saturated by music today..

was quite a beautiful day.. went to watch a piano performance put up by students of the conservatory. my first time at victoria concert hall, if i'm not wrong.. quite an old place, and i dun think it can compare to UCC. guess that's why the esplanade was built. anyway, the piano performance was quite overwhelming. some pieces were deliberately gruff and jarring.. not quite the soothing kind of music i was expecting. though the piano duets were an eye-opener. it reminds me of the synchronised diving i saw on commonwealth highlights. the coordination, someone taking the lead, the controlled pace.. quite cool..

i can never be a musician.. never tried, and i dun see me doing music in the future. during the performance, i had this thought: to be a musician, one must be sheltered from the harsh realities of life. he/she doesn't have to worry abt living expenses, nor clearing the laundry, etc etc.. cos it's difficult to make a living out of it.. what will these students be doing after they graduate from the conservatory? teach piano? there are already pple doing that.. and it's not as if this is venice.. they will still need a lot of effort to be world-class.. i was just telling grace b4 the performance abt me spotting lionel tan on bus 95 a few times, at abt 5pm. (guessed he finished teaching his class, and was on his way back) and also at engin canteen. one of the four in the T'ang Quartet, here is a truly world-class musician. i should know, cos i watched one of their performances last sem. nothing short of stunning, i got to know first hand why they manage to wow audiences worldwide.. but if u do chance upon him, you can't really tell..

but i think the environment plays a part too. there's no point trying to "manufacture" musicians. the govt can't always follow its formula.. i just bought a compilation cd of antonio carlos jobim, one of the originators of the bossa nova. very cool album, 16 of his best-loved compilations, including girl from ipanema. listening to it right now, perhaps that's why my day is quite beautiful.. he was born in 1927 in Rio de Janeiro, and grew up at a time when there were so many kinds of music in brazil. the french impressionists, the american jazz, not forgetting the afro-brazillian sambas.. he combined elements of all these styles into a fresh new sound, and thus bossa nova was born. of course there were Joao Gilberto, Luiz Bonfa, and the american Stan Getz.. together they created a sensual, melodic music with a muted pulse that soon swept the world..

but i guess there's no point comparing, no basis at all. i'm just rambling my silly thoughts.. it's tough to try to be world's best at so many fronts, esp when we are so small at the first place. well well..