according to weather.com, it feels like -15 *F in boston right now. brr.

The pressure is on. Well, more than before... Basically, a postdoc in Tom Steitz's lab is working on the very project that I am. Supposedly - though this was stated very ambiguously - he already got a crystal of this complex (I have not been able to get this yet). His crystal didn't diffract well though, which means the current crystal he has doesn't mean much. But this really blows :( My stress level has gone up exponentially in the past few days, if that was even possible.

Yay! I'm starting the crystallization screening process. Here's to hoping I get something pretty.

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On a completely different note, Hilary Hahn's bow control is top notch. Really! In the 3rd movt of her Sibelius, the opening bow stroke (which... I have to say is very difficult) is incredible. I feel like I can actually hear the bow gripping on the violin strings and producing a "sticky" sound, while still being rhythmically sharp. But when it comes to melodic passages, I think her playing is the epitome of the "endless bow" notion. In her latest Bach album, sure, people say that you shouldn't play Bach that way, but I think it's beautiful! All the notes are crystal clear, her intonation is perfect as always, and I can't hear her bow change at all, whether it's in the midst of crazy 16th notes or long, melodious, slurred notes. Everything is so continuous, and shaped beautifully.

Nikolaj Znaider, playing with the BSO led by Sir Colin Davis, playing the hour long Elgar violin concerto = tonight. Though... I have to admit: this is one of the violin concertos I'm really unfamiliar with. Because it's an hour long piece (double the usual length), it always seemed too daunting to get through.

I bought 3 CD's today! I usually buy used CD's on amazon because they are soooo much cheaper, but I bought CD's at B&N today... (1) physical purchasing at stores = stress relief, and (2) Hilary Hahn CD's don't seem to get too cheap online anyway. So, I bought:

• Hilary Hahn's Schoenberg & Sibelius
• Hilary Hahn's Bach: Violin & Voice
• Ashkenazy's Rachmaninov selections

The outer movements to the Sibelius are... fantastic. Mindblowing. The second movement, not so much, for me anyway. I can't really stand the Schoenberg yet. It's just... :-/ Ick.

The Violin & Voice album is interesting. The compositional style is all very Baroque, of course, but the sound I'm hearing... not so much. Well. The presence of a harpsichord/organ makes it feel very baroque-ish... but the very continuous, "sticky" sound that's really typical of Hilary adds an interesting twist. I guess I've gotten really used to hearing solo Bach in a romanticized manner, but not as much in this category (arias and duets from mostly cantatas). I'm not surprised though :)

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I wish life would slow down a little! 

Ana: okay, not to stress you out, but have you thought about what you're gonna apply to?

 me: ANAAAAAA

lskjdflksjkfldjlsdkfjkfs x-(

 Ana: hahaha

  ok ok

  NVMMMM

 me: that's like asking a girl how much she weighs

 Ana: HAHAHAHA

Hm. Okay. So that was that. It's creepy how fast time is going by though. Holy crap, it's already past mid-January 2010!! I don't know where time goes anymore.

Concert Review time :)

So... I was crazy and went to both the dress rehearsal and the concert. Let me start with the dress rehearsal:

It was supposed to start at 7:30pm. There was a pre-concert lecture starting at 6:45pm. Of course, running late from lab, I made it there by 6:50pm. The entire Symphony Hall was 80% full at that point... already. So I had to sit in the back. The conductor (Koopman) didn't wear a microphone, so I could barely hear anything he said during the rehearsal, but the great majority of the rehearsal was a full-run through of the piece, followed by ~10-20 minutes of rehearsing particular spots. It was pretty cool; it reminds you that even BSO-caliber musicians are mortal beings who wear jeans and t-shirts outside of a concert setting :P But at the same time, it felt weird: it's kinda like... having an orchestra rehearsal, and having hundreds of people in the audience observing you at work, like animals in a zoo. It's a funny concept.

Anyhow, this program consisted of:

1. Haydn's Symphony No. 98

2. Haydn Cello Concerto No. 1

3. CPE Bach's Symphony in G

4. Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony.

Soloist: Yo Yo Ma

Conductor:  Ton Koopman

The pre-concert lecture was very cool. They played snippets of each piece/movement, while explaining some of the musical motifs and analysis, historical background, info about the composer, time period, etc. It's funny because for the Haydn Concerto, they played segments of Jacqueline du Pre's recording of the Haydn... and as you might imagine (or not), Yo Yo Ma has a completely different interpretation of the piece, so it made me laugh that they picked Jackie's recording as an example.

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Haydn's Symphony No. 98: I am not well-educated in symphonic repertoire... and I've never heard this piece before. And all I could think was, jesus, Haydn wrote how many symphonies?! But... it was well performed :) Pretty light and full of character. And I found it amusing that the harpsichord has a big solo in the 4th movement, which lasts about 3 lines on the score. So for the entire Symphony (first on the program), Koopman conducted with the harpsichord in front of him, and when it was time for the solo, he sat down and played crazy stuff for about <30 seconds, and immediately got up to resume conducting. And of course, before the cello concerto, they took away the harpsichord and put up a podium instead. And the poor harpsichord tuner had to tune the harpsichord during intermission before the CPE Bach's Symphony (both during the dress rehearsal and the concert).

