Y2K Lovers' Concerto Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra Cultural Centre Concert Hall This was an evening of both festivities and nostalgia and it found an appreciative audience. Perhaps the programme was a little overstretched attempting to cover the millennium, Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day in on concert! But a positive response justified the odd combination of works.
Local composer Josgua Chan's Reverie of Green Pastures was a serene addition to the concert's love theme. Lyrical passages offered a beautiful dialogue between wind and the plucked section - the pipa in particular - despite the occasional rambling as the orchestra warmed up.
The premiere of mainland composer Liu Xijin's two-movement A Ballad For Mother for zhonghu and orchestra was a welcome addition to the dearth of such repertoire for Chinese orchestras. The solo xun which opened set up Liu's visions of the women of northern China risking their lives, both heroic fighters and compassionate mothers, prairie women. The ensuing percussion reinforced those feelings.
The final coda was about maternal warmth, effectively so, though the soloist's rondo passages in the second movement were somewhat unsophisticated.
The soloist was Hui Yan, the orchestra's assistant principal, producing from the mellow instrument everything from battlefield to baby's cry.
The concert shifted to Shanghai of the 1930s in Love Lingers On, an arrangement of seven classics, including Shanghai Ai Night and Rose Rose, I love You.