Debate, Lang Lang & LSO
These 2 days (yesterday and today) have been pretty packed. ACTUALLY it’s been VERY packed since last week and I’ll be still FULLY packed all the way till NEXT WEEK before I return home to K.L. for my 1 week L.N. MP07 intensive practices.
Let me start with "Debate". There was an inter-department debate competition held by the school where each department send 4 student representatives and will then debate against other departments. WE, the conducting department sent: Huang Yi (1st Speaker), Zhou Qing Yu (2nd Speaker), Yang Yi (3rd Speaker) and Ding Yi (4th Speaker). And we were set against the Chinese-Music department.. We had 3 guys and a girl, THEY had 3 girls and a guy. The title of the debate was: 成大事居于小节
It started off with the M.C. introducing everybody… and the WHOLE floor rolled in laughters when Yang Yi was introduced. Because he flipped his chair upside down and kicked it off stage the moment he stood up to take a HUGE 90 degree bow. Well, he already look very funny, with his army head and square face. So, how could you NOT laugh?
The whole debating session was really fun, especially when it comes to the "free debate" session. You really can see what characteristics and personality a person is made of during these competition. It was really obvious that our conducting department representatives hold a higher moral value and could really think and react quickly AND calmly at the same time. Whilst our opponent from the Chinese Music Department really looked like three aunties quarelling and an uncle helping in, with all the ugly words and foul expression. Yea, no wonder not everyone’s a conductor.
Was I part of the competition? OF COURSE!!! I’m a VERY IMPORTANT AUDIENCE~ Hey, debates won’t be fun without audiences OKAY?? Anyway, WE WON. Oh, I have another role: I went up to give hugs when we won. HAHAHA… It was fun to watch and to be part of… Here’s a few very cool lines that my mates made:
Team A: 。。。由于你不拘与小节，你也许会3个月不洗脚。(something infront) You never paid any attention to the little things in life, you might not remember to watch your feet for 3 months(or something like that)
Zhou Qing Yu: 如果你病入膏肓了，医生三个月没洗脚，你会让他医你的病吗？If you are sick, and the doctor never wash his feet for 3 months, would you STILL let him heal you?
Team A: Wordless // Audience: CHEERS
Team A: 。。。由于你不拘与小节，你甚至会忘记给自己的孩子做榜样。他们也许会把脏袜子丢进饭锅里面。(something infront) You never paid any attention to the little things in life, you may not even remember to set a good example to your children, and they might end up throwing their dirty socks into the cooking pot(or something like that)
Huang Yi: 我觉得这个不是小节问题，而是个人道德修养的问题吧？ Err, I don’t think that is a problem caused by not paying attention to the little things in life. That’s more of like a morality problem.
Team A: Wordless // Audience: CHEERS
There’s more, but I don’t quite remember. Anyway, WE WON. HEHEHEHEHEHEHE…..
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The second thing I would like to talk about happened TODAY. This morning, I woke up at 7:30am and went out very soon after that to the Poly Theatre where the LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA and DANIEL HARDING will be holding a MASTERCLASS for 3 chosen young conductors. All 3 are from our conservatory (The Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing)… they are: Jiao Yang (undergrad. year 4) — doing Dvorak No.9 3rd Movement, Zhu Man (grad. year 1) — doing Dvorak No.9 1st Movement and Luo Zhen Huw (undergrad. year 3) — doing Dvorak No.9 2nd Movement.
They were chosen through a process of sending their DVDs over to London where the panel of judges form by the concertmaster and section principals chose 3 out of the 15-20 people (including me….) that send in their DVDs.
It was a REALLY REALLY cool experience. There was a massive difference when all 3 of them conduct and when Harding conducted. It was like WUAH LAO. And the LSO sounded MAGNIFICENT. I’ve never heard such good sound quality for SO LONG, LIVE somore… I wonder if the MPO can sound like them… HAHAHAHA.
Harding said quite a lot of things about the chinese students "beating" a little too much. I TOTALLY agree to everything he says… Hahaha, not like I anti chinese larr. But it’s kinda a WAY over here, which I am GRATEFUL to have Yang Li as my teacher, because he’s kinda like the REBEL of the WHOLE conducting department. HAHAHA…. Says Harding: "It’s safe to have everything accurately and precisely planned, but if you don’t take risks in music, there wouldn’t be any fun anymore." There was once he even said rather furiously: "Stop BEATING. You’re KILLING the music."
Yea, it’s kinda astonishing to see a conductor his age (he’s like SUPER YOUNG) to have such a depth and understanding for the music he conducts. *salutes* Hehehe…
After the masterclass, there was a brief Q&A session where the reporters that came could ask questions… students and audiences are welcome to ask as well. The english translation made by Chen Lin (a young assistant professor of our conservatory) was rather poorly done and when a student stood up and asked Daniel Harding question, he took quite some time to understand it. There was one question where he went totally @.@ even after translation was done for like 3 to 4 times. So I couldn’t help but babble and explained it to him (was sitting like 3 sits sengeted from his view), he grinned and nodded to gesture his understanding and said: "HAH~ You." I raised my eyebrow, puzzled at his stern tone…. and the long pause in between as though I’ve done anything wrong. Then he went: "are a conducting student." I bursted laughing, so did most of the English-understanding audiences. And I nodded in reply "HAH, Yes. I am."
The whole masterclass lasted around 4 hours before we went back to the conservatory as we have class at 2pm. Around 4pm, we returned to the Poly Theatre where we were going to watch the LSO with Daniel Harding AND LANG LANG rehearse for the night’s concert. Concert Repertoire: Mahler Symphony No.5 & Chopin Concerto for Piano No.1.
Wow, Lang Lang LIVE too? Lolx. I’m one lucky girl. Too bad we can’t take any photos… but I curi curi took around 5 photos. HAHAHA… I was told off like 2 times. Although the result ain’t very good because I couldn’t turn flash on and I was sitting on the 2nd floor, which was rather far away.
Lang Lang’s technics was a real WOW-factor. Although his music interpretation really doesn’t match the looks and expressions on his face. The very "Sweat~!" look. HAHAHA… And Daniel Harding has some very funny knee-bending ballet movements on the podium as well. *Roars in laughter*
But on a whole, it was quite an experience. For a first year, undergraduate conducting student. What a day…
