Matthew Trusler's Mendelssohn

Playing on a 1711 Stradivarius with one of Heifetz’s bows and having studied with Ruggiero Ricci, young violinist Matthew Trusler playing the Mendelssohn's violin concerto became the main attraction in this HK sinfonietta concert (at least to me). Little did I know that it was in fact the highlight of the whole evening. Honestly, it was not outstanding already. So it showed how disappointing this concert was.

The concert started with a commissioned new orchestral work by local composer George Lam. I admire and respect these new commissions for local young composers from time to time by HKS (while HKPO have the resources but no guts to do so). "The Queen's Gramophone", as the composer himself explained briefly on stage before its world premiere performance, is his imaginative "recollection" of our Hong Kong in the 1960s. How this young composer can write something about the place he left when he was 10 and about the era before his birth is beyond my understanding. Anyway, the music started with a slow and "lazy" dance melody (partly French and partly Spanish style to me) introduced by the bassoon over the pizzicato bass. The melody then was developed with transformation in terms of rhythm, harmonisation and instrumention, until it was chaotic enough to be recognised in the climax. Afterwards, the clarinet introduced the refreshing and jazzy dance music over the mellow brass, which interestingly have a similar texture of Wong Kar Wai's film music. The music however gradually and slowly died away in the end.

Yip Wing-sie's interpretation and leading was a bit plain and cautious, and the tempo changes were not done well and convincingly. A little more imagination and flexibility would be better for this "soundtrack-like" music. It didn't do the music enough justice, for it could neither stimulate emotion nor image from the audience. The bassoon and clarinet did quite well for their solo passages nevertheless.

In the Mendelssohn's violin concerto, Trusler's violin produced a distinctively sharp and penetrative sound. While many young soloists try to play this piece slower and to drill on the details, Trusler played it in a faster pace and in a straight-forward way as if it's a classical period music. He didn't use the vibrato excessively, and he avoided the temptation to romanticize the 2nd movement like everyone else nowadays. Instead, he concentrated on the momentum and articulation of the music. I found his spiccato especially amazing, and resulted in a red-hot exciting and vibrant final movement. Having said that, some very high notes were not steadily reached, and he even somehow resorted to "cheating" by using slides unnecessarily, which I strongly protested. The orchestra was not helping much either, as it was lagging behind the soloist slightly most of the time. Anyhow, in response to the warm applause of the audience, he jokingly said that he wishes to move here before awarded us the virtuosic scherzo by Kreisler, which sounded very well indeed (though not as Zino):

However, nothing prepared me for the disappointing Beethoven's 8th Symphony after the intermission. The tempo was too fast (I guess no one would stick to Beethoven's "crazy" metronomic indications nowadays for the big modern orchestra!), the "thick" sound too poorly controlled that it's intimidating and even suffocating. All I could experience was the repeated rhythmic strong blows to my head throughout without any harmonic layering or fine orchestral details shown, which were all lost in the forcefully energised propulsion. Maybe I don't understand fully and I can't appreciate them enough, but I thought Beethoven's 8th is one of his "smallest" and "lightest" symphonies until I heard it performed by HKS under Yip Wing-sie that evening........Now I'm beginning to admire and miss their playing of the Pastoral Symphony last month.

Hong Kong Sinfonietta concert
6th Nov 2009 8pm at HK City Hall Concert Hall
Music Director/Conductor: Yip Wing-sie
Violin: Matthew Trusler

Programme:

George Tsz-kwan Lam	The Queen's Gramophone (world première)
Mendelssohn	Violin Concerto in E minor, Op 64
Beethoven	Symphony No 8 in F, Op 93

Rozhdestvensky's Shostakovich with HKPO

If I was allowed to choose only one HKPO concert this new season, without a doubt, it would be the one on the previous Saturday, when the Russian legendary conductor Rozhdestvensky gave us the memorable performance of Shostakovich's symphony no.10 with the Hong Kong Philharmonic. I'm glad that I didn't miss it. And I feel pity for the local music lovers who didn't go and witness such a Russian master (who had lived through Stalin's tyranny and could probably understand Shostakovich's music in a deeper level) in transforming our local orchestra and giving an outstanding interpretation of the work here.

Honestly, I was at first a bit hesitant about it and even skeptical about such a 78-year-old Maestro's mental acuity and physical agility in leading an orchestra on stage (a mental picture of the very old Celibidache conducting the Munchner Philharmoniker from a sitting position playing slowly the Beethoven's fifth in HK a long time ago unavoidably spring to my mind). Although Rozhdestvensky was similarly in favour of the slower tempo overall, he obviously has a very clear mind and can conduct efficiently with the minimal limb movements and gestures. Not standing on the conductor's platform on stage and reading carefully the musical score in front of him all the way, he nevertheless showed absolute control of the whole orchestra and the music produced.

Such a well disciplined playing and nicely balanced orchestral sound was already evident from the tutti introduction at the beginning of Beethoven's violin concerto. Slower than what we used to hear, the momentum and tension of the music was never lost or hindered throughout, with the orchestral structure tightly built up and different harmonic parts neatly revealed, which would all be lost or rushed through normally and gone unnoticed in other versions that I've heard live or on CDs. The second movement was so beautifully played by the strings that gave me goose-bumps. Dynamics, articulations and phrasings were all miraculously done that the music was profoundly touching, while the final movement was satisfactorily exciting and exhilarating regardless of its consistently slow tempo.

