The Ultimate Music for Studying

Well, instead of studying, ironically I've been compiling music to help me study. I can't study if I make music, and I can't study either if I don't have music. Whatever, my procrastination has reached a higher level. My test is coming on the second of September, yay! I even turn down my sister's invitation to go to the beach so I can study. Ugh, that means I'll be really pale. My friend Lauren told me that I look sick and pasty last time, what a tramp!

Many of the songs here come from my favorite movies. Classical music has this tendency to make a scene become more classy, probably because of its timeless quality. Even though many songs in this particular mix are neo-classical, the same effect is achieved. 

Oh yeah, I assume you are here 'cause you've been stumbling instead of studying eh? This music mix may help, trust me, after I'm done posting this, I'm gonna listen to this and study like a boss and ace it like a Brain god! 

Track List

I'm smokin 'cause the music is so good

1. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance - Yeong-wook Jo
2. Dark Chariot - Peer Raben
3. Yumeji's theme - Shigeru Umebayashi
4. Bolero - Zbigniew Preisner
5. Rachmaninoff's Vocalise - Itzhak Perlman 
6. Adagio from 2046 - Rolf Lovland
7. And Just Like That - Abel Korzeniowski
8. To Zanarkand - Nobuo Uematsu
9. Sposa Son Disprezzata - Cecilia Bartoli
10. Les Marionnettes - Zbigniew Preisner
11. Georges Watlz (Take 2) - Shigeru Umebayashi
12. Ombra Mai Fu - Philippe Jaroussky
13. Meditation from Thais - Sarah Chang
14. Ruhe Sanft - Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
15. Song to the Moon - Stjepan Hauser
16. Lascia Ch'io Pianga - Philippe Jaroussky
17. Meeting - Roman Rewakowicz
18. Song for the Unification of Europe - Teresa Salgueiro

Chopin Piano Concerto No.2 in F Minor Op.21

Frédéric François Chopin

I love the second movement, which makes me feel so peacefully pensive. I was thinking about Evgeny Kissin's rendition, but I decide to post Aimi Kobayashi's instead. She has a very distinct vivacity that is quite exhilarating to enjoy. I find her expressive nature genuine, not hysterically histrionic like Lang Lang. Ugh, maybe he deserves a second chance, who knows?

My MCAT prep is quite physically draining. I found this studying schedule some guy posted on the Student doctor forum, and am trying to catch up with it. Basically, it tries to squeeze my entire career of science undergrad in three months. What a bitch. Consider that the test is allegedly the only thing that stops me from obtaining the entrance ticket, I shouldn't be complaining.

My sister saw a ghost in the hallway this weekend. She diverted her fear to merry-making quite skillfully by poking fun at me since I am forever haunted by that movie The Hills Have Eyes (the remade one, I haven't seen the original, and I don't ever want to.) The story is that we got lost once in Nevada on the way back from Las Vegas to Orange County. I refused to leave the car as the household went into this sketchy gas station in the middle of the nowhere-but-the-desert to ask for direction. I was literally screaming and hissing and begging them to leave that god-forsaken hell-hole even though the car was running out of gas, the air conditioning system stopped working, and my infant nephew passed out from the heat.

Anyway, to calm me down, here is the beautiful Second Concerto. Enjoy.

[Update 05/03/12] The clips were removed. Please savor Mr. Kissin's rendtion!

Chopin Piano Concerto No.1 in E Minor Op.11

Frédéric François Chopin

Garrick Ohlsson and Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Antoni Wit, from Chopin's 200th Birthday Celebration Concert at the Polish National Opera, Warsaw, on the First of March, 2010. This is such a stupendous performance. I'm not savvy enough to interpret the playing and analyze the nuts and bolts, but I really enjoy the experience. I've never heard of Mr. Ohlsson before this, but he is getting on my list of favorite pianists. I find Lang Lang very irritable to watch, so excuse me if you think he's entertaining.

I have this strange sensation whenever I listen to music in this period. I feel like there is a cluster of  hidden sentiments churning down from my stomach, incubating into this undulating mixture of very conflicting emotions rising up to my throat - and I realize that I am holding my breath listening to the music, fixing my eyes at the musicians without a blink. I wish Chopin could have written more concertos like this. He was such a bad ass: this piece was among the only orchestral pieces he ever wrote, of course to honor the beauty of the piano. There are also chamber versions existing somewhere, I've heard!

In a piano concerto, which one do you think is more important: the piano or the orchestra? Which one enlivens the other or they are there equivalently to make sweet love to each other and spill the orgasmic juice in your ears? Ah! I must be thinking about that movie already, you know what I'm talking about, yes, Jane Campion's very poetic The Piano.

Okay alright, enough rambling, enjoy the magic, y'all.

[Update 05/03/12] Well, obviously, since the "YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated due to multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement..." blah blah blah, I have to post another performance instead. This is Daniil Trifonov with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.