Tomorrow night sees a concert in Taipei by the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) featuring one of Mahler’s finest symphonies, Mendelssohn’s ever-popular violin concerto, a young violinist born in Taiwan, a German conductor, and one of Taiwan’s greatest soprano soloists.
Of Mahler’s nine completed symphonies, the Fourth and Fifth are probably the most frequently performed. I remember listening to the Fourth being performed in Taipei’s National Concert Hall a few years ago by the Asian Youth Orchestra. A former member of a UK youth orchestra was sitting nearby and he said he was totally overwhelmed. He also remarked, while trying unsuccessfully to fight off vampire-like attendants in black dresses who wanted him to delete a photo he’d just taken of the performers, that the work was difficult to get right, but superlative when you managed to do so.
The NSO has in fact made a wonderful recording of the work, and it will be interesting to hear how it approaches it tomorrow under visiting conductor Christoph Poppen. Modern music is his special interest, and Mahler can be seen either as the beginning of that tendency or, more credibly, the final flowering of the
PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDREW CHICIAK
late-Romantic tradition (a tradition, many would argue, that was notably difficult to persuade to lie down and die).
Before the interval, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64 will be played by 20-year-old soloist Ray Chen (陳銳). He was born in Taiwan then moved to Australia, and his debut was with the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of eight. In 2008 he won first prize in the highly prestigious Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition.
But for many, the star of the evening will be Grace Lin (林慈音). Mahler introduced a soprano into the last movement of his Fourth Symphony — the words are bizarre but the music sublime.
“The conductor has great insight into the piece,” said Lin earlier this week. “I love the whole symphony and I will sit on stage for all of it — we don’t want any dramatic soprano last-minute entrances.”
Lin will also be appearing at Taipei’s Recital Hall on Nov. 6, at 2.30pm, in a lecture recital featuring items by Wagner, Mahler, Wolff and Duparc.
And so it will be Lin’s sumptuous voice that will close the evening. For many she alone will be reason enough to attend the concert.
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