Mendelssohn Violin Concerto Op.64

I found a CD of Mendelssohn Violin Concerto Op64, played by Joseph Szigeti in 1941. He performed it with Bruno Walter in New York and it was recorded as live performance. The record was discovered in 2006 by a American in America by chance. Szigeti recorded the violin concerto at least two times. The first one was recorded in 1933, with Beecham in Europe. In physical terms, The first one's recording and performance quality are rather better than that second one. But I like the second one at the moment. Because, it's hard to say though, but I feel his extraordinary dedication for the live performance. Think about the age, it was about to enter the second war. You might feel the particular feels, tension and atmosphere. But he never gave up his career as a musician, violinist.

Now, let's see the beginning of the concerto. If you felt that it was very difficult to perform when you listened to the beginning of the solo-violin melody, you might be a talented person. The melody sounds like someone is wandering from place to place. And this song was written in E minor. This E minor, the minor code expect player to be a person who has a flexible tone-pitch sense. You need to know each tones' proper pitches and carry it to proper direction.

Strange conversation

me: Hey, I watched the F1 race yesterday. It was a lot of fun! It's a shame that you couldn't watch it!

a co-worker: I know.

me: The winner of the race is Kimi Raikkonen, a Finn. The Finnish national anthem at the victory ceremony was cool! I had never listened to such a cool national anthem like that.

a co-worker: Mmm. So, what is the Finnish national language? English?

me: ...

a co-worker: And, do you ever know where Finland is?

me: As you definitely know, Finnish! In north Europe!

a co-worker: Who knows?

You guys, what do you think about this?

Formura 1 race in Melbourne

It was exciting and sort of surprising. The qualifying was more interesting than the race. Both of Super Aguri's cars got better results than Honda's cars at the qualifying. It was a real shakedown for Super Agri, though. The race was sort of predictable. Ferrari and McLaren came to the podium as I had expected. I was surprised when Coulthard ran over Wurz at a corner. I heard Coulthard's car was only 8 inch ahead of Wurz's head at that time. He is an extremely lucky guy! Everybody says the surface of the circuit is very slippery. It seemed everybody was struggling with the steering control. My favorite driver Jenson on Honda seemed to be struggling with the aerodynamics. It's a pity that he eventually finished outside of the points. But I hope they will clear up the problems struggled with in Melbourne by the next race in Malaysia.

Formula 1 in Melbourne

Today, there was practice and qualifying of Formula 1 in Melbourne. Albert Park in Melbourne is the first venue in 2007 season of F1. It's very important for me to watch the first practice and qualifying. Because it gives me some inspiration to predict the cars' and drivers' potential of this year. Watching F1 driving by TV and my laptop was a little surprising experience. You can see real time track data and commentary at www.formula1.com while watching the race on TV. And amazingly, you can also see driver's driving style by visualized steering wheel at www.ing-renaultf1.com in real time. By watching those websites and TV, it's easier to see what is going on at the time than just only watching TV. You would be busy watching both of TV and computer monitor. But I really enjoyed the practice and qualifying in the morning. It was exciting! There were many surprises that I hadn't expected. So, that is why I couldn't prepare for a singing lesson today.

Sparkling!

There is no singing lesson today. So, I don't have to prepare a song for the lesson. Then I played piano a bit and I found an adorable Mozart's piano sonata KV281 which was composed in 1774 in Salzburg. I especially love his sonatas written in his youth because they have sparkling bright sound. Who couldn't be attracted listening to the beginning of its sonata?

By the way, I'm keen on Formula 1 races in Melbourne next weekend. All cars and drivers were announced already. (but Japanese Super Aguri's car will be unveiled in a few days though.) By each teams' test result in Europe, it seemed Ferrari and McLaren were overriding at that moment. Both teams have quicker and more stable cars and good drivers. My favorite team Honda's potential is unknown so far. Honda team brought some new exclusive attempts for their car. It's a shame that they couldn't get really good results at the test driving. But I'm sure that their brave dedication for the car can bear fruit in this season. They always try new things that nobody has ever tried. That is why I'm a big fun of Honda team.

Hay Fever

I am suffering from hay fever a bit these days. So, I don't want to go out without special reasons, nevertheless I need to go out frequently. I usually don't want any medication. But I decided to go to a drag store and got some medicine for hay fever. I guess it is working good at the moment.