This piece comes from Chuai Lam’s casual writings, likely penned between 2020 and 2022. Reading his reflections from that turbulent period evokes a strong sense of déjà vu — a vivid reminder of the time when I often looked skyward, longing for travel and the wonders of the world beyond. Chuai Lam reminisces about journeys, people, and — naturally — unforgettable meals. There were countless places he hoped to revisit: Barcelona and Gaudí among them. ...

Flute shines brightest in chamber music — not that the ethereal flute solo in Carmen Intermezzo isn’t already fantastic — but orchestral solos are still somewhat constrained, where the flute serves as one beautiful component within a larger structure. Chamber music, on the other hand, gives the instrument the full freedom to express, flex, dance. And Pahud elevates the entire performance with his charisma, precision, and deep musical understanding. If you ever get the chance, don’t miss him live. Whether it’s orchestral or chamber, it’s worth it. If nothing else, the fact that he’s involved usually signals that the program is something special. ...

The concert hall hosted a public workshop featuring the Berlin Philharmonic Quartet. I hadn’t realized they were inviting students and young musicians from local conservatories to perform live. What a rare and generous and scary opportunity to play for world-class artists. And who would pass up a free masterclass? Especially one led by musicians who live and breathe chamber music. The joy of deep musical conversation was more than enough to offset the… shall we say, colorful distractions of the event’s host — whose long-winded, self-important commentary made many of us long for the mute button. Let’s just say: not every question needs to be asked, and not every moment needs a monologue. ...

Emmanuel Pahud, in my eyes, is the greatest flutist in the world. He’s the principal flute of the Berlin Philharmonic — a position that speaks volumes — and this summer, he’s on tour in China. Two concerts and one workshop. I’m attending all three. As a flutist, I can’t help but reflect a little on his influence on me. I started listening to Pahud’s recordings back in high school, during the pandemic. I was bored, like most people, but suddenly, even Bach and Beethoven didn’t sound boring anymore. His recording of Beethoven’s Sonata for Flute in B-flat Major (Anh. 4) and Bach’s Partita in A minor (BWV 1013) completely captivated 17-year-old me — his tone sounded otherworldly, like the flute had become something transcendent. ...

My Shostakovich-fan friend got really excited recently cause, the composer is about to enter public domain — 50 years after he passed away (August 9 1975). He was like “all his scores are going public, and I can’t wait to see the original manuscript of his Waltz No. 2”. Huh? Well not exactly. Cause first, in most countries, copyright protection lasts for 70 years after the death of the author. Second, most jurisdictions apply public domain changes on January 1st of the year following the 70th anniversary of the death. So even though enter died in August 1975, his works won’t become public domain earliest until January 1, 2026. Lastly, when we say Shostakovich’s works enter the public domain, that means his OG composition (eg. melody, harmonies, structure) are no longer protected. Yet special editions of his scores might still be under copyright — eg. B & H publishes a special 50-anniversary version has editorial rights. ...

Recently I noticed a weirdly popular TikTok trend: It’s gone viral internationally The original choreography is by 不齐舞团: Watch on YouTube, based on a Chinese-Cantonese rap song: Its rise to fame isn’t just algorithmic luck. The song taps into the mindset of a generation of young people in China today — caught in between. They’re not fully grounded in traditional culture, yet feel unable to move upward either. There’s a great article that explores this cultural moment: ...

Tchaikovsky wrote music for Eugene Onegin opera. But the Onegin ballet’s music is adapted from various other Tchaikovsky pieces (Breakdown of Eugene Onegin’s Different Versions) One of the ballet’s highlight, the Tatiana solo in Act II. It is melodic, expressive, and perhaps the most heartbreakingly vulnerable part of the whole story. When Tatiana fall in love with Onegin, at Tatiana’s birthday Onegin danced and flirt with Tatiana’s sister and leaves Tatiana hurt in the crowd: ...

This archive Blog Posts About Classical Music Collection started as a way just to keep track of blogs — but it has slowly become a personal map of musical obsessions and opinions. It kinda traces how I’ve moved through time in my life. Technically, I should have relied on tags instead of manually collecting every post, but revisiting my six‑month music library while copy‑and‑pasting turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable. Seems like, I’ve been obsessed with Tchaikovsky and Chopin lately, and that passion naturally spilled over into other Romantic-era composers—hence the flood of piano and ballet works. ...

My hometown has a genuinely strong orchestra — the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. It doesn’t have an all-star woodwind section like the Berliner Philharmonic, but having played in its affiliated Youth Orchestra during high school, I know the musicians are well-trained professionals. Plus, our artistic directors and conductor are not only well-connected but are themselves part of the core of China’s elite classical music scene. Oh, and fun fact: Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra often don’t give encores. ...

Tmux is powerful for parallelization but can be frustrating for monitoring experiments at scales. Like, you can run multiple parallel projects in different sessions but it’s hard to monitor each session — because you will have to manually ‘attach’ to a session to see outputs, and tmux has limited scrollback history and clunky scrolling interaction (you’ll have to Ctrl-v [ into copy mode to scroll). And once a tmux session dies — all terminal outputs are lost. ...