Program - Jaap's Mendelssohn
The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847).
Sea Pictures, Op. 37 by Edward Elgar (1857-1934).
Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 Scottish by Mendelssohn.
I am staying in Hong Kong for about two weeks, unfortunately
there are not many concerts during this time of the year. While I am not familiar with any of the
pieces on the program, I am certainly interested in checking out how the new
conductor, and Mendelssohn is a dependable composer. Not an “art song” person, I don’t know what
to expect from the Elgar piece. I went
to this concert with Ling and Wally, who coincidentally also went to another
concert in this “Jaap’s Mendelssohn” series.
Our seat at HK$300 per person (Ling even got a 50% senior
discount) are not expensive. They are on
the front left part of the orchestra section, the view of most of the orchestra
being blocked by the first violins. If
you look at the layout of the concert hall, there are not really that many good
seats (at least as far as view is concerned).
Acoustically our seat is okay, we were able to hear different parts of
the orchestra clearly.
According to the Program, the inspiration of the two
Mendelssohn pieces came from his visit to Scotland in 1829, while The Hebrides
came out soon afterwards, the Scottish Symphony wasn’t completed until 12 years
later: Mendelssohn made a remark that he would never forget what the place
looked like (barren, rugged, unforgiving), and how the people acted
(unfriendly, drinking all the time.)
To my ears the two compositions sounded similar. The Hebrides last about ten minutes, and
portrays the bleakness of the Cave that Mendelssohn actually. My expectation having been set by what I have
read in the Program Notes, the music didn’t sound as bleak or desolate as I
would expect.
The Program contains a good description of the four
movements: (i) Andante con moto – Allegro un poco agitato; (ii) Vivace non
troppo; (iii) Adagio; and (iv) Allegro vivacissimo – Allegro maestoso
assai. Mendelssohn chose not to supply a
program for the music, so the listener needs to supply his own commentary and
to correlate different sounds with different phenomena.
Sandwiched between the two Mendelssohn pieces is the Elgar
composition. Elgar set to music the
following five poems, all related to the sea: (i) Sea Slumber Song by Roden
Noel; (ii) In Haven (Capri) by Caroline Alice Elgar; (iii) Sabbath Morning at
Seat by Elizabeth Barrett Browning; (iv) Where Corals Lie by Richard Garnett;
and (v) The Swimmer by Adam Lindsay Gordon.
Elgar suggested that “it is better to set the best second-rate poetry to
music, for the most immortal verse is music already.” And he was true to form here: the only poet I
knew from the group is Browning. In
Haven (Capri) was written by his wife.
The songs were first performed by Clara Butt who was dressed
in a way that suggested a sinuous mermaid.
Interesting, and appropriate; except today’s performer Stotijn was
dressed in a way that would take more imagination that I have to evoke any
images of the sea. Her voice was
generally weak, which can’t all be attributed to acoustics since we sat so
close. And the dynamic range was quite
limited, in this case always somewhere between mp and mf. Since I have heard some very strong
mezzo-sopranos, I don’t think it was a case of my ears not tuned to hear this
range (as appears to be the case with violas.)
The music overall was pleasant enough, so I didn’t feel like
I suffered through the 30 or so minutes of this work.
Van Zweden appeared to be much more clean cut than his
official portrait would look like. And
he isn’t tall like most of the Dutchmen I know.
It took me a while to reassure myself that it was indeed him
conducting. He certainly conducts with a
lot of energy, we could hear him grunt as he urged on the orchestra. Evidently he is a violinist, having been the
concertmaster of The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and will turn 52 later in
the month. He also leads the Dallas
Symphony.
Still, I must say calling this series of concerts (I don’t
know how many) Jaap’s Mendelssohn is a bit preposterous. To me, there should be something special
about the interpretation before one can so designate a performance. Despite my unfamiliarity with the music, I
can say definitely that there was nothing special about the performance,
pleasant as it was. I see in the Program
there is an upcoming “Jaap’s Mahler.”
One probably cannot become a conductor without a huge ego, but one also
needs to know in what echelon of conductors one belongs.
I have said quite a few times that I am quite impressed with
the level of playing of the Hong Kong Philharmonic. And today’s performance did not change that
overall opinion. However, the program
may also test the limit of their capability.
In my experience, even if you sit close to an orchestra – as I have done
on several occasions – the individual sections still sound like one voice. One will have to listen carefully if one is
to pick up a specific player’s playing.
The end of the Scottish Symphony calls for rapid runs from the
orchestra, and I certainly could hear several different first violins, without
straining my ears to do so. Not as bad
as my recent New Jersey Symphony experience, but certainly surprising.
Since I am in a critical mood, let me take up the Program
Notes, written by a Dr. Marc Rochester (I guess Program Annotators have egos
also). The two Mendelssohn write-ups
were by-and-large uncorrelated, it is as if he wrote them on two separate
occasions and didn’t bother to do any edit for the evening. It would have been much more informative if
he had taken some time to describe the two pieces together, in the context of
Mendelssohn’s visit to Scotland.
Overall it was an enjoyable concert, and I am glad I
went. I just expected a perfect evening,
that’s all.
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