Showing 31 - 40 of 71
Obscure objects of desire
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 19/04/2013
» If there is such a thing as a culinary endangered species, a type of dining establishment that occupies the same doomed territory as the Asian golden cat, the bumblebee bat and the Javan rhino, it is probably the small, informal restaurant, owned and operated by the same family for many years, where exceptional food is prepared using personal recipes that have been polished to perfection over time.
Rediscovering forgotten variations
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 29/01/2013
» Today, a miscellany of audio and video discs and downloads that have come my way recently and that may interest listeners who have not already found them.
Highly strung
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 15/01/2013
» Maybe a whole repertoire exists for an ensemble of four guitars, but before this disc came my way I had never heard any modern music with this scoring.
Feeding the 5,000
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 25/01/2013
» There are certain restaurants where the point of the dining experience has less to do with satisfying food than with the overall experience that the establishment delivers. At one end of the spectrum for this kind of place are the "molecular cooking" dining rooms like the late, lamented El Bulli in Spain or, locally, our own Sra Bua where, for a considerable price, one can have the pleasure of conversing with table companions through clouds of vapourising liquid nitrogen while sampling surreal culinary creations, served in dainty portions, in which exquisiteness stands in for more substantial virtues.
She's got rhythm
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 13/11/2012
» Is there any kind of music that is out of bounds for the American pianist Jenny Lin's stylistic perfect pitch? Her range seems limitless with each new recording revealing a new facet of her musical personality. To date her repertoire on disc ranges from Schumann and Liszt through Mompou, the early Soviet experimentalists, and Ruth Crawford Seeger to modernists as diverse as John Cage and Valentin Silvestrov. A high point is one of the finest of the many recordings of Shostakovich's 24 Preludes And Fugues.
Arather mixed bag
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 30/11/2012
» A food-alert friend of Ung-aang Talay's recently recommended a restaurant in the Silom area, mentioning that it was related to the Sukhumvit-based Baan Khanitha, whose kitchen has been attracting loyal customers for many years with excellent curries and nam prik dishes, and with its signature multi-coloured rice. As a regular at Baan Khanitha back in its early days on Sukhumvit Soi 11, U-a T's curiosity was aroused, and a group supper planned for last week seemed like a good opportunity to give the place a try.
Sonic declarations of independence
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 11/12/2012
» Maverick artists _ those who stake out creative territory completely their own and cultivate it in uniquely personal ways _ have been prominent in American culture and have given the country much of its greatest art. Fiction, painting and film all offer remarkable examples of maverick art, but it is probably in music that the tradition is at its peak.
The unity of contrasts
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 25/12/2012
» Decca takes a chance issuing a programme like this, which features a cellist whose name will be new to many listeners playing two concertos in radically different styles.
Coming on strong
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 16/11/2012
» Last weekend a shared craving for Isan food sent Ung-aang Talay and some friends to Lat Phrao Soi 101, where there is a branch of the Tam Mua restaurant that had impressed a food-alert neighbour of U-a T's strongly enough to inspire him to mention it twice. It turned out to be an appealingly informal place with customers seated on square stools rather than chairs, simple decor, and the the kind of relaxed atmosphere amenable to long sessions of eating and talking.
Bartok bristles with energy
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 04/09/2012
» Bartok's two sonatas for violin and piano make no attempt to sweet-talk listeners into loving them. With their abrasive harmonies, jagged themes, and atonality only a fraction of an inch away, they ask a lot from both performers and audiences. But Bartok wrote them in the early 1920s at a time when his creative powers were at white heat, firing off one innovative idea after another.