An All German Affair (日爾曼之音)

Saturday evening is always something I eagerly look forward to. I can meet my concert friends, update the latest in our lives and enjoy music and sometimes share some snacks and drinks together somewhere afterwards. This week, we had an all German programme under a German born guest conductor Andreas Delfs.

With music from three composers of very different temperaments from the start to the end of the 19th century , I already had some premonition of what was to come. The first, Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks was by Richard Strauss (1864-1949), that master of orchestration. Eulenspiegel is an adventurous trickster who bumped, bullied, and fooled around from episode to episode wherever he happened to be. As I listened to the music, with its abrupt changes of style and mood, now comical, now mock-serious, now romantic, now weird and always surprising, I had the image of a cunning fellow in Medieval costume running around quaint old Europe playing practical jokes on the aristocratic ladies in stately mansions or common craftsmen or just plain ordinary folks in taverns or the busy market streets or village fair, exposing their hypocrisy, their greed and their folly and then quickly disappearing amongst the crowd until he couldn't stand the humdrum boredom of every day life any more and starts another round of his "merry pranks" again. I could almost "see" his unpredictable and sometimes jerky motions amidst the simplified but sprightly colored figures of a Disney cartoon film as I was listening to this bright and burlesque-like symphonic poem.

The second piece was another favourite of many people, the eternally pleasing Violin Concerto in E minor. Op 64 of Mendelssohn (1809-1847), written by him in 1844 played for us by the young and energetic looking Tokyo born, Montreal & New York raised Karen Gomyo, who appeared in the eye-catching bare back red-evening gown featured in the Programme Notes. The piece in Allegro molto appassionato, Andante, Allegretto non troppo-Allegro molto vivace started with the violin right from the start. As the programme note says it's "full of rich, lyrical melodies" especially the delicious theme of the second movement. It's a piece full of life, vigor, light, joy and passion though not without tenderness but always a bit restrained, with nothing in excess. Gomyo was an excellent performer, full of vigor and energy and sensitivity but I don't know why, her violin sounded a bit too tight in certain passages. An excellent performance overall. As encore, she gave us a Bach (?) piece, the name of which I don't now recall, showcasing her technical finesse and interpretation skill.

The final piece of the evening was Robert Schumann's Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op 120 which was written before his third but rewritten by him a decade after it first appeared. It is said that in the piece, Schumann wanted to portray his dearly beloved wife Clara with flutes, oboes and harp. In a way, it's a very simple symphony with a few basic themes which keep repeating by different sections of the orchestra. I like in particular its second movement with its very powerful and forceful motif, played by the entire orchestra, throwing its full might into three notes the effect of which resonates in one's mind long after its appearance and which keeps being repeated from time to time and followed immediately thereafter by a very soft and tender passage making a most dramatic contrast. I suppose that's what the whole symphony is all about: its dramatic contrast. Bravo, HKPO under Delfs !