shameless self plug!
Okay guys... This post will be the most shameless self plug that I've ever published, so forgive me for not holding back some things! :D
Today we had Sports and Wellness football tournament... and it started off badly, with rain falling heavily in the morning. Thank goodness it stopped early and we could start playing footy. The guys got the big field while we girls were relegated to the nearby netball court --" We were divided into 6 teams that were named after World Cup-winning countries. Well, 5 of them (Germany, Spain, Brazil, England, Italy) are, don't know why Holland was included. For some reason my group was named Spain.
And Spain won the tournament!!!!!!!!! We won 4 games and lost 1. And I scored some goals! Finally! My teammates are so awesome! Especially us from SO42! We scored a lot of goals among us! And we also got to know other football mad people like us. What's more, people from the footy team wanted us to join their CCA! But I'd said so many times that I wanted to join but couldn't because the training times coincide with Strings'.
I had cello lesson after footy, and I had thought of skipping it. But my heart won my brain in the end and I trudged to class. Then halfway during cello lesson Mr Kong the violin instructor and the SSO assistant leader came to me and asked me what piano grade I had. I replied 8. Then he asked how much I got for sight-reading (the first time anyone asked me this question), and I said full marks (don't think he heard me though). Then he said he had brought the piano part for Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor (it's a great concerto - go listen to it!) and he wanted me to play with him. ("It won't be a problem, since you can play Rachmaninoff!" - his exact words, and yes he did hear me play Rach 3 before - not very good though.)
And so I did. I sight-read the whole thing at full speed, with Mr Kong driving the engine. He tossed away cascades of notes like nobody's business. And as for me, well let's just say that I performed admirably. For the first 2 movements that is. We didn't stop at all. Well, actually I did... but Mr Kong kept going on and I had to skip some bars to catch up with him. Oh and I finally found out that a tune that had been stuck my head for years but didn't know where it come from was from this concerto. Then came the 3rd movement. And that's where my sight-reading skills failed me. We paused a while for me to take a breather, and we played it again. It was marginally better but as the movement progressed it became clear to me that I was never going to sight-read the thing. But I could sight-read the right hand part. So it was with great regret that I ended up playing the rest of the concerto with my right hand. Except for the coda, where I felt it safe for Left Hand to come in.
After the last note, my cello teacher shouted 'Bravo!' and Mr Kong said 'Bravo!' to me too. And he lent me the score to practice so we could play again next week :D And he said that my piano playing was better than grade 8 standard!!!!!! :D
Wow it was damn surreal, playing with one of the best musicians in Singapore... I'm so honoured!!!!!!
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