Music

Programme
Samson Young
Such Sweet Thunder (world première)
For Recorded Bell Sound, Narration & Orchestra
Commissioned by Hong Kong Sinfonietta in 2018 with sponsorship from CASH Music Fund

Pēteris Vasks
Concerto for Viola & String Orchestra (2014-2015) (Asian première)

Bartók
Concerto for Orchestra

“Maxim Rysanov is the kind of musician who can do the musical equivalent of reading from the phone book and making it exciting” (American Record Guide) . The Ukrainian-British violist has wowed the world with his unique artistry and charisma and is a regular guest of top international music institutions such as the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms, Verbier, Salzburg and Edinburgh Festivals. A keen promoter of new music, he has developed a close working relationship with composers including Giya Kancheli, Krzysztof Penderecki and Pēteris Vasks, among others.

“Vasks’ concerto for viola and string orchestra, premiered by Maxim Rysanov for whom it was conceived, represented the composer’s characteristically direct, modal, style. Tension was built, broken and rebuilt, the effect serene, with the viola’s searing tone verging on the ecstatic.” The Guardian

Artist and composer Samson Young’s diverse works have been featured around the world at the most prestigious festivals and spaces including the Venice Biennale, documenta 14, Art Basel, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, Manchester International Festival and Japan Media Art Festival, winning him awards from the inaugural Bloomberg Emerging Artist Award, New York Society for New Music’s Brian M. Israel Prize to an Honorary Mention at the esteemed Prix Ars Electronica. Young’s project The Third Pixel was previously featured at the 2010 Hong Kong Arts Festival.

As the first winner of the BMW Art Journey Award, Young embarked on an ambitious project For Whom the Bell Tolls that took him through five continents, resulting in an archive of bell recordings, a series of bell sound sketches, bells and objects, all of which culminate in his new work for Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Such Sweet Thunder.