Review: Mozart’s Much-Debated ‘Sinfonia Concertante’ Graced The DFP Just Nicely
WHEN conductor Kazuyoshi Akiyama walked onto the stage dressed handsomely in his penguin suit and begun the night with a stroke of his baton, you would never have known that he is in his 70s. Although he has a mane of white hair, his enthusiastic gestulations will keep you convinced that he is not a day over 50.
Perhaps an age-old Japanese secret is to be credited to his youth, or perhaps it’s his many years of conducting orchestras worldwide and soaking the eternality of classical music and radiating it through his musical zeal. It was just last year that the 74 year-old celebrated the 50th anniversary of his conducting career.
Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante held at Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS (DFP) last Saturday saw Akiyama conducting the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) to a unique programme.
Akiyama celebrated the 50th anniversary of his conducting career last year.
Attendees had the rare opportunity of listening to a Japanese composition by Hiroshi Ohguri, the much-debated Sinfonia Concertante by Mozart, and an Elgar piece billed by conductor Hans Ritchter as “the greatest symphony of modern times”.
The opening of the concert was unlike any other orchestra we’ve attended — we felt like we were in an Akira Kurosawa film, or the whimsical world of Hayao Miyazaki.
Ohrugi’s most well-known work “Fantasy on Osaka Folk Tunes” offered us a chance to listen to Japanese classical music, vibrantly-coloured by their rich culture.
Premiered by the Osaka Philharmonic in 1956, “Fantasy” is one of the most popular repertoires for wind ensembles in Japan.
The virtuosity of MPO was displayed throughout the three-themed performance of “Fantasy”.
The solemnly slow introduction is suggestive of the Shintoist ritual bit then in a twist of tempo, its highly energetic first theme takes over. Associated with Osaka’s biggest festival held each summer at the Tenma-Tenjin Shrine, Ohrugi employed the gongs the rhythmic chanting during the festival in its first theme.
Midway through, “Fantasy” offered an original, lyrical theme by its composer, first heard in its flute and English horn sections. The final theme kicks in with an introduction to the piccolo over a boisterous accompaniment — a sequence connected to the lion dance during summer festivals at Osaka’s Ikukunitama Shrine.
Otto Jahn, the great Mozart biographer.
Following the exuberant percussion which concluded this performance of “Fantasy”, the mood was tempered down with the sonorous melodies of the night’s major draw.
Mozart’s “Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat Major” was written in 1778 when the accomplished composer was in Paris.
Here’s an interesting story about this sinfonia concertante: upon the death of Mozart’s biographer Otto Jahn in 1869, a manuscript score entitled “Sinfonia concertante” for four winds was found in his library.
No one knows its exact origin even though it is generally assumed to be a Mozart score. This is why its authenticity is highly-debated.
A sinfonia concertante is a short-lived genre that incorporates multiple soloists into a concerto format. Before the concert begun, four dashing men joined Akiyama at the front of the stage.
These men are some of MPO’s greats: oboist Simon Emes, clarinetist Gonzalo Esteban, horn player Grzegorz Curyla and bassoonist Alexandar Lenkov. All four of them contributed to a surprisingly relaxing composition of 32 minutes.
From left: Grzegorz Curyla, Simon Emes, Gonzalo Esteban, and Alexandar Lenkov.
After the intermission, we returned for the final hour of the concert. The four movement of Elgar’s “Symphony No.1 in A-flat Major” brought us on a tumultuous journey via the composer’s trademark cycle of highs and lows that will soften even the toughest hide.
In the concert note written by Robert Markow, Elgar’s orchestration was described as having “elegant, smooth, mellow and full” string sonority whole possessing horns and trombones which “colour” the sound of the strings.
The symphony’s introduction is marked nobilmente e semplice, an Elgarian directive that points to a slow, quiet, march-like passage that is repeated throughout the symphony as a unifying element. Elgar’s symphony presented an aurally-poignant and grandiose closing to the night, and we wouldn’t have preferred it any other way.
Check out the details of MPO’s next concert on their website and page!
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