CLASSICAL MUSIC Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, Friday, 8pm, Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall, $640, $520, $380, $200, students $190, $100 Urbtix.
One of the greatest Russian orchestras, the MRSO was founded in 1930 as a monument to Soviet Socialist excellence in the arts. This was demonstrated by it being allocated the premiere performances of works by virtually every great Russian composer of the era, such as Khachaturian, Shostakovich and Prokofiev. Fortunately, the orchestra has survived the collapse of the USSR with its artistic standards intact, and this, the first of three performances being given as part of the Arts Festival, promises to be a night to remember. Helene Grimaud is the guest soloist on Brahms' Piano Concerto No 1 and the orchestra will also perform one Chinese work - Chan Pui-fang's Prelude: Ode to Snow, and one Russian classic, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.
CINEMA Metropolis, Friday and Saturday, 7.30pm, City Hall Concert Hall, $180, $120, Urbtix.
A special screening of a restored, near-complete black and white cut of Fritz Lang's epic nightmare vision of the future. The high point of pre-war silent German Expressionist cinema, Metropolis was Lang's masterpiece, but as it was deemed too long for the attention span of the average audience was seldom shown in its entirety. No complete print exists now, but this is a restored version. Because Metropolis was black and white and silent, some horrible things have been done to it by people foolish enough to imagine that Lang would have used colour and rock music had those resources been available to him.
Like any artist, he expressed his creativity within the technical constraints of the period in which he worked, and those constraints are a fundamental element of the discipline of his art. Colourising Metropolis makes no more sense than strapping a jet engine to a biplane. The film was, however, meant to have live musical accompaniment, and here it has a critically acclaimed score by Martin Matalon.
This is a great way to view one of cinema's truly great works. You would be insane to miss this opportunity.
Vertigo, today, 12.01pm, Hong Kong Arts Centre Lim Por Yen Film Theatre, $50, students $30, Urbtix.