Review | HK Phil and Van Zweden excel in Rachmaninov and Raymond Yiu premiere with Esther Yoo

Premiering a new composition alongside a warhorse of the orchestral repertoire is an approach often taken to strike a balance between challenging and pacifying concertgoers. Yet the myth that contemporary music is difficult was soon put to rest by the Hong Kong Philharmonic and soloist Esther Yoo in their performance of Raymond Yiu’s Violin Concerto. A four-movement tribute to Chinese violinist and composer Ma Sicong (1912-87), the work received its Asian premiere at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre on February 14. While anguish and nostalgia pervade both the concerto and Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2, which the Phil played in the second half of a programme conducted by its former music director Jaap van Zweden, Yiu’s self-described “meditation on the sorrows of exile” was much more than just doom and gloom. The composer, who was born in Hong Kong and moved to the UK as a teenager, marries folk elements and the sounds of traditional Chinese instruments with a familiar Western musical form, just as did Ma in his own compositions such as the Inner Mongolia Suite (1937). Yiu could not attend the premiere by the Phil under Van Zweden of his work Old Bei in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. This time, he was present at the rehearsals and performances of his concerto, which the BBC Symphony Orchestra premiered in London in March 2024, also with Yoo – for whom Yiu wrote the piece – as soloist. Yoo’s “tri-cultural” background – of Korean heritage, she was born in the United States and had a predominantly European musical upbringing – makes her the ideal protagonist for Yiu’s 37-minute work, which explores diversity through a colourful array of sounds. She impressed with her light and clean spiccato and highly controlled use of sul ponticello playing on or close to the violin’s bridge, even if it was a struggle to catch every note from the balcony. Yoo lent a smooth sensuality to the Latin American-flecked quasi trio section of the second movement. With jazz licks from the orchestra, it recalls the elements of shidaiqu, a popular musical genre that emerged in Shanghai in the 1920s and which fuses jazz, Western classical music and traditional Chinese melodies. The Andante desolato third movement that followed was especially striking with its sense of complete solitude. Yoo’s thought-provoking, contemplative take on Yiu’s embellished transcription of a 1974 solo erhu recording he discovered on a visit to Hong Kong was a true highlight. Her playing turned fiery in the movement’s Animato section, whose frenzied rhythms express exile and loss. If musical fragments are somewhat tossed around in the opening Larghetto movement, the finale, quite unconventionally, develops them in complex fashion. The partnership between soloist and orchestra that is central to the Western concerto took shape in a section that included a reference to the opening of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto at an unfamiliar pitch inspired by Ma. As the music developed a near unbearable ferocity, the duel between Yoo and the full forces of the orchestra was chilling, even if the soloist had little hope of being heard above the militaristic hammering. After this, the resignation and stillness with which the work concludes was all the more special. Yiu’s concerto is not only substantial, but accessible judging by Friday’s reception for the work. As if pre-ordered for Valentine’s Day, love was in the air after the intermission in a rendition of Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2 in E minor embellished with schmaltz by the Phil and Van Zweden. The Dutch conductor worked magic on occasions, coaxing urgency from the strings through subtle use of rubato that enhanced the ebb and flow of the opening Allegro moderato movement. Like the bolting horses whose image it conjures, the Allegro molto second movement leapt from the gates in perfect unison, the playing tightly reined throughout and capped off with taut, rousing horn fanfares. Where previously Van Zweden’s interpretations of the work could sometimes give away too much too soon, here the climaxes were constructed with architectural-like care. Andrew Simon’s clarinet solo in the Adagio was by turns anguished and caressing, and seemed to spur similarly expressive playing throughout the orchestra’s ranks. A more rousing and monumental rendition of the symphony’s Allegro vivace finale than that which the orchestra delivered could hardly be imagined, the performance underscoring why the Rachmaninov warhorse is such an enduring masterpiece.

Review | HK Phil and Van Zweden excel in Rachmaninov and Raymond Yiu premiere with Esther Yoo

Van Zweden works magic in rousing, romantic Rachmaninov Symphony No 2, Esther Yoo partners with orchestra in Yiu’s nostalgic Violin Concerto