becoming

The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir invites you to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with a performance of his final choral work, Requiem (ed. Robert Levin). Mozart’s Requiem remains one of his most popular compositions and the topic of romantic exaggeration and wild speculation.

Friday, November 3, 2006 at 8:00 p.m.

7:15 p.m. pre-concert chat with Rick Phillips

Yorkminster Park Baptist Church

• Ivars Taurins, guest conductor
• Sookhyung Park, soprano
• Anita Krause, mezzo-soprano
• Eric Shaw, tenor
• Thomas Goerz, bass-baritone
• The Festival Orchestra

The concert will also feature choruses and incidental music from two of Mozart's relatively unknown oratorios, Davidde Penitente and Thamos, König in Ägypten. The TMC welcomes guest conductor Ivars Taurins, founder and director of the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir for this performance.

Order Tickets Here. 

「未唱的，每句說話你聽到否？」— 經已極少新作的倫永亮近日似乎有話要說。

多少時候，留意別人說了和沒有說的；唱了和沒有唱的；做了和沒有做的—

同樣重要。 

————————— 

沒唱出來的感覺

作曲：倫永亮　作詞：潘源良　編曲：倫永亮
Audio Clip [4:08] [from Affinity]

多麼想這首歌 訴說我感受 可惜恐怕再不能夠
如何將卡拉OK聲音改變不這麼荒謬
這類格調卻是潮流 要有勇氣開口

身邊的你拍手 彷彿給我掌聲補救
只好乾了這杯 投身作你玩偶
還模仿新派歌曲婉轉高低當作我熟手
投入韻律來迎合這氣候

但這歌 想講的始終講不夠
未唱的 每句說話你聽到否
沒唱出來的感覺 可否仍然能祈求你這夜接收
不會意 你就當它沒有

—– Music Break —–

好好一個氣氛 歌曲總要跟它相襯
不管一切創新 求一剎那流行
明瞭這就是道行 不必苦苦再計較原因
旋律再笨 全為和你接近

但這歌 想講的始終講不夠
未唱的 每句說話你聽到否
沒唱出來的感覺 可否完完全全由你眼內帶走
不會意 我沒法守候

請讓我就此 放棄對你再遷就
回頭從頭來讓我作個痛快琴手

在這歌 想講的始終講不夠
未唱的 每句說話你聽到否
沒唱出來的感覺 可否完完全全由你眼內帶走
不會意 你就當它沒有

—————————

倫永亮，還是我最欣賞和佩服的香港音樂人。

I know the song is called "The Rainbow Song", but can you identify the singer (and album) for me please?

Sorry, I can’t afford a prize. Is a big "thank you" okay? 

——————
Update:

Thanks Anson. As you said, the song is called "Sing a Rainbow". What I just found out is that the version I posted is by songstress Delta Goodrem, the top-selling artist from Australia. Apparently it came from a Tourism Australia advertisment, showing Australia through Delta Goodrem’s eyes. You can view the video clip here.

A beautiful song, a beautiful singing; a beautiful place. 

Well, I think my mom is protesting by sending me this email in regard of not asking her to attend the Requiem concert last week:

Since 2001 release of the Complete Mozart Edition under the Philips label, no one thought another edition will make available in distant future. Surpisingly, Brilliant Classics dare to take up the task and produce another Complete Mozart Edition! And unlike the Philips’ edition, most of the pieces under the same musical category are recorded by the same group of musicians, hence interpretation are more consistent and stable.

Another good thing about this edition is the price! Arkiv is selling the whole thing for $250US for 170 CDs! That’s less than $1.5/CD! But of course, there is a catch: the featured performers are relatively less well-known than those top-guns you know of. But as far as I can tell, most of them are rising stars from the Europe Classical scene. Take for example the CCE and Nicol Matt, I think their Complete Scared Music is just as good as (if not better) than any major choir/orchestra I have heard of. Yes, their strings can never match the freshness of ASMF, but their choir is well-balanced and the words are crystal clear compare to many muddled and echo-y recordings from the well-known choir/orchestra (one complain I do have is that the soprano uses too much vibatro consider the period which the music is written).

So for those of you working in Downtown Toronto, go to HMV or Sam and listen to them. I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised by them!  

剛從音樂會回來。時間不早了，還是明天才寫10年來再次聽音樂會的經驗。

update:
———————-
本來就沒有帶甚麼祈望，始終這是個免費音樂會，演出的也不似是正規樂團。去是因為想聽K.626，沒有其他原因。

演出可說是中規中矩。值得一讚的是Choir的女聲部，及獨唱的女高音和中音。我得別喜歡女中音那位，聲線十分圓潤，沒甚麼做作。女高音的清澈和她十分配合。

版本是Sussmayr的那個，整個演譯用了比一般快的tempo。不明的是男聲部份，是甚麼關係男聲部這麼少人，並且是安置在左面的一角，女聲部卻滿了右面和整個後排？如此缺乏男聲，Confutatis的震撼便大減。另外男聲獨唱的兩位也不是十分穩定。男高音的聲線若嫌微弱，高音區也見牽強。男底音那位其實應屬Baritone，聲線不足亦不厚。合上那兩位出色的女音實在遜色得很。

樂團部份woodwind是比較好的， strings（尤其是viola）不時出現拍子不準，常常好像聽見echo一般！Brass中規中矩，雖然偶然也有錯音。

整體來說，consider這不是一隊正規樂團，這已經相當不錯，特別奏的是Requiem，非一般曲目。合唱團比樂團出色，相信是因平日的合作性比較好。

對我來說，能聽見K.626已經夠興奮，這些缺點沒有甚麼大不了。

K.626的魔力在於你永遠不知道在Mozart腦中的安魂曲全貌是怎樣的。每次聽見現有的版本，就只會叫你慨嘆說：「可惜他活不過35歲，單聽這樣的殘本已經如此驚人，真不能想像在他腦海裡的那完整的版本是怎樣的不得了。」

Annie你的評價如何？

On April 02 2006, the Trinity Choir performed Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor. Unlike any other performance before — even at the time of Mozart, this one is performed with the "completed" score!

By "completed" of course I mean it is now reconstructed and "completed" by someone else other than Mozart. The Great Mass in C Minor was originally left in fragments in 1783. Mozart never finished it on time before his own wedding. Later in his life, he used some of the materials and put them in his cantata K469, Davidde penitente, but scholars agreed that the scope and form of the later can hardly represent the final thoughts on the music of the Mass which he originally set out.

This performance is based on the edition completed by Robert D. Levin. His discussion on the reconstruction can be found in the program notes.

The whole concert is online. Can you see and listen to it here.

"It has been rightly said that [the Grand Mass] is the only work that stands between the B Minor Mass of Bach and the D Major Mass of Beethoven."
— Alfred Einstein, author of Mozart, His Character, His Work.

I was always hoping that I can celebrate Mozart’s 250th birthday by attending a concert. Specifically, I hope I can attend a live performance of Requiem. Believe me, I even search for concerts offered as far as Buffalo!

And finally, I come across this. Oh, (I think) my prayer has been answered — especially the fact that it is free!

By the way, anyone interested? 

(Top: The last 2 pages of Lacrimosa, the very last section which Mozart finished through the eighth measure, and the motivic portions of instrumentation added before he died.)