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Kevin Kwong

Going Upriver at the Qingming Festival
Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra  
HK Cultural Centre Concert Hall
Reviewed: Jul 10
Mainland composer Shi Zhiyou's Going Upriver at the Qingming Festival is a 'symphonic poem' in 17 movements inspired by the renowned Northern Song (AD980 to AD1127) hand-scroll painting of the same title by  Zhang Zeduan. It  was the sole work performed at this Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra concert, which is part of the troupe's 2nd Huqin Festival.  
Originally written for western orchestration with Chinese strings, the new version has been rearranged by  Alfred Wong, Simon Kong and  Chew Hee-chiat  for this concert, featuring erhu player Song Fei.  
The sweeping score  was a real crowd pleaser. Melodic and lyrical, the themes in variation at times sounded like pop tunes and aptly matched  the poetic  scenes  depicted in the ancient Chinese painting. In the Overture, the sheng gently  led the orchestra into the piece's main and expressive theme by the erhu. It immediately  conjured up peaceful pictures  of grand landscapes.  But this slightly melancholic mood shifted up a gear in the second movement, The Caravan Merchants, in which the zhuihu  took over from the erhu,  depicting the hustle and bustle of a city with its harsher sound  in allegro. 
The piece then  took the  audience  on musical journey across the countryside, conjuring up images of songbirds, galloping horses and quirky villagers going about their business.  
The most effective scenes, musically, included The Rural Areas, Surging the Waves, Temples and the finale The Best of Times.   Top solos  came from erhu player Xu Hui  and banhu  player Ngai Kwan-wa whose softer sound complemented  Song's commanding musical presence. 




Going Upriver at the Qingming Festival