SINGAPORE: Celebrated pianist Emanuel Ax made his maiden appearance in Singapore on Friday in opening the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s (SSO) new 2008/2009 season at the Esplanade Concert Hall.

The concert was a special collaboration with the SSO and conductor Maestro Lan Shui, in a repertoire of Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto.

The award winning Polish-Canadian pianist, born in Ukraine to parents who survived the Nazi occupation, is critically acclaimed in the Classical music scene.

A bit of a child prodigy, he started playing the piano at the age of seven. He went on to train at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York before becoming a renowned name in the Classical scene, winning seven Grammy Awards to his name.

In an exclusive interview with Channel NewsAsia, the humble 59-year-old musician said getting where he is now depended more on luck than anything else, including talent.

“You have to be very lucky to make a career as a concert performer,” said the father of two, who lives in New York City with his wife.

“You have to practice hard and play well but a lot of luck is involved. I always knew that I pretty much wanted to play music but I didn’t know I would really be lucky enough to be a performer so that’s an extra bonus, I guess.”

The pianist has a rather unusual trait of wanting his listeners to applaud not just during interludes but in between movements as well.

“I don’t know who invented that you are not allowed to applaud between movements but when pieces of Beethoven or Chopin or Mozart were written and played, certainly people always did what they wanted, nobody said you were not to applaud,” he explained.

“So I think people should just react the way they want to. It is very unfortunate when something ends brilliantly and people feel that we are not allowed to applaud because it’s not over yet. So it’s much more realistic, really, when people applaud between movements.”

The veteran musician is also a particular supporter of contemporary classical music, and has performed works not just by traditional composers, but also works by diverse figures such as Hans Werner Henze, Joseph Schwantner and John Adams.

“I think we need to do music that is being written while we are alive,” he said. “If not, we’d be a little like an art museum that doesn’t hang anything after 1910; and we’d be kind of a boring and irrelevant art museum…

“And it’s wonderful that really famous performers such as Yo-Yo Ma and Lang Lang are actually doing music that is being written now. Because I think their names would bring people into the hall and people would come out liking the music. And that is what we want to achieve.”

And despite great achievements and breakthroughs in the music scene, the musician hopes he will remembered for more than just his music.

“I hope I can bring pleasure to people with my music right now and when I think about my legacy, I think it’s much more about being good family person and having people think I’m a decent person,” he said.

- CNA/yb

Channel News Asia

PARIS: France Telecom said on Monday it was abandoning its offer to buy Nordic telecoms operator TeliaSonera, citing a failure to agree on financial conditions.

“Despite favourable interest in the proposal, open dialogue with the board of TeliaSonera failed to come to an agreement on financial parameters” it said in a French-language statement.

It added that the attempt to acquire TeliaSonera was “not indispensible” in the context of its broader corporate strategy.

Earlier this month, France Telecom made a preliminary offer of 33 billion euros (53 billion dollars) for TeliaSonera in a bid to create the world’s fourth-biggest mobile operator.

But the Nordic operator immediately rejected it as “significantly” undervaluing the company.

Citing people familiar with the talks, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that France Telecom had raised the price of the stock component of its offer, but it was still under 60 Swedish kronor per share.

France Telecom’s earlier offer comprised 52 percent cash and 48 percent in shares, with the cash component pitched at 63 Swedish kronor (6.7 euros, 10.4 dollars) per share and the share component at 56.2 kronor.

France Telecom had set an informal deadline of Monday for reaching a deal, the US-based business newspaper reported.

- AFP/so

Channel News Asia

SINGAPORE: One of Singapore’s oldest hotels - New 7th Storey Hotel at Rochor Road - will be demolished to make way for the new Bugis MRT station for the Downtown Line.

The hotel’s owners and occupants will have to move out by the end of December.

The owners - who said they only heard about the news from the media - are upset over the decision. They said they have spent some S$100,000 in renovations this year.

An old employee also expressed his sadness.

Lee Chong Fu said: “I’ve worked here for about 58 years῅ I’m very sad because I have been working here for so long. It’s a part of my life. I have strong feelings for the building.”

According to the Land Transport Authority, the hotel is not an iconic building and has no conservation status.

The quaint hotel was well-known in the 1960s and 1970s when its pub was one of the main nightspots in Singapore.

Its iconic spiral staircase has been a favourite backdrop of photographers, and the hotel still has a lift which is manually operated.

The authorities say the demolition is unavoidable due to engineering constraints.

The new Bugis station is one of the six stations that make up the 4.3-kilometre Downtown Line One, which is scheduled to open in 2013.

Once completed, commuters will have more transport choices in the city as the Downtown Line One will serve existing and upcoming developments in the Marina Bay area, including One Raffles Quay, The Sail @ Marina Bay, Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort and the Marina Bay financial centre. - CNA/ac

Channel News Asia