Review - 2016 Hong Kong-Vienna Music festival, Symphony No. 8 (Mahler), Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall, 28 August 2016

Sir Simon Rattle once put Beethoven's symphonies to a kind of Mount Everest to climb. In a similar metaphorical representation, Mahler's symphonies arguably could compare to the Alps for the sheer scale and sound world. I feel the depth in Mahler's music is boundless and beyond imagination, which has a gigantic iceberg lies under every symphonies. The eighth symphony is an especially challenging work to perform among the symphonic repertoire. Mahler persistently regarded the symphony as his most important work even after completing Das Lied von Erde. It asks not only for a large orchestral and choral force, but also the input of enormous energy from the ground-breaking tutti E-flat major chord till its profound conclusion, which resonates alike the ringing of universe beyond the earthly sound. Technically and mentally also demanding at any performance. It is an ambitious choice for any orchestra to perform such work, even for world-class orchestras.

The recent developed Hong Kong-Vienna Music festival had decided to meet the challenge and presented a tour de force with an international cast. Hong-Kong born Jimmy Chiang took up the baton to marshal the force. Vincent Schirrmacher, who was born in China and educated in England, sang the difficult tenor role. He was joined by soprano Anna Baxter, the conductor’s wife, together with sopranos Yuki Ip and Louise Kwong, mezzo-soprano Christina Baader and Samantha Chong, baritone Klemens Sander and bass-baritone Apollo Wong. The orchestra consisted of members from the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna State Opera, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic orchestra, City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, as well as local university music students from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts. The ongoing debate, of  whether the symphony as a symphonic piece or choral-orchestral work, does not conceal the undeniable fact that the choral part plays an important role. The world-renowned Arnold Schoenberg Choir and the Vienna Boys Choir formed the backbone of the massed choir, teamed up with the The Learners Chorus, Hong Kong Treble Choir and Vienna Boys Choir Academy Concert Choir.

Since the beginning of the first movement already marks its first climatic moment, there is hardly any time for the players to sink in the music but only to deliver the full impact. Though the orchestra did not quite manage to achieve what I expected and fell short from building up the thick texture. The textual richness was not ably deliver partly due to the relatively small sized orchestra. I would prefer a horizontal reading of the score since some passages should be more expressively played. Neither the quieter moments sounded still and calm enough. Violins were not tidy in the technically difficult passages and some intonation problems happened among the vocal soloists. The execution of switching the moods, between the majestic and explosive 'Veni, veni creator spirtus' and the expressive legato orchestral phrase led by the violins, were not effective. Singers too were not in their best form and some audible mistakes.

The timbre varied and one could hear three different voice colours among the combined choir, probably due to age differences and technical abilities. The blending was not homogeneous and high notes sometimes sounded breathy and unsupported. The beginning and ending consonances could be tidier. Otherwise they delivered a round tone for most of the time. Despite some noticeable mistakes, the performance was presentable enough and gradually improved as the performance proceeded. It managed the built up to the concluding climax successfully with a nice crescendo, and ended the first part in a round muscular tone.

The second half of the symphony mostly follows the final scene of Faust written by Goethe. After a slightly disappointing first half, the orchestra eventually warmed up and performed better. The woodwinds' solo passages at the beginning were beautifully played. Though there were some balance problems that the soloists had to battle with the orchestra in terms of volume. The orchestra could be overpowering and one could not always hear the singing. The baritone Klemens Sander sang 'Ewiger Wonnebrand' with a warm and round tone. Words were clearly articulated, and the lines were expressively and lyrically phrased. 'Wie Felsenabgrund' sang by the bass Apollo Wong was louder in projection by comparison but his diction was not as clear as Sander. Among the five female soloists, Louise Kwong sang particularly well with her diction crystal clear, and the sound of the notes at her high tessitura was so transparent that as if effortlessly sung. The tenor Vincent Schirrmacher sang his line emotionally, high notes were beautifully produced and carried the vocal weight. His diction was good and crafted each line with great care so that the mood change was effective.

