My (officially) first time attending a concert!

Finally, I post it to my blog after being delayed for months! I'll tell you about a tremendous concert I attended that performed by a well known orchestra in Indonesia called Twilite Orchestra. Conducted by Addie MS, they performed several numerous classical numbers that used in a famous Japanese animation and series by the name of Nodame Cantabile. Let me tell you a bit about this.

Nodame Cantabile is the title of a Japanese comic series who had been adapted into animation and live drama. It's a story about Noda Megumi, a music school student who never take any concern of her lifestyle. She has a messy room along with her appearance. But behind those, she has a brilliant talent when it came to her piano playing. One day, she found her famous-for-his-handsome-appearance upperclassmen, Chiaki Shinichi, sat drunkenly on her door. Next day, Chiaki woke up by the sound of Nodame who plays the piano. Since then, he never know that she will be her fortune goddess who will change his life. It's worth to watch and read!

And because of this series is about the life of a music school student, there must be classical numbers played around-whether it's only for the background sounds or the characters who played ones. This series inspired Addie MS to bring it on and made a concert as a tribute to this wonderful series. As a big fan for the series, I bought the tickets. And my musical journey began here.

This concert is the first regular concert in 2011 by Twilite Orchestra. The concert will perform these pieces:

1. Montagues & Capulets from “Romeo and Juliet” (Prokofiev). This piece is often played when the scene is getting intense, when the characters were going to argue.
2. Symphony No. 7, 1st movement (Beethoven). The opening of Nodame Cantabile's live action drama!
   
3. Etude Op. 10 No. 4 (Chopin). I forgot when this piece is played, sorry :(
4. Petrouchka (Stravinsky). This is one of my favorite piece in this concert! It sounded very cheerful yet complex. This is played by Nodame when she was participating in a piano concourse.
5. Rhapsody in Blue (Gershwin). Everyone who have ever watch Nodame should have known this piece. I can say that this is Nodame's signature piece. One of my favorite piece, too.
6. Symphony No. 4, 1st movement (Mendelssohn). I also forgot when this piece is played in the series :(
7. Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninov). This is the longest piece played in the concert. The orchestra played those three movements for about thirty minutes!

And the pianists who will play those pieces are:

1. Levi Gunardi - he played Rachmaninov Piano Concerto. He played it very passionately and he is a great pianist, as his thirty-minutes piano playing told us.
2. Kazuha Nakahara, - she played Rhapsody in Blue. She was really great! Right after she finished her playing, everyone in the auditorium gave her a standing applause. She was phenomenal.
3. Gita Bayuratri - she played Chopin's Etude. She was an Indonesian conservatory student who study in German. 
4. Victoria Audrey Sarasvathi - she played Stravinsky's Petrouchka. She was the youngest pianist who played in the concert, yet her piano playing didn't tell the audience so! She had won several piano competitions around the world, and now she's studying in a conservatory in Europe. Guess how old is she? Yes you're right. She's 13.

With these amazing pianists and numbers, you can expect how great the night is. It was phenomenal. It's a performance of a lifetime. Although I was asleep for a while in the middle of the concert due to the day's exhaustion, I can tell you, this concert is worth to watch!

Actually, I have a picture with Kazuha Nakahara and my friends, but it's gone :(

 

The conductor, Addie MS, conducted his orchestra

Kazuha Nakahara, a Japanese pianist who played Rhapsody in Blue