Usually we find orchestral musicians, all dressed in black, sitting on chairs some to stage left, some to stage right, some at a raised platform at the back whilst the cello and double bass players would sit at stage right. But not so last night at the City Hall. All the players from Down Under (except the cello and double-bass players), one of whom had his head shaved except for a central Red-Indian like patch in the middle, whilst another had his hair rising at least a full 4 inches above his head, played standing and even walking about a bit. This gives the music a much more compact sound. This arrangement was made by the Australian Chamber Orchestra led "informally", as one of the players, by Richard Tognetti and formally as their artistic director.
The concert kicked off with a quiet and rather sombre introduction from Haydn' (1732-1809)' s Symphony No. 49 in F Minor whose 4 movements were in Adagio, Allegro di molto, Menuiet e Trio and Presto. But the mood of sadness soon gave way to some really vigorous striving, followed by another equally energetic movement which abated slightly in gentler dance form until it climaxed with another burst of pure force of joy. It's not for no reason that the symphony was nicked named "La Passione". In this symphony, we hear a transition of the predominantly baroque musical form with its perpetual swings between the relevant motifs in high notes and the repetition of the same motif at the lower registers and also the progressive rising of the same moitf three notes, five notes above the previous etc but the contrast became much greater and we hear more tone colors of the different instrument but we are not yet in the full romantic territory. We'd have to wait for that with the explosive arrival of a Beethoven. Perhaps that may be one of the reasons that some have dubbed Haydn the "father" of the so-called "modern" symphony.
Next we had a most unusual piece written by a contemporary composer. It 's the Concerto for Electric Violin, Electric Preludes written in March last year by Brett Dean (b 1961) and premiered last September at Maribor, Slovenia. The programme notes give some indication of the different moods by the various unconventional movements which the composer calls "character pieces" : Abandoned playground, Topography--Papunya, Peripeteia, The Beyonds of Mirrors, Perpetuum mobile and Berceuse. The specially constructed 6-string electric violin was played by the ensemble's leader Richard Tognetti. It's a very atmospheric piece with a mix of contemporary sounding dissonance,silence and rather more conventional use harmonies: something completely innovative which may not appeal to more conservative tastes. But for me, some parts are really good. One always needs time, however for one's ears to get adjusted to something so "innovative". The programme notes says that Brett wrote it for an old friend so as to give him the chance to whirl away and sing on the new instrument whose additional strings which are a fifth under the G string and then another fifth below that, thus extending the range of the violin to that of the cello. Imagine that! On top of that, the tone of the violin can be changed by electronic programming. I'm sure there'lll be be lots of "fiddling" fun for an imaginative composer in exploring different modalities of such change of tone and extension of frequency range from those of the conventional violin. Maybe the possibilities are endless. Who knows? I'm sure that'll be something extremely exciting for the composer and the player of this new instrument. As far as this novel electronic string violin concerto is concerned, the composer is quoted as saying that in this piece, he wishes to to explore "the intersection between high instrumental virtuosity of a classical nature" and sound world of electronics, upon which will "comment" the more conventional string sections of the chamber orchestra. There are certainly some novel sound patterns and sound texture which one don't normally find in more conventional compositions.If one may judge from the response of the audience, the piece seems quite well received.
Then we had a rather more conventional piece, the ever popular Violin Concerto No. 4 in D K 218 by that musical genius always bubbling with new melodies, Mozart. The piece in in three instead of four movements Allegro, Andante cantabile, Rondeau, Andante grazioso--allegro ma non troppo. It's one of the 4 violin concertos Mozart wrote within the second half of 1775 in the accepted format of the time but being as creative as he was, Mozart could never resist straying from the straight and narrow from time to time. The Allegro is described as "capricious", its Andante cantabile "lilting" and "hypnotic", the Rondeau as "quirky" and "gypsie-like", "collage-like" with a "cheekily quiet ending" by the Programme Notes.
The evening's programme concluded with a more folkloric piece: Dvorak's 5-movement Serenade for Strings in E Op 22,written by him in his mid-30s, with its dance like melody and rhythm which are endlessly repeated with variations. One feels the serenity and almost rustic joy in this piece. You can actually hear a hint of the summer sun in the open plains and mountains of central Europe. To round up the evening, this young and energetic group gave us an encore full of the verve of some energetic Scottish dance. It was an evening of fun and joy, not just for the audience but I believe for the young musicians too. One can see the beaming faces of the relaxed players and the glint of delight in their eyes as they churned out the music in perfect harmony or deliberate disharmony as the case may be.
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