Wednesday 25 June 2008

Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

We're very lucky to have this building barely two minutes away from my house here in Beijing . I've been making the most of it and dropping-by on my electric bike and buying random tickets for the Ballet, Pianists and Orchestras. It's called 'The Egg' locally for reasons I can't figure out.



Last Monday a colleague and I went to see the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and they were seamless. A real transportation away from the outside world, conducted by the hugely talented Yannick Nézet-Séguin from Montreal. A classical superstar in the making , along with a sublime performance by the pianist from Shanghai called Yundi Li who was definitely on another level when he played a Prokofiev piece, Piano Concerto No. 2 in g minor, OP. 16 which is hideously dark, complex and confrontational. I loved it.

They get very annoyed about filming anything in the Egg (actually China loathes anything being photographed if they think copyright is being infringed - which is ironic) and even shine a laser spot on people during a performance if anyone is caught doing so.

Anyway, you know I like to shine, so I sneaked some of the two and half minute ovation they gave to the conductor with some never before seen panoramas (I should work in advertising shouldn't I?) of the auditorium. It's world class and h
ere it is.



Just in case you've got loads of time on your hands there's an expression I picked up in Thailand from a P.R. professional, that also applies here in China. Do it first and ask for forgiveness afterwards. This is how we roll as Sam might say.


7 comments:

  1. you 'tinker - of course the apology works well if you're one of the most charming men on the planet :)

    missed your vibe at 'interesting' this weekend, though I saw your tweet.

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  2. Glad you dropped by Lloyd. I've been meaning to touch base and see how things are. Yes. I missed not being there at 08. Nobody pimped out like yours truly ;)

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  3. Nice use of the royal we there Charles.

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  4. And clearly your cameraphone works better than your Air.

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  5. We are back at home and the connection is accepting gmail attachments. We are at one again Doddsy :)

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  6. For some inexplicable reason I am reminded of Cardiff.

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  7. My own memories of Cardiff are mixed. The first time in 1994 I guess was traumatic. The second time I was working I think. More pragmatic.

    Bet they got a good muscial talent though.

    Loving your blog big time. Have no clue who you are but you pick top stuff and write lovely.

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