Review: Hawaiian slide guitar meets erhu as veteran players evoke old Hong Kong through saloon tunes
Encore follows encore, with audience lapping up teahouse hits of the 1930s
The Voice of Guangdong Saloon Music Concert
Sai Wan Ho Civic Centre
Reviewed: April 6 2017
Old Hong Kong was brought back through authentic Cantonese saloon music played by seasoned masters to a full house of elderly fans enjoying a moment from those bygone days.
The band of 10 virtuosi on Chinese and Western instruments demonstrated why these short works, mostly composed in Hong Kong, became national sensations in the 1930s, starting with Shanghai and other major cities in mainland China.
An authentic sound was guaranteed by the band’s veteran members, Szeto Siu on xylophone and To Wing on violin and erhu, to name two, who were disciples of composers of these masterpieces. The four songs on which they accompanied Fung Chui-yu, a daughter of Fung Wah, a guru in the genre, captured the now-extinct atmosphere of teahouse entertainment.
The works’ short duration (mostly two to three minutes) and melodic features reflected the aesthetic taste – and short attention span – of the older generation.