Joe Hisaishi had begun his Asia performance tour in Taipei! Francoise, Jasmine and I went to catch this only concert in Taiwan in the evening, and the philharmonic orchestra (judging from the instrumental setting and the number of musicians) had been stunning! I know very little about symphonic music, but had felt really great listening to the beautiful melodies and tunes from soundtracks of popular animated films such as Laputa: Castle in the Sky and Howl's Moving Castle. And yes Daniel (the Tuba King!), they had played those pieces from Princess Mononoke too! I wish you were here to catch this concert with me, so that you could educate me on the technical aspects!
Joe Hisaishi was fond of giving solo piano performances, and I was slightly disappointed at the fact that he did not engage and conduct the musical ensemble for the pieces from Spirited Away. Nonetheless, I had enjoyed almost every second of the 2-hr concert. There were alogether 3 encores, and when the orchestra performed music from My Neighbour Totoro the audience was thrilled. I guess the movie is an evergreen that evokes our childhood qualities and memories, and these are things which we can identify ourselves with. Joe Hisaishi himself gave another solo performance on the piano in the last encore, and the audience responded with thunderous applause and a standing ovation befitting a gifted composer of his calibre.
We went for dessert at a restaurant named 糖朝 after the concert. If I am not gravely mistaken, it is part of a franchise marketed from Hong Kong. The dim sum and the desserts were delectable, and indeed I had not eaten them for the past three months. All in all, it had been an enjoyable night for the three of us here.
1 comment:
I'm so jealous... I wanna watch the concert too! I hope he brings his tour to Singapore! YK must show me the program booklet you are holding when u come back!
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