Recently I got tons of new CDs, and I spent like several days listening to one or two items among them (namely, the boxset of Schubert's works played by Brendel, and his "nearly" complete recording of Beethoven's sonatas) But what I want to write about now is something I just started listening to yesterday.

The first item is a bit "lighter:"

This CD, released by Hyperion, includes the Three Fantastic Dances, op. 5, 24 Preludes op. 34, and Sonata no.2 op. 61. The first set of item is clearly fantastic, as it title suggests. I mean, this is typical style of Shostakovich and I love it. The 24 Preludes are beautifully played. As for the Sonata I haven't spent enough time on, but it sounds great even by my first few listening. Both the Dances and the Preludes are technically quite manageable for young students but the musical content is not easy to comprehend. To play Shostakocih well you have to have great technique, but more importantly the sense of rubato. His works cannot be termed romantic music, but there's a spirit in his music that is close to Chopin. Tatiana Nikolaeva is excellent in conveying this feeling. You do not hear HER style in this CD; instead, when you listen to it you only see all these fleeting visions that Shostakovich is trying to show you. Late works by Chopin has left the world that can be comprehended verbally. This is true basically in all of Shostakovich's works. At times abstract, it is in fact what true music is trying to express, something only can music can do.

To stretch this "abstract" music thing further, here comes the "24 Preludes and Fugues:"

Usually the picture of the composer is bigger than the picture of the performer; a rare exception was found in Idil Biret's recording of Chopin's concerti, and in this 3-CDs set, played by Tatiana Nikolaeva. I think she has all the right to be shown as big as Shostakovich here, since she's the one (in my opinion) who plays this set by far the best, and she's the one who inspired Shostakovich to write this set, and she's the dedicatee of this set, and, finally, she died in the middle of playing this set in a recital in San Francisco. I think when you talk about the "24 Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich," you think about Tatiana Nikolaeva. To be consistent with the theory that this set is even more "abstract" (meaning can't be described by words), I would simply say this is a set of majestic, elegant music that must be heard. Too bad I think I have to work out my fingerings for them (FUGUES!!), otherwise I will begin playing them right now.

Mr. Ivan Chan motivated me to start writing something here so I should thank him. People who don¡¦t' like my writings don¡¦t' need to blame him; you simply don¡¦t load this page that's all.

I have started reading several books (other than my textbooks), and they are great. I say they are great because some really are great and I can feel it and thus write down a list of reasons to argue that they really are great; some are ¡§great¡¨ just because other people say they are great or the authors are famous so that I should believe they are great. In any case, they all are great, or at least, should be great.

The first one is this:

¿ú¿pµÛ

I can¡¦t put it down after start reading it. The title itself is certainly heavy, and the author is a giant. So, I expected a huge (and difficult) book. To my surprise it¡¦s really quite thin. It¡¦s a series of 5 lectures the author delivered, while each lecture was limited to two hours.

The first thing is notice is the differences between this work and his classic ¡§An Outline of the National History¡¨ (my translation, "°ê¥v¤jºõ"). I started reading that when I was very young, like 8, without even being presented the basic facts of the history disused in that two-volume work. This is a majestic work, with very carefully phrased language and detail footnotes (which are in fact quite essential in understanding what he intended to say.). Now this thin book on my hand is quite different; I think because it was prepared in a hurry, the language is still clear while the punctuations are awkward. I was just in the middle of the second lecture and already seen more than 5 times that the author emphasized the lack of history of modern Chinese that made them to believe the governments of pre-modern China are all corrupt and worthless. Another misunderstanding of the modern Chinese is that pre-modern China is completely a dictatorship under the emperors, which is totally false, and this is severely criticized by the author.

In any case, although the author has put in his own opinion here and there, and quite explicitly sometimes, the text itself is nevertheless extremely clear and informative. The author also emphasized that no such policies can come from anywhere that is not related to the habits and culture of the people; any system of government eventually comes from the people themselves, and these people include everybody in the country, not just the occupant of any particular social classes.

I also want to talk about other books as well, but maybe let me do that tomolo, coz I know if you really are reading it (and I have to thank you) then your eyes must be tired by now.

Hello all, I have nothing to write really coz I have been doing nothing special; just to fill something in today so I can feel better for myself. Actually, there is something interesting to say. The first thing is I finally was able to play Gundam after a three-months long period. In this version (which is Mobile Suite Gundam vs. Z Gundam) there are new stages and finally the story in Z Gundam is complete. Now you can see Rosamia with her Psycho Gundam Mk-II (!!!) although obviously you wont’ want to attack her. You also get to see the Palace Athene with Reccoa Londe. The most interesting thing is that now the Quebeley has her funnels auto-firing after deployment. In any case the final episode is the same (inside Colony Laser) and is as difficult as before. (Although I have yet to try playing that stage using Quebeley; frankly I don’t really like using Quebeley coz I feel it’s kinda gay to do it.)

The EECE 474 project is now starting and I think we shall go with the indoor tracking (to be precise, Dr. Michelson have convinced us we’re essentially implementing an indoor GPS). I wonder whether we have enough skills to do. In any case I thin we will have a lot to write on the final report so we are never worry on that regard.

Now exams are finished by several days and I have been trying composing songs. Anyway this is something exciting to hear:

Joe Hisaishi's Piano Stories III: Nostalgia. Now I should go on to collect the rest of his albumns.

FromDavidKM

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