https://www.scmp.com/rss/323677/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com There is little evidence to suggest that J.S. Bach conceived his six Brandenburg Concertos as a set, and the decision by organisers of the 11th Beare’s Premiere Music Festival in Hong Kong to present them in a single concert was a bold one. But so began nine days of chamber music performances, with an evening featuring world-class soloists and local artists. The fourth concerto was the highlight of the concert’s first half, with Welsh-born flautist Emily Beynon a radiant presence who, with... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3045411/hong-kong-chamber-music-festival-opens-virtuoso-performances?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3045411/hong-kong-chamber-music-festival-opens-virtuoso-performances?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Jan 2020 10:20:46 +0000 Perhaps for programming reasons, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra opted for the truncated and less often performed Willem Mengelberg version of Mahler’s incomplete Symphony No. 10. Pitted with Shostakovich’s 10th symphony, this was an evening devoted to monumental music. The orchestra delivered a well-constructed and gratifying account of Mahler’s Adagio first movement. From the opening notes for violas, its music director, Jaap van Zweden, drew bleakness and longing – a prelude to a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3042272/hong-kong-philharmonic-deliver-monumental-mahler-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3042272/hong-kong-philharmonic-deliver-monumental-mahler-and?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Dec 2019 08:30:13 +0000 Seong-Jin Cho is an artist whose rise has been meteoric, and it is easy to see why. He held the audience’s attention from the first chords of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s season-opening concert. His aptitude for both large-scale works and more intimate pieces was on show in a concerto that by turns calls for concentrated expressive power and ornamental playing. The first movement in particular juxtaposes technically demanding passages and moments... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3026355/rapturous-rachmaninov-launches-hong-kong-philharmonic-season?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3026355/rapturous-rachmaninov-launches-hong-kong-philharmonic-season?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Sep 2019 08:26:22 +0000 Most 85-year-olds are either in hospice care or living the quiet life surrounded by a network of supportive family and friends. Not so for one of the most recorded artists in history, who still travels the world as a conductor and solo pianist. Unsurprisingly looking a little unsteady when he first shuffled on stage, Philippe Entremont took the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong through its paces in a rendering of an all-Beethoven concert. Scheduled for a collaboration with the orchestra in... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3016353/conductor-and-pianist-philippe-entremont-shows-hong-kong-hes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3016353/conductor-and-pianist-philippe-entremont-shows-hong-kong-hes?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Jun 2019 09:45:07 +0000 American pianist Ben Kim could have achieved more success with a less conservative approach to Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, performed with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta under the baton of Scotsman James MacMillan on Saturday. Kim has solid technique, but lacked the rhythmic energy necessary in certain sections to fully capture the Russian composer’s intentions, which MacMillan indicated clearly with his precise direction for soloists and orchestra. Trumpeter Huang Shan presented... https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2163591/shostakovich-piano-concertos-mixed-bag-ben-kims-hands?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2163591/shostakovich-piano-concertos-mixed-bag-ben-kims-hands?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Sep 2018 10:22:56 +0000 The piquant Jeremy Denk set himself a challenge in his recital at the University of Hong Kong by presenting an ambitious programme of solo piano works that explored the notion of profundity and whether it exists in music. His choice of pieces for his Hong Kong debut was notable for the fact they were written late in each composer’s life and at a time of personal foreboding. However, while all of them show degrees of structural audacity and adventurous tonal exploration, in or of themselves none... https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2149128/american-pianist-jeremy-denk-offers-pathway-sublime-hong-kong-recital?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2149128/american-pianist-jeremy-denk-offers-pathway-sublime-hong-kong-recital?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 Jun 2018 10:00:27 +0000 Into its 25th edition, Le French May has outgrown its original premise to incorporate a plethora of international and local fare. This programme is testament to that diversity: a French pianist interpreting fin de siècle Beethoven, Tchaikovsky’s tribute to Mozart, a co-commissioned French work, all performed under the baton of the Hungarian conductor Gabor Kali and with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. The concert opened with Pierre-Yves Macé’s world premiere Contre-flux I – Muzak Codex for Orchestra,... https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2148079/francois-frederic-guy-plays-beethoven-review-bold-musical-choices-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2148079/francois-frederic-guy-plays-beethoven-review-bold-musical-choices-and?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 May 2018 06:00:15 +0000 Spanish composer Juan Carmona’s Sinfonia Flamenca pits a chamber orchestra against a small group of performers – a flautist, flamenco guitarist, vocalist and flamenco dancer. Following flamenco tradition, the soloists employ improvisation that adds elaborate ornamentation to the work’s score. The work takes listeners on an emotional journey through a series of compás, or rhythmic cycles, each with its own tempo and harmonic progression, that culminates in an energetic dance. They display a range... https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2123795/review-juan-carmona/city-chamber-orchestra-hong-kong-flamenco-flair?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2123795/review-juan-carmona/city-chamber-orchestra-hong-kong-flamenco-flair?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Dec 2017 10:17:22 +0000 What a joy it was to witness at this Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra concert the collaboration between the spirited Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit and the technically assured Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky in Rachmaninov’s monumental Piano Concerto No.3. Initially unassuming, Lugansky played the famous opening melody with an elegant simplicity, projecting its lyricism over strings that Dutoit kept under watchful restraint. The work oscillates between the grandest of technical challenges and... https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2120697/review-nikolai-lugansky/hk-phil/charles-dutoit-masterful-rachmaninov?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2120697/review-nikolai-lugansky/hk-phil/charles-dutoit-masterful-rachmaninov?