Virtuoso Passion
City Hall Concert Hall
January 11
They say every crisis brings an opportunity, but the run-up to the 3rd Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival must have put artistic director Lin Cho-liang squarely on the back foot when two participants (violinist Kyoko Takezawa and cellist Gary Hoffman) were incapacitated at the eleventh hour and had to pull out.
Securing mainland violinist Ning Feng to replace Takezawa in time for this opening concert, however, must have wiped the smiles off the gremlins' faces. Ning partnered double bassist Zhang Daxun in a tremendous performance of Bottesini's Grand Duo Concertante, the accompaniment arranged here for string quartet. A sprawling work, penned with a twinkle in the eye, it remains pedestrian in anything but the best hands. Ning and Zhang made light of the technical duels, the fine judgments of speed and the work's unsubtle construction to produce an authoritative display of a musical cappuccino.
The programme opened with Osvaldo Golijov's Last Round for two string quartets and double bass. Written to commemorate Astor Piazzolla, the father of nuevo tango, the two-section work reflects the man's pugnacious tendencies before tenderly marking his musical legacy. A suite of Piazzolla's own compositions followed in which the original material and stylish performance were capped by Julian Milone's impressive arrangement for four violins and bass, in which not a note was wasted.
Vivaldi's The Four Seasons came in an interestingly boxed set, each season featuring a different violin soloist/director who promoted their individual responses to the work's literary allusions. Henning Kraggerud's Spring bounced along happily, even though the birds sounded overindulged on worms; Lin's Summer wilted slightly under some tuning issues; Clara-Jumi Kang's Autumn favoured delicate hues, diluting the frenzy of the hunting party; Ning's unfailing ear for colour and detail of line proved exemplary in Winter.
The four soloists and bass took the encore spot with Monti's Czardas, in which the audience responded enthusiastically to some wickedly improvised incursions (Ning with a glint in his eye again).