Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra – Lorin Maazel conductor. November 2, 2013.

Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall.  Balcony (Seat E64, HK$480.)

Program

Siegfried Idyll by Wagner.

The Ring Without Words by Wagner (arr. Maazel.)

I stumbled onto this event earlier this week.  While having lunch with George and Mana Leung we talked about ½ price tickets for seniors, and they expressed some interest in coming.  So the ticket I got was for full price, and we also got four half-price tickets (the other two for Stephen and Ruth), which is really a good deal.  If you are into Wagner, that is.

After many years and multiple concerts, my appreciation for Wagner has increased considerably.  And I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to see how Maazel is doing since he left New York Philharmonic several years ago – I think I missed the several times he returned.  Having just sang praises to Singapore Symphony and knocking the country as a cultural desert at the same time, I wanted to do a quick comparison also.

I wasn’t disappointed.  For the most part, anyway.

With a title like “Siegfried Idyll” I naturally thought the piece was excerpted from the Ring, particularly so as many scenes where Siegfried appears are rather idyllic.  And that is quite wrong.  Turns out Wagner had a son with the former Cosima van Bulow named Siegfried, and this piece was written to celebrate his birth.  When premiered, it was played on the staircase inside Wagner’s house.  That explained why the ticket had the notation “1^st piece will be performed at Foyer” on it: the intent was to replicate that first performance.  It was written for an ensemble of thirteen instruments; and it didn’t quite work this evening.  I think the major reason is the foyer of the Cultural Center is cavernous, which would produce a sound effect very different from a much more intimate household setting.  There was no way to balance the strings (one player for each part) with the woodwinds and brasses.  Perhaps by putting the string players at the lower end of the staircase instead of the upper landing would give them some acoustic support; as it was the strings were often drowned out by the other instruments.  The piece itself sounded as one expect: soft and pleasant melodies, no climaxes to speak off (you don’t want to wake up the baby!), and more traditional harmony-wise.  If it was leitmotif based, I certainly didn’t get it.

One could also reasonably conclude the HKPO has gone overboard with being international.  Of the thirteen players, only the two violins and the viola were Chinese (Hong Kong or Mainland), the other ten were non-Asians.  Turns out most of the string players in the full orchestra were Asian, and the woodwind, brass, and percussion sections were split.  There were also three harps, but I couldn’t tell given where we sat.

After having seen the Ring cycle several times, I have a reasonably good grasp of the leitmotifs and the story.  And the Program Notes contains good synopses of the operas and description of the adaptation, so for me it was reasonably easy to stay on track – I still got lost every now and then.

I am sure I have heard this piece before, but couldn’t find a reference of it in my blog, so I am either mistaken, or I did hear it a long time ago.  In any case, I knew it was an “abridged Ring” in that the adaptation tells the story of the Ring.  Perhaps someone who knows the story would love it, I wasn’t sure how a first time Wagner listener would react.  I thought the music acquitted itself very well in that regard also.  It hangs together musically, and there is a narrative if you care to find it.

The orchestra is huge (around 100 musicians) with particularly large woodwind, brass, and percussion sections.  So it could be deafeningly loud sometimes.  Some good (bad?) examples are the Nibelungs forging on anvils, and the makeshift hammer blow when Fafner killed Fasolt.  They certainly performed well, most of the time.  Towards the end they seemed to have lost some concentration (understandable, but not quite excusable) but they got back on track at the end.  I found myself moved by the music, especially by some episodes such as Siegmund and Sieglinde meeting together, Brunnhilde talking to Wotan before her punishment, and the immolation scene with the constant timpani drum beat.

The audience certainly applauded enthusiastically and Maazel took several well-deserved bows.  At the last one he grabbed the Concertmaster’s hand, not to shake it, but to lead him and the orchestra offstage, which I thought was quite funny.

The snobbish in me didn’t think too many people would appreciate the performance.  The snobbish in me was proven correct:  I was disappointed at the number of empty seats.  The program was also played Friday, I wonder how that went.  I must admit Hong Kong still deserves its reputation as a cultural desert.

One minor thing about the program notes.  It bills the two pieces at 18 minutes and 70 minutes; in actuality they lasted just under 25 and 80 minutes respectively.

One realizes that an orchestra that can do Wagner well is only a small part of being able to put on an actual Ring cycle.  If I were the cultural minister of Hong Kong, I would want to take that up as a challenge.  Since I am not (I am not even sure such a position exists), I will just look at that possibility with some degree of hope and amusement.

And Maazel?  He looked the same as I remembered him, with his economical style of conducting.  He seemed to lean on the guard rail a bit more, and walked a little slower.  But he was as animated (not quite the right term) as before.  I thought he had an appropriate energy level for someone in his 70s: he is 83.  I have always been a fan.  I wish him well.