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Nov 2017 06:45:01 +0000 As he did with many of his works, Anton Bruckner – always a diffident composer – revised his eighth symphony, which had come in for stinging criticism from the conductor Hermann Levi, changing the architecture and textural shadings and making the work more bombastic. Under the direction of Jaap van Zweden, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra tackled this, more frequently performed, second version with a mixture of restraint and grandiloquence that brought out the symphony’s themes of death and... https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2115512/review-hk-phil-brilliant-bruckners-8th-symphony-under?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2115512/review-hk-phil-brilliant-bruckners-8th-symphony-under?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Oct 2017 05:22:43 +0000 Tackling a marathon takes perseverance, stamina and technical proficiency. At times it can be a physical and mental battle. And a marathon is what pianist Konstantin Lifschitz has taken on in performing all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas over six nights (and two matinees), in the first of the 2017-18 season of Spotlight Encounters at the University of Hong Kong. Clad in all black, Lifschitz took a no-nonsense approach to the composer’s first four sonatas. Barely allowing time for the opening... https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2111642/review-konstantin-lifschitz-begins-beethoven-marathon-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2111642/review-konstantin-lifschitz-begins-beethoven-marathon-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Sep 2017 05:46:55 +0000 As soon as soloist Yuja Wang stepped assuredly onstage in a body-hugging, skin-revealing azure concert gown, we knew we were in for something special at this Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra season opener, which paired the monumental Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 with Stravinsky’s riotous The Rite of Spring. Wang’s playing was a mix of controlled flamboyance and poignancy, at times projecting the piano part, at others accompanying the orchestra, all with the digital dexterity and ease... https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2109642/review-yuja-wang/hkphil-chinese-pianist-dazzles?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2109642/review-yuja-wang/hkphil-chinese-pianist-dazzles?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 Sep 2017 06:37:39 +0000 It is gratifying when musical ensembles delve into the lesser known works of the great masters. The Camerata Salzburg did just that in their programme for this year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival, performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A major K 414 and Divertimento in D major, as well as Haydn’s Symphony No. 49, a piece that falls into the composer’s Sturm und Drang period and is not often heard in concert. The only established work on the programme was Haydn’s final piano concerto in D major, Hob.... https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2078347/review-camerata-salzburg-and-piotr-anderszewski-effortless-precision?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2078347/review-camerata-salzburg-and-piotr-anderszewski-effortless-precision?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Mar 2017 05:00:06 +0000 From his showmanship to his casual on-stage exchanges with accompanist Julio Elizalde and his post-concert “meet the artist” session, violinist Ray Chen appears to have succeeded in his aim of breaking down the barriers to classical music appreciation in a pop-culture era by ditching its conventions. He showed equal measures of exuberance, genuine appreciation for the audience and love for every bar of music. This Hong Kong Arts Festival programme began with an early Beethoven sonata (Op. 12,... https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2078341/review-ray-chen-julio-elizalde-violinists-joyful-exuberant-playing-has?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2078341/review-ray-chen-julio-elizalde-violinists-joyful-exuberant-playing-has?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Mar 2017 04:44:55 +0000 Expressions of grief can take many forms. For a parent who loses a child, this is heartbreaking, but to lose multiple children, this is unfathomable. Such was the fate of Czech composer Antonin Dvorak, who suffered the inconsolable loss of three of his children. Although no conclusive evidence exists, it seems plausible that his decision to pen the oratorio was his means to express this grief. He used the anonymous 13th-century text Stabat Mater for his setting, dispensing with his familiar... https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2074415/review-dvoraks-stabat-mater-hong-kong-arts-festival-profound-rendering?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2074415/review-dvoraks-stabat-mater-hong-kong-arts-festival-profound-rendering?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Feb 2017 10:00:19 +0000 The beauty of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s concert performances of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, the third instalment of which, Siegfried, opened on Thursday, is that they allow audiences to focus on the singing and playing. The orchestra rose to the opera’s difficult musical challenges with great assurance under the competent direction of Jaap van Zweden, especially in Act III, when Wotan (sung by Matthias Goerne) is warning Siegfried, his grandson, of the impossibility of passing through the... https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2063909/review-hk-phil-assured-heidi-melton-brilliant-brunnhilde-wagners?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2063909/review-hk-phil-assured-heidi-melton-brilliant-brunnhilde-wagners?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Jan 2017 06:00:30 +0000 “Mahler’s Mighty Third”, the title of this Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra concert, hardly seemed an appropriate description of the Austrian composer’s Symphony No. 3, despite the large symphonic forces employed: two harps, two sets of timpani, children’s choir, female choir, eight horns, four trombones, tuba, an offstage post horn, the usual Romantic-era complement of strings, and 17 woodwinds; at one point Mahler deploys four piccolos. A typical performance comes in at 100 minutes and, with... https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2053855/review-hong-kong-philharmonic-shines-mahler-3s-forceful-and-intimate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2053855/review-hong-kong-philharmonic-shines-mahler-3s-forceful-and-intimate?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Dec 2016 04:31:35 +0000 The successful relationship between a conductor and an orchestra depends on mutual respect and understanding. These qualities were on abundant display in the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s Starring Principals concert. The programme opened with the world premiere of Oikogeneia (Born of House), Book 1, Op. 14a composed by the HK Phil’s timpanist James Boznos. The work is a collection of pieces devoted to his family members, 21 in total, although only the first seven pieces were presented here.... https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2051787/review-hong-kong-philharmonic-principals-shine-timpanists?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2051787/review-hong-kong-philharmonic-principals-shine-timpanists?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Dec 2016 05:52:31 +0000