Kolja Blacher Returns Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra City Hall Concert Hall Reviewed: Oct 2
It took Schumann less than a fortnight to write his Violin Concerto in D minor, and 84 years to get it performed. It would have been longer if those with jurisdiction over the manuscript had had their way. Brahms and the dedicatee soloist, Joseph Joachim, did their bit to try and smother it at birth, but it survived and, surprisingly, has since had its advocates. Kolja Blacher (above) is the latest to perform and conduct it, but fell at the first fence by giving the pompous opening a dose of anaemia. Blacher's playing did little to challenge the view that the first movement is melodically dull, and rhythmically duller; and that Schumann's instruction to play the finale with vigour is hamstrung by his lead-boot orchestration.
There was also little to savour in Blacher's reading of Mozart's Symphony No41. The permutations for tweaking lines to surprise and delight are limitless, yet this was a run-of-the-mill version, including a slow movement devoid of operatic interplay and a Menuetto that found little of the headiness of the waltz that was emerging at the time. Blacher's decision to stifle the finale's infectious inner counterpoint by highlighting the first violins was baffling.
The opening movement of Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings can astonish, but this performance was mediocre, right up to the finale.