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SCMP Reporter

Inspiration came from England's Proms, a concert series that mixes the best of classical and pop music, but last year's inaugural Heineken Music Horizons in the SAR marked the Proms' evolution into an East-meets-West formula that went down with great success.

 Last year's piece de resistance was a fluid concoction featuring Jacky Cheung Hok-yau, Paul Young, Vanessa Mae, R & B crooners All-4-One, and the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra.

 Encouraged by the response, the organisers have decided to mix another East-West cocktail this year, with an even headier combination of ingredients: the reticent Faye Wong, the exuberant Gipsy Kings, balladeer Richard Marx, Taiwanese rock star Wu Bai and his China Blue backing band, and the concert's own orchestra - the New Horizons Orchestra.

 They have also scheduled an extra show, making it three shows this year at the Hong Kong Coliseum from October 24 to 26.

 Eager to get back into the groove as 'mixmeister', with four international-standard acts under his musical direction, is Larry Muhoberac.

 'We had a great time last year,' declared the silver-haired Muhoberac, who has worked on albums for singers as diverse as Luciano Pavarotti, Diana Ross, Elton John, Tina Turner and Barbra Streisand.

 'It was really rewarding in the musical sense,' Muhoberac said.

 'The audience was so tremendous, the performers were so tremendous I just had to come back. And this year it's going to be an even greater challenge because their music is all so different.'  The upbeat Latin American dance grooves of the Gipsy Kings proved extremely infectious when the group held their first concerts here two years ago.

 Marx, whose last performance in Hong Kong was also in 1995 and who has just released a new album, Flesh And Bone, is better known for love ballads such as Right Here Waiting, while rising star Wu Bai and China Blue usually indulge in hard-edged rock songs.

 Beijing-born Wong is, of course, Hong Kong's best-loved - if a slightly eccentric - alternative Canto-pop diva with hits such as Di-Dar and Vulnerable Woman. She has just returned to the music scene after a year's break to have a baby and is working on her new album.

 Muhoberac is starting to familiarise himself with the singers' different styles.

 'We're still in the process of getting all the material from the artists in the next week or so. We have a good team of people and we will be working with the managers, the artists and the musical directors, and going through everything to make sure we're all riding in the same boat together,' Muhoberac added.

 As was the case last year, each act will perform from five to eight numbers 'depending on the length of the songs'. The artists themselves would decide later whether there would be any duets, he added.

 'We've learned a lot from last year. For one thing the show itself was a different kind, stepping up many levels as opposed to [putting together] many shows. It was a unique presentation from all over the world. That was a big step on the learning curve: straight up.

 'You have to take each artist for what they do and you have to accommodate that and do something that makes them sound even better.'  Muhoberac will be conducting the soon-to-be-formed New Horizons Orchestra himself unless the artist specifically asks for his or her own musical director to take over the task.

 'If they want a principal director from outside instead of me, that's fine with me. I'd be quite happy to sit down and play. It's not a case of ego; it's whatever is best for the artist so that everyone is comfortable.'  The new orchestra will consist of musicians from different parts of the world, including some from Hong Kong. 'We will be taking on local players for much of the string section and bits and pieces for other sections. There are a lot of fantastic orchestras out here and great musicians, which is good,' he said.

 Since Muhoberac is based in Sydney, and the artists are scattered all round the globe (the Gipsy Kings are on tour in Europe at the moment, Marx is back home in Chicago), most of the co-ordination will be done through facsimiles and courier services.

 But all the elements will come together a week or so before the concerts, and only then will Muhoberac and company find out if their recipe is as potent a mix as last year's.

 Muhoberac knows he has a lot to live up to, and says: 'I don't know [how we're going to top that] but we'll have to do it.' Heineken Music Horizons, Hong Kong Coliseum, October 24 to 26. Tickets at $580, $380 and $280 will be available at Urbtix from September 5 (Inquiries: 2734-9009). Citibank credit-card booking service starts tomorrow (Hotline: 2805-2804) 



Twain to meet for second time