Music is still my first love, it enriches my life. Who wouldn't love good music particularly those in growing years? Those sensual tunes walk me down memory lane. I do know now that some people do strange things, perhaps they are painting a piece of memory. Well, we all have tendency to look back when you reached a certain age. Those are good times especially when you are young and healthy.
Honestly, I don't know much about Malay classics. When you look at music, you look at articulatory phonetics. Some lingoes are inherently romantic. Like majority of the languages of the world, Malay phonetics has the fluency in which, facilitate beautiful phrasing. Mind you, some lingoes audibly angry with strong emphasis of nasality. Chinese is choppy with four distinctive keys. The meaning is vastly different when you pronounce the wrong key. That's why Chinese is one of the most difficult language to master.
Anyway, I'd like introduce Sheila Majid, a diva who requires no further introduction to fellow Malaysians. Here's her credentials, she begs 1998 America's International Star Search Award for Best Female Vocalist, the first Malaysian artist to break into Japan in the following year. She also the first Malaysian artist to stage a solo show at Royalty Theatre. And, the below CDs were recorded in Petronas Philharmonic Hall in 2015 commemorating her 25th years in her singing career.
She has an incredible voice, plenty of wetness. Not forgetting the background vocal too. The vocal harmonization deserves credits. Mostly, the orchestra injects power to her delivery. Every artist has his/her own delivery. And music lovers look out for that signature, the uniqueness. Me too singers at best singing cabaret in local lounges, they don't have the ummph... to go up the next level. People listen and forget. Anyway, entertainment industry is a complicated business. Beside vocal line, look which relating to image plays a big part.
Remember I write about the blackness when the music dies some time ago? It was again audible in these CDs, it was there. The blackness is even more profound in the hall. This is because the reverberations of my room amplify the whiteness unless your room is acoustically dead.
Comes in double CDs box set, it costs RM34 (8USD) this is tremendous value. Listening to the CDs, I was amazed how well they were recorded. The hall ambiance retrieval and the crowd applause just as remembered as with my past audible experience with Malaysia Philharmonics Orchestra. Three visits in 2 weeks.
Strings, brass, timpani were spectacular. I really need to set the record straight, my reference is based on hall ambiance retrieval, the crowd applause and orchestra play, all the elements of MPO sounded right. The uncanny quality is magical. In my humble opinion, this local recording quality surpassed audiophile approved CDs, audiophile CDs in comparison sounded artificial. I say this with one reservation, her voice was stronger than the mezzo soprano that might have suggested that she was using a mic.
Hair raising every time I play these CDs. Oh my Lady Gaga! Without hesitation, these CDs are now firmly my system repertoire. I will not point you to tonality, dynamic, micro details, extreme frequency or other parameters, but listen for yourself how close it sounded to the real thing, specifically the ambiance. Some of MPO recordings are labelled under BIS under the baton of Kees Bakels.
A well recorded live album is very hard to come by, a true rarity. You know how reproduction music can sometimes sounded weirdly different from the real thing. People refer this phenomenon as black art because you never know how's your mixing turn out to be. By the time this post is published, I have already got a second copy as spare. Folks, it is that good! Only if you like her music, of course.
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