If three-quarters of last weekend's Hong Kong Philharmonic concert dealt with tragedy and death, the subject matter only increased the nobility of the entire concert.
Not only was City Hall the right venue for these mainly 19th-century works - the acoustics were as sensitive for a full Brahms orchestra as for the chamber Mahler - but the Philharmonic played with dazzling orchestral effects.
Mahler's Poems On The Death Of Children had the most splendid oboe and horn playing. The strings were warm and refulgent in the first song, the English horn and bassoon gave a sense of Bach church music in the third.
The orchestra was stirring in the Brahms Tragic Overture , while the abbreviated orchestra was jaunty enough in the final Schubert symphony.
If Atherton's orchestra provided the dramatic background, two soloists gave personality to two works of suffering. Pak Ming's viola solo in Hindemith's Trauermusik composed for the death of King George V, gave all the intensity to this most noble work.
As the Phil's first chair viola, he gets little chance to shine. But the Hindemith allowed him all the ardour, passion and concentration necessary.