Here is a 2024 release, recorded live at a pair of concerts in December of 2022, that will be of interest to anyone following how standard repertory is evolving in the East Asian sphere. Pseudonymous former child prodigy pianist
Niu Niu
joins conductor
Jaap van Zweden
and the
Hong Kong Philharmonic
in two of the great warhorses of the classical repertory, the
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23
, and
Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 ("Pathétique")
, of
Tchaikovsky
. Except, of course, for a Hong Kong audience, the pieces may or may not be warhorses, and the appeal of this album, for anyone, lies partly in the sense of how pianist and conductor, working together live for the first time, interact creatively. The
"Pathétique" Symphony
here is pure
van Zweden
, a couple of minutes faster than the average, with clean playing from the
Philharmonic
and careful shaping of the orchestral parts, perfect for those who want their
without too much sentiment. There is no crowd noise on the recording at all (even at the ends of works), so there is no way to tell whether the usual applause followed the symphony's marchlike third movement, but it is quite possible that there was none. In the
Piano Concerto No. 1
, however,
properly adapts his orchestra to
's playing, which is a bit broader, still not overly sentimental but with a sense of the big melodicism of the work. The live recording brings a feeling of genuine collaboration that may be tricky to define but is present throughout. The engineering work from
Universal Music
is excellent, drawing a spacious sound from the Hong Kong Cultural Center Concert Hall. An intriguing and fresh reading of these much-recorded works. ~ James Manheim