Review | Danish orchestra, Chinese soloist dazzle in Sichuan quake-inspired concerto and late Romantic gems
Percussionist Li Biao showed remarkable technique, versatility and musicality in Guo Wenjing concerto, accompanied in stunning fashion by an orchestra which played a demanding programme with polish and panache
Brilliantly polished playing from the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, energetically led by their Italian principal conductor, Fabio Luisi, impressed in this Hong Kong Arts Festival highlight.
They opened their concert programme in thrilling fashion, vividly conjuring the turbulence of raging seas in Richard Wagner’s Overture to Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman).
Written just ahead of the opera’s first performance in 1843, the overture presents Leitmotifs (leading motifs) associated with characters and themes found in Wagner’s opera. The playing was exciting from the word go, with a rousing brass fanfare, a seductive cor anglais solo signalling Senta’s ballad and wonderful, swirling string sound.
Next was Chongqing-born composer Guo Wenjing’s The Rite of Mountains: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra, a response to the devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which portrays chaotic scenes, as well as life and hope.
The soloist, Chinese percussion virtuoso Li Biao, demonstrated incredible technique and versatility on a battalion of percussion instruments. Switching from the virtuosic first movement Toccata – Elegy for Marimba to gongs in the Trio – Largo – Allegretto – Largo second movement, Li effectively used brushes, mallets and drumsticks (on 10 different gongs) to achieve unexpected variations in tonal colour.