Yo-Yo Ma, Lang Lang among highlights of Hong Kong Phil’s 2023/24 season

The Hong Kong Philharmonic has prepared a star-studded line-up for its 50th anniversary season

Highlights include French-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma, American violinist Joshua Bell, and China’s best-known pianist Lang Lang

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Yo-Yo Ma at a rehearsal at the Xinghai Concert Hall, in Guangzhou, China, in 2018. The French-American cellist will perform Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor in Hong Kong on November 8. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 7:15pm, 21 Jun 2023Updated: 7:48pm, 21 Jun 2023

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra isn’t known for gags, but having music director Jaap van Zweden conduct The Flying Dutchman as part of his farewell to the city brought a chuckle during the announcement of the orchestra’s 2023/24 season.

The Dutch conductor, who is taking up a new post as music director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in 2024, will conduct Wagner’s work based on the legend of a doomed wanderer as an opera-in-concert on June 21 and June 23, 2024, as his penultimate performance before leaving for his next port of call.

And on June 28 and 29, 2024, he will conduct a final concert with a programme to be decided by a public poll.

David Cogman, a director of Swire Pacific who is the chairman of the board of the Hong Kong Phil, said there was no update on the big question of who van Zweden’s successor is going to be.

Jaap van Zweden will take up a new post as music director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in 2024. Photo: Dickson Lee

The 2023/24 season is also the orchestra’s 50th as a professional orchestra, and it has prepared a star-studded line-up for the anniversary.