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Christopher Halls

Unlike sporting teams that forgo their treasured home ground advantage when playing away from home, touring orchestras can reap the benefits of performing at venues with better acoustics than their own.
That was the case recently when the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra performed in the acoustically bright Concert Hall of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing with Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi at the helm and Bomsori Kim as violin soloist.
To hear the Hong Kong Phil at a superior venue is to be reminded of the infamous sound anomalies of the orchestra’s “home turf”, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre’s cavernous Concert Hall on the Tsim Sha Tsui harbourfront.
The concert of works by Arvo Pärt and Sergei Prokofiev, also performed in Hong Kong on April 4, was a celebration of “pure” music that resonated with marked clarity in the Chinese capital’s main concert venue, referred to by some as “China’s Carnegie Hall” since it opened in 2007.

Immediately west of the Great Hall of the People and Tiananmen Square, “The Giant Egg” as the massive centre designed by French architect Paul Andreu is colloquially known, encases the hall, which also boasts the largest organ in the country.
Its digital wall, abstract embossed ceiling and turtleback soundboard all play their parts in the even distribution of sound.
While the audience for the April 7 concert occupied only about 70 per cent of the hall’s nearly 2,000 seats, the buzz of music students flipping through their scores and the thrill of having Järvi there was palpable nonetheless.
A Swansong is usually associated with death, but here Pärt’s composition of that name pulsed with inviting warmth.
Järvi, a compatriot and close family friend of the 89-year-old Estonian minimalist composer, coaxed high-quality sound from the upper strings, evident even in their early pizzicato pulses.
The description often used for Pärt’s music, “holy minimalism”, certainly applies to this work with its tranquil, hymnlike qualities.
In her debut at the NCPA, South Korean-born violinist Bomsori Kim produced a muscular sound as the soloist in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No 2.

Playing the 1725 Guarneri del Gesù “ex-Moller” violin, Kim maintained a voluptuous tone, while her crystal-clear articulation kept listeners on the edge of their seats.
Whenever the music turned lyrical, such as in the violin’s simple opening melody and its recurring guises, Kim responded with a rich, earthy sound.
Her intense vibrato was not for the faint-hearted, however, and despite her towering lyricism in the work’s Andante assai movement, one craved moments of respite from it.
Still, despite these moments where the sound felt slightly forced and Kim’s left-hand action too heated, the movement’s animated middle section was a delight.
Perfectly punctuated brass fanfares and flutters from the woodwind all came through a treat in the NCPA space, never overpowering the soloist’s lines for a moment.
With Järvi and the orchestra relishing the Spanish flair of the Allegro, ben marcato (strongly accented) finale and milking Prokofiev’s primal rhythms to the fullest, Kim’s sparkling virtuosity was fearless and near flawless.
Her encore, a display of technique and musicality equal in their brilliance, was the Polish Caprice by Polish female composer Grazyna Bacewicz.

More Prokofiev followed after the intermission in the shape of his Symphony No 4.
The playing of the strings, gutsy and warm, exuded grandeur in the Andante assai introduction, while in the more hard-edged Allegro eroico that followed, the tight semiquaver rhythms and “machine-music” ostinato textures fascinated.
Megan Sterling’s melting flute melody was pure serenity in the Andante tranquillo, and Michael Williams joined in with animated and heartfelt oboe playing.
Where Prokofiev’s ballet writing came to the fore in the work’s classically proportioned scherzo and trio, marked Moderato, quasi allegretto, the playing was poised, spirited, and peppered deliciously with Järvi’s subtle applications of rubato.
The Allegro risoluto finale was equally compelling for the precision of its toccata-like opening, sardonic rhythms and the brilliant raspiness that muted trumpets and side drum added to the mix.

The blaring brass fanfares were thrilling too, and the work’s conclusion, a coda featuring a tug of war between C major and C minor in which the former wins out, was triumphant.
Sadly for Prokofiev, a political crackdown in Soviet Russia in 1948 meant it was a triumph he himself never heard performed.
“Paavo Järvi & Bomsori Kim – Beijing Concert”, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Concert Hall, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing. Reviewed: April 7.


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Beijing hall’s acoustics benefit HK Phil in concert of Pärt and Prokofiev with Bomsori Kim

Violinist Bomsori Kim performs Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No 2 with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing. Photo: Desmond Chan/HK Phil

Violinist Bomsori Kim, conductor Paavo Järvi and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra receive the applause of the audience at the Concert Hall, National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing on April 7 for their performance of Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No 2. Photo: Desmond Chan/HK Phil

“The Giant Egg”, Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, houses a concert hall whose acoustics bring out the best in orchestras, as the Hong Kong Philharmonic showed in their programme there on April 7, 2025. Photo: Xinhua

South Korean-born violin soloist Bomsori Kim and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Paavo Järvi, perform Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No 2 at the Concert Hall, National Centre for the Performing Arts, in Beijing. Photo: Desmond Chan/HK Phil

Violinist Bomsori Kim’s muscular playing and virtuosity had the audience in Beijing on the edge of their seats. Photo: Desmond Chan/HK Phil

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Paavo Järvi, gave a compelling performance of Prokofiev’s Symphony No 4 at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. Photo: Desmond Chan/HK Phil

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Beijing venue’s acoustics bring out Hong Kong Philharmonic’s balance and clarity in works by Pärt and Prokofiev with Korean violin virtuoso


Beijing venue’s acoustics bring out Hong Kong Philharmonic’s balance and clarity in works by Pärt and Prokofiev with Korean violin virtuoso.


Performing arts in Hong Kong

Classical music

China

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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Beijing venue’s acoustics bring out Hong Kong Philharmonic’s balance and clarity in works by Pärt and Prokofiev with Korean violin virtuoso

Beijing venue’s acoustics bring out Hong Kong Philharmonic’s balance and clarity in works by Pärt and Prokofiev with Korean violin virtuoso