Classical
Cultural Centre Concert Hall, Hong Kong Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra Sunday 27th February, 2011 R Strauss Serenade in E flat, Op. 7 R Strauss Metamorphosen Zemlinsky Lyric Symphony, Op. 18 Edo de Waart, Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, chose for his contribution to the
Classical
Sydney Opera House, Opera TheatreSydney, AustraliaTuesday February 8th, 2011Carmen Georges BizetOpera AustraliaGuillaume Tourniaire, ConductorFrancesca Zambello, DirectorRinat Shaham, Mezzo-soprano: CarmenRichard Troxell, Tenor: Don JoséNicole Car, Soprano: MicaëlaShane Lowrencev, Baritone: EscamilloOpera Australia ChorusAustralian Opera and Ballet Orchestra In an opera of such popularity as Carmen by Georges Bizet, it wouldn’t
Classical
Royal Festival Hall, London Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Friday 21st January, 2011 Wagner Prelude to Parsifal Mahler Totenfeier Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen Liszt Les Préludes Friday's performance by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in the Royal Festival Hall under Vladimir Jurowski got off
Leadership
At this time of the year, it’s customary for companies to evaluate the performance of their staff. The purpose of performance appraisal is to understand how staff can improve personal performance in their current jobs, and how they can step up or across to other jobs. This latter objective
Classical
The delicate works of Mozart can be easily overwhelmed in a concert programme by more dynamic outpourings of composers in subsequent generations. Conductor Susanna Mälkki’s debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra was a poignant reminder of this potential trap, with Mozart’s first violin concerto sandwiched between tours
Classical
The last time I was in the Salle de Wilfred-Pelletier in the Place des Arts, Montréal, I sat underneath the balcony which extends almost halfway into the hall. The acoustics was so restrictive that I found it hard to concentrate on the music being played. Fortunately, on October 3rd,
Language & Writing
According to the New York Times, HSBC has settled management succession at the top after its current Chairman Stephen Green departs to become UK Trade Minister. It has been a week of tumultuous week of public relations damage control. HSBC is not known to be flamboyant or attention seeking. The
Leadership
Gurus and guru wannabes have made the topic of leadership a vastly profitable speaking circus supported by voluminous publications. The expansive literature on leadership devotes a large amount of space to analysing the characteristics, qualities and styles of successful senior executives. Unfortunately, this analysis is woefully irrelevant, and delivers little
Leadership
The second quarter of 2010 turned out to be very noisy on the political front. A change of leadership took place in three major developed economies, one through the due process of election, and two before the incumbents had finished the term for which they were elected. David Cameron replaced
Music
Singer, songwriter and popular entertainer Anthony Newley was not a musical genius, but with no knowledge of music theory, he left behind a body of works that would put many a formally trained composer to shame. Although I never saw him live in performance, I suspect what set him apart
Classical
The last time I saw Alexander Lazarev he was somewhat like a prancing hyperactive teenager, and nearly botched Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings at the Festival Hall in London. In the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall on June 3rd, he was a changed man. Stepping on to the stage
Language & Writing
In the money-frenzied and celebrity-gossip-hungry world of modern media, it is not surprising that the decision by Middlesex University in the UK to close its philosophy department did not make the headlines. It would have passed unnoticed had it not provoked a three-week sit-in by