Some behind-the-scenes pictures from Piano Landmarks last Saturday:

The South Melbourne Town Hall - or Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) where the concerts were held. I remembered in the 4th concert, the pianist was halfway through his speech when we heard the clock. It was pretty funny and he was like, "Ok, I won't go any further than this...". And after that the first performer - the cool pianist who played the string-breaking Sitsky came onstage and started his impressive performance.

We didn't really venture far for dinner - we went to a small noodle shop and had one of the most amazing fried noodles ever! Although the chef put too much onions in it. And after that we headed down to Max Brenner's just to fill our stomachs even more.

Chocolate tiramisu - it was absolutely gorgeous!

Oh....and Max Brenner's had cool serviettes too!

The Max Brenner Hug Mug!

On a side note...week 5 is nearly over! And I'm going to submit my 3rd assignment tomorrow - finally! I'm looking forward to next week's concert too!!

Will post more pictures up soon...

Burning question: When will winter end??????!!!!!!!

I went for 2 concerts (concert 3 and 4) from the Piano Landmarks concert series today (similar to Singapore's Piano Festival, but in one day instead of over 4 days), and it was just awesome!

We had Bach's preludes and fugues and 3-part inventions, etudes by Benjamin, Bartok and Stravinsky, Beethoven's Sonata Op.110 No.31 (my all-time favourite Beethoven sonata, especially the 1st movement), 2 concert etudes by Liszt, 2 Chopin pieces (I think they were mazurkas) for encore..........and not to mention a thunderous series of preludes by this guy called Sitsky (written in 1973). Which resulted in a massive round of applause for the wonderful pianist who attempted it so flawlessly......plus a broken string in the piano! The pianist was even cooler - he simply stopped at Prelude No.4 of the Sitsky series, ripped the broken string off the piano, and said nonchalantly, "By the way, we're at Prelude No.4." The whole audience just went crazy! After that he simply sat down and continued with Prelude No.5. He got an encore from us, of course.

I guess the Sitsky series was the highlight of today's concert series - at least for the ones I watched. It was like a massive thunderstorm - low and high dissonant chords across the keyboard, fast passages........it was just so fiery and full of energy! Hard to comprehend, but at least it was something new. I'll never forget the pianist's reaction to the broken string, and his flawless, enthusiastic attempt at such an immensely difficult series. And not to mention - his stamina! He was just.......high........!!!!!!!!!

This is the second time I'm seeing this pianist play. The first time was sometime in April, and he played a Prokofiev concerto, which was also really virtuostic, and he nailed it spot-on! He never fails to impress us!

I'll definitely be going for next year's Piano Landmarks! It's just so cool! Maybe I should go for the entire day next year! To make up for the 2 Piano Festivals which I missed.

Anyway, about a fortnight ago, I fell really sick - a serious bout of cold presumably from the entire college or something. Nasty cough, clogged-up ears (which remained clogged for quite a while and made me feel like Beethoven), runny nose..........and talking about runny nose - check out how much tissue I actually used over the entire week! The whole bag is literally chock-full with tissue!

On a side note, one of my awesome buddies put her Western Bulldogs scarf on her door and I could see it from across the courtyard! Pardon the horrible quality of the camera, but there's this blue scarf hanging on the door closest to the left......

Cherry blossoms are blooming now! I wonder if there's any other place in Melbourne that has more cherry blossoms! I would really like to bring my dSLR there and shoot as many pics as possible!

Also saw this really beautiful rose blooming in uni...

And talking about uni, say hi to Jumpy-Grumpy-Froggy-Smiley!!! We were experimenting on him - to investigate the effects of vasopressin (a hormone involved in water control) on cane toads. Here he is - sitting calmly in the container. He was so well-behaved!

I guess that's about it for now! Will post pictures of Piano Landmarks soon! Meanwhile, thanks lots for viewing and sorry for the delay! :)

I'm Bach again!

I've always loved puns involving classical music, such as:

"Gone Chopin, will be Bach in a Minuet"...

"Chopin Liszt"...

and of course, the one shown below!

Some overdue pictures before I left for Melbourne:

Nodame Cantabile was funny and entertaining, and it was great to see the 2 main characters grow and mature in terms of music ability and so on. And of course - the music was so good!!! Beethoven's Sonata in A flat Major Op.110, a Chopin concerto, Ravel's Piano Concerto in G.......

I was watching Martha Argerich's version of the Ravel concerto on the plane. And I was staring at her fingers for the entire performance - just so effortless, flexible, agile......she's amazing! Just so amazing!!!!!!

