National Concert
Hall, Taipei. Fourth floor, Row 12, Seat
26 (NT$320.)
Program:
Symphonic Poem Series – An Orchestral Spectacular
Symphonia
Domestica, Op. 53 by Richard Strauss (1864-1949).
Violin Concerto,
Op. 77 by Brahms (1833-1897).
The CKS Memorial is flanked by the National Theatre (left) and the National Concert Hall.
The huge stage of the National Concert Hall is dominated by the pipe organ.
My sister, her
husband, and I are visiting Taiwan for a couple of days. While having dinner at the food court at
Taipei 101, I browsed the web and noticed that this concert was on at 7:30 pm. I said goodbye to them and took the short
subway ride to the concert hall, getting there at about 7:10 pm. As I walked to the box office area, a group
of young students said they got an extra group ticket which they got at 20% group discount. At first I wanted to get a
better seat, but relented after a while.
Turns out the seat was located at the last row of the rather cavernous
concert hall, and I was among a large group of high school music students.
The concert hall
has been around since the late 80s, and I had seen but not visited it on many prior
visits to Taipei. While large, it seats
a surprisingly small number of people – about 2000. The seats are large and quite
comfortable. This is the first concert
hall I ever visited that I could rest my head against the back of the
seat. Attendance was only so-so, with
many seats empty at our level. I couldn’t
see the orchestra level too well, but there were quite a few empty seats in the first few rows that I did see. Not good.
In my rush to
get to my seat, I didn’t have time to get a program. (I did get one during the intermission, and
it cost NT$30.) But being the Strauss "expert" (after all, I visited Garmisch recently) that I am, I remember this as “a day in the lives of the Strausses” kind
of tone poem, and that there would be baby crying and being calmed, Strauss’s
wife scolding someone, and a romantic episode where more babies are expected to
be conceived. Turns out it’s not that
far from what is in the Program Notes.
What I missed were the details, and the introduction of the baby’s aunts
and uncles. The Program Notes also
mentions the father as having the last word – naturally – in the triumphant
closing bars.
The word "expert" was properly enclosed in quotes as I don’t remember any of the
music. I am not creative enough to supply
a narrative even though I knew the composition of the main characters. The Notes devotes a whole page to outline the
music, complete with whom the specific instruments represent. Given how complex
it reads, I am not sure I would have been able to follow along even if I had
had the program in front of me.
This is my first
encounter with the venue and the orchestra, so I can’t quite decide how good
they are. The acoustics as heard from the
last row certainly was good, but that tends to be the case as the sound gets
funneled by the relatively low ceiling. The stage is huge, there was still lots of
floor space left with over 100 musicians on stage. An organ occupies the entire width of the stage. Somehow I think the sound may come across
crispier if they had put panels between the orchestra and the organ – of course
the stage wouldn’t look as impressive with the organ blocked from view. The orchestra certainly got all the mechanics
right, but the performance didn’t bowl me over with how good the story was
being told. In their defense Strauss isn’t
easy for this “expert” to grasp.
After the
intermission I found myself an empty seat in the second row, which has a much
better view of the stage.
Baiba Skride is
a 33-year old, Latvian-born violinist who currently lives in Germany. She plays the ‘Ex Baron Feilitzsch’
Stradivarius (1734) loaned to her by Gidon Kremer. While the Program lists some impressive
conductors and orchestras she has worked with, this was my first encounter of
her performance.
The Brahms
violin concerto is easy to like, and this performance is no exception. While not unexpected, I was still
disappointed by the poorer acoustics at the closer-in seat, and had trouble at
times picking out the solo violin.
Skride had some minor problems with intonation, but put in an overall
enjoyable and virtuoso performance. The violin's lower
registers sounded better than the higher registers, which is unusual for a
Strad. She also played a short piece as
an encore.
The concert
lasted a bit over two hours.
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