Music from the Madness

Ning Feng (centre) talking about the joy of suffering in life and music

After this week's nonsense from the government about how barbecues emit more air pollution than tear gas, and blaming protesters for delays in the opening of the Sha Tin-Central MTR link, when in reality there have been a series of construction scandals at the Hung Hom Station, my friend YTSL and I escaped temporarily to the Concert Hall at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre for some music.

In October the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra won the Gramophone Orchestra of the Year which is quite a feat, but thanks to music director Jaap van Zweden, the orchestra has improved significantly in the past few years.

The Hong Kong Philharmonic the best orchestra in the world

Tonight though, the orchestra was led by principal guest conductor Yu Long, with an interesting programme that featured violinist Ning Feng.

The uncertainty of the protests resulted in the concert hall being just barely half full which was a pity because those who didn't buy a ticket missed a good show. To start, Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird Suite that was very lively and lots of percussion involved.

Ning came out for the second piece called La joie de la souffrance for Violin and Orchestra. La joie de la souffrance means "the joy of suffering", and composer Chen Qigang was commissioned by Yu to write a contemporary Chinese music piece.

At first we found it hard to understand; at times the violin would follow the musical motif of the orchestra -- shouldn't it be the other way around? And also the music didn't seem to have many technically challenging aspects to show off Ning's amazing skills on the violin.

However, after the concert, Ning and Yu gave a short talk. Ning explained "the joy of suffering" with having a child. He had a second child, a girl this past March -- which may explain his weight loss -- and he said that while he was so happy to hold her in his arms, it also meant he would lose more sleep.

Yu Long and Ning Feng talk about tonight's concert

Ning said the piece was quite difficult to play and it took him a while to learn the piece. The piece is titled in French because Chen lives in France.

Meanwhile Yu explained that Chen wrote the piece incorporating a 2,000-year-old piece of Chinese music, called The Song of Yangguan, and tried to make it contemporary sounding. He also wrote the piece mourning the loss of his son, which made the music quite emotional to play. Apparently this composer likes to write different versions of this piece, and tonight was the Hong Kong premiere of it.

The final work of the evening was Carmen Suite by Rodion Shchedrin. YTSL showed me the program indicating it was 44 minutes long with 11 movements in it. We wondered if we would last. But I didn't read through the program and was pleasantly surprised by the Carmen excerpts that used a lot of percussion that kept the music lively and the momentum going. Was I the only person in the room nodding my head to the beat?

Afterwards Yu explained that he had conducted Bizet's Carmen many times and the music is not something that can or should be altered. However Yu says Shchedrin keeps the most important bits and strings them together along with using a lot of percussion, including drums, gong, triangle, xylophone, snare drum and tubular bells.

When the short talk was over, Ning obliged to take pictures with some fans and then went over to greet his uncle who came to see him perform. Looking forward to seeing him back in Hong Kong early next year!

Yu Long: The Firebird and Carmen
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall

Stravinsky
The Firebird Suite

Chen Qigang
La joie de la souffrance for Violin and Orchestra (Hong Kong premiere)

Rodion Shchedrin
Carmen Suite (After Bizet)

Symphonic Rhapsody

A quick panoramic shot of the stage before the concert

Just got back from a fantastic concert by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and violinist Ning Feng.

My friend YTSL is a big fan of his and bought our tickets two months ago. Turns out they were for the front row!

What's interesting is that these tickets were not the most expensive ones, probably because the sound seems to go over your head, though we sat right by the cellists and got a good dose of their warm sound, but we couldn't see beyond the string section.

Nevertheless it's a good place to be when you want to watch one of your favourite musicians as close as possible.

Ning Feng is always a crowd pleaser in Hong Kong

The concert started with a commissioned work by Fung Lam called Quintessence that was sponsored by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation. Quintessence refers to the fifth and highest essence after the four elements of earth, air, fire and water.

The 10-minute piece was lively with bursts of energy here and there. In one section, the violinists repeated a phrase one after another, literally making the sound carry back like ripples in the water.

