HK Phil’s Beethoven Festival:
Music Director Jaap van Zweden is Back with the HK Phil!
Presenting Five Beethoven Symphonies Over Two Weeks 
(23 & 24 Oct, 7 Nov)
Together with Season Opening Concert with Lio Kuokman in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto (9 & 10 Oct), and renowned French pianist François-Frédéric Guy in a cycle of Beethoven piano concertos (16 & 17 Oct)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: 
Meggy Cheng
Director of Marketing 
Tel: (852) 2721 9035
Email: meggy.cheng@hkphil.org 

Flora Fung
Media Relations and Communications Manager
Tel: (852) 2721 1585
Email: flora.fung@hkphil.org

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[9October 2020, Hong Kong] After these challenging months, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) welcome our audience back to our greatly missed home – the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall - with our Beethoven Festival. The orchestra will be joined by our Music Director Jaap van Zweden, SBS in five Beethoven symphonies – nos. 2, 5, 6, 7 and 8 (23 & 24 Oct, 7 Nov), while renowned conductor Lio Kuokman directs Beethoven’s Triple Concerto from the keyboard along with HK Phil Concertmaster Jing Wang and Principal Cello Richard Bamping (9 & 10 Oct). French pianist François-Frédéric Guy will play and conduct Beethoven’s Piano Concertos nos. 1-5 (16 & 17 Oct).

Marking Beethoven’s 250th anniversary, all Beethoven Festival seats are available at a uniform price of HK$250. Tickets are now available on URTIBX.

Tickets for our Season Opening Concert on 9 & 10 October are ALL sold out! Supported by Live Streaming Technology Partner TFI, we are excited to announce that the concert on 10 October will be live broadcast on the HK Phil’s website, Facebook and YouTube channels. The concert will also be broadcast live on RTHK Radio 4.

Get your tickets for other Beethoven Festival programmes now and catch the tail-end of this 250th anniversary year celebrating Beethoven’s birth, and rejoice together in the power of music to fill us with hope and courage!

2020/21 Season Opening: Beethoven Festival: LIO KUOKMAN | Beethoven Triple Concerto
(9 & 10 October 2020)

The HK Phil is especially pleased to raise the curtain on our 2020/21 season as well as our Beethoven Festival with renowned conductor Lio Kuokman.

In this first week of our Beethoven Festival, Lio, who is also an acclaimed concert pianist, will play and conduct Beethoven’s Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano. This is a work which calls for a genuine trio of equals with no one player dominating the others. Lio will be joined by two of his good friends in the orchestra – HK Phil Concertmaster Jing Wangand Principal Cello Richard Bamping.

Lio will also conduct Thanksgiving to Joe-Kwan, the Kitchen God by Dr Doming Lam, “Father of Hong Kong Modern Music”. This was inspired by a poem by poor scholar Lu Mengzheng. The composer uses different instruments to represent different moods in the poem; for example, the flute represents burning incenser, while the brass section depicts the glory and honour of Joe-Kwan.

The programme opens with Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, which Lio and the HK Phil dedicate to each and every one of the healthcare professionals who have tirelessly combatted COVID-19 in Hong Kong, and concludes with Richard Strauss’ colourful Der Rosenkavalier Suite.

Supported by Live Streaming Technology Partner TFI, the concert on 10 October will be live broadcast on the HK Phil’s website, Facebook and YouTube channels. The concert will be broadcast live on RTHK Radio 4 and with a repeat on 15 October (Thu) at 2PM.

Season Opening: Beethoven Festival: LIO KUOKMAN | Beethoven Triple Concerto will be held on 9 & 10 October (Fri & Sat, both nights full house) at 8PM in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit hkphil.org.

Beethoven Festival: FRANÇOIS-FRÉDÉRIC GUY | Beethoven Piano Concerto Cycle
(16 & 17 October 2020)

In the second week of our Beethoven Festival, renowned French pianist François-Frédéric Guywill direct the HK Phil from the keyboard in a cycle ofBeethoven piano concertos. Two programmes on two nights – the Second, Third and Fourth on 16 October (Friday), and the First and Fifth (Emperor) on 17 October (Saturday).