For the first three pieces of the program, only the reduced version of the BSO strings section performed. That is, about 14 violinists, maybe 6 violists, 3 cellists, and 2 bassists. For the Schubert, a couple of more people joined in each strings section, but still it wasn't the complete BSO. Interestingly, none of the usual section leaders were in this program, including Malcolm Lowe.

Haydn's Cello Concerto: So... I think Yo Yo Ma deserves another section dedicated to him. But I'll just say... his performance was just what I expected from what I've seen of his performances on youtube, and I hate the way he plays. Haha :) But... he's undeniably good, of course. His interpretation was very skewed to the side of "historically accurate" performance, which I hate. But it was interesting because it wasn't completely faithful to that. It actually incorporated the aspects of "historically accurate" interpretation that I hate... but with an addition of the harshness of what I'd consider a more "modern" interpretation. By that, I mean, he had all the old-fashioned aspects: extremely swift bows, [too much] swelling of notes, some rhythmic modifications on 16th notes, and most of all, playing with the orchestra when it's marked "tutti." But... his playing was so harsh and rough-edged at some points, that it was a little weird.

Yo Yo Ma: He makes grunting noises when he plays. Actually, it's kind of a cross between grunting and snoring sound, I can't quite describe it accurately. But... I could tell that the people in the first few rows were a little disturbed by it. Hahaha. One thing I have to say is, everything he does on the cello feels so vertical. The way he bows, the way he puts a bow down on the string to start a note, how he plays chords, and most significantly, how he moves when he plays. I don't know if anyone's noticed, but sometimes his cello goes so vertical, almost like that of a bass player. Also, his left fingers always collapse so much, which is usually categorized as "bad cello playing." Of course, Rostropovich did that to some extent, too. But they both somehow manage to play extremely well... so, whatever works I guess :)

Conclusion: I'm not the biggest fan of Yo Yo Ma, mostly interpretation wise, but he was interesting to watch, nonetheless.

Encore Encore! Yo Yo Ma played Bach Cell Suite No. 6 Sarabande as the encore. It was quite beautiful, actually. Very difficult... very well played :)

The Davidov Stradivarius: Yo Yo Ma currently plays on the Davidov Stradivarius (ie. the first of the TWO Strads that were gifted to Jacqueline du Pre). Jackie switched to another Strad after playing with the Davidov for a few years because of it's "unpredictability." To that, Yo Yo Ma said: "Jackie's unbridled dark qualities went against the Davydov. You have to coax the instrument. The more you attack it, the less it returns". Well, I think Yo Yo Ma attacked the Davidov plenty of times in the Haydn! But anyway, this cello... is such a work of art. It was *beautiful*. It made me want to drool just looking at it :)

Okay, I think I am going to stop the concert review here. The CPE Bach piece, I wasn't familiar with, and I didn't think it was particularly memorable. The Schubert was... the Schubert :) It's a beautiful piece, mesmerizing!

Yo Yo Ma decided to join in at the back of the cello section during the Schubert, it was funny :) But I guess he really loves the orchestra!

I'm too tired to write an actual entry, but here are some random notes:
--> It is getting too cold in Boston :( I feel like my face is about to fall off.
--> I squirted some e.coli cell lysate on myself today. It was disgusting.
--> me: ahh lunch was excellent
      now i cannot wait for dinner
      haha
      Ana: hahahha
      we think way too much alike, it scares me sometimes

Haha, apparently, every year Tom tells everyone "Successful and Happy New Year! and in that order :)"

At our group meeting today, we had a new postdoc candidate come present his stuff as part of his interview day. He's from Germany, and he's currently a grad student with a PI who was one of Tom's "star students" from many years ago! Haha, pretty cool, all these connections! His presentation was really very good, and to imagine that came from a 4th year grad student (or maybe starting his 5th year this January, I think?) was pretty crazy. So much clean data, so much knowledge on his own project and all the publications in the field, what he wants to try next, what's questionable, etc.

His presentation was also very entertaining =):

"This protein structure, however, doesn't have the supercoiled helix motif as we imagined, and actually looks like a piece of tortellini."

"Here's a sausage diagram of the protein structure."

"It seems that the probability of getting a protein to crystalize is inversely proportional to our interest in their biological function!"    (how true!)

"... [trying to say "specifically" in the middle of a sentence towards the end of the presentation, getting tongue-tied]... speciFIca... speCIficity-ally... er, speciFIcality... erm, [reading off of the slide syllable-by-syllable] s-pe-ci-fi-cal-li-t... huh? ...you know what I mean! Anyway!..."

Haha, but as a non-native English speaker, I can attest to the fact that saying "specifically" vs "specificity" are very difficult!

Happy 2010!

I head back to Boston tomorrow (or today...) evening :(
Saturday 6pm train, arriving in Boston on Sunday  ~7:30am.


Today, I watched more footage of the famous Trout quintet performed by one of the most powerful compilation of soloists (or at least one of the most fantastic combinations):
- Itzhak Perlman, violin
- Pinchas Zuckerman, viola
- Jacqueline du Pre, cello
- Zubin Mehta, bass
- Daniel Baremboim, piano
There was such, such, incredible talent and energy in that room/stage, it was ridiculous.