Principal Guest Conductor Yu Long Leads The HK Phil In Two Ballet Scores And A HK Premiere

By: Nov. 29, 2019
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Principal Guest Conductor Yu Long Leads The HK Phil In Two Ballet Scores And A HK Premiere

In his second concert with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) this season, Principal Guest Conductor Yu Long directs a programme of works sharing a Parisian connection - two ravishing ballet scores and the Hong Kong premiere of composer Chen Qigang's La joie de la souffrance, featuring virtuoso violinist Ning Feng. Two performances will be given at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall on 6 & 7 December.

Premiered in Beijing in 2017, La joie de la souffrance is the first work written specifically for the violin by Chen Qigang, who finds that the instrument "has perhaps the widest capacity to express human emotion". With hauntingly beautiful melodies, this violin concerto explores the relationship between joy and suffering which, in the composer's own words, is "a matter of 'Yin' and 'Yang,' inseparable and hence all things should contain both". The Hong Kong premiere will be directed by Maestro Yu Long and Ning Feng, conductor of the world premiere and violinist of the US premiere respectively.

The concert opens with Stravinsky's Firebird Suite. Based on an old Russian legend, the Firebird ballet was a huge success in Paris and propelled Stravinsky to international fame. Arranged by the composer himself, the 1919 Suite distills the essence of the complete work into a satisfying stream of orchestral bravura.

Another Russian composer provides the concert's closing piece with a transcription of excerpts from Bizet's popular opera, first staged in Paris. Shchedrin's Carmen Suite was devised as a ballet, and reimagines Bizet's famous melodies in colourful and distinctively original orchestrations for strings and a battery of percussion instruments.

Bravo: Yu Long | The Firebird & Carmen will be held on 6 & 7 December (Fri & Sat) at 8PM in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Tickets are $480, $380, $280 and $220 and are available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit hkphil.org.



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