Another Surprise from the HKPO

I have always loved Beethoven. Together with Mozart, he is one of my two musical heroes.  Strong, irascible, uncompromising, a bit uncouth but full of vitality and musical creativity and because of the defect in his personality and in his social graces, or the lack thereof, so human. I believe he lacked social graces not because he did not know how to behave properly in genteel society but because the creative fire inside him was burning with such intensity and he was in such a hurry to pour out his raging passions into compositions and performance that he simply did not have time for the niceties of "normal" social etiquette. Unlike Mozart, his creations did not come easily to him. He had to work day and night and endlessly write and rewrite, fine tune and polish them over and over again until they became presentable and acceptable to himself. And he was not easily satisfied. And it tells in his symphonies. How hard the timpanist of his symphonies had to work. His music would suddenly stop. An uncertain silence would hang in the air. And suddenly, the timpani strikes. And the music could continue. He uses this technique over and over again. If one should be forced to summarize his musical contribution to the symphony in one word, that word would the "timpani". It might even be argued that at his climaxes and mini-climaxes, he turrned the entire orchestra into one giant multi-shaped and multi-toned timpani! That might be why in his time, his work was criticized as barbaric. He had exceeded all bounds of social and musical propriety. With his timpanis, he heralded in a new era; the era of romanticism. But not only did he break with tradition in the frequent resort to the timpani to express the force of his emotions, he also broke with the conventional musical form. He gave the sonata form a completely new face and some completely new uses: in his symphonies.On Wednesday evening, I had the chance to hear him again. I was not sorry. The programme of the HKPO that evening was a bit unusual: two of Beethoven's symphonies, his first and his last: a veritable mini Beethoven feast. . And in his last symphony, Beethoven felt that the normal range of musical instruments of the "normal" orchestra would not be sufficient to express the full range of his emotions. He resorted to one final instrument, an instrument which in fact had been the very first musical instrument and the prototype of all other musical sound: the human voice. And what use did he put it to! It was another first and Mahler, was perhaps the last to follow in his footsteps?

 

Beethoven was just 14 years Mozart's junior. Yet they could not have been more different. To me, Mozart is bit like the Chinese poet Li Bai (李白) and Beethoven a bit like Du Fu (杜甫). Mozart still belonged to what has been called the classical age, with counterpoints, balance, restraints etc. But he introduced a lyrical quality into the music: a kind of innocent and undiluted delight which he somehow intuitively managed to find in life and which he celebrated with his music: as a kind of non-human (but in his operas, also totally human) song. There was a lightness, an almost  dancing quality in his music which one seldom finds in Beethoven. With Beethoven, you find seriousness of purpose, a kind of earnestness which you don't find in Mozart. To me, Beethoven's music is literally "massive". He would use so many instruments together to express his emotions and sometimes, I find that Beethoven treats the strings not as smooth sliding, gliding, silvery and velvelty  sounds but almost as if they were percussive instruments which the players would need to hit, to strike. And you hear this trade-marked massiveness of Beethoven's sound even in his first symphony in C  major (the royal note to which almost all sound must return) . You never hear that kind of sound in any of Mozart's symphonies. There are such contrasts in Beethoven's symphonies. He would make use of the flute, the oboe, clarinet, the horn, and some strings and sometimes even the cello to start a theme or a motif which the whole orchestra would respond to sometimes playing along with and sometimes playing against it but always with a massiveness of sound which often ends with a definitive "chopping off " as if it had been cut by some huge sonic "axe". The No. 1, which was written when Beethoven was 29(!)  was scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 horns , 2 bassons, 2 trumpets and 5 string sections and of course, the ubiquitous timpani. And right from the fall of the baton, Beethoven stated his main theme in three massive chops. And then the themes are developed, repeated in codas and on and on until it ends,  always with a "bang". In this symphony, Beethoven used the sonata form in the lst, 2nd and 4th movement and used a Menuet for the 3rd movement. There is almost no prelude/introduction  leading in to the developing theme. I do not know why, somehow, I felt that the HKPO was not entirely in form when they started playing this piece ( or was it me?) but it got better and better as it developed. I felt that some of the passages of the first movement could certainly have been played with a less forceful sound. As it was, it felt extremely macho!

 

The highlight of the evening was of course, the 4th movement of Beethoven's No.9. in D minor, scored for 2 flutes, two obes, 2 clarinets, 4 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 cor anglais, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, 2 timpanis, drum cymbal and tubular bell, 2 harps and 5 string sections with 24 violins, 10 violas and 12 cellos and double basses (in Presto and Allegro Assai and 4/4 rhythm. ). I don't think that it is possible that anybody would not have heard of Beethoven's musical rendition of Schiller's Ode to Joy. Beethoven's No. 9 really does not need much introduction. It is famous not without good reason. It is simply magnificent. But I don't think it would have been so magnificent if the HKPO under de Waart (welcome back!) but for the help the HKPO got from that wonderful wonderful Shanghai Opera House Choir under Martin Wright, which I heard for the very first time the night before last. My friend Mr Chu, the boss of Pro Sound in Central said to me after the concert, whilst we were having our usual "after dinner snack" that even if we did not hear anything else that night, hearing that Beethoven's No. 9's fourth movement alone would have been sufficient to make our evening. I can't agree with him more. I do not know whether those who appeared in their very smart uniforms that evening comprised their full number but whether or not it was, they were perfect despite their number. The sound they produced were so synchronized and so vibrant. And they sang with their heart. I could not believe my ears. They were so powerful. And not mechanically so too. I'm so grateful to them. I haven't heard such a good choir for a long time, except on DVD of course. But when you hear it live, it's a completely different story. Not even the best hi fi in the world can ever hope to match a live perfomance, when you can see the choristers, their faces and other details of their body language as they sang right there in front of you. The only thing which separated you from their magnificent sound was the intervening space which was vibrating at that very moment with the sound of their voices, along with those coming from the orchestra. The solos were sung by Susan Bullock  (soprano), Simon O'Neill (tenor) Ning Liang (mezzo-soprano) and Eike Wilm Schulte (bass) excellent singers all. You can hear the earnestness and the eagerness of their joy and their desire for the eternal, in the splendour of unity between Nature and man. It became so palpable, so real, so true. It was glorious. Even now as I write, the sound I heard two nights ago is still reverberating or vibrating inside my brain and I feel I am so fortunate to be able to relive a little, albeit with less intensity, the emotions they evoked in me that evening. Beethoven is simply magnificent. So was the Shanghai Opera House Choir. So was Edo de Warrt.   Thank you all.