28 May 2006   Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall

Mahler Symphony No. 8 in E^b major

A century after Mahler first started composing his 8th symphony we presented Hong Kong’s First Performance.  (If anyone knows otherwise please tell us!)  In Mahler’s first performance there were indeed  a thousand players and singers and the publishers named his 8th “Symphony of a thousand”.  Mahler disapproved of this.  We had an orchestra of 130 plus and 200 plus in the choirs. 

Needless to say, a lot of hard work was put in by everyone but special credit must go to K. K. our Music Director and our Chairman (and concertmaster) Y.S.. 

K. K. put us all through some tough rehearsals and to his great credit, was both persuasive and forceful.  This paid off on the night.  The Herculean task of organizing the 8 soloists, organist, the choirs and the massive orchestra was, to put it mildly, not easy but Y.S. managed it with great skill and humour. 

The performance was a joy for all of us on the platform.  We were very focused, disciplined and attentive.  Judging from the spontaneous shouts of Bravo !  and prolonged applause, the audience was highly appreciative of our efforts.  Post-concert comments have been very complimentary.  This, surely, is our best effort so far. 

The recordings, carried out by Raymond Lo our dedicated sound engineer, (to whom we owe our posterity!) are being eagerly awaited. 

Now that we have done Mahler Symphonies 1 through 5 and 8, surely we should perform the remaining 4 orchestral masterpieces ! 

Dr. Y. K. Wong

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The Concert at HK City Hall Concert Hall on 30th April was for
The Child Development Centre at Matilda.

Capriccio Italien    Tchaikovsky
1812 Overture      Tchaikovsky
Cello Concerto      Dvorak    Richard Bamping, Cello

This was a really fun concert.   It started at 3.30 pm so as to allow time for most young children to attend and there was a large audience consisting of mostly children under 10 with their parents. They were very well behaved and was most attentive. 

The Capriccio was of course most tuneful with passages for woodwind, brass and strings separately and playing together to show off our players abilities to our best advantage. Tchaikovsky is never easy and this was no exception.   We enjoyed ourselves playing such lovely melodies and the audience showed their appreciation most enthusiastically.

Before the 1812 we put on a brief "young persons guide to orchestral instruments" and each section leader did their party piece for the youngsters in the audience with our Concertmaster Y.S. Liu introducing the instruments being demonstrated. This was well received by both parents and their children. They were also warned of the Canons firing in 1812.

The 1812 was actually a stunning piece in more ways than one ! Good thing that the audience was forewarned as even most members of the Orchestra were startled by the ferocity of the special effect canon fire. With bells ringing loud and the percussions doing their bit to join in the general joyous ending the overture brought the house down.

Richard Bamping was our soloist in the Dvorak Cello Concerto. We are so lucky to have such a distinguished cellist to play with us. His performance was of course superb. Technically difficult passages just flow pass beautifully and the Bohemian melodies were played with sublime tenderness and affection. Richard was most accommodating and instructive during rehearsals and our members learned a lot from him. At the end the audience was totally spellbound.   A big thank you again to Richard.

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On 13^th December 2005 we performed for Hospice Concert at St. Johns Cathedral.

This is now an SAR Philharmonic fixture in our yearly schedule and is much loved by our members.  To raise funds to be used by Hospice Care is truly meaningful.
We played Mozarts Symphony No. 29; a challenging piece (as all Mozart is) and the audience showed their appreciation most entbusiastically.

