The Hongkong Philharmonic, with William Preucil, violin, Cynthia Phelps, viola, Ronald Thomas, cello, David Atherton, conductor. HK City Hall Concert Hall.
ONLY one work from the penultimate ''Atherton And Friends'' series will remain absolutely memorable: Sir Michael Tippett's Triple Concerto for violin, viola and cello.
The reasons are manifold. First, Atherton has had a special musical relationship with Sir Michael, the composer effusively praising the conductor in his recent autobiography.
Second, it is rare to get three such fine soloists together for such dangerously complex work.
Most essential, though, is that the then 70-year-old Sir Michael wrote an astonishing paean to ageless wisdom rather than a last clarion call.
It would be platitudinous to say that Sir Michael's powers have increased with age. Rather, after this first hearing, they have deepened.