A new corner of the globe, Venezuela, has recently flooded classical music with vitality.
Edicson Ruiz - who performed Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf's Double Bass Concerto No 2 with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta - was trained in El Sistema, the network of children's orchestras that also produced the brilliant young conductor Gustavo Dudamel.
Ruiz, not yet 30 years old, wore a flowing, untucked shirt and played with the effortless joy of a boy doing tricks on a skateboard. The concerto was inventive and engaging if lacking the urgency of the music of Dittersdorf's friends Mozart and Haydn.
Cross-string passagework was virtuosic and doubly entertaining on the unwieldy bass. Ruiz swayed like a bear while skipping his bow lightly over the strings. He played the lyrical slow movement with clean intonation and a sweet vibrato. His marksmanship was spectacular on the high harmonics.
Chien Wen-pin is the conductor of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and you could hear the influence of opera in his approach, with fluid scene changes, vivid storytelling and a bold range of dynamics.