Inextricably linked with the piano, Beethoven expressed himself deeply through the instrument. These five piano concertos chart his journey from the youthful spirit of the First to the majestic grandeur of the Emperor. Each is a masterpiece that has won the hearts of audiences for over two centuries. François-Frédéric Guy, a “highly persuasive Beethovenian” (Gramophone), will make his HK Phil debut in all five piano concertos.

Beethoven Festival: FRANÇOIS-FRÉDÉRIC GUY | Beethoven Piano Concerto Cycle: nos. 2, 3 & 4 will be held on 16 October (Fri) at 8PM in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. All seats are available at a uniform price of HK$250. Tickets are now available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit hkphil.org.

Beethoven Festival: FRANÇOIS-FRÉDÉRIC GUY | Beethoven Piano Concerto Cycle: nos. 1 & 5 will be held on 17 October (Sat) at 8PM in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. All seats are available at a uniform price of HK$250. Tickets are now available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit hkphil.org.

Beethoven Festival: JAAP | Beethoven 7 & 8 (23 October 2020)
Beethoven Festival: JAAP | Beethoven 2 & 5 (24 October 2020)
Beethoven Festival: JAAP’s Beethoven 6 | Trey Lee (7 November 2020)

HK Phil’s Music Director Jaap van Zweden is back! Maestro van Zweden and the HK Phil invite you to embark on an extraordinary journey of five Beethoven’s symphonies on three nights over two weeks, showcasing the power of Jaap and his orchestra, the HK Phil.

First night (23 October, Friday): we bring you the awesome Seventh and the sunny Eighth, which is full of clever musical jokes. Although Beethoven felt this symphony was “better than the Seventh”, it is sometimes eclipsed by its two mighty symphonic neighbours.

Second night (24 October, Saturday): here comes the pioneering Second Symphony and the famous Fifth. The Fifth Symphony is said to take a journey from darkness into light, its opening four-note figure one of the best-known moments in all classical music. Composing the Second Symphony, Beethoven spoke of “setting out on new paths”. You can experience this great composer reaching ever more dazzling musical heights from the Second to the Fifth.

Third night (7 November, Saturday): features the delightful Pastoral symphony, which celebrates nature in all its wonder. The HK Phil is delighted to have renowned cellist Trey Lee joining us on stage in Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, as his first performance under Jaap’s baton, and to present the world premiere of Hong Kong composer Raymond Yiu’s Old Bei, a HK Phil new commission and written as a tribute to Beethoven for the 250th anniversary of his birth.

Beethoven Festival: JAAP | Beethoven 7 & 8 will be held on 23 October (Fri) at 8PM in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. All seats are available at a uniform price of HK$250. Tickets are now available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit hkphil.org.

Beethoven Festival: JAAP | Beethoven 2 & 5 will be held on 24 October (Sat) at 8PM in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. All seats are available at a uniform price of HK$250. Tickets are now available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit hkphil.org.

JAAP’s Beethoven 6 | Trey Lee will be held on 7 November (Sat) at 8PM in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. All seats are available at a uniform price of HK$250. Tickets are now available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit hkphil.org.

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Artists (Season Opening: Beethoven Festival: LIO KUOKMAN | Beethoven Triple Concerto)
Lio Kuokman, conductor/piano [full biography]
Born in Macao and trained as a pianist and a conductor at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, The Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the New England Conservatory, Lio Kuokman was praised by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “a startling conducting talent”. He was the laureate of the third Svetlanov International Conducting Competition in Paris and has served as assistant conductor to music director Yannick Nézet-Seguin with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has been the Programme Director of the Macao International Music Festival since January 2020.

Jing Wang, violin [full biography]
Born in Guilin, China, Jing Wang began playing violin at the age of three and made his first public appearance three years later in Marseille. He made his concerto début at the age of nine with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra. Subsequent engagements have taken him across North America and Europe, and include concerto appearances with the Czech Radio Philharmonic, Moscow State Symphony, Montreal Symphony and Metropolitan Orchestra of Montreal. Jing Wang took up the position of Concertmaster with the HK Phil in September 2013 at the invitation of Maestro Jaap van Zweden.

