Masaaki Suzuki, Barnabas Helemen with the HKPO

Last week was unusual for three reasons. Not only did I have a mid-week break, I went to two concerts. The second concert took place at the City Hall on Saturday. This time, we had the HKPO again. It was a good concert but it could have been better. This was the consensus of all my friends. This was unusual too because the HKPO is my experience, an excellent orchestra. This time, it was  led by Masaaki Suzuki. I do not know if this drop in performance might or might not have anything to do with the fact that instead of having John Harding as its concertmaster, we had a new guest concertmaster Ryo Terakado. Our principal cellists Richard Bamping and Fang Xiaomu were also gone. One change is difficult enough for an orchcestra to adapt to in a short period of time, but two might simply be too much. I would imagine that inspiration by the concertmaster and/or the conductor is absolutely essential to the performance of an orchestra. Another possible reason might be lack of sufficient rehearsal time because of the mid-week break.

Whatever might have been the reason for this rare fall from its usual standards, we had a rather varied programme that evening. For the first part of the evening, we had Symphony No. 44 in E Minor of Haydn ( 'the Trauer")  and Mozart's Violin Concerto No.3 in G, k 216. The second part of the evening's programme was devoted entirely to Mendelssohn. We had his The Fair Melusina Op 32 and his Symphony No. 4 in A ("the Italian") Op. 90. 

Since not all the artists are familiar to the HK audience, I'll copy a few details from the Programme Notes. The new guest conductor Suzuki is a Bach and baroque music expert. He trained as an organist and harpischordist. He graduated at the Tokyo U of Fine Arts and Music with a degree in composition and organ performance, then studied the two instruments at the Sweelinck Conservatory, Amsterdam, is now teaching at the Tokyo University of the Arts and is visiting professor of choral conducting at the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music and conductor of the Yale Schola Cantroum and was awarded the The Knight's Cross of the Order of Merits by the Federal Republic of Germany in 2001.  In 1990, he founded the Bach Collegium Japan in 1990 and worked regularly with the Collegium Vocale Gent and the Freiburger Baroorchester, had recorded Bach's complete harpischord works and other choral and sacred cantatas for the BIS label having completed 40 volumes of them with the Bach Collegium Japan. 

Susuki's concertmaster Ryo Terakado was born in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, won 2nd prize in the all Japan Youth Musical Competition at 14, studied the violin, chamber music and conducting at the Toho Gakuen School of Music, was concertmaster of the Tokyo Philharmonic for 2 years, then studied barqoue violin at the Royal Conservatory in Hague and founded the Tokyo Baroque Trio (now called the Tokyo Barqoue) in 1987 with Christophe Rousset (harpichord) now substituted by Siebe Henstra  and Kaori Uemura (Viola de Gamba).  He taught the barqoue violin at the Paris Conservatory 1900-1992 and since 1991 at the Hague Royal Conservatory and has been a specially appointed professor at the Toho Gakuen School of Music since 2007. He is now concertmaster of La Petite Bande and Bach Collegium Japan.

Our violin soloist of the evening Barnabás Kelemen was born in 1978 in Budapest, entered the Franz Liszt Music Academy at 11, won lst prize at the International Violin Competition Indianapolis 2002 and was awarded the Sándor Végh Prize in 2001, Franz Liszt Prize in 2003 and the Rozsavolgyi Prize in 2003 and since 2005, has been professor at the Franz Liszt Music Academy at Budapest. He has appeared with such conductors as Maazel, Marriner, Janowski, Eotvos and Fishcher with such orchestras as the Royal Liverpool, Helsinki, Munich, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic orchestras and won a Diapason d'or for his recording of Brahm's Sonatas for Violin and Piano and the Grand Prix du Disque 2001 for his recordings of Liszt's complete works for violin and piano and had a DVD of the complete Violin Concerti of Mozart.

All the pieces played that evening were popular pieces. The first movement of the Hadyn's symphony was very lively, the second and third movements were a bit slow and sounded as if it were a courtly dance. It was so gentle and elegant as if one were seeing some 18th Century ladies, with their corsets, wigs, low cut, flowing dresses moving along in measured paces to the tune of the music on the polished dance floor under chandeliers in some German or French courts. But it came to a rousing ending in the last movement.

I like particularly Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony. It was so lively, especially the fourth and last movement which started at such a quick pace, with frequent calls and response from the horns and/or bassons and the orchestra.

The violin concerto by Kelemen whilst good, sounded a bit too stiff for me. Somehow, it didn't sound like Mozart. It seemed to lack that flow, that joy which one always finds in the music of Mozart. I do not know if it got anything to do with the fact that the soloist is a professor. He was dressed in a full swallow tail, wings and all and looked so formal. But I like the encore piece he played for us. I think it was one of Bach's Partitas. Perhaps the pressure of the concerto was gone and he could then play with relaxation and just played what he liked best. It was wonderful. Music is something very peculiar. So much depends on the state of mind of performer and the peculiar chemistry between him and the other musicians. Suzuki was good. He was completely dedicated. One could see that from the up and down motion of those beautifully silky and fine white hair which would fly up and down at the side of his head in perfect synchronization with the rhythm of the music but just a wee bit behind as he moved his head upon his narrow shoulders and tiny body, wrapped up within his taxedo. But as I said, the HKPO did not seem to be in top form and one could feel a certain lack of enthusiasm in its play. Not at all the HKPO that I knew. But from time to time, you do have to take some disappointment, I suppose. But could it be that we did not have a a baroque choir which Suzuki could use to display his unique talent?