Sydney Piano Stories IV

MikiRei · Newbie Joined: 15 Oct 2006 Posts: 2

:EDIT:

I went to the Sydney, 7:30pm session (though it started at 8:00). 'Twas my first time and was slightly disappointed since Krzysztof Malek didn't make it or something and Marcello (I can't remember his name - but basically the person who playined instead of Krzysztof Malek) was only given 24 hours notice to play in place of him. Question: Did Krzysztof make it to the 4pm session though?

I say great job to Marcello (dunno the spelling) for having to pull up an entire recital in just 24 hours notice. Did notice a few pieces missing from the stated program (and quite a few noticeable mistakes and hesitations) but nonetheless, having been able to do most of it in less than 24 hours is a great job indeed. HOWEVER, I have to say was slightly disappointed that I kinda hafta pay 20 bucks to watch a practice/sight-reading session (sorry, no offence but I'm rather disappointed with Krzysztof Malek - in my view, that's extremely unprofessional of him and according to a friend, this was the second time he backed out. Apparently, he didn't show up for Night In Fantasia as well - Sydney one at least) rather than a full-fledged performance.

Ayako was exquisite and dearly loved the promotional piece for Passion (or was it just a special tribute to John Williams?)

jcbng · Regular Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 58 Location: Sydney

miki rei, if you read the posts above, you'll realise that Krzysztof Malek played at melbourne, and this post was started after the melbourne concert.
Therefore all the psots by the people that say Krzysztof Malek played really well makes sense since he was actually at Melbourne

MikiRei · Newbie Joined: 15 Oct 2006 Posts: 2

bb haha · Eminence Staff Joined: 10 Sep 2005 Posts: 425

chocohi · Mega Forum Addict! Joined: 09 Sep 2005 Posts: 518

MikiRei: Everyone that has commented on the performance of PSIV before my last post before this one in this thread, was from melbourne.

I'm quite sure the masses would have had realised that it was not Malek playing, as the program had provided a picture of him along with a short biography.

Malek had played in Melbourne, but did not play at either concert for Sydney's PSIV. This was also the first time Eminence has hired him, in ANIF06 it was Alexey Yemstrov, who was replaced by Natalia Raspapova - but she wasn't given a 24 hour notice unlike Marcello (anyone know how to spell his full name correctly?)

Anyway, corrections over. Honestly I thought last nights performance was absolutely great, to hear some of my favourite anime pieces. I loved the piece from the anime Air a lot. Honestly, I think it was a good chance for people to experience some jazz music and how well a jazz pianist can play. Last nights performance showed a great deal of how songs can be interpreted differently. I really did enjoy the arrangements (though anyone musical would know that he improvised like crazy through the whole night haha, and the additional slightly jazzed up tunes) It was good that he announced at the beginning that he was going to put his own "spin" onto the pieces. What a good way to get away with it hahaha.

Well for the sake of the majority of the audience, lets hope that this kind of thing can be avoided next time.

I have to say that was absolutely crazy for him to be able to pull it off as well as he did last night. Can't blame him for his mistakes and rhythm problems, he covered them really well though. Also I like his control of dynamics, made the pieces much more interesting.

Also Ayako played beautifully, the sound that comes out her violin is like godly. The last piece she played was an good chance to finally show how technically well she can play and she did a wonderful job at that too. It was a great treat =] too bad there was no encore though, but reasonable under the circumstances.

Wonderful job done, looking foward to the next concert, Passion. DISNEY CLASSICS!!! WOOO!

CCJc · Hmmm... Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 925

Dangerous · Newbie Joined: 16 Jul 2006 Posts: 46 Location: Newcastle

Hmmm. I paid $30 for my ticket. A free poster or something would have been nice.

Correct me if I'm wrong but all the Final Fantasy Pieces, Kingdom Hearts and Cruel Angel's Thesis were cut from the Sydney show(s). May I ask why Malek was unable to attend?

Marcello (can someone give us his surname so we can get a fan thread started?) churned an absolutly heroic performance. When I first heard it was him that would be playing, I was thinking, the achordian player?......ok.

With such short notice he did more than anyone could have asked for. His lack of product knowledge and leering at notes was quite hilarious. His reliance on ad lib really did add his flare to it and breathed new live into otherwise possibly piano collections note for note.

Ayako was simply amazing.

Everything overall, I'm glad I went.

Afa · Newbie Joined: 05 Apr 2006 Posts: 10

Marcello Maio, last minute replacement

Night_Music · Regular Joined: 28 Apr 2006 Posts: 109 Location: Sydney

Sorry! I'm a bad speller.

Scyn · Newbie Joined: 15 Oct 2006 Posts: 2 Location: Sydney

aimlesswanderer · Newbie Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 46 Location: Sidanee

I was a bit disappointed to hear that the main scheduled performer wasn't turning up, but Marcello did an excellent job (I didn't realise at the time that he had less than a day to prepare!). He looked/acted like he was unfamiliar with the music, but he played everything very well. Maybe Eminence should just get him to do the next Piano Stories - with sufficient preparation time it'd be all good. I wasn't the only one who was surprised that the 'accordion player' was going to play the piano Smile

.

