July 2005 SAR Philharmonic News
Our orchestra played at St. Johns on 22nd February 2005 to raise money for Tsunami relief.  We collected and donated $90,000.00 to Unicef via its H.K. committee on 21st July 2005.

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Night of two Concerti and one Symphony on 10th July 2005.
The evening at The Academy for Performing Arts started with our own First Cellist Alex Ling as soloist in Haydn's ( more popular ?) Cello concerto in C. We knew we would be in for a treat but we were still stunned by the level of technical and musical mastery that came from Alex's performance. The first movement was played with authority and control leading us to a lovingly rendered slow movement which once again showed Haydn's genius. The third movement was played with total abandon at a very fast tempo ! Our orchestra managed to keep up with the astonishing speed of Alex's reflexes and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The audience certainly did too from their enthusiastic applause.
Mozart's Bassoon Concerto followed. For this performance we were honored by our guest soloist from the HK Phil, Vance Lee. This concerto is always
difficult to bring off as the Bassoon is not usually thought of as a solo instrument ! This misconception was completely dispelled by Vance . His playing showed all of us what a beautiful sounding the bassoon is. Vance just lets the music flow naturally from his instrument and showed us ,once again, what a supreme composer Mozart was. The first movement leaves us in no doubt as to the absolute technical mastery Vance has as he negotiates the very tricky passages with utter ease. The playing of the slow movement left the audience spell bound. The performance was brought to a lively end with a very graceful rondo.
Beethoven's Third Symphony, the Eroica, was played after the interval. Having just heard two classical pieces one can imagine the shock the 19th century audience must have had on encountering the two massive chords of the first movement. This is the music that changed the (musical) world ever since. It is technically a difficult piece to play but our orchestra gave a very creditable performance of this well loved symphony. The first movement was played with total conviction. The slowed movement showed that our orchestra was capable of plumbing the depths of feelings in the famous funeral march section. Fortunately K.K. did not choose a very fast tempo for the Scherzo and the Prometheus theme and variations of the last movement was
played with great joy. Once again the audience was very appreciative of our performance.
　

Our most ambitious project was realized on 22nd May 2005 at the City Hall Concert Hall - MAHLER SYMPHONY No.3.    The charity concert was to celebrate 50th Anniversary of The Society for the Relief of Disabled Children and The Duchess of Kent Children Hospital.    This symphony calls for, among other things, 8 horns, 5 clarinets, 4 each of flutes, oboes, bassoons, trumpets and trombones and a very large percussion section with 2 sets of timpani, bass drum and 2 harps!   Of course there was a large string sections too.    We had 92 in the Orchestra, 73 in the Women's Choir and 61 in the Children's Choir.   The symphony lasts over 100 minutes and was played without an intermission. The audience was warned!

               Alto - Cynthia Luff
               Women's Choir - members of Kassia Women's Choir
                                                        SKH Lam Woo Memorial Secondary School
               Children's Choir - SKH Lam Woo Memorial Secondary School

 As is often the case with our orchestra the complete assemblage was only present on the night!   This added to the sense of enthusiastic dedication and everyone was totally focused resulting in a performance rivaling quite a few professional orchestras.

All players and singers are to be congratulated but our conductor, K.K., deserves a special mention for his perseverance and expertise in coaxing to bring off this huge symphony with great success. There were quite a few tears of joy in many members eyes!

A joint fund raising concert was held with the Hong Kong Welsh Male Voice Choir on 22nd February 2005 at St. John's Cathedral for the Tsunami victims of 26th December 2004.   The Cathedral was packed.  Our strings played Pachelbel's Canon and our winds played movements from Mozart's Grand Partita.   The whole Orchestra then played the last movement of Mahler's 3rd Symphony: " What love tells me".    It was a most moving experience.

On a lighter note (please excuse the pun) our newest Cellist, Dr. Shirley Lau, attracted a  large part of the donations (total $90,000.00 ) for her playing of the 8 repeated notes of the cello part of Pachelbel's Canon !

Once again we were honored to be asked to play at this fund raising Christmas Concert for Hospice Care on 14th December 2004 at St. John’s Cathedral.

Our oboist Makiko Kawamata, played the Albinoni Concerto in D minor, Op.9 No.2 and was much applauded.   This was followed by Shannon Wagstaff playing the 1st movement of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto to the obvious delight of the congregation.    Our orchestra numbers were reduced due to the small space available but we also gave a heart-felt performance.

As always, the Cathedral was packed and one can almost feel the emotions of loving care towards the terminally ill patients being cared for as well as remembrance for those who have passed away.