Concert Review: SOUNDFEST, Atherton & Atherton, HKPO, 07/01/11 (Stravinsky, Britten, Tchaikovsky)

 SOUNDFEST, Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Friday 7th January 2011, David Atherton conducting Elizabeth Atherton (soprano) with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
300 Words

My initial desire as a concert-goer was for more sense of presence in the opening number of tonight's concert, Stravinksy's Symphonies of Wind Instruments. The hopping reed passages, recurrent in this initial number, could have defined the edges of the patchwork mood sequence through a sharper form of attack (required since, unfortunately, the HKPO was playing to a half-empty concert hall). Correspondingly, the finest sections were the slow chordal passages, which fanned out, beautifully, through stepwise lines with a solemn tone and sense of reservation. One could not help feeling that perhaps the performers were responding to this diminished sense of performance space.

Following on the heels of the Symphonies, however, Elizabeth Atherton sailed through a masterful rendition of Britten's Les Illuminations with a sense of confidence which placed her firmly at the helm of the programme's first half; each role she portrayed within the song cycle was entirely believable. Completely metamorphosing from animated narrator to serene bystander, she propelled and retracted the narrative seemingly at whim, catching the entire audience under the spell of her tongue and taking off with their emotions. Technically, each swoop and glide was faultlessly placed; each word perfectly matched by a subtle timbral facet.

The Nutcracker was the final item on the programme, and, as expected, David Atherton's show-stopper. From under the deft strokes of his baton, the HKPO unfurled each familiar melody with luscious romantic swells and securely tailored falls. Elements within Atherton's interpretation were both surprising and appealing: melodic lines were often portioned into shorter phrases, which kept the work light in relation to unusually heavy rhythmic drive he had given to the piece. With his shoulders slightly stiff, almost in the pose of a bear, Atherton even stepped into a waltz in more than one of the dance movements with surprising agility. Effectively, Atherton saved a fuller, weightier, sense of melodic line until the end to carry the glorious, sweeping final movement; a satisfying finale to a well-delivered programme.