Music

Programme
Isang Yun
Bara (1960)

Bernstein
Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium) (1954)

Dvořák
Symphony No 9 in E minor, Op 95, “From the New World”

Hong Kong Sinfonietta begins its star-studded 2018/2019 season with a special concert tour with the 2018 Tongyeong Festival Orchestra* under the baton of the legendary Christoph Eschenbach. At the invitation of the Tongyeong International Music Festival, members of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta will join members of the TIMF Orchestra, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa and 7 other orchestras from Europe and Australia to form the Tongyeong Festival Orchestra and perform a total of 5 concerts in Korea, Japan and Hong Kong. The 78-year-old maestro will conduct 3 programmes through the “new worlds”, beginning with Dvořák’s New World Symphony at the end of the 19th century, through the works of Gershwin, Bernstein and Isang Yun in the 20th century, to the present day with Unsuk Chin and Wolfgang Rihm.

The concert in Hong Kong also celebrates the centenary of Leonard Bernstein with his Serenade, featuring none other than the visionary violinist Midori, whose 1986 performance of the work under the composer himself (Boston Symphony, Tanglewood) has since become a legend (the then 14-year-old prodigy had to change violin twice during the performance due to broken E-strings and played on perfectly)! The orchestra will also perform Isang Yun’s Bara – inspired by the Korean cymbal bara used in the Buddhist ceremony Parach’um, or the “Dance with the Cymbals”, and Dvořák’s New World Symphony.

*The 2018 Tongyeong Festival Orchestra consists of musicians from Hong Kong Sinfonietta、 Ensemble TIMF (Korea)、 Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa (Japan)、 NDR Sinfonieorchester, Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz (Germany)、 Philharmonia Zürich, Sinfonieorchester St Gallen (Switzerland)、 Melbourne Symphony, Sydney Symphony (Australia)、 Kremerata Baltica (The Baltic States)、 Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (United Kingdom)