Music

At the opening concert of the last season, we commissioned local composer Ng Cheuk-yin, to write a new work that would take the audience on a time shuttle between modern day Hong Kong and the glorious years of the Tang Dynasty, and he gave us the impressive Tang Resonating. Now in this concert, we go even further back, to the age of the overlords – Liu Bang (256 –195BCE) of Han, and Xiang Yu (232-202BCE) of Chu, when they contended for power after the fall of the Qin Empire (221 – 207BCE). The victory of the former and the humiliating demise of the latter are captured in two pieces of Chinese music, Ambush on All Sides and King Chu Doffs His Armour. Then the shuttle takes us further back in time, to the reign of the First Emperor of Qin (259-210 BCE). We see how he brings his military prowess with him even after death, by creating a huge army in terra cotta under his tomb. They are depicted in The Terra Cotta Warriors Fantasia. While the music recreates these scenes of human drama through our imaginings, we are also led to think what psychological drama takes place in these characters – Liu, Xiang, and the Qin warriors…