“THE LOVE OF MUSIC” FESTIVAL

Chang Tou Liang, Artistic Director of the Singapore International Piano Festival, is back in Hong Kong for yet more concerts. The reason. Just for the love of music…

15 December 2006

VLADIMIR KRAINEV, Piano (left)

with members of the London Chamber Orchestra

HK Cultural Centre Concert Hall

Remember the Bang & Olufsen Chamber Music Festival of 1991? For those with short memories, that was a one-time week-long festival organised by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra which brought members of the London Chamber Orchestra to perform a series of chamber concerts. Every evening had a distinctly different theme and Singaporeans got a chance to hear – for the first time – a 12-year-old violinist called Vanessa-Mae Vannakorn Nicholson, way before her antics in a wet T-shirt.

I remember that festival to be a roaring success, as audiences came in their droves to Victoria Concert Hall. Chamber works of different combinations were played, culminating with performances of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (with Vanessa-Mae, Christopher Warren-Green and Co. assigned to a season each), Brahms’ Double Concerto and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto (with the Heveningham Trio) with the SSO.

The Love of Music Festival is slightly less ambitious, but also features members of the London Chamber Orchestra alongside some “star” pianists, big names of the keyboard firmament. The one significant difference between the two festivals is the audience, or the distinct lack of it in Hong Kong.

The 2019-seat Cultural Centre Concert Hall (pictured, right) is the home of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, but there could not have been more than 400 people attending this concert featuring Vladimir Krainev, the joint-winner of the 1970 International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition. What’s happening in Hong Kong? Where were all the music lovers? Were they admiring Disneyland fireworks or preoccupied with Christmas shopping?

Nevertheless, those who came to hear Krainev were not likely to be disappointed. He has a very secure technique, which allowed him to storm through the Two Rhapsodies Op.79 by Brahms without too much of a strain. I would consider him an almost ideal Brahms player – one who combines power with sensitivity, and feels the sweep of the music.

His ability to paint the highly passionate music, and its alternating moments of highs and troughs, with many shades of colour, was admirable. The pianissimos were luminous, ringing like a clear bell, while the fortissimos roared like thunder. The latter however sounded congested and clangorous, not helped by the over-reverberant wood paneling that encased the hall and the all too small audience. But it was certainly not a bash-fest, and certainly not ugly. And that was the full extent of his solo contributions for the evening.

There was more Brahms in the Clarinet Trio in A minor Op.114, which comes from the same autumnal period (inspired by the same dedicatee) as his lovely Clarinet Sonatas Op.120. The London Chamber Orchestra’s Mark van der Wiel coaxed a warm and full-bodied tone from his clarinet, which blended in perfectly with Robert Max’s cello and Krainev’s sensitive pianism. There were no questions of balance whatsoever as Krainev was more than happy to be part of the ensemble rather than to dominate it.

The slow movement was probing, yet not plodding while Brahms’ subtle humour came through in the Andantino grazioso, serving as an interlude rather than merry scherzo. The Hungarian-flavoured finale however came across as rough and ready, reaching an apogee with a passage of missed notes from the pianist. Three out of four would not have been a poor score, but one only wished it had been perfect (who doesn’t?). Ultimately, it was the innate musicianship and sheer professionalism of the performers that saved the performance, which otherwise had an enjoyable outing.

Presumably all the musicians had performed this work at least more than once in their lives, otherwise it would have not been committed in the festival programme. But one wonders how many rehearsals took place before this performance. My suspicion was that the performers only rehearsed it together while in Hong Kong. This is a problem when musicians who do not normally work together come together for a performance. More on that later.

Krainev was in his element in Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor Op.57. The opening G minor chord of the Prélude struck like a bolt of lightning, not unlike the chords of Verdi’s Dies Irae (Requiem), a portent of high tragedy. Clearly he had much to say about the Soviet-era work and here there was little doubt as to who was the boss. Serving as both soloist and accompanist, the piano heightened the tension in what amounted to Shostakovich’s sixteenth quartet.

The Fugue suffered somewhat from first violinist Rosemary Furniss’ brittle entry, which played on high registers was more than occasionally intonation-challenged. However as a group, the ensemble maintained a very fine control throughout, building up to an impressive climax. The madcap Scherzo that ensued teetered on the brink of sanity, with deliberately fluffed notes and violent pizzicatos flying in all directions, closing with multiple repeated chords that recalled the end of the First Piano Concerto.

The alternating between farce and seriousness – a hallmark of Shostakovich – was well captured in this performance. The funereal procession of the Intermezzo (expertly helmed by Robert Max’s cello pizzicatos) found the perfect release in the faux-gaiety in the “easy music” of the finale with its major key tonality, played with the superb irony to be found in the deadpan faces.

With each faux-triumphant step towards the close, yet more of Shostakovich’s inner tension and wry humour is revealed. Such is the journey that is taken by musicians with each performance of a work such as this (which also includes the 15 quartets and the Second Piano Trio). Overall it was a quite enthralling and eventful performance (as expected, the Scherzo was encored), but I dare say that Thomas Hecht and the T’ang Quartet (in their performance at the Esplanade Concert Hall in 1995) found a certain degree of tautness and cohesion that made a more gripping experience. But then, they would have had many, many more rehearsals.

By Chang Tou Liang

 

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