North German Radio Symphony Orchestra

The North German Radio Symphony Orchestra performed here at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre on the 10th of October. On the programme was Beethoven's Egmont Overture, Sibelius' Violin Concerto and Brahm's Symphony No. 2.

Conducting the orchestra was Christoph von Dohnanyi, who at the age of 79, is one of the greatest living maestros. He is a master well versed in the German symphonic tradition, and his grandfather is the Hungarian composer Erno von Dohnanyi.

Beethoven's Egmont Overture is a grand and heroic work (like a lot of Beethoven's music) with plenty of brass fanfares and a climactic finale that is simply so triumphant. It's great to start the evening with this short but effective overture. I was seated flanking the orchestra so I could observe the conductor closely and I must say he beats time so clearly. Any orchestra would love that.

Next on was Sibelius' Violin Concerto. I love this work because although it is somewhat dark and forboding, like much of Sibelius' music, the solo writing is very violinistic (Sibelius once aspired to be violin virtuoso) and lyrical as well. The work opens with murmuring strings -- almost like nothingness, and then the solo violin floats in above this. To me, this is such a beautiful moment, it rather reminds me of the opening of Beethoven's Choral Symphony. The dark sounds of the orchestral parts remind one of the dark and sombre Nordic landscapes and there lies the irresistible attraction of the work -- though you know it's dark and all, yet you are attracted to its mysterious ways.

The soloist for the evening was the German violinist Frank Peter Zimmerman. He has such immaculate technique and wonderful intonation. It really was a note-perfect performance. When something like that is said, people will think the performance is cold and without emotions. But the thing about Zimmerman is that he gets right into the heart of the music without any idiosyncracies in his interpretation and he plays each note just as what the composer wants. And he is such a modest performer too. Anyway, he is not known for his looks, so my reasoning is that if someone can be such a superstar without banking on his looks, he must be really talented.

For the encore, he played this variations on 'God save the King' by Paganini which was super entertaining, with all the violin acrobatics.

The second half of the night featured Brahms' 2nd symphony. This is a favourite work of mine because of its pastoral feeling, the sense of repose and the lovely long melodies. It is such a sunny work which gives you a sense of warmth but there are many tragic moments too, such as the angsty slow movement. I love the last movement the most and the climactic finale, with blazing trumpets and horns is really so triumphant. It was a great experience listening to a German orchestra play a German symphony, conducted by an expert of German music some more (Dohnanyi's grandfather knew Brahms personally). After listening to their rendition, I really felt that this symphony is one of the greatest in the world -- I mean the rich sound they drew out and the deep understanding of the work's structure and architecture, these are things only a German orchestra can do.

For the encore, they entertained us with a Hungarian Dance by Brahms and when the applause refused to die down, they brought the house down with a Chinese piece!