I would regard this performance a success that it provided a platform for cultural and musical exchange between the two cities. Musically it was a great performance judging by local standard and to perform such towering piece was an tremendous achievement. This performance would undoubtedly one of the city cultural highlights of 2016. Yet one should not satisfy at this level of success, but to aim further for a higher standard that would be internationally acclaimed otherwise.

Photo credits: Facebook Page and Website of the Vienna Boys Choir Music Academy Foundation

Review - Madama Butterfly (Puccini), Opera Hong Kong, Hong Kong City Hall, 16th & 17th August, 2016

[Do bear with me for a rather long review!]

Cio-cio San: Nancy Yuen (16 Aug), Louise Kwong (17 Aug)

Pinkerton: Adam Diegel

Sharpless: Corey Mckern

Fujian Symphony Orchestra

Opera Hong Kong Chorus

Warren Mok (Producer)

Tsung Yeh (Conductor)

Pamela Recinella (Director)

As one of Giacomo Puccini’s masterpieces, Madama Butterfly has captured the hearts of many in the past century with the heart-breaking story and moving music; and has become a staple in the operatic repertoire across the world.  The recent Opera Hong Kong offering of a semi-staged version was on the whole convincing and well-received, with a full house of audience on both nights.

Nancy Yuen and Louise Kwong, who shared the demanding title role of Cio-cio San on different nights, were undoubtedly the highlights of the performances.  With Cio-cio San being her signature role for over two decades across the world, Yuen impressed the audience as soon as she appeared with the dulcet tones at a high tessitura singing of her joys to be married to Pinkerton.  However, as the performance went on, one could not help but notice the huge contrast between the two registers of her voice.  Whilst the ringing head tone was particularly projected, the chest tones sounded coarse, which took away from the performance. 

Yuen’s rich experience of the character undeniably helped bring across the character confidently with crisp and clear diction. Having said that, Yuen is perhaps more used to fully staged versions, and the present semi-staged setting proved to be a slight hindrance to her acting.  She collaborated well with Carol Lin, who was Suzuki; and their “Flower Duet” was well-balanced and appropriately joyful. 

On the following night, Kwong gave a powerful rendition of Cio-cio San as an innocent, hopelessly in love, yet stubborn 15-year-old Japanese girl and was applauded the moment she started singing.  The faith in Pinkerton Kwong conveyed, the desperation when talking about her son, the outpour of emotions when singing the line “has he forgotten me?”, and the exhilaration when she saw the return of Pinkerton’s ship drew the audience into Cio-cio San’s own emotional world.  One could almost feel her heartbreak. 

She also impressively made the pianissimo top B and C sound as if they were effortless to sing.  The unified tone across her vocal range when singing the famed “Un Bel Di” and the intensity she invested in it made it very touching. 

However, on the whole, Kwong’s diction could be clearer which would help communicate with the audience.  At one point, she also gave off an impression of a mistake in blocking when asking Pinkerton whether people in the West pin up butterflies in her singing.  In any case, it was overall an excellent first performance as Cio-cio San for Kwong.

Generally speaking, the Fujian Symphony Orchestra and the conductor Tusng Yeh did a fantastic job not only in accompanying the singers but also in providing drive and support to the emotions of the storyline.  For example, the opening entries were tight and clear, which gives the opera the urgency needed.  The “humming chorus” in the orchestra when Sharpless read Cio-cio San Pinkerton’s letter was very delicately played.  Throughout the performances, the orchestra set the scenes well with the underlying uneasiness and tension that has been building up for the audience before the anagnorisis of Cio-cio San that Pinkerton never intended to move back to Nagasaki for good. 

On the other hand, there were occasional balance problems, which was exacerbated by the very projected voice of Pinkerton’s.  His voice made other singers seemed relatively quiet at points, in particular the trio shared among Pinkerton, Sharpless and Suzuki towards the end of the opera.  The conductor turned around rather frequently, which occasionally helped to rescued the singers and orchestra from being out of sync.  However, the high frequency of turning back and forth was distracting and unnecessary from the audience’s point of view. 

