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Oliver Chou

Hong Kong's flagship orchestra is bound to be affected if the row over political reform flares up, its musical chief says.
Jaap van Zweden, who last week opened his third season as music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, said he and the 90-member orchestra were "here for the audience".
"If the audience was having a big problem, we would suffer from it as well," he said.
It would be strange, he added, for the Phil not to be affected if businesses and hotels were.
However, the Dutch maestro, who also leads the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in the United States, said he was not up-to-date with Hong Kong news and had not heard of Occupy Central. He will spend 10 weeks in the city for the current concert season.
"I think it is important for all parties to exercise balance and composure, feel the emotions, but don't act it out," he said.
The debate on political reform did not affect the 53-year-old maestro's "grand plan" to turn the Phil into one of the world's top orchestras.
"The HK Phil I heard at the season-opening concert was absolutely the sound of the Berlin Philharmonic. Now it's time for the world to know how good it is," he said, referring to the orchestra's European tour next March.
The seven-city tour will be the Phil's first European tour since 2003. "We are going to knock them out," he said of the orchestra's debut at the famous Golden Hall in Vienna, the second stop after London.
But before the tour, van Zweden would have to tackle the thorny issue of contract renewal for all players for another five years - an exercise that has spelled the end of the honeymoon period for previous music directors over their handling of changes to the roster. The best known case was the so-called St Valentine's Day Massacre, when 14 players were sacked on February 14, 1991, during the third season of then music director David Atherton.
"I was a player myself and I know how it feels to let go a colleague, and players will stand up for him and protect him. But you need to sacrifice sometimes to make the next step up. That is very difficult but it has to happen," said van Zweden, who was concertmaster for 16 years of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, his home town.
He said he had advised a few players to improve and, "strangely enough, they knew it themselves, and have done much better afterwards".
"The players chose me to be their conductor, and I respect their decision. So my biggest victory would be when I need not let go anybody," he added.
The Dutch maestro was thankful to the government for injecting fresh funding to hire six additional players in the woodwind and the brass sections - bringing the orchestra to 96 members, the largest ever.
He said he was not bothered by the delay in construction of the new concert hall at the West Kowloon Cultural District.
"I am married to an orchestra, not a concert hall, much less a plan. So I am happy with my music-making at the existing hall," he said.
But he noted that orchestras in the West did not become great on their own but through a combination of orchestra and hall.
"In the case of the Concertgebouw, the hall was built together with the orchestra, and they became famous together, bringing pride to the city," he said.
 


Electoral reform row could hit a sour note for Hong Kong Philharmonic

Jaap van Zweden said he and the 90-member orchestra were "here for the audience".

News

Hong Kong

Music director says if tensions reach a crescendo it won't be just business and hotels that suffer


Hong Kong's flagship orchestra is bound to be affected if the row over political reform flares up, its musical chief says.


Electoral reform row could hit a sour note for Hong Kong Philharmonic

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Music director says if tensions reach a crescendo it won't be just business and hotels that suffer

Music director says if tensions reach a crescendo it won't be just business and hotels that suffer