CHOPIN: Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23

click here

The best interpretation out there of Chopin's beautiful Ballade no. 1 in G minor Op. 23. This is a superb and highly-sensitive reading of Chopin's most popular Ballade. Brilliant.

Cecile Licad is an outstanding Chopin interpreter and her colleagues in the classical music industry acknowledge that. Her Chopin Piano Concerto no. 2 in F minor with the London Philharmonic was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque Frederic Chopin and I think her Etudes opus 10 was given the same honor as well. In fact, she was a judge at the 2005 Chopin International Piano Competition, the Rolls-Royce of piano competitions. Bravo!

She recently released an all-Ravel CD featuring the composer's ivory tower creations, Gaspard de la Nuit, Le Tombeau de Couperin and Sonatine, among the most feared and difficult in the piano repertoire.

I used to have but subsequently lost a recording of her Schumann Carnaval, Papillions and Toccata in C Major. I think that was critically acclaimed as well.

For those of you based in the US, she's actively concertizing again.

Kundiman Break

Let's take a breather and listen to Jonathan Badon interpret Ernani Cuenco's Gaano Kita Kamahal. People should buy this stuff, and not that Boy Abunda-Kris Aquino crap. I really wonder why an electric keyboard was used for the accompaniment. That's a sacrilege! It's like listening to a MIDI file. What's wrong with a "real" piano?

I'm looking for the Kundiman CD of the Berlin-based Bass-Baritone Jonathan Zaens.

Variability of Solar Spectral Irradiance II

I once had a spirited debate with my brother about climate change. I paraphrased Al Gore and took the view that unabated pollution is causing global warming and thus, climate change. He countered by saying that there is a growing scientific evidence that points solely to the sun as the main culprit.

I just saw a Nat Geo feature on this one. Indeed, it has been shown, through isotope analysis and carbon dating, that significant changes in the earth's climate over thousands of years were strongly correlated with cycles and patterns in the sun's radiance or solar energy. There's no question that greenhouse gases are warming the planet, but clearly, the sun's activities have something to do with it as well.

This is still frontier territory, as physicists still grapple with a lot of issues involving UV rays, solar wind and others causing long-term effects on the earth's climate, and I realize that Ambrose, who's in Germany as part of a team investigating this phenomenon, is right on track.

Interrupted

I was talking to Jun over the phone earlier when he suddenly interrupted me as I was making a point because a labmate of his entered his room. Not just any labmate, but a labmate who loves MEDIEVAL literature *pause* *gasp!* more gasp!* pretty much in the same way I know opera like the back of my hand. Imagine being stuck with this guy on the road in rush hour traffic while he recites and explains verses from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales!

Rock-Bottom

One good thing about being totally screwed and hitting rock-bottom is that things couldn't possibly get any worse. The first quarter of 2008 wasn't kind to me. All of a sudden, new projects slowed down, big ones got shelved and I lost my money in the stock market. And with the current exchange rate, as I have ranted so many times in the past, I have long counted myself part of the poverty statistics.

But then again, I am not one who dwells and broods over these things too much. I hope the second quarter will be different.

Rice Talk

I'm not really sure if the widely-discussed looming rice shortage is real or just a figment of some politician's imagination to divert attention away from all these corruption scandals. I did say early on, that rice and vegetable oils (copra, maize, corn and sugar cane) would be the cash crops for this year because of the strong demand coming from the usual commercial, household and now, industrial sources (i.e., bio-fuels). True enough, prices are rising to unprecedented levels, putting pressure on inflation.

Anyway back to rice. I'm not sure if global stocks are starting to be depleted. Major rice exporters such as Vietnam, Thailand and India are scaling back on exports to meet their own burgeoning domestic markets. But the US and say Cambodia still have enough stock and production capacity to compensate for the lower supplies from the said Asian countries. In fact, it is cheaper to buy premium US rice nowadays, compared to locally-grown commercial rice. Yah, it's due to the exchange rate.

So I think all this talk about a looming rice shortage as well rising prices does not hold any water and will likely dissipate as fast as it appeared. The country's production was at record levels last year, and this year, there's no El Nino, in fact the opposite, La Nina could spell more rains that bode well for rice farmers.

OK, it will be years before the country can achieve self-sufficiency in rice production. A quick drive through Bulacan and Pampanga reveals the true state of affairs: rice fields are being converted into residential areas and golf courses. This is also the case, I believe in Vietnam. As the country tries to industrialize, there is a noticeiable shift away from traditional agricultural pursuits such as rice production.

And so we import from the US and other countries. Again, I don't think there's a supply shortage.

Happy Autism Day

Calois and Che dutifully and conscientiously reminded me that today is World Autism Day! har har har