HK Cultural
Center Concert Hall. Balcony (Seat H70,
HK$380).
Program
swallow harbor
(2017) by Tao (b. 1994).
Symphony No. 6
(Tragic) (1904) by Mahler (1860-1911).
This is an
ambitious concert. HK Philharmonic
evidently has this composer-in-residence program, with Conrad Tao being the
current (or recent) incumbent. swallow
harbor was to have its world premiere in tonight’s concert. There was no typo: the title is in lower
case, and it’s not harbour. The latter
probably is due to Tao’s being born and educated in the United States. As to why the title is in lower case, I find
no explanation for it.
The even more
ambitious undertaking was Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, known among other things for
its length (many recordings are 90 minutes, tonight’s performance was 75) and
the two sledge-hammer blows in the last movement. It calls for a huge complement of
instruments, requiring many extras for its performance.
I must give
great credit for van Zweden and HK Phil for pulling this off. Perhaps recognizing these works are not every
one’s cup of tea, there was only one performance. The concert hall was more full than usual,
but one could still find smatterings of empty seats.
On the other
hand, the concert was a bit of a disappointment. What I don’t know is if it was absolute, or
was due to my very high expectations of the orchestra. As with most assessments, it was most likely a combination of both factors.
We heard in
March a piece composed by Lera Auerbach, titled NYx: Fracture Dreams. It seems tonight’s piece was very much along
the same lines, only in this case the city is Hong Kong, and there are no
individual vignettes (for lack of a better term.) The composer did provide a description of the
music, from its start as a portrait of the city from an outsider’s perspective,
to the very end which Tao describes as “at a precarious place orbiting dazzling,
grotesque, and true.” As with some
recent contemporary pieces I heard, the piece started interestingly enough, but
soon deteriorated into what I would characterize as monotony: you get the impression the
composer tried to stretch 10 minutes of material into 15 minutes. I am impressed by the number of instruments
employed, and that Tao seemed to know how to make full use of each instruments
capabilities (e.g., harmonics on the violin.)
My remark with Auerbach’s piece was I wouldn't mind listening to it again;
for this piece I will have to seriously consider if I want to do it.
Again, the
composer is not well-known enough, and the piece is not good enough for such an
exotic or cute title. When I first saw
“swallow harbor” I thought the composer was referring to a harbor with many
swifts flitting about. The Chinese title
means “the harbor being consumed.” If Tao meant the latter, then he used poor English. Debussy called his work simply "La Mer" and let the music speak for itself.
Of Mahler’s ten (?)
symphonies, the Sixth is the one with the clearest program associated with
it. If we go by the Program Notes, that
is the case with the first (Allegro energico, ma non troppo) and the last
(Finale: Allegro moderato) movements.
The description of the middle two movements (Scherzo; Andante moderato)
is sparse. Evidently there is some
controversy as to what the correct order is for these two movements. In the two New York performances I heard, it
was Andante moderato/Scherzo. Today was
the reverse. Wonder how van Zweden would
do it with the New York Philharmonic: go with his take, or honor tradition.
The other subject of discussion among those who “know” is what the three
hammer blows signify. In conformance
with the “tragic” theme, it is reason to attribute the blows to death of Mahler’s
daughter, his forced departure from Vienna, and the diagnosis of a heart disease that eventually proved fatal. The only problem was these events occurred after
Mahler finished writing the music.
The first thing
one noticed was how large the ensemble was.
From memory: 8 horns, 12 cellos, two sets of timpani, 3 cymbals; the
percussion and wind sections comprise 46 musicians by my count. This was also the first time I noticed a
timpanist doubling as triangle and tam-tam players, and that there were
different ways to play a triangle – with the instrument hanging on a stand, or
held in the left hand. And pity those
musicians sitting in front of some loud instruments, I felt the need to cover
my ears sitting in the balcony. They did
have some shields behind them, but it still had to be very noisy the way the
brass and percussion were going.
The large orchestra after performing Mahler's Sixth Symphony. The "sledgehammer" (a wooden box) can be seen at the left rear part of the photo, behind the timpani sets and the tam-tam. I counted 46 percussion and wind players. Two harps and the celesta were out of view.
Even with a
large ensemble of strings, the balance was a bit off among the different
sections, with the strings sounding overwhelmed in many instances. This might be due to our being up in the
balcony, with the violinists’ backs towards us – the violin solos were weaker than I remembered from past concerts.
HK Philharmonic
has been quite aggressive in its repertoire, especially under van Zweden. For example, they are planning to do
in-concert performances of the entire Ring Cycle. Mahler’s Sixth is another example. And last time I heard them they had a premiere
performed by Yo-Yo Ma. The organization must be
congratulated for being able to put this program together; for this concert
they had to take on many extras and integrate them into the music-making.
However, as I mentioned earlier, I was
disappointed at how they performed. I
don’t know enough details about the symphony to say how it didn’t meet my
expectations, but I do know if a piece was well performed.
Not too long
into the performance it was obvious they could play the notes, but they couldn’t
tell the story. Mahler’s music typically
takes you on a tour of a vast landscape, unfolding individual vistas along the
way. What we got instead was disparate
sections that were strung together.
Instead of a masterpiece, we got an etude. This shortcoming applies to the Program
annotator as well, as mentioned above. Also, the sonata-form repetition described in his write-up didn't happen (as far as I could tell.)
Given its title
(although Mahler subsequently dropped it), one is biased towards hearing
tragedy in the music. However, I felt
the performance would be more appropriately described as comical. It wasn’t helped by how the “sledgehammer”
(for tonight a wooden box) was struck. I
can understand how it would take deliberate movements to make sure the timing
was correct, but it was a bit much when wood chips were flying all over the
place with the first hammer blow. And
the frequent raising and lowering of woodwinds reminded me of jazz bands.
There were many
bright spots, though. Some passages were
played very well, and led one to wonder “what could have been” had they been
able to maintain the same level of excellence.
And there were many impressive section players. Particularly worthy of note was the principal
horn, many of the soft horn solos sounded sublime. The other woodwind principals were also
impressive. It was interesting to see
how hard the bass clarinetist worked.
I do wonder if
the less-than-stellar performance was due to the conductor, or the
orchestra. There is a CD of van Zweden
conducting the Dallas Symphony, but it is unlikely I would buy it. It would be interesting to see if this will
be in the NY Phil program the next few years.
Despite all my
misgivings, if I have a chance to listen to HK Phil do this again, I
would. That may be more due to my
wanting them to succeed than I was blown away by this performance.
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