Next was the main event. YTSL has watched Ning six times, this was my third. We both observed he had lost some weight but none of his finesse. He performed Bela Bartok's Violin Concerto no. 2 with gusto.

He had the music in front of him, so perhaps it wasn't a showcase piece for him, but it didn't matter. We were swayed by his energy, and when he finished, he seemed to be wiped out.

But he was energized again by the appreciative audience who wouldn't stop clapping. Eventually he performed an encore -- JS Bach's Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Major - Largo. Here he played with no music, his eyes closed, his eyebrows constantly moving up and down expressively.

Meanwhile his playing was just exquisite, so quiet and yet every note was clear (or maybe because we were in the front row!).

Here's a sample of what he played, though here it's performed by Hilary Hahn:

We clapped loudly again, but sadly no second encore.

After the intermission, we settled in for the 45-minute Symphony no. 1 in C minor, op. 68 by Johannes Brahms.

HKPO's musical director Jaap van Zweden

It's interesting that the program notes say Brahms worked on this piece and then revised it again within a 10-year period. He apparently kept reworking his music and so it's not surprising this piece sounded like everything was well thought out with a rich, full sound.

By the end we were all swept up into the climax and couldn't help but clap loudly with a few shouts from the audience for the orchestra's music director Jaap van Zweden, who will be the next music director of the New York Philharmonic in 2018.

Fung Lam, Quintessence

Bela Bartok, Violin Concerto no. 2

Johannes Brahms, Symphony no. 1 in C minor, op. 68

Classical Music Eye Candy

Wang Yujia wore this dress tonight, the same as when she met the Queen

Tonight was the first of two concerts given by fast-rising star Wang Yujia with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra to celebrate the 18th anniversary of the handover. The concert was sponsored by a health product company, though not all members of the audience got any samples to try.

There were some bigwigs sitting in prime seats -- former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, former secretary for justice Elsie Leung Oi-sie, and members of Tung's extended family, as the Tung Foundation was a sponsor.

The orchestra players had settled in, practicing on stage and were about to finish, when Grandpa Tung decided to go up the stairs to the loo. And we actually waited for him to come back and take his seat before the concertmaster came out.

Seriously?

Wang showing off some leg and skin in a concert in LA

If it was any other person, the concert would have started without him/her and they would have to wait at least half an hour to get back in.

But back to the concert. I saw her perform back in May 2007 in Beijing when she was 19 years old and was impressed then so I was curious to see how Wang had developed her musical talent.

From then to now she has gotten some flack for her outfits, though she seems to brush off the critics. She's worn very short dresses, and says she'll get to wearing longer ones when she's 40.

Uh huh.

Tonight she walked out in a florescent lime green dress with a deep V at the back, and lots of intricate cut outs in strategic places, and there was a mini train at the back. It was a pretty amazing feat not to trip on her dress.

But I wish she'd have a stylist help her pick some not so obnoxious clothes... you can be a rebel at the keyboard and look cool too...

For tonight's concert she played Mozart's Piano concerto no. 9 in E flat, K.271, Jeunehomme -- but not from memory. The sheet music was placed on top of the piano and she had no problems playing and flipping pages at the same time.

However, not having memorized the piece seem to have prevented her from fully expressing herself, even though she had fantastic technique in manipulating the piano to get the sounds she wanted.

This piece is Mozart's ninth piano concerto out of 27, and academics consider it to be the first of the composer's outstanding works. It started off light and refreshing, with the piano coming in very soon after the beginning.

But things seemed to drag in the second movement that Wang seemed to play robotically, though things picked up at the end. It seemed like a piece she didn't seem keen to perform and felt like her talents were wasted -- that she was raring to go elsewhere.

She got a rousing applause and came out several times and made very energetic bows with her arm across her heart... then walking carefully back inside. Wang finally did an amazing encore, a riff on a minuet that had a jazzy lilt and technically became more intense towards the end.

