H.K. Cultural
Centre Concert Hall. Stalls 1 (Seat A19,
$160.)
Program – Radio 4
Live! A Birthday Celebration
Commentaries
(first performance) by Richard Tsang.
-
Kathy
Lam and Jonathan Douglas, narrators.
Percussion
Concerto by Joseph Schwantner (b. 1943).
Symphony no. 9
in E minor, op. 95, From the New World by Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904).
Anne and I were
visiting Hong Kong for a few days, and our friend David L was also in
town. I found out about the concert by
looking at the HK Phil website, and David went ahead and bought 3 tickets (with
senior discount) for the evening. David
and I met up late afternoon, Anne joined us for dinner, and we then went to
this concert together. Our seats were in
the first row of the auditorium. I would
have preferred a seat in an area that gave a better view of the stage, but all
things considered, they were okay.
My recent
reviews of the Hong Kong Philharmonic were enthusiastic, and it is for this orchestra that I coined the phrase “the orchestra deserves a better
audience.” Unfortunately after tonight’s
performance, that assessment is now subject to review. I hope it was a glitch (or combination of
glitches) that caused this revision in my opinion, but only future concerts
will tell.
Frankly the
program wasn’t all that interesting. It
began with two esoteric pieces: one by a local composer writing to commemorate
the 40th anniversary of RTHK Radio 4, and one a percussion concerto
premiered in 1995 at the New York Philharmonic.
With Dvorak’s New World on the program, I at least expected to get some
enjoyment out of the evening.
What went wrong? Not much,
actually. However, nothing went that “right”
either.
First the
commemorative piece. In all the program
listings of works by living composers I see dates of birth for the
composers. Not so with Mr. Tsang. I didn’t look carefully, since it wasn’t
worth my time to do so, only the German wiki entry in the search results gave
his birthday as 1952, making him a tad over sixty. This wasn’t that original a piece either, as
he took the piece he wrote 10 years ago (naturally for the orchestra’s 30th
anniversary) and embellished it with some extra material and the addition of
two narrators. To illustrate the depth
of the work, let me quote the last few lines of the composer’s (in this case
the author’s) poem (or is it prose) called “The Chant:” Differences enable
CHANGE, Changes define TIME, And TIME defines EXISTENCE. (But what if TIME doesn’t really exist?) Mixed in this brilliant poem (to the causal
reader of the blog, I am being sarcastic) are quotes from various people ranging
from Dr. Seuss (Don’t cry because it’s over – Smile, because it happened) to
Friedrich Nietzsche (Invisible threads are the strongest ties.)
Typing this a
week later, I recall very little of the music other than it wasn’t
unbearable. Which may be a compliment
after all. And if I happen to be in Hong
Kong ten years from now, and am still in the concert-going mood, I probably won’t
let the next version deter me from going to a concert, provided that it is kept to about the same
duration of 12 minutes. Radio 4 used to
be an all-classical radio station. It is
now labeled as a “classical music and fine arts” station.
The only aspect
that I distinctly remember is the lady narrator’s voice. She spoke mostly the Chinese portion of the
narration, and her voice kept reminding me of the women that would dub various
TV programs (such as Bonaza) into English when I was growing up in Hong
Kong. She is too young to be doing it
then; but perhaps like broadcasters she was trained to speak in a certain way. The composer also came out for the curtain call.
It is so much
easier to make complaints as I also have a lot to say about the percussion
concerto. It is great that the
percussionist can occasionally be made into the soloist. I remember as a young boy being very
impressed with what drummers (pop music at that) could do with their sets. However, 30 minutes of that is just too
much. The concerto is in three movements:
Con forza – ‘In Memoriam:’ Misterioso – Ritmico con brio (with restrained
energy) con forza. It was commissioned
by the New York Philharmonic and premiered by Richard Lamb, who remains with
the orchestra to this day.
During the first
movement, the soloist played together with other percussionists. For the second movement, written as a
memorial to Schwantner’s fellow composer Stephen Albert, the soloist stood in
the front. He continued to shake the
(for lack of a better name) salt shakers as he moved to the back for the third
movement. The instruments I could see
(and listed in the program notes) were a vibraphone (played with mallets and
with a contrabass bow), a rack of nine Almglocken, a high-octave set of
crotales (played with beaters and with a bow), two triangles, two cymbals, a
water gong (a tam-tam lowered into a large kettledrum – in this case just a
regular plastic container – filled with water), a concert bass drum, and a
tenor drum. Indeed the Program Notes
contains a detailed description of the music, but it didn’t help.
I subscribe to
the view that any craft at its best is impressive. Again that must be revised after today. Taking away nothing from how difficult the
piece is, I wasn’t impressed. And why
else would someone write such a piece? I
enjoyed it for 10 minutes or so, and then it sounded repetitive bordering on boring despite the
different timbres and pitches provided by the huge set of instruments.
Li played an
encore written by his friend I vaguely recall had something to do with jazz and
blues. Surprisingly he doesn’t have a
gig with a symphonic orchestra but does solo recitals and heads up a group of
percussionists.
I hadn’t seen
(nor heard of) Lawrence Foster before.
He is 73 years old, born in Los Angeles, and since 2013 owns the city of Marseille as leader of both
the Opera Company and Philharmonic Orchestra. After the first half of the program, all I
could conclude was that he was a meticulous time-keeper. I did not see any evidence he was trying to
shape the music at all.
It takes a lot
to butcher the New World Symphony. And
the orchestra didn’t. The symphony is
easy to enjoy, and I enjoyed it. Not
without misgivings, though. The many
folk tunes make it a natural vehicle to tell a story, and one could envision
the scenes that go with the movements.
Such attentive listening inevitably would make one cringe as the
orchestra muddled through some passages.
Perhaps this is
an example to prove that the conductor matters?
I am sure the Hong Kong Philharmonic could have done a much better job
with the music (even the first half), or at least I fervently hope so.
Today’s
attendance was atrocious. A generous
estimate would be 50% of the seats were filled.
This reminds me of the time that they put out a program called “Russian
Shakespeare” which probably scared a lot of people away. Time to go back to the basics?
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