An All German Affair

I was a happy man again last night. I had an all German affair with the HKPO under the its guest German conductor Andreas Delfs, the conductor Laureate of the Milhaukee Symphony Orhcestra. Under his baton, we had first Brahms Symphony No. 3 seldom heard in the concert halls of Hong Kong, a symphony some regard as his declaration of love for Clara Schumann. Then we had another violin favourite, Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D, which I heard just a while ago at the concert of the Baptist University Orhcestra. Our violin soloist this time was another German, Frank Peter Zimmermann born in Duiburg in 1965 who first started playing the violin at the age of 5, took lessons from VAlery Gradov, Saskchko Gawriroff and Herman Krbbers and has since played in Europe, America, Japan, Latin America and Australia and has a number of CDs under his name.

Brahms's Symphony No. 3 has what has been called a "motto theme" in F, A flat and F which appears in all the four movement which some believe was designed by Brahm to represent the three German words "frei aber froh" (free but happy) to counter a comment frequently made by his contemporary violin virtuoso Joachim's "fri aber einsam" (free but lonely). But although theoretically the symphony is in the F key, Brahm frequently introduces other minor keys into the various movement thus giving the symphony some contrasting moods of happy and unhappy, perhaps to simulate the quick and sensitive mood changes of someone in love, its tenderness, its yearning when for some reason, the lovers cannot be together. The symphony is written in 1883, by which time the most popular composer had become Wagner but Brahms continued to write the old romantic style of Beethoven. His lover, Clara Schumann said of the symphony: "What a harmomious mood pervades the whole! All the movements seem to be of one piece, one beat of the heart, each one a jewel."  I agree with her. It's a most moving symphony.

We next had Beethoven's violin masterpiece which began in the characteristic Beethoven style, directly, by four strokes of the timpani to draw attention. Some complain that concerto was long and repetitive but if we have a good violinist, it could never be long enough. We did have one. And he played for us what I think is a piece from Bach after returning to the stage 4 times to acknowledge the audience's aplauses. Not a single one of my friends had a word of complaint about the concert! I'm so happy!