Music beyond the call of duty

Hong Kong's flagship mid-sized orchestra has kept classical music aglow during the summer holidays, with a crowd-pleasing programme that has drawn a full house.

But what was truly engaging was the Hong Kong Sinfonietta's larger-than-life music-making propensity that often produces effects beyond the call of duty.

The concert started with four interludes from Britten's famous opera Peter Grimes.

The difficult scores, especially rugged rhythms in Sunday Morning and Moonlight, proved to be too much for the musicians, the woodwind section in particular. It was not until the last movement, Storm, that the orchestra resumed its solid form in the timpani-led passages that conveyed drama and weight.