Sarah Chang
Tonight I went to NAC to see Sarah Chang plaing Dvorak's Violin Concerto. Now, people who care enough about classical music know that Chang obtained an international status a long time ago, and that she's arguably one of 5~6 most important violinists in the world today. So my expectations were high. I mean, extremely high.
Now, first the technical stuff. Her playing was near perfection, maintaining flawless accuracy at an incredible speed, although occasional violin "malfunction" caused some weird ticking sounds from her violin (she really gotta cut that long hair of hers!)
Now her playing. I was disappointed to see that she was on uninspired form for most of the work. She was great in shaping her tone, but her playing often lacked fire. But to give her credit, this concerto is a rather uninspiring and somewhat incoherent piece. As much as I admire Dvorak, this is one of his weakest compositions. Sounds more like an experimental piece than a masterpiece.
Well, whether I was disappointed or not, her talent still puts her above 99% of all professional violinsts on this planet. I'd love to hear her playing concertos by Beethoven and Brahms, whenever that might be.
(Also, the rest of the programme included Eroica Symphony by Beethoven, which happens to be my most favourite piece by my most favourite composer. Unfortunately, the performance was OK at best.)