Australian music: Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra magnificent in Melbourne

Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
The Arts Centre, Melbourne

May 4th

It is 20 years since the UK handed Hong Kong back to China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Zone was created. Among the many celebrations of that event has been a regional tour by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

The five city tour – Seoul, Osaka, Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney – promoted the orchestra, which is now regarded a major orchestra of the Asia Pacific area under the leadership of conductor Jaap van Zweden. The previous conductor who was instrumental in bringing it to world attention was Edo de Waart( now the conductor of the NZ Symphony Orchestra), who was at the helm of the orchestra for eight years.

The tour featured a programme, which not only showed off the orchestra’s strengths but also demonstrated its range of musical offerings – a classic Mozart Violin Concerto, a major romantic Mahler symphony and a contemporary Hong Kong composers work.

The Mozart Violin Concerto featured Chinese violinist Ning Feng, who gave a flawless performance, playing as though he was personally creating the music, bringing it into being by a supreme effort of concentration.

In his solo passages he became even more thoughtful and introspective, his playing more nuanced and subtle from an intimate delicacy to a ferocious intensity.

Jaap van Zweden acted as the supreme intermediary, carefully guiding the orchestra, ensuring that the juxtaposition of orchestra and soloist was impeccable.

Mahler’s Symphony No 1 (The Titan) is unlike most first symphonies. While it is a work of youthful enterprise and experimentation it is also a work of supreme maturity.

He attempted to create a score in pursuit of a Romantic vision, along with descriptions of landscapes and narratives that placed the composer himself at the core of the music, expressing his own physical, spiritual and emotional life. He depicts both the hero (Titan) and the common man as though engaged in the same struggles, seeking the same goals.

These contrasts and contradictions need to be realised in any performance. Van Zweden and the orchestra did that, providing a sound that ranged from the heroic to the mundane, from the mature to the juvenile and from the great vista to the simple gesture.

He controlled the orchestra with a close attention to detail and balance between the various elements of the orchestra ensuring that all the solo parts, from the single note of the harp to the final ecstatic solo trombone made their impact.

It’s rare for orchestras to do encores but such was the enthusiastic response to the concert that van Zweden leapt to the podium and led the orchestra in an animated playing of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyrie, which resulted in further appreciative applause.

The Hong Kong Philharmonic has several concerts during the rest of the year including:

• May 26 & 27 Mahler, Symphony No 4 and Mendelssohn, Midsummers Night Dream and Piano Concerto No 1
• June 23 & 24 Mozart, Magic Flute Overture, Piano Concerto No 23 and Symphony No 39
• June 16 & 17 Berg, Violin Concerto and Schubert, Symphony No 9