The Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra concluded the sixth out of ten
installments of their five-year Mahler cycle with three performances of M4
over the weekend at the Hanoi Opera House (for a change, these were not
Vietnam first performances of the work).
I attended the Friday night concert at a nearly full hall; the middle
movements were by far the best played on the evening.
The first movement started at a comfortable enough tempo (with very tinny
sounding Schelle), but the pace bogged down too much upon arrival at the
devilishly and delightfully complex development section. Although many
details could be heard, smooth flow was missing and overall ensemble
slipped near the end, particulary with a bad missed entry by the flutes.
The second movment was well structured and played, and the audience seemed
very interested by the flavour of the movement. One surprise was that the
concertmistress did not use a separate violin for the 'fiddle' part. I
had written thus in my program notes and because of this 'betrayal', I
ended up with a lot of quizzical questions from the audience afterwards.
I can only assume that she played a whole-tone higher by reading
from a transposed part?
The rapt audience attention continued through the slow third movement,
with beautiful playing by the VNSO strings. The conductor Tetsuji Honna
gambled on a dramatic move by having the Soprano soloist come onstage at
the onset of the 'gates of heaven' fanfare towards the end of the
movement. I don't know how often this has been tried elsewhere. It was
interesting but also detracted somewhat from the remaining denouement of
the third movement.
In the Finale, the soloist Ms. Mami Kashigoe simply was not able to
project her voice enough. While sounding suitable for the part, she had
her nose down a bit too much in the music; I don't think it was a case of
the orchestra overpowering her either. One other complaint is that I
could not hear the final notes of the movement in the harp and double
basses.
The first half of the program was made up by the Oboe Concerto by Richard
Strauss, soloist Tomoyuki Hirota. First time for me to hear this piece.
Mike Bosworth
Hanoi
