Concert: With the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong. November 28, 8pm, City Hall Concert Hall. Tickets: $80-$250. Urbtix: 2734 9009
Recorders are often bought as toys to keep children amused. That was probably why Michala Petri was given hers when she was three. 'My father bought me a recorder, which is a very [common] musical instrument for children to start on in Denmark,' recalls the Danish recorder virtuoso (right?3
). But unlike most, her first recorder did not end up in the loft with the rest of her childhood junk. Rather, at age five, Petri's playing was broadcast on Danish Radio and by 11, she was studying music with Professor Ferdinard Conrad at the Hochschule fur Musik and Theater in Hannover.
The daughter of two classical musicians says: '[The professor] thought that I was so talented with the recorder that I should stay with it, and of course my opinion was important too . . . I never really liked any other instruments.' Which is just as well. In June this year, she became the first recorder player to receive the prestigious Sonning Music Prize.
Petri will appear with the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong for a one-off performance on November 28. Of the four selected pieces, to be conducted by Kian Pin Hiu, Petri will play Vivaldi's Concerto For Sopranino Recorder and Lalo's Norwegian Fantasy For Recorder And Orchestra.
Given that the recorder is not a 'solo' orchestral instrument, is the repertoire very limited for its players? The 42-year-old says: 'I thought so when I was young because, at that time, the recorder was only a Baroque instrument and there were few composers who have written for the recorder today.