Sasha Rozhdestvensky, with the slow but intimate accompaniment by his father, leisurely and carefully let his violin's long solo lines unfolded step by step. He produced very sweet and warm singing tone from his expensive violin, not to mention his good foundation of technique. However, some pitch problems were noticeable along the way, and his interpretation was quite plain and straight-forward due to his "self-restraint", so he left his lustre and showmanship in the cadenza (written by Schnittke), which sounds interestingly contemporary yet very difficult to play (and I thought it even comprises some fragments from other famous violin concerto including Brahms and Shostakovich). In view of this slow tempo (almost an hour long of running time), overall he did a decent job in keeping a good flow and holding it all together without much boredom. However, I personally feel that his technique is above his musicality in this concerto, and his encore piece of Bach's gigue proved me quite right. I guess maybe some modern contemporary music would be a better choice for him.

Luckily, the Shostakovich's 10th was the one I was interested. And it not only didn't fail me, it actually exceeded my every expectation. Some people may found Maestro's adoption of an overall slow tempo a bit disappointing, especially in the finale. To me, this approach intensify the pessimistic quality of the piece as the composer wrote after Stalin's death, and I enjoyed and appreciated it. I loved it right from the gloomy introduction by the cello and then the music built up gradually in the first movement. It was tastefully subtle and slow-paced that the effect was even more frightening and intimidating. Then the brief Scherzo was played excellently with enough anger and relentless forceful drive, in which the accented harshly-bowed string sound was particularly impressive to me, not to mention the screaming woodwind and overpowering brass.

In the following Allegretto, the two contrasting dialogue music (one introspective while another the self-confident DSCH motive) inter-played and inter-wined marvelously until interrupted repeatedly by the mellow and dreamy horn solo played excellently by Mark Vines. The finale began slowly and cautiously until gradually gaining momentum and lightening the atmosphere with very good control and build-up. But what I admired most from Maestro's interpretation of this movement was the palpable underlying uncertainty and pessimism within the apparent ecstasy that the music seemed and sounded. The orchestra's playing was top-notch, with a totally upgraded String section and a stably competent woodwinds (Andrew Simon and Kam Shui both excelled in their respective solo passages here). I couldn't help but gave it a standing ovation. Bravo indeed......

This was the best Shostakovich's Symphony no.10 performance I've ever encountered (I'm starting to like this symphony more and more afterwards), and one of the best and memorable concert I've ever experienced. Considering the ticket price as well, it would definitely be the best for value concert ever in Hong Kong that I've ever attended!

Freddy Kempf and Hong Kong Sinfonietta

Only a week after Schumann's violin concerto performed by Blacher and HKPO, Schumann's much more popular piano concerto was staged at the same place the past Saturday by Hong Kong Sinfonietta together with virtuosic young pianist Freddy Kempf.

The concert opened with a purely string ensemble piece - a collection of 3 film scores by famous Japanese contemporary composer Takemitsu. This set of three film scores is among the most popular works of the composer and is widely performed around the world nowadays (recently played in Beijing by the Abbado's Lucerne Festival Orchestra). And I think it's a perfect repertoire to kick off this HKS's concert, considering their Japanese guest conductor Hirokami of the evening.

The small string ensemble, with guest concertmaster James Cuddeford (of Grainger Quartet again), showed their precision and intimacy in the playing, while the conductor put most of his energy and stress on the dynamic changes, rhythmic changes and the musical phrasing. The resulted music was lively and infectious, especially the final waltz. However, Hirokami at the same time uncontrollably produced some audibly disturbing breathing sound all the way, mixing together with the fine orchestral sound while conducting.

Luckily, with Freddy Kempf brought onto the stage for Schumann's piano concerto, his breathing sound was somehow lightened and reduced with some self restraint. Right from the start of the first movement of the concerto, it was clear that Kempf was giving us a more inhibited, introverted and a very melancholic playing instead of the schizophrenic Schumann we're familiar with. The main theme was introduced in a much slower pace but full of intense nostalgia and meditation. His playing was very well articulated with exquisite intonation and expressive phrasing, especially marked in the second movement.

Sometimes his tasteful rubato, ritardando and thoughtful tempo change gave the music a further impressive impact and genius touch. What's more astonishing was the orchestra's chamber-like accompaniment, giving the soloist close support and interaction from time to time. Though not quite explosive and dazzling in the final movement, Kempf's virtuosic fingerworks served the finale well and fast enough. Overall, with the emotional contrasts deliberately tuned down, the concerto was successfully executed with Kempf's overpowering musicality shining through and winning over his solid piano technique. That was responded by audience's thunderous applause in recognition, and in return we were treated with a Chopin's equally musicality-over-technique Etude as an encore. (By the way, I think it's the best Schumann piano concerto version I've witnessed live so far. My only complaint would be the problematic French horns, while the clarinet stays as my favourite among the wind instruments that evening.)

The Pastoral by Beethoven in the second half of the concert was painted with very broad stroke overall, missing some fine details in between, more so in the slower second movement. This was in fact visually evident when the bass section of the strings of HKS was much expanded with freelance players after the intermission. While the conductor was concentrating on steadier and tighter tempo control, aiming for a grand or sometimes ecstatic atmosphere, the sense of spontaneity and freshness that this symphony badly required were sacrificed, resulted in somehow uncomfortably exaggerated dynamics, and even unnaturally overwhelming orchestral sound. It sounded like they were playing the Eroica! Nonetheless, the conductor (apart from his annoying heavy breathe sounds) led the orchestra very well, with good syncopation and unity, and his gestures for phrasing and giving cues to each section was done efficiently and accurately. All in all, while the execution was smooth and satisfactory, it lacked the appropriate musical sense, atmosphere and fine details that this great masterpiece demands.

10 October 2009 8pm
Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall

Conductor - Junichi Hirokami
Pianist - Freddy Kempf

Takemitsu - Three film scores
Schumann - Piano Concerto in A minor
Beethoven - Symphony no.6 "Pastoral"