Friday, May 21, 2010

Leclair: Première Récréation (Collegium Musicum 90/ Simon Standage)

Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764)是法國晚期巴洛克的作曲家。他最大的貢獻是將高超的小提琴演奏從義大利帶進法國,更是多學者公認的法國小提琴學派的創史人。

Leclair最早是拜自己法國藝術所賜,超初到義大利時是一位舞者,在Turin教舞蹈謀生。不過,他在義大利同時向Corelli的學生Giovanni Battista Somis學習小提琴,表現出過人的天份。Leclair在世時所出版的13部作品當中,有十部是義大利典型的奏鳴曲和協奏曲形式,只有三部是兩首組曲和一部歌劇,可見Leclair對於義大利音樂的影響和偏好。

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Movie: An Education

"An Education" stars Carey Mulligan in her first lead role as Jenny and Peter Saarsgaard as David. It's a coming-of-age movie of a teenage girl in the 1960s of England.  Jenny is a high school teenage girl who is smart yet innocent, still unsure what she wants to do in life.  Jenny loves reading English literature, and her dream is to attend Oxford, although her dad has a different motive behind pushing her so hard.  In the times immediately preceding the feminist movement, a good successful life for a woman was to marry a wealthy husband.