Oh, and I spotted these sculptures at one of the art stores in Takashimaya...a few days after watching Nodame Cantabile.....

Now, Bach to Melbourne!!!!

I think I've been playing too much Bach. His Prelude and Fugue in D (from Book 2 of the Well Tempered Clavier) - the one I'm playing - is really challenging but fun! Held notes that have to be sustained long enough, running passages that could go wrong with just a tiny slip of the finger, lots of left-hand passages (which I like!), lots of tiny details, balance between "voices".........I do hope that I would be able to master it soon enough!

Ok, enough of all those piano adventures! Bach to what I wanted to say......

Rose bushes in the old quadrangle in uni. Everytime I walk past, I think, "Damn, how come I didn't bring my dSLR?!"

Watched Inception yesterday and had chocolate tapas (Spanish doughnuts) for dessert! Inception was so psychological...yet impressive. Whenever they talked about dreams...levels of thinking...the part where the main character was trying to resolve memories that he repressed in order to fulfill his mission and so on, I was thinking, "Wait, these sound very familiar!" It did draw on infinite regressions as well, I think. There were certain parts which I did not really get though. Nevertheless it was awesome!

Last but not least, before Inception, we dropped by the pet shop...there were no kittens this time, but there were quite a number of puppies. All sleeping soundly...and cuddling up against each other....

2 puppies sleeping on top of each other. I couldn't really tell where their heads were, coz they appeared as 1 big mass of fur! Later on I did manage to figure out that one's head was resting above the other's.

*rolls over* "What are you looking at?"

Another puppy of the same breed sleeping soundly in his enclosure....

"Squeak! Is it safe to come out?" *sniffs air around* "I smell food!!!"

Albino rabbit squeezing himself against the glass. He looks like some kind of pancake!!!

And I guess that's about it for now! Bach to playing piano! :)

P/S: Damn, falling sick again sure sucks! Can't believe I fell sick twice this week! It really eats away ALL my energy - and my fortissimo sounds more like pianissimo now.....!!! Horrible...and not to mention, loads of medication and stuff like that...gosh!

A random post before I continue my lab report.........

Oh my gosh! Berliner Philharmoniker! THE BEST ORCHESTRA IN THE WORLD! I really, really hope that my exams end waaaayyyy before 24th November! That way I can quickly fly back to Singapore and catch this wonderful orchestra!!!

Heya! Sorry for the delay! I'm Bach (oops back!) in Melbourne - for a week already! And I am officially sick...for the first time this semester, and for this year. I thought I would be able to pull through without falling sick for the entire year, but no! Of all things - a horrible cold which started on Friday and has since developed into coughing fits and a stuffed-up nose. At least I made it to Anna's concert yesterday!

Anyway I've spent the entire weekend cooped up in college - and we've had had pretty good weather so far! Despite the occasional downpours (which is miniscule compared to Singapore's thunderstorms)...

About 3 days before I left for Melbourne, Ying Yi and I went to Resorts World Sentosa. Although we didn't get to go to Universal Studio, we did get some pictures of the exterior (including the massive globe) and part of the interior...and there were just so many people.....

We also popped by a Hershey's chocolate store:

Arrangement of chocolates - Reese's, Hershey's (the brown kind) and Hershey's Kisses...

Adorable Hershey's plush toys...gosh I wish I had one too! There were also Reese's plush cushions, which were so huggable and lovable...

Hershey's Kisses! I bought one of the keyrings...

The sign outside the store: Hershey's, Reese's and Hershey's Kisses! I really love their mascots!

We also popped by the entrance of the casino - and didn't enter of course...and wandered around the hotels. The hotels were just so posh and everything seemed so expensive!

Oh, and the place we went for lunch had dice-shaped pastries!

We hung around Vivocity (the place where we took the monorail to Sentosa) for a bit too, and here're some pictures of the aquarium outside one of the restaurants...

That's about it for the Resorts World Trip, I guess! Hopefully the tickets for Universal Studio won't be as expensive anymore, and hopefully there won't be so many people when I next go there again!

Oh, and I miss little Robbie already!!!!!!! I wish he was here with me...! I'll do another photoshoot for him when I go home again. Meanwhile, I'll just browse through all the pictures I took of him in my last trip back and the trips before that. Oh, and on a side note, I hope I can do a photoshoot for Anna's dog (Rupert)! He's also really adorable!

Right-o! Off to bed - that's probably the best thing a sick person can do! Thanks lots for viewing and do stay tuned for the next post!

P/S: IT'S AUGUST ALREADY!!!! :O