In August of 2000, some 10,000 classical music fans in Hong Kong paid US$30 each to hear Russia's famous orchestra play a series of concerts. By most all accounts the evening was a success, with one local critic lauding the orchestra's "exciting accelerandos and heart-stopping rubatos." The only problem was that the real Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra was touring France, Spain and Portugal at the time. A group of apparently cash-strapped musical imposters duped Hong Kong's music aficionados.
The event was sadly one of the group's biggest headline-making events of recent years for an orchestra that was once known as one of the world's best under the baton of renowned Russian conductor Kiril Kondrashin. In 1998, Yuri Simonov was invited to lead the group back to a level of artistry it once enjoyed. While still too soon to determine if his efforts will prove successful, suffice to say the orchestra is in good hands.
In 1969, at the tender age of 28, Simonov was made chief conductor of Moscow's two-centuries-old Bolshoi Theater, the youngest person to ever hold the job. After his 16-year tenure there, he moved west, staging operas as far away as Los Angeles. He was working in Budapest when a visiting delegation from Moscow asked him to lead the Moscow Philharmonic. "When I heard them play, I thought they were like a collector's violin dropped on the ground," he later recalled. "I decided to try and put them back on track. I realized fully well that it was a long haul and would take years of hard daily work."
The Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, with Simonov on the podium and Huang Jen-ying on flute, will play Nielsen's Concerto for flute and orchestra as well as Tchaikovsky's Slavonic March and Symphony No. 4 next Wednesday.
The following night, Oct. 31, Lim Kek-tjiang will lead the orchestra in place of executive director Vladimir Spivakov, who has fallen ill. This will be Lim's second appearance with the Moscow Philharmonic. The evening's repertoire has been changed to accommodate Lim's preferences and will include Scheherazade, by Rimsky-Korsakov, and the overture to Borodin's opera Prince Igor.
Wednesday's show at the National Concert Hall, Taipei begins at 7:30pm and Thursday's at 8pm. Tickets for both nights range from NT$500 to NT$3,000 and are available through ERA ticketing outlets, most Kingstone Bookstores or through the venue by calling (02) 2343-1364.
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