A taste of Welsh contemporary music

Tired of rock and roll or classical music? Contemporary music might be a good choice in that it shakes your mindset with the extraordinary texture and performance techniques.

Hear and Now, the main contemporary music programme on BBC Radio 3, featured a refreshing studio session from three Welsh composers and the National Orchestra of Wales last Friday in Weston Studio in the Wales Millennium Centre.

Three pieces of new music written by Welsh composers were interpreted by an international team, including Grant Llewellyn, the associate guest conductor coming from the US and the orchestra coming from all over the world. Still, they showed an intelligently understanding of Welsh culture with their adept performance skills.

The first piece presented a sad myth about an ancient King of Wales and his beloved perfect but soulless wife. With his vigorous and effusive voice, the Welsh baritone Jeremy Williams interpreted the grieving King whose beloved wife ran away with another man. His expressive and emotional singing was highly poetic with beautiful cadences and it deeply moved the audience even if they couldn’t understand the Welsh lyrics.

Tenor Andrew Staples’s smooth singing illustrated vividly an image of a lovely peaceful night in the countryside of Wales in the second piece. More than five violinists sweetly played a series of short light ringing sounds with concordant pace and rhythm, depicting the chirp of insects and patter of rain drops.

The last piece presented a dramatically textured performance of new music. The unconventional and disorganized composition implied to all of us that it was nothing traditional: no euphonious musical notes to give you an enjoyable night; but it makes you think and try to understand.

The programme will be aired on BBC Radio 3 as part of its Hear and Now series with Michael Berkley’s introductions to the pieces and the works being performed again. BBC Radio 3 website: http://bbc.co.uk/radio3.

Hang in there

Lately I have been stuffed with production. Sometimes it really bothers me a lot. I then realized that the difficulties and problems that I am facing are far beyond my imagination. Low spirits has been baffled me these days. Sigh….

Hang in there! Just take a day off and think about everything you need to consider.

China to enter consumerism era

Shanghai`s middle class stands out as having the highest propensity to spend among their counterparts in six Asian cities, including Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Taipei and Tokyo, a survey on saving and spending patterns conducted by HSBC revealed. 

Spending across China is surging, with retail sales rising by 13.7% and 12.9% respectively in 2006 and 2005. The dazzling double digit growth of this country is not a novelty to most of us anymore, but its influences are still impressive enough to both the rest of the world and China itself. 

To the rest of the world, that China is entering a brand new consumerism era is doubtlessly inspiring. Beijing has been urged to encourage Chinese consumers to spend more and save less, which is counted on to boost its import, contributing to more balanced global trade and putting its trading partners, notably the U.S., more at ease. 

To China itself, however, the impact of consumerism can be hardly predicted. According to Time, almost one out of three Chinese urbanites said they did not save at all. I personally am quite sceptical to this result and worried about the backlash against consumerism in China. 

Indeed, Chinese people’s purchasing power is growing significantly, yet the living cost is rising even faster.2 Even China’s middle class people whose monthly incomes are over $650 can hardly afford the soaring housing price in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Moreover, given the deficient social welfare system, Chinese people still need to stash away money to fund retirement and meet rising medical and education costs. It is absolutely dangerous for China to run to an extreme of consumerism at this stage.

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