There were quite a number of things going on this week, and looks like I have to miss one of them, which is the launch of the Japanese Film Festival. However, I did manage to go for a free MPO (Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra) concert conducted by Gabriel Chmura who is now the Director for the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra and there was a guest appearance by great Russian (now an American citizen) violinist Boris Belkin. The conductor was good, in the sense that he managed to inspire great tempo and sounds. However, he failed to inspire their spirit, as the performance was mostly beleaguered, though they started out rather well when performing Kilar's Krezesany (whom mine friend dislike as he finds it too bombastic and too much smack-in-your-face-showing off, another way of saying a lot of tones but no real poetic invocation, but it could be because of the way the orchestra has performed it, as not everyone shares the same complain.) but the very long performance of Richard Strauss's Ein Heldeleben went rather dismally. However, Balkin saved the day with this very fluid and enchanting rendition of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, which came before Strauss's piece, so the whole event wasn't altogether terrible, despite being rather disappointing. It is a pity that the orchestra seems to go through the motions of displaying technique but little musicality or understanding of the pieces they were performing. This is the performanceI was talking about.
I wonder if anyone reviewed this concert.


Anyway, while looking through my emails today, I found this interesting link to an article from InformIT, telling you about the fineprint of licensing or privacy statements, most of which we never bother to read before clicking. Check it out here.

Have fun reading. (: