China's Lending Spree Continues

Finance Minister Simon Zerpa (second to left) in Beijing to secure US$5B

China is the big benefactor these days.

Earlier this month it gave US$60 billion to African countries during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing. Previous debts were forgiven, making the total investment in Africa to from 2000 to 2017 to US$136 billion.

Zerpa says the loan will be paid back in oil

Of course China gets something for pumping billions into the African continent, though it denies it is neo-colonialism or chequebook diplomacy. African leaders claim the mostly infrastructure projects have helped stimulate social and economic development, and that other countries (like the United States) should do more to help.

However, according to China Africa Research Initiative at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, the African continent's biggest donor is in fact the US.

This week China is back at it again, this time the recipient is Venezuela which continues to descend into chaos with people desperate for basic needs that are not available and neither is the cash.

China has stepped in to give the Latin American country US$5 billion. Venezuela's finance minister Simon Zerpa is already in Beijing to hammer out the details with Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan, while President Nicholas Maduro is heading to the Chinese capital.

Cash-strapped Venezuela dealing with anger in the streets

Zerpa has told media he Venezuela would pay back the loan, partly in cash or oil, and that the country would sign a "strategic alliance on gold mining" with China. Hmmm sounds like another way to repay the debt.

But perhaps even more interesting or shocking is that China has been a key money lender to Venezuela since 2008 with an estimated US$70 billion over the years.

Wonder who China will dole out cash and credit to next week...

Gabriela Montero Living with Music

Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero is a whiz at the ivories

Today I had the opportunity to interview an amazing pianist who is classically trained, but can also improvise, much like a jazz musician -- on the spot.

Gabriela Montero is a Venezuelan pianist who will be performing tomorrow night at City Hall Concert Hall, playing Schubert and Schumann in the first half, and then after the intermission, she will take suggestions from the audience of what to play -- as long as they hum it to her.

She explained that improvisation was something classical musicians did in the 16th and 17th centuries, when composers would write "cadenza", and expect the musician to add their own flourish.

But later on, musicians didn't know what to play, and eventually it was written out, which is why people like me have always thought that classical music was about playing the piece exactly as the composer had intended, down to every last note.

Here she is riffing off of Bach's Goldberg Variations:

As someone who learned classical music on the piano, I could never even dream of improvising -- I thought it was something only those who were well versed in music could do, but Montero is in an league of her own.

When she was a baby she was already playing a toy piano in her crib. By the age of five she gave her first public performance and at eight performed her first piano concerto.

She likes to connect with the audience with improvisation

I brought up the description of being a prodigy, but she doesn't like the word, saying it separates her from others. She also frankly admitted she quit piano twice, one time not touching the piano for two-and-a-half years because she didn't want music to dictate her life.

"Just because I'm good at it doesn't mean I like it," she said. It took her years to reconcile with her talent and also the fact that she was a single mother meant that she had to use her skills as a musician to support her family.

Now she seems very happy to be making music on her own terms, and using it has a platform to speak out about her home country that is falling apart due to the corrupt government, with people starving from not being able to get access to food.

In 2011 she wrote Ex Patria as an emotional musical picture of what is going on in Venezuela, and while she has performed it 10 times, including a recording, she hopes she doesn't have to play it again.

The following year Amnesty International made her an honorary consul, where she uses the position to talk about Venezuela, and she is now basically in self-imposed exile; if she were to return, she says she would be put in jail. She now lives in Barcelona with her husband and two daughters.

But back to the improvisation -- I hummed her Teresa Teng's famous song, The Moon Represents My Heart.

She played what I hummed perfectly on the piano, dabbled a bit with it and then began to play. And watching her riff off the phrase in various styles was amazing. We were just spellbound watching her play.

After she finished, she said that when she improvises, it has to be recorded because she cannot play it exactly the same again -- the music flows through her onto the keys and once it's over, that's it.

Montero seems at peace with her spellbinding talent, probably thanks to age and having tried to quit twice and then coming to terms with it, but also determined to use it the way she wants to.

She has a warm spirit and eager to share her music with everyone.

Getting the Dudamel Treatment

Conductor Gustavo Dudamel (centre) getting lots of love from the audience

Over two years ago I went to Los Angeles and visited the Walt Disney Concert Hall, a massive steel structure that looks like massive pages from a musical score. We got to have a peek inside, though the Los Angeles Philharmonic wasn't inside, nor its musical director, Gustavo Dudamel.

The 34-year-old is quite the sensation. He received his musical education through the El Sistema system, where children learn instruments and how to perform together several hours a day -- for free.

It's given Venezuela, that was ruled by Hugo Chavez until his death in 2013, an opportunity to prove the state can do good things for the arts, and Dudamel is that poster boy.

Perhaps that's why he is very humble on stage, thanking practically each and every one of the musicians on stage with him tonight, after they performed Gustav Mahler's Symphony No 6 in A minor at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall as part of the 43rd Hong Kong Arts Festival.

When I found out he was coming to perform here, I tried to order a ticket right away, and was told the cheaper ones were all gone and had to buy the more expensive ones at just over HK$1,000 ($129) a pop! It was a lot to swallow, but I felt this may be my only chance to see the musical wunderkind who once broke one of Leonard Bernstein's batons while conducting the New York Philharmonic back in 2007.

It was practically a full house tonight, as everyone there was as excited as I was to see Dudamel do his musical magic. When we entered the concert hall we were told there would be no intermission -- four movements straight through for an hour and a half.

To be honest I don't know much about Mahler and his music, but this piece was palatable and pleasant to listen to, with periodic punctuations from the various percussion instruments from a gong to xylophone, and even using a wooden mallet to hit a block of wood very loudly -- twice! Some percussionists had to leave the stage to play cowbells in the distance!

There was a very full orchestra on stage, where the double bass sat on the left side of the stage, perhaps to make room for the two harpists and two harpsichordists? We could not tell from our angle what kind of keyboards they are, but they weren't upright pianos.

When Dudamel made his way to the podium, it was even more impressive to see there was no stand for his music, as he had memorized the entire score! He is apparently a Mahler aficionado -- he won the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra's prestigious Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in 2004.

Dudamel also completed his Gustav Mahler Project in 2012 -- conducting all nine symphonies (including the unfinished 10th) by alternating between the LA Phil and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela that he still leads.

While he knew the score off by heart, the LA Phil players were well versed in the music and played very well. By the end of the 90 minutes, many in the audience jumped to their feet to applaud him and the orchestra. Near me were two people holding up the Venezuelan flag and it seemed like he saw it too.

We clapped non stop for several minutes as Dudamel came out several times to bow and get each of the players who performed solo parts to get their recognition. However there was no chance of an encore when the lights went up and Dudamel asked the orchestra members to leave the stage.

Boo.

Nevertheless it was neat to see a young person leading an orchestra with players that were almost twice his age. He was keen for them to get as much of the accolades as him. Very classy.

Gustavo Dudamel & the Los Angeles Philharmonic

Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall

March 19, 2014

Gustav Mahler Symphony No 6 in A minor

Allegro energico, ma non troppo; Heftig, aber markig

Andante moderato

Scherzo: Wuchtig

Finale: Sostenuto -- Allegro moderato -- Allegro energico