Expressive voices

As a chorister I spend more time singing than attending other choir concerts. I was therefore delighted to discover this all male A Capella group Clerestory yesterday in San Francisco during my short visit this weekend.

The nine fine singers presented a mix of French, German and English Christmas music. All pieces were divided into the typical SATB four part voices and they even managed to subdivide In dulci jubilo into eight parts for double choirs.

The male sopranos and counter tenors produce an incredible pure sound, blending beautifully with the head tone of the tenors and the bass.

The most unusual item in the program is Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, a piece written for boys and typically now sung by women choirs. Last night's presentation was accompanied by a harp. I was at first taken a little bit by surprise by the effect of all male voices for this piece, thinking it's a bit like watching Matthew Bourne's all male Swan Lake. The overall singing was impeccable. My only quibble was the blend of the lightness of the harp with the richness of the male voices. In some of the fast passages, the harp made the voices sound a little too heavy and difficult to dance with the music.

Clerestory sensibly puts its previous performances online for anyone interested. You can listen to this concert on their web site later this month.

YouTube orchestra

YouTube announced this week that it is partnering with Chinese-born composer Tan Dun (an Academy Award winner for his soundtrack for the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000), San Francisco Orchestra conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, and the Carnegie Hall and London Symphony Orchestra, to create the world’s first YouTube orchestra. The objective is to seek and assemble talented musicians from around the world to form an orchestra to debut Tan’s new work in Carnegie Hall, conducted by Maestro Thomas.

The initiative is groundbreaking on two levels. First, most orchestras enforce a blind audition policy, requesting musicians to play behind a curtain, to eliminate bias against visible minorities and women. The YouTube initiative is inviting musicians to submit two video recordings to the committee for consideration.

Secondly, musicians are typically selected by the maestro of an orchestra, supported by a small professional committee. In this case, however, a group of leading musicians form a committee to shortlist the candidates who will then be voted by YouTube users.

One can expect this initiative is an attempt to attract younger audiences to the classical music world by using a medium and voting style that they embrace. It’s too early to tell how many candidates and voters YouTube will attract but already the project poses two interesting questions.

How valid is public opinion in the classical music world when a performance is the result of the singular vision of a conductor? Will public opinion contribute or hinder artistic excellence?

By asking the YouTube generation to select musicians for the YouTube orchestra, do we believe the younger generation truly embrace equality in a workplace?

Un poème de Rumi

L'or n'a pas besoin de pierre philosophale, mais le cuivre oui.
Améliore-toi.
Ce qui est vivant, fais-le mourir: c'est ton corps.
Ce qui est mort, vivifie-le: c'est ton coeur.
Ce qui est présent, cache-le: c'est le monde d'ici-bas.
Ce qui est absent, fais-le venir: c'est le monde de la vie future.
Ce qui existe, anéantis-le; c'est la passion.
Ce qui n'existe pas, produis-le: c'est l'intention.

Les mots profonds

Ton amour pour elle, il est à toi. Il t'appartient. Même elle le refuse, elle ne peut rien y changer. Elle n'en profite pas, c'est tout. Ce que tu donnes, c'est à toi pour toujours; ce que tu garde, c'est perdu à jamais! Éric Emmanuel Schmitt

Le coeur de l'homme est comme un oiseau enfermé dans la cage du corps. Quand tu danses, le coeur, il chante comme un oiseau qui aspire à se fondre en Dieu. Éric Emmanuel Schmitt

Black Watch

Two years have passed since Gregory Burke’s play Black Watch debuted at the Edinburgh Festival in summer 2006. Public opinions on the war against Iraq are by now firmly formed. Burke has made a loud and clear statement on his view on the war. What pushes the play beyond a didactic commentary is Burke’s ability to experience the life of the Scottish soldiers in Iraq. The songs, the tears, the fights, the blood, the swearing and the sweat make it impossible to see the war as some far away, virtual reality on television.

The scenes are vignettes of different facets of these soldiers’ experiences in Iraq. Director John Tiffany has brought Burke’s words to live by packing the stage with action, music and sound. In Toronto, the production was presented in an indoor stadium where the audiences sat on both sides of a narrow and long stage floor. This setting gave the play a natural barrack feel. One could almost smell the gunpowder every time an explosion went off.

Through the bantering among the soldiers, the image-hungry journalist interview and the naive researcher’s discussion, the audience shares these young lads’ friendship, sense of purpose disintegrated to sense of boredom and above all their vulnerability. There’s one particularly touching scene when the soldiers read their letters from home and begin to use sign language to tell their story, a poignant reminder of the lives they have left behind for a war they no longer believe in.

History sadly often repeats itself. Only 80 years ago, RC Sherriff wrote Journey’s End to recall the horror of WWI in the trenches. Today, we have Black Watch.

Men eat fish world

The Tsukiji Fish Market is serious business. Countless motored trolleys whiz around the isles, delivering identical white, sealed, styrofoam boxes to vendors. There is no bantering among the fishmongers. No haggling with shoppers. Everyone seems to be focused on the day ahead of him.

Then the drama begin at about 6 a.m. at the carefully orchestrated tuna auction.

Fish merchants inspect the fresh catch, assess their needs and make their decisions within minutes. There’s no RSS feeds, no graphs, charts or any aid to help them decide. They watch, they think, they listen and then hedge their bet for the day.

The second act belongs to the hungry shoppers and tourists. By 6:30 a.m. more than 20 people have lined up patiently outside a tiny sushi restaurant Daiwa, waiting impatiently to taste the fruit of the sea. The host speaks little English and you do what you’re told. Groups of twos, threes or however many, have to line up in a certain way, so that some order is formed out of the chaos. You don’t order, you don’t choose. You sit, smile and eat and everything is perfect.

Few people at the restaurant talk as we are all under the spell of the sushi master, handing out glistening uni, thick slabs of toro and assorted maki. If room temperature fish is too much for you, warm up with a bowl of fresh fish broth.

The blissful food adventure last all but 20 minutes before the wave of diners push though.

Tokyo's Razzle Dazzle

Just got off the plane yesterday from Tokyo. The city's charm is probably best shown visually. See gallery.mac.com/echtang for photos. More thoughts to come.

Shanghai the precocious teenager

My first impression of Shanghai...
To call Shanghai a precocious teenager may seem inaccurate as the city started to blossom in the 19th century when the several European countries neatly divided Shanghai into various concessions. French neo-renaissance, art deco and neo-classical buildings, popular during that era, can still be traced in today’s French Concession. Clubs that were once exclusive to Europeans are now luxurious hotels, restaurants, or bars, welcoming anyone who can pay. Commerce remains the heartbeat of the city and people from all over the country and all over the world are literally flocking to the new wide wide east to make their fortune.

The city that never slept went into a coma for 50 years and is now ready to party. Lady Shanghai has gone grey only because of the thin veil of smog she always wears. New cranes are erected everywhere. New subway lines materialize like caterpillars in spring. Shanghai is proud of its modern self, boasting more internationally acclaimed new buildings than any European cities.

This lady is brash, direct and abrasive. If you stand still, the crowd will push you forward. If you tell the lady to mind her manners, she’ll tell you to mind your business.