It was quite a pleasant experience to listen to the Baroque music (apart from the Dvorak's and Grieg's, of course) performed by the Hong Kong Sinfonietta last Sunday evening.
The Baroque music, including famous works by Bach, Vivaldi and Marcello are truly ingenious. They are very well structured but still have their lively mood and entertaining value. In short, highly refreshing and relaxing for the listeners!
Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no.3, for example, never fails to cheer up the crowd. I've known this lovely music for a very long time, but this was the first time I witnessed it performed live. And the effect was mind-blowing......I discovered that it was much more complicated and riveting than I originally expected. In fact, the nine instruments (3 violins, 3 violas and 3 cellos) each have its own chances to play solo phrases alternately but on the whole they harmoniously combine and generate a spectacular and continuous musical flow. Though the final movement was played a bit too rushed and at times a bit chaotic that night.
Vivaldi, though well-known for his "four seasons" concerti, had also written another famous concerto for 4 violins (Op3, No.10), and it's so famous that Bach even made a transcription of it for 4 harpsichords (or pianos are used sometimes nowadays) instead. Try to imagine : to write a concerto featuring 4 violinists, competing and supporting each other simultaneously! That would be quite a challenge, but Vivaldi (not unlike Bach when he wrote the above mentioned concerto) made it such a great fun for the 4 violinists to play together and still have some virtuosic solo moment for each one. The music is very easily assimilated, and it's exciting to see the 4 soloists playing side by side in the front of the stage, with the orchestra accompanying at the back. Marvelous experience for me, except that one of the soloists was too nervous and sounded a bit uptight and flat occasionally.
Marcello is not a familiar name to most music lovers nowadays, especially among all those giants in the Baroque period, but his concerto for oboe alone could leave his mark in the history, with its enchanting slow movement pretty popular even in the Hollywood industry as the movie soundtrack. I was glad to listen to the complete concerto that night, with Peter Cooper playing the oboe wonderfully. I simply couldn't complain......
Finally, the Strings of HKS, led by the Grainger Quartet with each at the front of the respective sections, gave us Grieg's Holberg Suite, an imitation and dedication to the Baroque period music by the romantic Nordic composer. Similar to the other pieces of the evening, it is a very easy-listening music, and the performance was magnificent. I guess the input by Grainger Quartet must have played a part there (Yip Wing Sze is very brilliant to come up with the idea of having this Quartet as their Artist Associate this year!), but I still have to admire HKS's string players for their commitment, effort and progress throughout the years. And for encore, their playing of Mozart could put HKPO to shame, I dare say......
Grainger Quartet (Artist Associate, Hong Kong Sinfonietta 07/08 season)
Natsuko Yoshimoto (Violin)
James Cuddeford (Violin)
Jeremy Williams (Viola)
Patrick Murphy (Cello)
Special Guest: Peter Cooper* (Oboe Principal of Colorado Symphony Orchestra)
Programme
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No 3 in G, BWV1048
Dvorák Wind Serenade in D minor, Op 44
Vivaldi Concerto in B minor for 4 violins from L’Estro Armonico, RV580 (Op 3 No 10)
(Violin solo: Natsuko Yoshimoto, James Cuddeford, Jensen Lung, Eiko Hosaka)
Marcello Oboe Concerto in C minor*
Grieg Holberg Suite, Op 40
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