香港小交響樂團《如夢逝水年華》 賀大會堂五十周年 文：駱雅
香港小交響樂團致力為古典音樂注入新氣象，二月下旬舉行的香港藝術節節目《如 夢逝水年華》，便是非一般音樂會。 非一般在於它於編排極有心思：拉威爾的管弦樂巨作《圓舞曲》將為音樂會的第一 首曲目，也是節目的壓軸演出—同場演奏一首作品兩次固然極少發生，更為突破 的是第二次演奏將不會是一次純音樂演繹，香港小交響樂團駐團藝術家伍宇烈將編 排一段舞蹈，讓《圓舞曲》真的既有曲也有舞。
為什麼是拉威爾《圓舞曲》？ 葉 （詠詩） 我跟伍宇烈都很喜歡拉威爾這首作品，經常談到要演奏這首曲目。 碰上 2012年是香港大會堂五十周年，我們覺得很適合於誌慶音樂會內演奏 這首作品。 《圓舞曲》是拉威爾的管弦樂巨作，音樂的層次很豐富，配器細緻，信息 很強，並非一般的舞曲。音樂上隱隱約約地，好像有些回憶影像在裡面， 朦朦朧朧的，跟我們對大會堂的記憶有些相似。 伍 （宇烈） 這首樂曲很有趣，我一直想用它來編舞。除了圓舞曲的節奏，它還 有些其他的東西在裡面，情緒是有點多愁善感，有點懷緬過去的感覺，跟 大會堂給我們的感覺相像。 我總覺得大會堂有五十年歷史，音樂廳內牆的木板聽了這麼多年的音樂 會，會不會有音符的記憶在裡面？所以我希望用舞者來表現這些見證一切 的木板。用它們來呈現大會堂這種影影綽綽，如幻似真的記憶。
那為什麼要演奏兩次？ 葉
伍
我很有興趣看伍宇烈如何以舞蹈演繹這首樂曲，但我覺得音樂上它很值得 獨立欣賞，所以決定在音樂會開始時先演奏一次，讓觀眾先感受作曲家音 符中想表達的意境與層次，然後再演奏此曲為音樂會作結，觀眾在有了自 己的想像和詮釋後，再看伍宇烈的舞蹈與樂團合作的版本，可能會有更深 的體會。 我們想探索一下音樂會的表演形式，在加入舞蹈元素之後，效果又會如 何？我請了兩位出色的舞蹈員，香港舞蹈團的高級舞蹈員華琪鈺及黃磊， 另外還有幾位香港演藝學院的舞者，除了樂團前面的舞台部份，合唱團席 也會用來演出。 我們希望做到樂團演奏與舞蹈演出是一個整體。
音樂會其餘兩首樂曲又如何？
© Yvonne Chan
葉
決定了拉威爾的《圓舞曲》之後，我開始構思挑選其餘的曲目，最後決定 用西貝遼士的D小調小提琴協奏曲及《圖奧奈拉的天鵝》。《圖奧奈拉的天 鵝》可以說是西貝遼士根據芬蘭神話寫成的交響詩，關於垂死天鵝與英雄 的愛情故事，音樂帶點冷與幽深，而庄司紗矢香是很出色又喜歡思考的演 奏家，演奏感情澎湃的D小調小提琴協奏曲是非常適合，我自己也很期待 聽她的演繹。 兩首音樂的感覺跟《圓舞曲》相近，讓音樂會可以有統一的氣氛。
By Nick Breckenfield Hong Kong Sinfonietta: La Valse Remembered Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Hong Kong City Hall
Continuing a long-established tradition of innovative programming for its classical concerts, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta has devised a very special concert as part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Hong Kong City Hall. Once again, in La Valse Remembered, Music Director Yip Wing-sie is joined by choreographer Yuri Ng (the orchestra’s Artist Associate), who aims to make the hall’s walls come alive in memory of all the music that has been played there over half a century. Of course, music and dance – rather like Sammy Khan and Jimmy Van Heusen’s ‘Love and Marriage’ though not quite as rhyming – go together like a ‘horse and carriage.’ Yuri has illustrated this before with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, in special performances of Stravinksy’s Soldier’s Story and illustrating last year’s Know Your Ballet Music programme, as well as getting audience members to dance on stage at the ever-popular CLP Light Classics. As he says: “I wondered if the wooden panels of Hong Kong City Hall’s concert hall have some sort of memories of the music they have been listening to throughout all these years?” Assuming they do, “the dancers will represent these wooden panels which have been witnessing every performance as well as portray less distinct memories of City Hall.” And the choice of French master-orchestrator Maurice Ravel’s La Valse is perfect: “It is a very interesting piece and I have always wanted to choreograph it. On top of the waltz rhythm, there are a lot of subtleties in the piece, principally in its emotionally sentimental, like a remembrance of the past, similar to our feelings towards City Hall.” Yip Wing-sie agrees: “La Valse is one of our favourite pieces and we have often talked about performing it. With 2012 marking the 50th anniversary of the Hong Kong City Hall, it seemed a suitable piece for the occasion.” She describes Ravel’s music as “sometimes blurry and
sometimes clear; similar to the way we remember City Hall.” With La Valse not only named after one of the most popular of all ball-room dances, and inspired by “an Imperial court, in or around 1855”, the feeling of nostalgia is a perfect piece for Wing-sie and Yuri’s latest collaboration. It was originally composed for the great impresario Diaghilev, although he didn’t like it so it achieved fame first on the concert platform, before Ida Rubinstein choreograph it. Reflecting the piece’s dual existence on the concert platform and on stage, this concert allows the audience to experience La Valse in purely musical and also danced performances. Noting the music’s “vibrant texture, together with the delicate instrumentation, which takes the piece past the normal accompanying functionality of dance music,” Wing-sie conducts La Valse to open the concert just with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, “to allow the audiences to grasp themselves what Ravel was trying to express.” At the end of the concert the piece is heard again and seen, with Yuri’s choreography and interpretation, which Wing-sie is very interested to see. In introducing the dance element Yuri has “invited two distinguished dancers from the Hong Kong Dance Company, Tina Hua and Huang Lei, and several dancers from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. In addition to the front stage, the choir stalls will also be used as performing area.” Between the two performances of the Ravel are two masterpieces by Sibelius. Wing-sie describes his myth-inspired tone poem The Swan of Tuonela as being “about a dying swan, with music of a rather dark mood,” while the distinguished soloist in Sibelius’ only Violin Concerto is Sayaka Shoji. “Both pieces share a similar atmosphere with La Valse, complementing each other to create a coherent theme for this special anniversary concert.”