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Vincent Mak

Yundi Li meets Edo de Waart

Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra

Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall

Friday (one night only)

In the week leading up to the Lunar New Year, Hong Kong audiences have savoured performances by the two hottest Chinese piano stars of the day - Lang Lang and Yundi Li.

Though both are 23, they could not differ more in style, with Lang's unbridled showmanship throwing up a sharp contrast to Li's softer temperament.

Li played Liszt's Piano Concerto No1 with the Hong Kong Philharmonic last weekend to a full house at the Cultural Centre.

He commanded a more powerful attack than in the past without sacrificing a precise touch that enabled him to produce clear articulation. His natural and fluent phrasing in the quasi-Adagio section was a treat, as was the masterly manner in which he tied things up towards the end to prepare for a final dash that displayed virtuosity without affectation.

Nevertheless, Li still sounded bland sometimes and could not give a sharply etched, fiery character to the concerto.

He encored with the last movement of Mozart's Sonata, K330 in a pinpoint style furnished with rippling bass figurations.

The Philharmonic under Edo de Waart  could have provided Li with more support in the concerto. Often it seemed that the piano and the orchestra just happened to be sharing the stage.

In the Allegro marziale animato section, the triangle was so detached it  sounded redundant. The tepid orchestra was unable to match  Li's  mood right down to the end, although de Waart was always in control.

The concert also included  Brahms' Haydn Variations and Symphony No2.

These were decent performances with committed playing from the orchestra, such as the violins' refined caressing of phrases in the Grazioso variation, the horns' warm and rounded delivery in the symphony, or the many pearly flute solos.

If only de Waart could have pumped up the adrenaline for the  symphony's finale, the concert could have ended in even better shape.



Powerful, precise but lacking in passion