When Korean conductor Shiyeon Sung made her debut with Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in 2022, she proved a formidable presence over four appearances, signing off in August with a dazzling Firebird.
Returning tonight for the APO’s City of Dreams concert, as the orchestra’s newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor, shecertainly confirmed the promise of last year’s music-making.
While Beethoven’s Coriolan overture was almost set ablaze by its thunderclap chords, Sung ensured that its deeper drama was compellingly pursued in the work’s driving syncopations.
No doubt Han’s visceral, grunty opening chords were testament to his youth. Photo / Sav Schulman.
It is sobering to consider that Haydn’s Cello Concerto No 1 languished undiscovered until 1961, immediately taking its place as one of the composer’s most captivating scores and a cellists’ favourite.
Under Sung’s baton, it was deliciously light and frothy, thanks to the smaller orchestral forces maintaining an effervescent buoyancy. Teenaged Jaemin Han, fresh from adding yet another top international prize to his already impressive CV, was a heaven-sent soloist.
No doubt Han’s visceral, grunty opening chords were testament to his youth, along with fiery scales that might have slipped in from a Vivaldi storm, yet in the lyrical Adagio, he was the soul of expressivity, with rapturous tone and exquisite phrasing.
His encore of a Bach Sarabande was similarly beautiful, although the piece’s dance origins did fall victim to Han’s romanticizing rubato.
After interval, a short Tanzchen im alten stil by Korngold was a lightweight diversion, with Sung and the players enjoying its coquettish charm — a timely reminder that the APO will be presenting the composer’s operatic masterpiece, Die Tote Stadt in July.
Under Sung’s baton, it was deliciously light and frothy. Photo / Sav Schulman.
We do not hear enough Hindemith in our concert halls, and so tonight’s Mathis der Maler symphony was a particularly welcome offering.
With the orchestra in splendiforous form, Sung laid out the composer’s three visions from Grunewald paintings. The first movement’s angels’ chorus was a celebration of bubbling fugal fun, while the final Temptation of St Anthony took the breath away from its first massive string unison and never looked back.
