My first concert of after the Chinese New Year proved a rewarding one. We had two pieces both conducted by Jaap van Zweden who continued his very personal style of whipping up our HKPO into a very energetic performance.
The first piece of the evening was a most popular piece by Mozart(1756-1791), his Piano Concerto No.21 in C K 467 in Allegro maestoso, Andante in F major and Allegro vivace assai, which he completed in just under a month after his previous one in 1875, shortly after his admission as a Freemason. It's dream-like second movement, which is one of the most delightful and relaxing pieces of music ever written was immortalized by the the 1967 Swedish film Elvira Madigan by1967 Swedish film directed by Bo Widerberg it's a film about how a Danish tightrope dancer Hedvig Jensen working as the star attraction of her stepfather's travelling circus under the stage name of Elvira Madigan, recovered her identity as a human being, not just a circus performer. In the film, she ran away with Sixten Sparre, an army deserter who shared her dreams of finding himself. For a time they lived happily because they had each other, although neither money nor any future, selling such fish as they were able to catch in the Danish countryside but grim reality struck: they had no other viable option except death. The piano solo was done by the very talented 18-year-old Conrad Tao, now studying piano and violin at Columbia-Juillard School and learning composition at Yale He has a very forceful style. My friends said that that might not be Mozart's original intention. But to me, the score is just a bit of paper with musical notations upon it and whilst the composer's directions there should be given the greatest respect, the important thing is the music itself which can only come alive in its actual performance. The music is not just the sound. Its power resides not just in some vibrations of the the various musical instruments at different frequencies, at different rhythms and intensities but in what it does to the audience, in its power of evocation of their emotions, a co-creation which requires imagination both on the part of the performers and the audience There should be lots of room for "creative interpretation". Obviously, Conrad Tao's interpretation is not and should not be that of Maria Pires, nor of Lipatti's, nor of Horowitz etc To me, the artist should contribute his unique personality to its interpretation, otherwise, he becomes just a soul-less musical technician!.For me, his treatment might be a bit too heavy at certain passages, yet that's the way he is. And we should be grateful. As encore, he gave us one of Lizst's virtuoso pieces, which does fit his style very well.
Then we had Symphony No. 1 in D major by Gustav Mahler he second part of the evening's programme was Mahler(1860-1911)'s Symphony No.1 in
D, firrst described by himself as a tone poem and popularly known as the "Titan". in Langsonsam, Schleppend, Kräfttig
bewegt, doch nicht zu schell, Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen
and Stütmisch bewegt. Besides his innovative use of orchestral color,
the symphony began most unusually with just one A note played
sustainedly for some quite considerable time to simulate the awakening
of Nature, then there were some rustic dance themes, then a funeral
march theme etc. Some say that there are some biographical elements in
the music in that it describes a failed love affair of a young man in
the third movement contemplating death. But it's always more than that.
Music simply is not a prose narrative. It moves directly through its
sound and the suggestiveness of its sounds. Although the start of the
symphony by the HKPO sounded a bit "disconnected" to me, it became
better and better until the final movement which is absolutely
marvelous. As the programme note says, in the final movement, the music
rose from "Inferno to Paradise". I could feel the joy!
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