Like Lang Lang, she's a show stopper and it was a nice way for her to finish her participation in the concert.

And likewise it seemed Grandpa Tung had had enough for the day; he and members of his entourage left during intermission. Too bad for them because they missed a fantastic performance.

Conductor Jaap van Zweden led the orchestra in Beethoven's Symphony no. 3 in E flat, Eroica. Originally Beethoven wrote this piece dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte, a musical way to pay homage to the leader.

Two years later, though, Napoleon declared himself Emperor, which meant he would consider himself above others. Beethoven was so angry that he apparently ripped his title page in half and threw it on the floor. It was later changed from to Eroica.

The performance overall was so energetic and lively, it was a pleasure to watch van Zweden in action. I sat on the balcony, on the left side of the concert hall and was able to see him making facial expressions, and a closer look at the musicians.

Most commendable were clarinetist John Schertle and flautist Megan Sterling.

What a contrast between the first and second halves of the concert! Glad I stayed to the end!

Yujia Wang Triptych 1 -- Mozart

Mozart: Piano Concerto no. 9 in E flat, K.271, Jeunehomme

Allegro

Andantino

Rondeau: Presto

Beethoven: Symphony no. 3 in E flat, Eroica

Allegro con brio

Marcia funebre: Adagio assai

Scherzo: Allegro vivace

Finale: Allegro molto

Rousing Concert

Showstopper Ning Feng mastering the violin

Just came back from a stimulating concert at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall with the Hong Kong Philharmonic led by music director Jaap van Zweden.

And who did we (YTSL and I) come to see? The brilliant virtuoso Ning Feng. He's technically flawless and yet flies under the radar when it comes to charisma. Unlike Lang Lang who likes to throw in showmanship, Ning refuses to compete with more drama and instead it's all pure music.

The program started with Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D, op. 61. An interesting fact is that this is Beethoven's only completed violin concerto in 1806, even though he started one a few years earlier in 1790.

While he was writing the concerto, Haydn passed through Bonn and recognized Beethoven's talents, which may have made him so exited that he forgot to finish writing the first concerto.

Nevertheless, we were treated to a fantastic performance thanks to Feng, who walked on stage in his signature black long shirt, this time with a hint of fuchsia on the cuff and edge of the shirt, black slacks and shoes. The Chengdu native didn't have his hair coiffed like Lang Lang or Li Yundi -- Feng is here to entertain us with his music.

His finger work is amazing, making it look so easy. The concert hall fell completely silent when he performed his solo passages, the audience watching him master the violin. He knows exactly how to tease the beautiful sounds out of the instrument without much force or pressure -- it looks so delicate and easy -- after decades of practice.

We enjoyed the concerto so much that it took a while for Feng to finally give us an encore and it was an intricate, energetic piece that again left us in awe.

Hong Kong Philharmonic music director Jaap van Zweden

After a short break van Zweden and the orchestra presented a boisterous interpretation of Shostakovich's Symphoy no. 5 in D minor, op. 47. The orchestra included a piano, celesta or small keyboard, two harps, an extensive percussion section, double bass and doubling contrabassoon.

Shostakovich wrote the piece after his Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District had been criticized in Soviet state media, a hint that the composer was not following Stalin's guidelines of what artists should be doing.

So the composer gave his own retort in this apparently encoded political criticism that some listeners could pick out. The first movement is a classical sonata form that seems orderly, and then transfers into the second movement that is playful but then the slower passages evoke emotion.

The last movement climaxes into victorious sound that fills the entire hall. It's impressive and bold, perhaps Shostakovich's way of feeling triumphant.

Even before the encore, Feng's fans were already lined up outside the concert hall to have items autographed by the violinist. He seems to enjoy coming to Hong Kong, playing at least once a year here -- and we love him too.

Jaap's Shostakovich 5

Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall

December 13-14, 8pm

Beethoven Violin Concerto in D, op. 61

Shostakovich Symphony no. 5 in D minor, op. 47