A Mozart Memory

Growing up with piano lessons and lots of music in school and at home gave me an opportunity to learn to enjoy both classical and pop music. My piano background enabled me to appreciate the great masters such as Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy et al and there was also lots of pop music going on at home and at school.
I'm glad to say that I'm equally at home, listening quietly at an SSO concert or screaming and singing along at a pop/rock gig. :)

Listening to the classical music station this evening in the car, I thought back to my very first orchestral concert experience which was the Singapore Symphony Orchestra sometime back in the early 80s...I think. I do remember clearly that I attended it with my best friend, MY and the conductor was Choo Huey. The SSO was in its infancy then and it was quite an exciting time for the classical music scene locally.
Here is a link to a blog post by my friend Dr Chang Tou Liang, a well-known pianophile, about the history of our local orchestra:

http://pianofortephilia.blogspot.com/2009/10/short-history-of-singapore-symphony.html

As MY and I both loved the piano too, it was most appropriate that the programme for the concert we attended featured not one, but TWO pianists and on TWO pianos...viz Mozart's Double Piano Concerto in E-Flat Major KV365. And the pianists were none other than our very own Toh Chee Hung and her partner, Dennis Lee (from Malaysia).
It was truly a night to remember as the concerto is very easy to listen to (it's Mozart, after all!)and their performance was wonderfully enthusiastic and brilliant in every way. One could see that they were having a lot of fun playing together!
It's a pity there isn't a youtube clip of that concert but I did find clips of Mdm Toh and Mr Lee and I shall share them here:

Something more recent:

And this is the first movement of that concerto in three clips from youtube but NOT the SSO....I love this piece!

MY and I frequently enjoyed getting together to play duets too. :)
I would usually pop over to her place as she had a grand piano (Bosendorfer, no less!) and one absolute favourite was the Mozart Symphony No 40 in G Minor for Four Hands. Haha....we could more or less manage the first movement with lots of practice!
After all these years, we still like to play it but unfortunately, due to lack of practice, there are mistakes aplenty but there's just something about playing a duet which is really fun!

MY:

If you're reading this, hope you enjoyed this little trip down Memory Lane!