Heard the trombone and piano duo Jurg Henneberger (piano,
Since Igor missed the concert I asked if he’d like to see
them perform again at their hotel – hydro hotel – at
When Jurg and Dirk came on stage, we went over to introduce ourselves as kah hoe and kee yong’s friends …
I thought we’re gonna get some John Coltrane or something but they played Gershwin, Rachmaninov and Schubert.
Half way through, Jurg came round and sat with us, taking a break from the scorching heat emanating from the huge spotlights while Dirk plays solo. I suggested that perhaps they could replace the spotlights with the standing lamps around the lounge. He said maybe next time. I was half way working through my chicken wings. I wanted to show him some Malaysian hospitality by offering him part of my dinner but refrained from doing so when I realized the sight of chicken wing bone remnants on the plate may not be very appetizing to him.
The manager of the hotel is German and he came over to chitchat with us seeing, I supposed, that we’re two of the only few audiences in the lounge. He said he invited Jurg and Dirk to play at the lounge in exchange for a free stay. He even gave us his name cards hmm … I wonder what I can do with it ….
After the performance, Igor and I went up to have a few words with the duo again with Igor leading the way. Mainly with Dirk since we don’t know the trombone as well as the piano. He was very friendly and thinks Schubert’s lieder transcribed for the trombone retains almost all of the quality of the vocal music except the words but that ‘who listens to the words anyway?’ I couldn’t agree more since I grew up listening to western vocal music like lieder and operas without understanding a single word sung. Perhaps that kind of listening makes one pay more attention to the music rather than be distracted by words and their meanings.
We hung around the lounge hoping to chat some more with the duo. We’re stuck with Jurg while the more talkative Dirk was chatting with some Siberian tourists at the next table. Jurg and I were more quiet, reserved people so much of the talking was left to Igor. Keeping the conversation alive was quite belaboring. Basically we tried to pull everything we know about Swiss and German culture out of our hat of tricks but eventually it went dry. Of course the main point that we’d like to get across is that we’re composers, young and aspiring ones. I mean, Jurg is the founder of an ensemble specializing in contemporary and avant garde music. We’d be committing a great sin against ourselves not to. I asked if his ensemble plays much of other composers or that they’re forced to play mostly Swiss composers. He says they play many composers including Stockhausen. I asked, they must have played lots of Stockhausen the year he died in 2007 then? He laughed and said, they do play Stockhausen. Later, Dirk came over and broke a little more ice but I was getting a bit sleepy plus I had to teach on Sunday so we said aufwiedersehen …
When we approached the counter to pay our bill, I showed the waitress the German manager’s name card and said, “we know the manager so we get the drinks for free?” She laughed and said no, no, you cannot do that ….
We got into the car and I said to Igor, “So, tomorrow we’ll come again and shove our scores at them??”