Although the chorus played a relatively small part in the opera, their voices were well-blended and the difficult “humming chorus” which requires singers to hum on a high B-flat was well-executed. Credits to the Chorus Director Alex Tam. 

Directed by Pamela Recinella, the staging was perhaps the most disappointing part of the two shows.  It must be pointed out that it was very baffling for the audience that the costume of Prince Yomodori resembled a Chinese magua from the Qing Dynasty or the early Republic days.  The choice of the child actor was neither blue-eyed nor blonde, as stated in the libretto, which was also rather confusing.  The audience was pleasantly surprised when Cio-cio San and the train of ladies, as well as Sharpless, made their entrances from the back.  Yet, it looked bizarre and unnatural when the chorus members took out flower petals from their trouser pockets to strew the way for Cio-cio San.  It felt that they could at least do with a basket.  Their white faces also looked slightly eerie.  The female family members of Cio-cio San (As shown in the picture) who had several lines of solo had their straight hair down which did not fit the rest of the cast, especially that of Cio-cio San’s and Suzuki’s which were done up nicely in Japanese style; and this could have been easily solved by YouTube hairstyle tutorials. 

Nevertheless, the effective use of simple lighting on a very limited stage for the cast helped to bring the story across.  The various light changes conveyed the time of the setting (e.g. morning after Cio-cio San’s long overnight wait for Pinkerton) or the emotions (red lights for the Bonze’s fury).  The change in furniture from tatami to an iron-wrought bed, and Japanese style to Western style coffee tables and chairs was also a clear symbol for Cio-cio San’s changes to “an American home”. 

Corey Mckern’s Sharpless (Far right) stood out among the cast.  As the American Consul, he had been very concerned about Cio-cio San’s fate from the start.  His warm tone and sincere acting granted the character a calming and compassionate personality which touched the audience.  Adam Diegel’s Pinkerton delivered the difficult passages with much sensitivity.  The comfortable high notes and the projected lower ranged in a clear tone were a pleasure to listen to.  However, his acting did not quite match up to the level of singing and it felt slightly awkward at points. 

To a large extent, the performance ran smoothly, but not without several hiccoughs.  On the second night, when Goro introduced Suzuki, the cook and butler to Pinkerton, none of the three were on stage.  The orchestra and singers on stage came to a short pause before Suzuki appeared on stage to continue with the opera.  There were also camera noises of the official photographer throughout the two performances, and was especially audible at quiet parts, such as the introduction to the “humming chorus”.  This could be resolved by having pictures taken at the dress rehearsal and could avoid distracting the audience from appreciating the show.

To sum up, the two performances were of high standard in terms of music with the singers and players, but there is perhaps room for improvement for staging, even when in a semi-staged setting, as well as other organisational aspects.  We look forward to Opera Hong Kong’s upcoming Otello by Verdi for more delights and surprises for the audience. 

Photo credits: Opera Hong Kong Facebook Page

Review - The Choir of King’s College (Cambridge), Stephen Cleobury, Louise Kwong, Hugo Herman-Wilson, Grand Hall of Lee Shau Kee Lecture Centre (The University of Hong Kong), 27 July 2016

Laudibus in sanctions (Byrd)
Loquebantur variis linguis (Tallis)
Hymn to St Cecilia (Britten)
Ein Deutsches Requiem, version with piano four hands accompaniment (Brahms)

The Choir of King’s College (Cambridge)
Louise Kwong (Soprano solo)

Hugo Herman-Wilson (Baritone solo)

Stephen Cleobury (Conductor)

King's revisit of Hong Kong this time gave a shockingly disappointing performance and did not live up to its reputation. Although one should not dampen the spirit and confidence of young aspiring choristers with strong criticism, any excuse could not hide the fact that the choir has some fundamental problems in singing technique, blending, ensembleship and even the musical leadership. The programme of the first half struck a right balance with the Brahms Requiem later. It began with Byrd's outward jubilant god praising psalm 150, followed by Tallis vesperal response for Pentecost to celebrate the descent of holy spirit upon the apostles, then Britten's intimate and inward praying of St Cecilia, patron saint of music, before a personal dealing of grief and death in the non liturgical requiem.

