'But a world like that is long gone,' says the 53-year-old Chongqing-born composer. 'So I can only go back to it by [conjuring it up] in my music.'

Guo (left) is regarded as a top classical composer and has produced a substantial body of work in various styles including operas, symphonies, film scores and concertos for both western orchestras and Chinese ethnic music ensembles. One of his compositions was also featured in the opening ceremony of last summer's Beijing Olympic Games.

The Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra will play works composed by Guo over the past two decades under the baton of the troupe's artistic director and principal conductor, Yan Huichang.

The programme includes ensemble pieces Suspended Coffins on the Cliffs in Sichuan and Three Melodies of West Yunnan as well as the dizi (bamboo flute) concerto Desolate Mountain. The concerto will feature soloist Tang Junqiao whose work was featured on the soundtrack of Ang Lee's Oscar-winning film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).

Guo, who graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in the early 1980s, says the concert will be a highlight of his career because the pieces selected for the programme are representative of his repertoire so far.

Desolate Mountain is his first concerto for Chinese ethnic instruments and was composed in 1992. Inspired by a long poem by the Tang dynasty poet, Li Bai, the composer depicts the sweeping panoramic vistas of the Sichuan mountain ranges where he spent his adolescence.

'The Sichuan folk tunes have melted into my blood, they are the eternal melodies in my heart,' Guo says.

'Tone poem' Suspended Coffins on the Cliffs in Sichuan, which Guo wrote for his graduation project in 1983, will be revived for the first time tomorrow and performed with a different orchestration. The work was originally written for two pianos and a symphony orchestra.

'It was very exhausting to conquer the technical difficulties while making the Chinese ethnic music version because western and Chinese traditional instruments are very different,' says Guo.

'But the final result is very exciting. I was thrilled to hear the freshness and variation of sounds brought out by the traditional Chinese music instruments.'

Three Melodies of West Yunnan is also having its world premiere during the concert. The piece's first two movements - A Va Mountain and Jino Dance, which convey the life of the ethnic minority groups living in Xishuang Banna, Yunnan - were composed in 1998 by Guo. The third movement, Sacrifice-Torches-Potent Liquors, was completed late last year.

'I'm fascinated by those [ethnic minority] people who live in great harmony with nature, their lives and characters ... it feels [with this piece] like I can finally escape from the highly urbanised cities,' says Guo. Although he has been acclaimed overseas, Guo has chosen not to move to the US or Europe to develop his career, as some of his contemporaries have, because he believes in the great potential of Chinese ethnic music.

'It's a magical world that has yet to be fully explored. For me, it's more than an obligation to promote Chinese ethnic music ... [as] I enjoy the challenges and the endless possibilities in this field,' he says.

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