South China Morning Post 12th June 1997
Elgar Cello Concerto
Hong Kong British Centenary Concert – Elgar Cello Concerto
Academy of St Martin in the Fields,
Conducted by Sir Neville Marriner, Cultural Centre Concert Hall, June 11th
When a constellation of international talent is drawn into the orbit of local stars (and stars-to-be), the celestial results can be astonishing. The centre of gravity for the spectacular concluding triumph of the Academy Music Festival was the legendary Academy of St Martin in the Fields (chorus and orchestra) whose distinguished ranks were augmented by faculty, graduates and students of the Academy of Performing Arts and members of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and Hong Kong Sinfonietta.
Four Chinese solo instruments were added to these prodigious forces for the world premiere of Law Wingfai’s When Mountains Roar. Conductor Yu Long presided over this monumental work from whose ever-changing orchestral textures grew arabesque from solo dizi (Dai Ya), sheng (Ronald Chiang Tao), pipa (WongChing) and guzheng (Xu Ling-zi). Its final section coaxed three poems by Mao Zedong (oddly untranslated in the printed programme) from the chorus in massive chords which edged very close to triumphalism.
Politically inspired music of an entirely different order followed in Elgar’s Cello Concerto.
Soloist Julian Lloyd Webber gave an utterly committed and intensely personal reading of this deeply-felt work. In a beautiful presentation, Sir Neville Marriner’s clean phrasing and rhythmic precision served, perhaps paradoxically, to emphasise the profoundly introspective nature of this extraordinarily lyrical work.
Michael Noone
