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Christopher Halls

Musically speaking, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s latest Swire Maestro Series concert was a case of light emerging victorious from the ashes.
The world premiere of Angus Lee’s … aux cendres, which means “from the ashes”, made for a somewhat eerie and desolate opening to a concert billed for the participation of conductor Elim Chan and violinist James Ehnes, but it also offered a soundscape full of textural interest.
Lee, a Hong Kong composer and flautist commissioned by the Hong Kong Phil to write the work under The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Composers Scheme, explained in the house programme that … aux cendres portrays a non-specific “event” and concludes a diptych that began with his earlier Des flammes …
It is a work “born of the flames of our times”, he wrote, and the music’s unresolved tensions evoked the unrest and upheaval in today’s world.

Chan, seemingly at one with the work, showed uncanny fluidity in her direction as the orchestra players embellished the score with brassy snarls, trombone slides, string glissandi and whistling harmonics.
Light at the end of the tunnel was provided by the works of core repertoire that followed.
As Canadian violinist James Ehnes took to the stage to play the solo part in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, it was a sure bet there would be no rough edges. Polished and refined sound was the order of the day.
His opening radiated pure D major sunshine, while Chan carefully sculpted a restrained, tender accompaniment in the opening Allegro moderato, gradually whipping up more excitement with dexterous flicks of her hands and fingers.
Ehnes’ display of solid technique in the first solo cadenza impressed to be sure, but it was his muted Canzonetta: Andante which transcended as if it were a distant song full of heartfelt yearning, enhanced later on by heartfelt dialogue with, and knowing musical sighs from, the flute of Megan Sterling and the clarinet of Andrew Simon.


The whip-crack snap with which the orchestra began the Russian romp in the Allegro vivacissimo finale was a rude interruption to the passionate longing. Ehnes was fully in control as he navigated the solo part’s athletic leaps and frenzy of double stops, never veering into recklessness.
The first of the Canadian virtuoso’s two encores – the demanding third sonata for solo violin by Belgian composer Eugène Ysaÿe – was a stunner, showing off his clarity of voicing and technical command of his instrument, a 1715 Stradivarius.
The HK Phil’s memorable rendition of Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 that followed the interval fully justified the palpable excitement generated by Chan’s return to her home city, which followed much international acclaim for her conducting.
Under her direction the open spaces in the Andante first movement were lent both breath and breadth by the orchestra. The movement’s central struggle developed with mesmerising intensity, the taut and sinister rhythmic drive of the strings culminating in a life-affirming orchestral climax.
Chan’s signature wrist flicks and gestures were seemingly made to measure for the quirky, angular aspects of the Allegro marcato second movement, and the orchestra, ever responsive to them, reacted with pinpoint bursts of energy.

The brooding Adagio was milked deliciously at times as if it were a rich, sumptuous Richard Strauss score, with Chan again shaping the music and appearing to cast spells with her baton-free, carefully poised hands that guided the movement’s brilliant shimmers to an organic close.
The orchestra’s playing of the joyous Allegro giocoso final movement was both electric and eccentric, and received enthusiastic endorsement from Friday evening’s audience – fresh proof of how Prokofiev’s fifth has become a popular staple of the orchestral repertoire.
Rarely do soloists stick around after a full musical workout and join the audience for the rest of the programme, but Ehnes, seated for the second half, must have craved some good Prokofiev and, quite possibly, more of the magic that Chan has been conjuring.
“Elim Chan & James Ehnes”, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Reviewed: November 22.


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Chan shapes a mesmerising rendition of symphony after teaming with violinist James Ehnes in a refined performance of Tchaikovsky concerto


Chan shapes a mesmerising rendition of symphony after teaming with violinist James Ehnes in a refined performance of Tchaikovsky concerto.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Chan shapes a mesmerising rendition of symphony after teaming with violinist James Ehnes in a refined performance of Tchaikovsky concerto

Chan shapes a mesmerising rendition of symphony after teaming with violinist James Ehnes in a refined performance of Tchaikovsky concerto