Ayako was amazing as always, though it did help that she played some of my favourite pieces.

I went to the afternoon concert, and I will admit to being rather surprised that the hall was only about half full. I hope that the evening one was sold out.

shmukdan · Newbie Joined: 05 Nov 2005 Posts: 7 Location: sydney

I attended Piano Stories just to hear good music...

Please people how can u say that Marcello was good? How? It was a total disaster! I think i could sight read better than he did!

1 thing i can say is that people liked the music only because they liked the anime or game and infact if they really could hear and i mean hear properly then u would have heard/noticed how bad the performance level was. It was worse than a high school performance. THIS WAS NOT AT AN ACCEPTABLE PERFORMANCE LEVEL!!!

Doesnt matter if there is a change in pianist or not, i think there is good reason Krzysztof couldnt do the gig...and yea i dunno y pplz would say its UN-Professional... as a matter of fact, pplz do get sick or even somethings happen and a gig is cancelled or in this case another musician is put on WHICH i regret going coz the it actually made me think y i was there listening to crap music??

Back to the point of Professionalism, WOW very unprofessional performance of Marcello, he entered the hall with out dressing up nicely, didnt even give the audience a bow and yea under-prepared even tho it was a last minute concert, Eminence should have had a pianist that has a more of a classical approach to do the concert rather a Jazz pianist and have someone who can actually sight read at a high level

Technique was pretty bad too, if anyone had any active listening, everything was played badly and i mean VERY BADLY, holding the pedal down whilst lifting everything up in the ending?(All of the pieces that were played) Plenty of wrong notes was 'OK' not very acceptable but correcting a pasage in a professional gig?? what the?? That is something u never ever do no matter how bad u play the passage!! Dynamic contrasts? Practically just everything was loud. Accompaniment of the violin was done badly. There was no communication from Marcello to Ayako, but Ayako tried leading him in to the music. The piano should have been on half stick when Ayako was playing coz the piano was too loud for the violin and yes there wasnt a stage- manager!!!

Style was absolutely weird!!! U have a very nice melodic line all written out then suddenly there is this Jazz improvisation? OMG what the hell? that totally kills the music. Thats not how written music should be expressed. Yes i kno he was trying to express the music, but it was inappropriate! This type of music is written out for a purpose, if i wanted to hear improvisations i would have just went to a Jazz bar and there were parts the improvisation was out of tune. Music should only be expressed by Dynamics, tone colour, expression, style and your own interpretation but not by a totally different genre of music...!!! Very badly done!!

Ayako is a good violinist but i think it was not necessary to say that she stole the night... like hello, it was a piano concert with some other act in it... i think people should give more credit to Krzysztof at least, coz its IS called Piano stories isnt it? I admit Ayako is pretty and is very good a t her instument i still think the emphasis of complements should go to the pianist.

So what he didnt make it to the Sydney gig, as long as he did a good job at Melbourne and gave Eminence a good name is good enough isnt it?
I really dont think people should say he is un-professional because he just couldnt make it or whatever, and we shouldnt be so judgemental of him im sure he a a good reason to not be there and yes he is a fantastic musician!!

-=SeRaPH=- · Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2006 12:21 am Post subject:

I totally agree with what you said without the Krzysztof bit.

Sure, it didn't live up to the standards of our previous concerts and perhaps Marcello didn't play as one would expect, however, I would also like to say that Krzysztof did act unprofessionally, since as I am also a classical musician, I know that we do not give out cancellations on the day before any concert. It reflects poorly on us musicians and I will never forgive him for it.

He had weeks to tell us in advance about the cancellation, however he deliberately decided to tell us the day before the concert. This prompted direct actions, with the Project co-ordinator preparing audio materials for Marcello and our SEAC crew member going on an emergencey delivery run with important sheet music of which there was only one copy of. Not only did Krzysztof jeopardised the concert, he wanted to give us huge trouble by doing so. He knew how much trouble he could cause and he did it deliberately... which really made all our people in eminence sick.

Not one person in Eminence sympathises with the reason for his cancellation, with staff, crew, managers and even several of the prominent Eminence musicians begging him to play. The reason he left was not by accident nor any matter which was out of his control, however, the reason he left will remain undisclosed information as it was what was considered to be a petty matter on his part.

I sincerely apologise if you were not happy with the performance, if you would like me to deal with it, or if there is anything we can do for you, please email me.

However, please understand we did our utmost, and perhaps you can enlighten us with what you would do in our situation. We'd greatly appreciate it.

I hope you do not lose hope and faith in us, and should you come to our next concert, Passion, I will guarantee it will be something enjoyable and worthwhile.