Review22-year-old pianist Yunchan Lim wows the Hong Kong Arts Festival
The Academy of St Martin in the Fields put on a spirited performance with South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim and guest conductor Wilson Ng
You have to admire long-standing ensembles that still retain the spirit and sound that their original founders intended.
The acclaimed Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF) began its first Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF) concert on Saturday, March 28, fittingly enough, with something quintessentially British: Edward Elgar’s Serenade for String Orchestra.
Positioned further back on stage than most groups appearing at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall, the ASMF projected breezy wafts of sound in the Serenade’s opening Allegro piacevole that echoed sentiments of “old English” refinement and the true spirit of their late founder, conductor and violinist Neville Marriner.
For the Serenade, the well-oiled machine gave a reading that was clearly driven by the ensemble’s dexterous concertmaster Zsolt-Tihamer Visontay.
And as optically fluid as his direction was, Hong Kong-born guest conductor Wilson Ng was never going to rock the steady boat that is Marriner’s legacy.
In Elgar’s brief, meticulously-marked score, the ensemble happily presented the inherent charm of the twilight-hued piece on their own terms, and even when elements of routine crept in, their tender utterances of pure nostalgic sentiment in the central Larghetto (slow movement) were warm and heartfelt.