Concert Review: HKPO Bruckner 4th

Concert Review: HKPO Bruckner 4th

June 11, 2016, CCCH
HKPO - Jaap van Zweden - Louis Lortie
Mozart - Bruckner

Concert opened with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22, which the sometimes wayward Lortie (in recordings) played surprisingly in a straight and fluid fashion. Although stylish, the last ounce of tonal and rhythmic refinement was missing, and his tone was not the biggest. The orchestral accompaniment was stylish and tight - commendable.

Bruckner's Fourth Symphony (Haas) received an excellent performance. All sections played at an elevated standard. Even more than the strings, the woodwinds seemed more fortified than usual. The brass was largely excellent, with steady and atmospheric horns. More importantly, Jaap van Zweden, an acknowledged Bruckner conductor, mostly had the right feeling of ebb and flow so important to Bruckner. He was also able to coax a full and truly thrilling sound in the climaxes, yet keep things tight and eventful in the equally important softer moments.

However, his approach did not fully carry the last movement. Maybe this sounds like heresy: like the Brahms Fourth, personally I have always found the ending problematic (the alternate editions too), as the ending "blaze" is to me not as thrilling as the first climaxes. Also, there are many start and stop passages, which under Jaap's literal rendition had a feeling remarkably close to the first movement of the Fifth Symphony (this is not as it should be, as the 5th inhabits a completely different world, with a less radiant, more mysterious atmosphere). Thus, in the last movement grandeur was only intermittently evident; my own feeling is you need some more shaping and stretching to achieve true atmosphere, and HKPO had achieved this before in this symphony (under Yuri Simonov and Gunther Herbig; see my write-up here). Lu Jia had also achieved more atmosphere in this symphony with his Macau Orchestra (here).

The HKPO strings are part of the problem. They played with accuracy and power, but not much radiance so important in Bruckner (which Lu Jia/Macau did well). Places like the repetitive figures in the last movement, and the Trio, just felt mechanical and earthbound. But overall, I am satisfied.

vs Philadelphia Orchestra/Yannick Nezet-Sequin's Bruckner 4th
Take all this with a grain of salt, as I did not attend the performance, having only heard it through the radio. It is pathetic that these are the only two performances of Bruckner in HK this year, that it had to be the same symphony and that they came within a month of each other!

I thought the Philadelphia rendition clearly rendered and very well played (as usual for this orchestra), but it had almost the same problem as the same team's Bruckner 9th I heard in Carnegie Hall (here), namely a lack of spiritual dimension in the last movement (Jaap did not escape from this either). In terms of flow, overall I prefer Jaap's conception.

Opinions among my friends were quite divided. Some reveled in the Piladelphia's sonority, while others found a curious lack of spiritual journey. At the HKPO concert, I ran into a dozen acquaintances - they were divided too but surprisingly the majority preferred the HKPO/Jaap performance. There is some brand loyalty and US-bashing here I think, but that is par for the course.

A thought: In the quest for precision, many performances under younger conductors to a variable degree miss the spiritual side of things. This is across the board, a world-wide phenomenon.