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Sam Olluver

The Emperor and the New World

Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra

Concert Hall  Hong Kong Cultural Centre

Reviewed: October 7

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra's The Emperor and  the New World featured Italian pianist Michele Campanella  in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No5.  His unwillingness to take  a solo bow at the end of the performance was curious - but,   perhaps, appropriate.

The opening cadenza felt cold, skirting the impact of this historically unprecedented start to a concerto. The movement continued in  this vein, with Campanella's deadpan platform manner transferring to the keyboard. His steely tone overwhelmed the strings in the mid-point interplay of scale passages, turning dialogue into  a shout-down.

The whispered beauty of the slow movement was accorded little change in tonal palette and the music's aching romanticism received a frigid courting.

Only in the finale did Campanella occasionally find  the music's essence. Elsewhere,  it was left to conductor Edo de Waart and the orchestra to inject the necessary character.

The other major work was Dvorak's Ninth Symphony,  From the New World. One of the most enduring in the symphonic repertoire, it can withstand the majority of grand gestures thrown at it by conductors.  De Waart was  restrained on  this occasion, but he produced  a performance that drew a deservedly warm response from the audience.

De Waart's unerring judgment in setting speeds was again  evident, faltering only in the first movement, when the players weren't always in sync.

The  last three movements were etched with engaging details within de Waart's absorbing handling of shifting moods. The slow movement  succeeded in melding the contrasting sections into a fresh and convincing whole.

Law Wing-fai's Visions Beyond opened the programme. As a musical response to canvas and paint, it succeeded because it  didn't try to say too much.



The Emperor and the New World