Edo de Waart Conducts Mahler No. 5

I attended the Saturday concert. The Flute concerto in the first half was not particularly exciting and I didn't expect much. The encore was a piece by Debussy. I quite enjoyed it, as people were holding their breath and listened attentively. The soloist used a flute designed by himself!

The Mahler was better than what I expected. The strings were much more together and the sound much warmer than before. de Waart's interpretation was one of moderates. He did not make it very exciting. The 4th movement Adagietto was beautifully played. I just think he could have produced more sparks in some of the places. But overall speaking, the performance was very good, which was reflected in the rather long applause from the audience - a rarely seen situation in HKPO concerts.