that he has some friends flying in from BKK for zoukout this SAT. Gosh...we're certainly on the map now eh. I've overheard some people saying they flew in from Japan especially for the Askenazy concert, I'm sure there were some tourists that flew in especially for today's concert, though it wasn't sold out like Askenazy's. But yeah, zoukout a regional event?! Who would've thought!
Had supper at Bar Italia in Leichhardt, the icon of "Little Italy" in Sydney. Very yummy vanilla gelato that went well with the peppermint tea!
Oh yeah, so as usual, here's the swanky CDs that I got autographed =P
[Wait for the update, too tired to scan now hee!]
Over the Air: Piano Concerto No.2 in A major, Allegro deciso - Liszt
Jean-Yves Thibaudet is amazing, simply amazing!!!!
Okay, let's get rid of the boring stuff first...
So decided to head to Circullar Quay for coffee/work. Just when I got to the Starbucks there, they said their Cheer Party just started! So because I ordered a Chocolate Hazelnut Cake, I got my Caramel Java-Chip Frappacino free (but only if you got the Tall size)! So yay, free coffee and more confirmation that just about anything at Starbucks beats Gloria Jeans... The cake didn't taste as the one I had at Capitol Theatre though, tasted more like a mooncake today. Anyways, sat there for around 1 hour... reading, highlighting and summarising what must be half of the stuff I printed today at uni.
Walked to the Opera House, nice bright sunny but cool evening weather!
There was quite a queue forming when I got to the box office around 7pm. When I got my tickets, turned out I got even better seats that I originaly thought. Must have misheard the guy on the phone, coz it turns out I'm in Box V instead of A! My seats were probably the best in house!!! Well around there... 1st seat of Box V which is the second box left of the concert hall. Unlike the first box seat, it's also behind the piano, but 30 degrees off to the right of Jean-Yves so we're not blocked by his back. I could see his hands, well both of his hands if I looked at the extremely polished keyboard backing! Super good seats... could even hear his pedaling!
So collected tickets, had to check in my crumpler. Headed to the back for pre-concert talk. Learned that left handed in Italian is "sinistro" which is the root word for sinister! Got reminded how I thought my brother was evil when we found out that he was left-handed and for a few days, I was trying to get him to hold things with his right hand instead... think he was like 3 years old then?! =P
Okay, I'm such the sua-ku lah, didn't know Piano Concerto for Left Hand means you can ONLY use your left hand, his dexterity and stamina is simply amazing. He didn't once falter throughout the whole piece. After seeing his left hand fly through everything, I was so damn relieved for him that he had an interval to recuperate.
Was so moved by Liszt's Totentanz, my favrourite piece of the night. Just when you thought nothing could top the Ravel, the Liszt came right after the interval and I just sat in my sit completely still, my ears trying to absorb as much of the soundwaves as humanly possible while my eyes tried to follow the blur that must have been his hands.
Charles Dutoit is really animated, his conducting's quite humorous at time, quite distracting, hee! I kept imagining him as Gimlee from LOTR during some of the Rachmaninov. On the other hand, Ashkenazy's all smiley and cute coz he's so small!
On a sidenote, my friend just mentioned online that he has some friends flying in from BKK for zoukout this SAT. Gosh...we're certainly on the map now eh. I've overheard some people saying they flew in from Japan especially for the Askenazy concert, I'm sure there were some tourists that flew in especially for today's concert, though it wasn't sold out like Askenazy's. But yeah, zoukout a regional event?! Who would've thought!
Had supper at Bar Italia in Leichhardt, the icon of "Little Italy" in Sydney. Very yummy vanilla gelato that went well with the peppermint tea!
Oh yeah, so as usual, here's the swanky CDs that I got autographed =P
[Wait for the update, too tired to scan now hee!]
Over the Air: Piano Concerto No.2 in A major, Allegro deciso - Liszt
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