Hrůša played for us first the Lachian Dances from a Moravian composer Leoš Janáček, who started life as a collector of Moravia folk music, having first been trained as the choirmaster of a monastery in Brno where he met Dvorak who was doing more or less the same thing about Czech music. The Lachian Dances comprising Old Time Dance I, ( a kind of "club" dance) The Blessed One ( a wedding dance), A Blacksmith's Dance (self-explanatory), Old Time Dance II, Dance from Celadna( a fast dance from a dance originating in a village of that name) and the Saw Dance ( referring to the sawing of trees as firewood for winter). All the pieces have simple melodies and are easy listening.
The next piece is completely different. It's something from that turn of the century revolutionary Russian (later naturalised French) composer Igor Stravinsky, who gave us such once quite controversial pieces as The Firebird, The Rites of Spring etc but who continued to experiment with other musical forms later in his career. One of his experiments is the "concerto" form. We had his Violin Concerto, which is Stravinsky-like, not the kind we are accustomed to, with his typical wide and radical contrast. In this one, the sound of the violin is constantly set against the insistent rhythmic notes from the brass section, and then the other wind section and finally the string section. Listening to it, one gets the impression that sections of the tuba bass notes from Benjamin Britten's Peter and the Wolf had been incorporated (but actually that's absolutely not the case). There is a constant call and response between the solo violin and the various sections more resembling more a chamber music than the traditional violin concerto, the whole piece being dominated by a quite consistent rhythm with the principal motif constantly repeated but with variation. The violin solo is provided by a young violinist with the kind of hairstyle and flowing dress a bit like one of those figures one sees in the reliefs depicting various mythical goddesses in some kind of myths in Greek wall paintings, save those sections surround her upper body in strong contrasting color, Liza Ferschtman, a young Dutch violinist. The concerto is divided into 4 movements: Toccata, Aria I, Aria II, Capriccio. The Arias are in fact quite tender and not at all strident and full of jarring notes, as one might otherwise have been led to expect from Stravinsky's earlier music. The final movement is quick, fast, light, free, gay, energetic except for the last part, when some heavy thumping bass again made their appearance and is therefore quite fun to listen to. There is a lilt in the music which give a jovial quality to the whole piece . As most young international violinists today, we got nothing to worry about their technical skill. As encore she gave us a short Bach piece which she played beautifully.
After the intermission, we had Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No.8. Whenever people in Hong Kong think of Dvorak, the first thing which jumps into their mind would be his Symphony No.9. So his very good No. 8 in G, first performed in 1890 in Prague, is often forgotten here. It starts off with a slow and sad melody until some pastoral-like flute notes bring in a change of mood which became intense and then relaxed and jolly, meditative, flowing and heroic by turns. The second movement begins again with a slow but moving melody which then became quiet, strong and meditative and then light and broadly flowing again. There are some quiet passages which are really beautiful. One could almost hear the bird singing quietly in the countryside but then something dark and ominous seem to lurk in the background in the sound of the timpani which fortunately passes quite quickly and the music resumes its peaceful and quiet movement until it reaches its modestly triumphal end. The third movement is again light-hearted and happy especially the passage announced by the trumpets which gradually builds up in speed and strength and then its melody is repeated again and again each time with slight variation, sometimes louder, sometimes easier and more flowing as if one were following a path of a small river as it flows over different rustic scenery but the rhythmic and strength gather again in the final movement. Thanks to Hrůša's forceful, precise, meticulous and sensitive conducting, the HKPO has given us another very satisfying evening.
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