I went to see my MySpace friend, Wu Di, playing her piano recital in Bosendorfer Piano Showroom NYC just now. That was something!
She's just terrific! She can play like nobody's business!
It was a recital that focuses on theme and variations.
The program kicked off with Haydn's Andante and Variations, beautiful, almost un-classical sounding piece. Then it was Brahms's Variations on a Theme by Paganini, which is based on the famous violin caprice no.24 by Nicky. Brahms had his very unique way of writing the variations that sometimes it almost didn't sound like a romantic piece --- almost 20th century sounding, if you will. But you can still hear bits and pieces of the original violin variations by Nicky. These two pieces show you how ahead of their time these two composers were.
After the intermission, Wu Di continued the performance with Copland's Piano Variations. Now I have to say I never liked Ari much even though I studied in the Aaron Copland School of Music. Not only his Americana thing, but also his early stuff, especially his Organ Symphony, ew... I don't like it. But there's something in this piece that I like, maybe it's simply Di's mastery on her piano and her giving a soul to this piece.
One thing that really bugged in the second half was the cat that brought a cup of red wine in after the intermission. He was sitting behind my row, very close to me, and he was constantly turning the cup in his hands, which made some noises. But what really made me mad was his constant sucking of his teeth, that piercing noise kept on turning up until I almost turned back to him and slap the shit out of him. He did that even near the end of the recital! Somebody kill me!!
Anyway, the second piece of the second half was Ondine by Ravel. Beautiful as usual! Mo's pieces are usually irresistable, at least for me.
Then it was the climax of the night, LISZT!! You almost don't call your piano recital a piano recital if you don't play something by him. So there we go! Reminiscenes de Don Juan! The only word I could describe this piece was virtuostic!
Wu Di has such technical equipment in her that nothing seems very hard for her. Now I know this almost sounds like I dunno shit about music, because we all know that learning the basics to play an instrument is already hard, let alone learning bitchin' pieces like those she played. But it's true, seeing the tiny Wu Di sweeping back and forth over the keyboard was like watching her cleaning them up with a cloth.
Also, she doesn't look like how old she is now. She's much more mature-looking (NOT OLD THOUGH!!) than her peers, probably because of her experience performing everywhere in the world. And, not to mention she is very very pretty too!
Wu Di --- see it and believe it!
x x x x x x x x
No I'm not finished.
I went straight to another gig after I hung around for a while in Wu Di's reception.
Now this one is totally a different vibe.
It's Dana Leong's regular show in Jazz Gallery --- Rhapsody in Groove!
Damn, when you see that Afro hair walking onto the stage, you better expect something more than a regular "good"!
So these cats went up to the stage and started to blow people's heads off with their strong hip hop beats that would keep your head nodding even though the music stops.
Now my father figure Ray Pizzi thinks that the hop is not really that hip, but I still feel a great deal out of that kinda music. Especially in a more sophisticated setting like this, with them motherfuckers tearing it up on the stage, I would say, it's really pretty hip! Maybe because I grew up in this era... I dunno.
Baba Israel is a fantastic human beatbox! He could make sounds that sound like samples that you could only get from Logic or Reason!!
The keyboardist Adam Platt is some motherfucker too. He had that nasty face when he played some really bad and funky shit. I think he's built for hiphop-jazz fusion. I like his down-to-earth playing.
As for Dana, man, as usual, a master in both trombone and cello. I was especially amazed to see his 3-finger plucking on the cello. The funny shit was one of his fingers got bleeding after he played that trick without him knowing about it!
Later after the gig, I told him, instead of "Thanks for the music" like what others would say, "Thanks for bleeding for us!"
Haha! Ain't that some shit?
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1 comment:
I think the "disturbance" is really irritating. I was sitting in church for the "recorded sermon" and these ladies at the back were playing some "predicting game", guessing what the pastor is going to say next, and throughout the service, they were enjoying themselves. I was like, "could you two shut up and listen????"
Anyway, you really had a great night, and diligent blogger you are. Keep it up.
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