An Anglo-German Affair (英德之戀)

It's been another very hectic week. So a strange sense of both relief and excitement washed over me when I stepped inside the foyer of the Cultural Centre last night not knowing exactly what I could expect but somehow sure that whatever it would be, it'd probably be something good.  When I set my eyes on the programme on the little table outside the entrance, I realized that it would be an all Anglo-German affairs. We'd have Britain's premier composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), a German who more or less adopted England as his home and the father of the modern symphony Franz Joseph Haydn (1732) and a Hungarian virtuoso pianist-composer who lived, loved and composed in Germany, Franz Liszt (1811-1886) and the soloist and conductor for the last's two concertos are both English: Stephen Hough and Mark Wigglesworth.

The first piece of the evening, Sinfonia da Requiem, has a rather chequered history. It was originally commissioned by the Japanese government to celebrate the 2600th year of the ruling Japanese royal family but was later rejected because it was considered too gloomy for the occasion because Britten was just given 6 weeks to do so because of late arrival of the relevant contract although he was told that he'd been invited to submit his work for the purpose and Britten had to make do with a sinfonia work he already started to work on before its arrival. So he dedicated the work to the memory of his father As Britten was a music teacher, I don't think I could do better than allow him to describe the work in his own words:
 " I. Lacrymosa. A slow marching lament in a persistent 6/8 rhythm with a strong tonal center on D. There are three main motives: 1) a syncopated, sequential theme announced by the cellos and answered by a solo bassoon; 2) a broad theme, based on the interval of a major seventh; 3) alternating chords on flute and trombones, outlined by piano, harps and trombones. The first section of the movement is quietly pulsating; the second is a long crescendo leading to a climax based on the first cello theme. There is no pause before:
    II. Dies irae. A form of Dance of Death, with occasional moments of quiet marching rhythm. The dominating motif of this movement is announced at the start by the flutes and includes an important tremolando figure. Other motives are a triplet repeated-note figure in the trumpets, a slow, smooth tune on the saxophone, and a livelier syncopated one in the brass. The scheme of the movement is a series of climaxes of which the last is the most powerful, causing the music to disintegrate and to lead directly to:
    III. Requiem aeternam. Very quietly, over a background of solo strings and harps, the flutes announce the quiet D-major tune, the principal motive of the movement. There is a middle section in which the strings play a flowing melody. This grows to a short climax, but the opening tune is soon resumed, and the work ends quietly in a long sustained clarinet note"
The three movements of Britten's first large scale composition are played as if it were one movement. He described the first movement as "a slow, marching lament", the second as "a form of Dance of Death" and third "the final resolution".

The second piece was Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2 in A, written by him during his "Platonic" cohabitation with Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein in Weimar out of which 3 children were born. This piece was the result of 2 dozen years of work (1839-1863) during which he wrote, rewrote and then rewrote. So there were many changes of mood in the piece ranging from grand, bombastic, lyrical, contemplative and even poetic. I like in particular the dialogue between
the piano and the cello. Stephen Hough, the soloist really looked a bit like the Franciscan Liszt, tall, slender but rather serious looking, with his hair combed straight back and dressed almost like an English parson. His play was however quite unlike his appearance: it was wonderful, soft, sensitive, poetic but where necessary, filled with power. If I were to listen to him with my eyes closed, I would probably have the impression that it was Joao Maria Pires at the keyboard.

The concert resumed after the interval with another piece by Liszt: his Piano Concerto No.1, a much more flamboyant work supposed to be written early in his life. You can hear that strange mix of passion and lyricism in the piece which is so typical of Liszt. This is one of Liszt's all time favourite. I learned from the Program Notes that in fact, the orchestration parts was probably heavily influenced by a composer called Joachim Raff, whom Liszt hired as the copyist and editor of his music after he himself stopped performing. The piece was originally written in 1830 for two pianos but it didn't reach something resembling its present form until 1849. It was presented to Raff for "editing" and additions of the orchestral parts in 1853 and was premiered in 1855. Whatever its true origin, it was a magnificent concerto with dazzling piano fireworks and like Britten's da Requiem, its three movements were played without interruption as if it were one.And just as there was a dialogue between the piano and the cello in the No.2 concerto, there's also a dialogue between piano and the clarinet in this one and for the first time, a triangle was used, something unheard of in any serious musical work at his time. Hough is known for his interpretation of Liszt's work. So it's no surprise that he did full justice to that great bundle of contradictions known to us as Liszt. As encore, Hough gave us one of Chopin's nocturnes (?).

The concert ended with Haydn's Symphony No. 90, which he originally wrote for another patron but gave to Comte d'Ogny as the work the latter  commissioned. It was a fairly typical Haydn piece, light, lively and happy. Wigglesworth is a smallish looking, very tense and disciplined conductor who pays great attention to small details. I like the way he treats the pianissimo passage in which the sounds of the orchestra are almost but not quite inaudible so that when the time comes for the big sound, the contrast is really dynamic. I really like the HKPO, it's such a malleable orchestra: like a chameleon, it changes so magically under the baton of whoever is conducting it, taking on so many completely different sonic characters that one wonders if one is listening to the same orchestra. I find it such a blessing to be able to listen to it every week.