Eric Bravington of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Photo: SCMP
Source:
https://scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3044321/when-hongkong-philharmonic-orchestra-went Short Reads
When the Hongkong Philharmonic Orchestra went professional, proving the colony was not ‘a cultural desert’
- The orchestra’s estimated annual running cost of HK$4.5 million was deemed ‘well worth spending’
- Then governor Murray MacLehose called the occasion ‘something that Hong Kong can be proud of’
The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra performing in City Hall during the 1973-1974 season. Photo: courtesy of the Hong Kong Philharmonic
“HK needs its own orchestra,” ran a South China Morning Post headline on May 31, 1972. Eric Bravington, the managing director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, who was in the colony “tying up loose ends”, told the newspaper that “Hongkong must set up a ‘professional orchestra’ – if the appreciation of classical music is to improve.”
Chairman of the Hongkong Philharmonic Orchestra, Solomon Bard, agreed. “We believe that further progress can only be made by the establishment of a professional orchestra,” he told the Post that July. “Since it is essential that professional music should be within the reach of the man in the street, such an orchestra would have to be fully subsidised,” Bard continued, estimating the cost of running such an orchestra at about HK$4.5 million annually.
“Although this is a large sum, it is money well worth spending if we are to prove wrong those people who call Hongkong a cultural desert,” said Urban Council member Kenneth Lo later in the year.
On March 5, 1973, Bard announced that the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra would turn professional. “The Colony today is a growing commercial and industrial giant, but culturally it is still in its infancy [...] I believe there is a particularly strong desire on the part of the public for an orchestra.”
“The Hongkong Philharmonic Orchestra has offered one-year contracts to 22 overseas musicians to join the orchestra from January 1 next year,” the Post reported on December 5. The musicians hailed from the United States, the Philippines, Korea, Japan and France.
The new ensemble gave its first performance on January 11, 1974, and “began a new page in the musical history of our city,” presenting “a popular programme of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky” to rounds of applause.
Of the occasion, governor Murray MacLehose said: “The project has gained so much momentum [...] that we now have a symphony orchestra which will give some 60 concerts in the year to come. This is, indeed, something that Hongkong can be proud of.”