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Two “Music Around the World” Kids concerts were given to packed houses on 11th December 2005 at the Chinese International School.   The music:
Scotland Highland Cathedral         Bagpipe solo: Celia Chow Cuba Danza Lucumi (from Danzas Afro-Cubanas) Spain Cielito Lindo (Beautiful Heaven) Espana Cani (Paso-Doble) Italy O Sole Mio Funiculi Funicula         Tenor solo: Sam Kan Mexico Mexican Hat Dance Hungary Csardas        Violin solo: Y. S. Liu United Kingdon March “Folk Songs from sommerset”               Argentina Tango for string quartet -  Por Una Cabezza Happy Birthday around the world        Theme – Polka – Ragtime – Tango - Hungarian Egypt March from “Aida” X’mas Carols It’s A Small World	Two German guys  Ernesto Lecuona C. Fernandez Pascual Marquina G. Capurro – E. Di Capua   G. Turco – L. Denza   Traditional  Vittorio Monti   Richard and Robert Sherman
The start was dramatically announced by our bag pipe soloist, Celia Chow, who was in full Scottish Regalia. This immediately held the attention of the young (some very young) audience as she marched in.  The very popular programme that followed was much loved and our M.C. Michelle Liu, managed, as usual, to get the children to enjoy themselves as well as sitting quietly to listen to music.  Our players joined in the festive mood with suitable Christmas decorations on the music stands, the instruments as well as on themselves.  We must thank My Music Box for their wonderful and efficient organization to give our orchestra an opportunity to play for children.

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The Shanghai Quartet gave a superb performance on 23rd November 2005 at The City Hall Concert Hall to a most appreciative audience.  China Songs This gave us a beautiful sound picture of folk China.  The arrangements by  …… were technically challenging and was played with flair and authentic style.  This was much loved by the audience and made a perfect start to the evening.  M. Ravel :  String Quartet in F The very gentle opening of the first movement gave a totally convincing French style.  In the second movement the loud pizzicato at the start and the soft bowed music a few seconds later was played with authority.  In the slow movement the main tune on the viola came out with great beauty and the finale bought the Quartet to a lively close.  L.V. Beethoven :  String Quartet in C op.59 No. 3. The “Rasumovsky 3” was undoubtedly the high light of the evening.  About this quartet, Beethoven had been quoted as saying “this is bound to win over every educated music lover through its originality, melody and harmonic power.”  It certainly won over the entire audience.  The ensemble played with masterly control and utter abandonment in its pursuit of fun.  The final movement, of course, brought the house down.  It certainly was an evening to remember with great affection.

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City Hall Concert Hall.        23rd October 2005.........A truly memorable evening. Amongst our many outstanding concerts this has to be one of the top ones. We were honored and privileged to have as our soloist Robert Roux from Texas. A very gentle and good natured man who tolerated our shortcomings and coaxed our orchestra to great things. But let me start from the beginning. The evening started with a performance of Beethoven's overture to Coriolanus. This turned out to be a full blooded effort with everyone focused and was well received. Robert Roux's quiet entry of the Fourth Concerto (Beethoven) was immediately recognized as the touch of a master pianist and musician by the audience and our orchestral players. Time and again I was bowled by the clarity of line and the beauty of the music coming from the piano. I am sure the applause at the end of the first movement was not due to ignorance but more of a gesture of appreciation. (Applause between movements was a common occurrence during Beethoven's time.) The second movement ("beauty and the beast") again showed Robert Roux's complete mastery. The audience held its breath as the music is unfolded and showed the contrast of serenity from the pianist against the rough and fearsome aggression of the orchestral part. The Rondo was sheer joy and  Beethoven, being the great pianist that he also was, gave the piano part plenty of chances to show off. Robert Roux brought the movement to its conclusion with great flare and the applause from the audience made sure that an encore had to be given. It was Brahms' Intermezzo Op.117 no.1. The second halve started with Bernstein's West Side Story Symphonic Dances. This is a very difficult piece. The rhythm and contrasts of style is alien to a "philharmonic" orchestra with finger snapping and shouts of MAMBO coming from non wind players (for obvious reasons!).   Our members rose to the occasion with enthusiasm much to the delight of the audience. Robert Roux then came on to play the last piece of the evening, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. This began with a rapturous clarinet glissando from our own Sue Tan and set the mood for this fusion of Jazz and "classical" music. Having just done West Side Story  our Orchestra was well adjusted for the Rhapsody and once again Robert Roux showed his musical versatility and had the audience pleading him for encore which he very generously did and gave 2 encores Mozart Sonata in C, K.330 (1st movement) and Brahms Intermezzo Op.118 no.2.    I certainly hope we will see Robert Roux again in the near future so that we can all benefit from him. Y.K. Wong