Richard Bamping, cello [full biography]
Richard Bamping has been the Principal Cellist of the HK Phil since 1993. He has performed with many of the finest musicians of recent history—Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Leonidas Kavakos, Mstislav Rostropovich, Carlo Maria Guilini, Valery Gergiev, Leonard Bernstein, Lorin Maazel, Sir Colin Davis and Claudio Abbado.

Artist (Beethoven Festival: FRANÇOIS-FRÉDÉRIC GUY | Beethoven Piano Concerto Cycle)
François-Frédéric Guy, conductor/piano [full biography]
François-Frédéric Guy is widely regarded first and foremost as an outstanding interpreter of the German Romantics and their forebears. His unrivalled ability to create musical structure in sound is especially evident in his interpretations of Beethoven, which bring to life his profound and ongoing dialogue with the composer. His acclaimed performances of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas, already performed in e.g. Tokyo, Washington, Paris, Monte Carlo and Buenos Aires, will take him this season to Seoul. The pianist also has a special affinity with the music of Bartók, Brahms, Liszt, and Prokofiev and a strong commitment to contemporary music.

Artist (Beethoven Festival: JAAP | Beethoven 7 & 8; Beethoven Festival: JAAP | Beethoven 2 & 5 )
Jaap van Zweden, conductor [full biography]
Over the past decade, conductor Jaap van Zweden has become an international presence on three continents.  Currently Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, he is also Music Director of the New York Philharmonic – a post he has held since the 2018/19 season. Guest engagements this season include the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony and Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. 

Artists (JAAP’s Beethoven 6 | Trey Lee)
Jaap van Zweden, conductor [full biography]
Over the past decade, conductor Jaap van Zweden has become an international presence on three continents.  Currently Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, he is also Music Director of the New York Philharmonic – a post he has held since the 2018/19 season. Guest engagements this season include the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony and Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. 

Trey Lee, cello [full biography]
Hailed as a “Miracle” by Gramophone and “a Master of subtle transition” by The Strad, Trey Lee’s concerto début at Carnegie Hall won him a standing ovation, with the New York Times declaring him “the excellent cellist… with enveloping richness and lyrical sensitivity.”

SEASON OPENING:  BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL: LIO KUOKMAN |  BEETHOVEN TRIPLE CONCERTO

9 & 10 | 10 | 2020
FRI & SAT 8PM
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$250
Both nights FULL HOUSE
For ages 6 and above

Live Streaming Technology Partner: TFI Digital Media Limited

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Lio Kuokman Photo Credit: Gabriel Leung	Jing Wang Photo Credit: Cheung Wai-lok	Richard Bamping Photo Credit: Cheung Wai-lok
Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra Photo Credit: Eric Hon/HK Phil

BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL: FRANÇOIS-FRÉDÉRIC GUY | BEETHOVEN PIANO CONCERTO CYCLE

16 & 17 | 10 | 2020
FRI & SAT 8PM
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$250
Tickets are now available at URBTIX
For ages 6 and above
 

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Programme
16 OCT 8PM     François-Frédéric Guy | Beethoven Piano Concerto Cycle: nos. 2, 3 & 4

17 OCT 8PM     François-Frédéric Guy | Beethoven Piano Concerto Cycle: nos. 1 & 5

BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL:  JAAP | Beethoven 7 & 8

23 | 10 | 2020
FRI 8PM    ONE performance only
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$250
Tickets are now available at URBTIX
For ages 6 and above
 

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Programme

BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL:  JAAP | BEETHOVEN 2 & 5

24 | 10 | 2020
SAT 8PM     ONE performance only
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$250
Tickets are now available at URBTIX
For ages 6 and above
 

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Programme

BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL:  JAAP’S BEETHOVEN 6 | TREY LEE

7 | 11 | 2020
SAT 8PM     ONE performance only
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$250
Tickets are now available at URBTIX
For ages 6 and above
 

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Jaap van Zweden Photo Credit:  Ka Lam/HK Phil	Trey Lee Photo Credit: trey-lee.com	Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra Photo Credit: Eric Hong/HK Phil

Programme