“Music can be a source of courage, healing and unity.” Following these past unsettling and devastating months, the words of Jaap van Zweden, Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, issued alongside the orchestra’s new season announcement, are balm for the soul. And although the announced concerts are still under a shadow of uncertainty, the HK Phil’s new season is fuelled by hope and resilience, celebrating both Beethoven’s 250th and Jaap’s 60th birthdays, and sends a strong signal to the musical world.
You can give the birthday boys not three but six cheers this autumn and winter. The celebrations begin, aptly, with Beethoven’s feuertrunken and heaven-storming Choral Symphony in October and they see their first culmination in a concert performance of Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio. With an outstanding cast, including Elisabeth Teige, Simon O’Neill as Florestan and Matthias Goerne and Jongmin Park as Don Pizarro and Rocco respectively, it will without doubt improve on the less than favourable reception of the 1805 premiere at the Theater an der Wien.
For the Season Opening in late October, the HK Phil serves Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony as a delicious base of the birthday cake and the remarkable trio of soloists invited for the Triple Concerto makes for a shiny icing: violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, cellist Kian Soltani and pianist Lauma Skride. The cherry on top is Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, played by Mutter the following night. The German violinist also performs Beethoven’s Romances for Violin and Orchestra and presents a chamber concert with works by Jörg Widmann and Beethoven.
Last year, the Hong Kong Philharmonic was voted Gramophone’s Orchestra of the Year, an award that honours the hard work of both the orchestra and its popular chief conductor. Jaap van Zweden made his debut as the Music Director in September 2012 and the recent announcement of the further extension of his contract through the 2023-24 season came as no surprise. For his 60th Birthday Gala in December, the Dutch conductor serves a very special menu: Beethoven’s majestic Fifth Symphony and his oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives. It is a gloriously dramatic work, full of humanity and divinity, fear and courage, and it has been a real treat seeing so many orchestras dig out this rarely performed piece for the composer’s anniversary.
Last but not least comes van Zweden’s Eroica in January. The Third Symphony with its opening gunshot-like chords, revolutionary fire and moving Marcia funebre has always been an audience favourite and brings an exultant end to the (interrupted) Beethoven celebrations.
Van Zweden parties on with some of the world’s best soloists. Rudolf Buchbinder returns to Hong Kong for Ravel’s jazzy Piano Concerto in G, Jan Vogler performs Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in a programme paired with Mahler’s mighty Titan Symphony and Alice Sara Ott plays Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 21 with its tender and delicate Andante.