HKPO Nodame

HKPO Nodame Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra HK Cultural Centre Concert Hall Reviewed: Feb 19

It would be interesting to know if the audience were ardent devotees of the popular Japanese show Nodame Cantabile, or simply fancied a pick 'n' mix evening.

Originally a successful manga, Nodame is a romantic comedy set in a music conservatoire, focusing on the amorous and musical tribulations of two of its students.

The music for the animated and live-action adaptations of the strip includes excerpts from the classics that are more integral to the plot than a typical wallpaper soundtrack.

While it may seem incongruous to have Elgar's Nimrod melting into the finale of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, it has to be remembered that Nodame is credited with introducing many Japanese buyers to classical music and increasing music sales. The programme cover's whimsical picture of members of the Philharmonic scuttling up the Tokyo Tower reflected the show's easy atmosphere. The players seemed relaxed, track-hopping through the compilation and there was little sense of being short-changed, despite Edo de Waart having his head in the conductor's score most of the time. If Andrew Simon's gorgeous clarinet playing in the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 encouraged some of the audience to listen to the work in its entirety, then it will be grist to the mill for such events.

Piano soloist Mona Asuka Ott, however, sounded little more than efficient in Ravel's Piano Concerto in G and starchy in Chopin's Nocturnes op. 27 nos. 1 and 2.