A Wonderful Close to another Year of Music

Every year, there's a New Year Concert in Vienna. We've got our own too, but one day ahead,  the New Year's Eve. It's two nights ago. But even as I am writing the melodies and the rhythms of the music that evening are still resounding in my ears. I remember the handclapping of the audience along with the music, now louder, and now softer in accordance with the hand signal from the tall lanky young conductor in a close fitting swallow tail from Australia, Benjamin Northey. We had pieces mostly from the Strauss family: Johann Strauss II, Eduard Strauss and Johann Strauss I with other pieces by Lehár, Suppé. Hellmesberger, Heuberger etc. Not only do we have waltzes and polka, we also had singing pieces like German's Tom Jones: for Tonight, Heuberger's Der Openball: Im Chambre séparé, Delibes' Les Filles de Cadix and Lehár's Giuditta: Meine Lippen, sie kussen so heiB. The songs were sung by a most vivacious and high-spirited soprano from Australia, Rachelle Durkin. She is tall, and slim, has short 1930's  hair done in the period style and she appeared in the first and second half of the programme in two different dresses, a simple blue dress in the first and a red gauze like one with plenty of folds in the second, both bare shoulders.  

From the programme notes, Northey studied conducting with John Hopkins at the U of Melbourne, graduated with lst class honors in performance, then did a Master's degree in conducting and then went to study with the Finnish maestro Jorma Panula and then did master classes with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra and then for three years at the Sibelius Academy Orchestral Course in Helsinki under Leif Sergerstam and Atso Almila and then won prizes which enabled him to understudy at the London Philharmonic and Philarmonia Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnanyi and Vladimir Jurowski. He has since conducted various Australian state orchestras, Melbourne Symphony etc and one such operas as L'Elisir d'amore and the Tales of Hoffmann.

From the Strauss family, we had J Strauss II's Die Fiedermau: Overture and Mein Herr Marquis, Egyptisher Marsch Op 335, Weiner Blut, Op 354, An der Schönen, bluen Danau and from J Strauss I, we had the famous Radetzky Marsch, Op 228 and Josef Strauss's Ohne Sorgen! Polka schnell Op. 271.

The moment I entered the hall, I could already sense a  certain festive atmosphere. There were red flowers stage front, yellow ribbons circling the the horizontal bar on top of the metal railing of conductor's rostrum, around the vertical arm of the harp to the left of the stage, the wooden frame of the tubular bells, the neck of the double basses, violins etc. And some of the musicians entered with white carnations upon the lapels of their suit jackets, just like t young conductor. 

All the pieces played on Saturday night were popular pieces and had been favourites of the New Year Concert in Vienna. They are romantic, lively, humorous, with strong rhythms of waltzes, polkas, marches and were full of fun to play and the audience was invited to clap their hands in some of the pieces, thus adding an enormous sense of intimacy, fun and partipation, making the experience one of unity in rhythms and joy. We must really thank both Austalian artists, Ben and Rachelle.They really put their heart and soul into the music and genuinely wanted to make the occasion one of coomunal celebration in and through music. Ben spoke a few words in Cantonese which he had just learned which he pronounced with typical English accent: "Dorr Scheh" and at the end of the concert "Sun Nin Fai Lok" but like so many Europeans and even some Chinese, got the tone wrong. Rachelle was a real star. When she sang, she was full of expressions, gestures and would walk around on and even down the stage and in the song Mein Her Marquis, she actually came down, selected an old gentleman sitting at the aisle seat on 5th or 6th row and held his hand and sang to him as if he were her lover during the performance, much to the surprise and delight of the audience and in the end gave him a kiss. In one of the numbers, she danced some 10 bars or so of the waltz with the conductor before allowing him to go back to the rostrum and she was throwing kisses all round, to the conductor, the first violinist and flying kisses to the audience after each song she sang to the rapturous audience. She was an excellent actress and would probably be great as an opera singer. In fact, she had already appeared as the First Handmaiden in Sly, as Clorinda in Generentola, Young Girl and Naked Virgin in Moses and Aaron, Berena in Jenufa, Teresa in Benvenuto Cellini, Konstanze in Die Enfulrung aus dem Serail, Marsha in Pique Dame, Elvira in L"Italiana in Algeri and First Flower Maiden in Parcifal , Gilda in Rigoletto, Alcina and Anglica in Orlando, Firodiligi in Cosi fan Tutte etc.

It was one of the most enjoyable concerts of the year and an unforgettable experience in more senses than one. The applauses were long and enthusiastic and entirely well deserved and the HKPO gave a wonderful performance and its members even sang in one of the pieces. But it was extremely difficult to get out because when I left, the whole of the area around the Cultural Centre was already packed with young people sitting on the ground waiting to see the fireworks display, playing their electronic games, listening to their MPs, eating or chatting. Originally, I intended to take the MTR but since the police were already asking us to take a detour to reach the Tsimshatsui MTR station, I and one of our friends decided we would not join Mr Chu in the after concert snack and went in the direction of the Star Ferry. But I got stuck without being able to move an inch for about 10 minutes. So was my friend and we got separated by the milling crowd. After that, I realized that there was absolutely no possibility of my ever reaching the ferry and I turned back, said a thousand "excuse me"s before being able to go back into Canton Road where entirely by accident, I witnessed a confrontation between 4 young men and 6 to 7 policemen. I was then walking behind the reinforcing policemen and intervened by telling the young people not to be so violent in their language and upset because their original purpose was to come out to have some fun and I also persuaded the police to let the young men go because the latter probably did not have time to think through what they were saying before the abusive words left their lips. Luckily, all listened to me. I was so happy to be able to prevent the escalation of this brewing conflict: my good deed for the last day of the year. I did not arrive home until after I heard the count down to midnight at a bar near to where I am living!