Date: September 2, 2012
Location: City Hall Concert Hall, Hong Kong.
Die Konzertisten
City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong
Stephen Layton, conductor
English conductor Stephen Layton has amassed an eclectic collection of commercial recordings over the years. His 2001 recording of Britten’s choral music, for which Layton received a Gramophone Award, included a diverse mix of songs, hymns and offerings. This evening’s programming of countrapuntal music served a similar plate of mixed choral goodies, including a motet (Bach’s Singet dem Herrn), a cantata (Jauchzet Gott, also by Bach), as well as Mozart Requiem. Layton conducted Die Konzertisten, a Hong Kong-based amateur chamber choir, and the City Chamber Orchestra, which comprised of local professional musicians. Die Konzertisten as a corpus was rhythmically alive and phrasally in unison, thanks much to Layton’s crisp and resolute conducting. The integrity of countrapuntal tonality would occasionally expose unattractive crevices in passages of quick crescendos, especially in the motet, but otherwise the group had an applaudable outing. Louise Kwong, a talented up-and-coming soprano, sang both soprano parts in Bach’s cantata and Requiem. In the fast aria section of the cantata, Kwong seemed uncomfortable with some of the long phrasings, and exhibited aspiration problems on numerous occasions. In the slower recitativo and second aria sections, her lyrical voice flourished, projecting an ample amount of tonal beauty. Her singing was generally desirable, but by rarely looking away from her handheld score, she offered insufficient emotive connection to the audience. That was especially evident at the end of Gott when she sang “Drauf singen wir zur Stund: Amen, wir werden es erlangen / To this we sing here now: Amen, we shall achieve it” mostly while staring at the score. Melody Sze, the mezzo in Requiem, traversed with meticulous detailing and care, so much so that she sounded as if she had to cautiously suppress an outpouring of her vocal reservoir to hold vocal balance. Christopher Leung’s tenor was groomed and well voiced. Alan Tsang offered a lyrical high baritone that was highly polished yet properly fervent, but his lower registers found very little support and were often drowned out by the orchestra, especially in his solo in Tuba mirum.
The Fleeting Spectator 