G. B Shaw at the Podium?

I look forward to Saturdays. The thought of the kind of delight I may sample in the evening at the Cultural Centre is often an enjoyment all by itself. I am seldom disappointed. Last night was no exception. 

It was an all classicial program. We had two works by Haydn: his Symphony No. 98 in B flat and also his Sinofonia Concertante in B flat and then one of the most popular works by Mozart, his Symphony No. 40 in G minor. 

The No. 98 was part of what some have called his London symphonies. After the death of his patron Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, he moved to Vienna after 30 years and thence to London where he promised writing a number of works for his patron including an opera and 6 symphonies. Symphony No. 98 was the fifth in the series, written in 1792. It was in commemoration of the death of his good friend Mozart and he used certain of the motifs of Mozart's Symphony No. 41. It was the first time he used the B flat horn with the timpani and to please the English, he used a theme from the English national anthem in the slow second movement upon which he played some variation. In the third movement, he used a menuet, giving the a very light hearted lilting feel in a kind of trio. But I like the last movement best. It has a very upbeat Presto rhythm and ended in an explosion of joy.

The next piece was the Sinfonia Concertante, which is a type of music intermediate between a quartet and a full symphony with parts for violin, cello, oboe and bassoon, played respectively by Jorja Fleezani, of the Minnesota Orchestra and U of Minnesota's School of Music, U of California, Juillard School etc, who doubled up as guest concert master; our own Richard Bamping, Michael Wilson and Benajmin Moermond. All of them were excellent. The piece was full of verve, as one solo instrument after another competed for attention with its own variation of the main theme and with full support for the baroque size orchestra. The main theme is endlessly repeated but always never quite the same. It was another happy piece.

The final piece was a Mozart favourite. I don't think it's possible that anyone who likes classical music could have failed to have listened to it before. Ton Koopman kept the orchestra small just like the time when it was performed in Mozart's time. The piece was completed in late July 1788, just one year before the French revolution. The first two movements are in typical sonata form whilst the third took the form of a menuet and he reverted back to the sonata form in the fourth and final movement. The first movement was lively and elegant, the second a bit sad, the third reverted to restrained delight and the final a wonderful blast of undiluted joy. I like it although some of my friends said it lacked just that little sparkle which they have come to expect from Mozart's music. They were expecting the kind of sound from Europa Galante of Fabio Biondi. But to me, it is good to listen to a new treatment of a familiar piece. 

What delighted me most during the concert was the obvious joy Ton Koopman took in playing the music. He would march on to the platform and walked about in his big energetic steps and when he conducted, you could see the back of his long head with closely cropped dark hair mottled with white bobbing up and down in abrupt motions, his shoulders all hunched up, with his arms in almost mechanical up and down movements and moving always with great verve. And when he acknowledged our appreciative applauses, he would hold both his arms up towards particular sections of the orchestra and let them stay there high above his head for half a minute, constantly making lifting motions with his hand and fingers in a kind of permanent welcoming gesture in the air to ask the relevant members to stand up to share in the glory, as if he were opening his arms to God. When he turned around, I thought for a moment that I was seeing the ghost of George Bernard Shaw suddenly making a guest appearance of the Cultural Centre Concert Hall under false pretenses as Ton Koopman! I love him for his almost comical and child-like enthusiasm for what he was doing. Somehow, it made the music far more enjoyable. Perhaps enthusiasm is infectious! I have nothing to say about the performance of the HKPO except that it's uniformly excellent. It's an infinitely malleable orchestra. Everything depends on the conductor. Another very satisfying musical evening indeed. I'm so grateful.