Hong Kong chamber music festival opens with virtuoso performances of Bach’s brilliant Brandenburg Concertos
- Six pieces by the master of baroque music gave a variety of soloists the chance to shine, notably violinist Arnaud Sussman and flautist Emily Beynon
- Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani made the most of his moment in the limelight, and trumpeter David Washburn brought the evening to a pyrotechnic conclusion
There is little evidence to suggest that J.S. Bach conceived his six Brandenburg Concertos as a set, and the decision by organisers of the 11th Beare’s Premiere Music Festival in Hong Kong to present them in a single concert was a bold one. But so began nine days of chamber music performances, with an evening featuring world-class soloists and local artists.
The fourth concerto was the highlight of the concert’s first half, with Welsh-born flautist Emily Beynon a radiant presence who, with fellow flautist Megan Sterling, lent nuance to the frenetic lines of Bach’s counterpoint in a part interwoven with that of the virtuosic solo violinist Arnaud Sussman.
The focus in the sixth concerto on the middle and lower strings requires a clarity of line and a lightness of tone from the paired violas. In this Paul Neubauer and Andrew Ling largely succeeded, displaying good chemistry and leading the ensemble with conviction. Neubauer’s transition between the second and third movements was masterly – he captured the tension of the dominant harmony, suspended it through the silence, and released it at the start of the finale.
The first concerto famously contains a pair of hunting horns, along with a trio of oboes, a complement of strings and harpsichord. Unfortunately the stage positioning, and the use of modern French horns, made the balance of the ensemble problematic. The horns dominated, affecting the interplay between the principal oboist and violinist. Having said that, Radovan Vlatković and Lin Jiang rose to every challenge that the astonishingly difficult horn parts throw up.
The second half of the programme began with the much loved fifth concerto, which contains a mammoth cadenza for harpsichord that elevates the instrument from accompanist to featured soloist. Mahan Esfahani, who played in all six concerti, made liberal use of rubato in his romantic, and technically flawless, interpretation of this extended passage. When he stamped his feet at one point, though, the effect was almost comical.