Basses delivered confident singing with support in the Byrd and voices blended well, but trebles were feeble and lacked presence. Poor intonation throughout and sluggish in tempo. The upper voice parts sung in variety of pitches and all over the place. Generally failed to craft the structure of the piece neither any sense of sectional dialogue. The beginning of the Tallis was chaotic and coordination problems happened among choir. There was no direction in the singing and structurally shapeless. It was alike showering with notes but no communication among parts. Cleobury's conducting did not indicate phrasing but rhythmic counting only. Trebles remained very breathy in their timbre and underwhelming in vocal projection. The men's chanting had the right flow with words and more unified in diction.

Shaky start with pitch problems in the first few notes of the Britten and vowels were not homogeneous. A rather vertical reading of the score and strangely, alike the trebles, the tenors and altos sounded thin and lacked presence in projection. Diction in the second section was poor and trebles struggled with intonation. Again the singing lacked direction and rushing through the text without singing the full value of notes. It neither manage to build up the momentum and crescendo for the climax. The treble solo did not possess a radiant tone and timid in projection. Towards the end tempo gradually became sluggish again, and part solos failed to deliver some quality individual singing and technically insecure.

The piano solo opening of the requiem would probably need more urgency than being steady. The choir entry did not deliver the body of sound and trebles remained timid in their singing. Although arguably a collegiate choir differed from large choral groups with a leaner and lighter sound texture, vocal projection was problematic here that far from filling the hall. Tenors' timbre were noticeably not complimenting each other and did not blend with rest of the choir. Intonation improved in the second movement 'Denn alles Fleisch ist wie Gras' and the choir found itsfeet here. Though the body of sound still failed to make an impact and individual voices sticking out. Their diction in German was presentable but slightly wet for my taste. Energy and direction did not always sustain in the fugue, and far from building the exuberant climatic calling for eternal joy over sorrow.

Beautiful singing from the baritone solo and gave a poetic reading of the third movement 'Herr, lehre doch mich', but tenors simply could not blend together in their singing. Intonation towards the end of the movement gradually worsened as the vocal range went up. Everything went downhill from the fourth movement onward. The better known fourth movement 'Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen' sounded very dull here and also lazy in diction, which affected the tuning. The score reading was vertical again and the choir not singing through the line. Cleobury might have assumed the music would speak for itself, but that would require him to signal the phrasing than being economical and vague in his conducting.

Despite one would prefer a lyric soprano than dramatic one, Louise Kwong gave the best live account of the fifth movement 'Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit' I had encountered in live so far. The part tessitura was vocally demanding for the soloist to sing rather high with only a short build up from mid range. She was secured with intonation and delivered the desired projection, though slightly forceful to nail the top notes and rather muddy in diction. The choir also began to sound tired and sometimes fraction behind the piano playing, which later turned into one chasing the another. The focus and energy faded as the sixth movement went on. The judgement day passage was not dramatically realised by the singing and trebles were flat at the cry of death. The fugue conclusion was chaotic with poor intonation and choppy singing. Tenors were not confident in their entry and inaccurate with notes. The choir again failed to blend together nor manage to maintain the momentum.

One suspect the choir did not prepare well enough to familiarise itself with the music in the end. Diction was completely out of the window at the supposed emotional last movement 'Selig sind die Toten', and neither the singing was radiant nor memorable. Trebles struggled with intonation throughout and as a whole it failed to make any impression. It did not work when the vocal colour remained bright only throughout, but lacked differentiation and musical shape. Words failed me to conclude how unconvincing this performance went, and the tickets were overpriced judging by the poor artistic quality being given, except the two soloists redeemed it from further disaster.