Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra announces a star-studded 2019/20 Season

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The 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in 2020 – the HK Phil will complete cycles of Beethoven’s symphonies and concertos under the baton of Maestro Jaap van Zweden, together with great pianists Rudolf Buchbinder, Rachel Cheung, Lang Lang, Víkingur Ólafsson and Nobuyuki Tsujii

Music Director Jaap van Zweden, Principal Guest Conductor Yu Long and superstar artists as well as Hong Kong talents featured in programmes dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre – Seong-Jin Cho, Ning Feng and Renée Fleming; Lio Kuokman, Louise Kwong, Ping and Ting Piano Duo, The Hong Kong Children’s Choir and Hong Kong Philharmonic Chorus

Exciting programmes conducted by Music Director Jaap van Zweden and Principal Guest Conductor Yu Long with superb line-up of artists – Leonidas Kavakos, The Labèque Sisters, Jian Wang and more

More notable Conductors and Soloists – Elim Chan, Vassily Sinaisky, Boris Giltburg, Martin Grubinger, Francesco Tristano, Hiromi Uehara and more

Launching the series, “the hottest artist on the classical music planet” (New York Times), superstar pianist Lang Lang, returns to the stage of the HK Phil after four years, performing the work which Beethoven himself played as his public debut in Vienna – Piano Concerto no. 2. The same programme also features the Egmont Overture and Beethoven’s tribute to his teacher Haydn, Symphony no. 1 (16 & 18 January 2020).

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Described by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as “one of today’s most important and competent Beethoven performers”, Rudolf Buchbinder plays Beethoven’s distinctive Piano Concerto no. 1, following the composer’s growing fame back in Vienna with his invigorating Symphony no. 2, and the Ruins of Athens Overture (31 January & 1 February 2020).

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The HK Phil also captivates the audience with Beethoven’s most famous and popular work, Symphony no. 5, as well as the impressive Leonore Overture no.2. The concert also features two Hong Kong musicians – pianist Rachel Cheung in the lively Rondo for piano and orchestra, originally intended for Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto; and soprano Louise Kwong in “Ah perfido!” (26 & 27 February 2020).

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Alongside the Fidelio Overture and Beethoven’s largest purely instrumental work, Symphony no. 3, Eroica, this concert celebrates heroic deeds in the face of tyranny with “Iceland’s Glenn Gould”, Víkingur Ólafsson, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 3, which sees the piano in a heroic struggle for dominance against the orchestra (20 & 21 March 2020).

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Remarkable Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii, who has been blind from birth and won the joint Gold Medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009, when he was praised by Van Cliburn as “absolutely miraculous”, will exert his miraculous powers over Beethoven’s majestic Piano Concerto no. 5, Emperor, while the HK Phil continues its Beethoven celebrations with Symphony no. 4 (22 & 23 May 2020).

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In the 46th season opener, The 2015 Chopin Piano Competition Prize Winner Seong-Jin Cho joins Maestro Jaap van Zweden in Rachmaninov’s heart-wrenching Piano Concerto no. 2. Together with the jubilant optimism of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Prelude to Act I and the profound tragedy of Prokofiev’s Romeo andJuliet, this evening promises a truly emotionally-charged musical experience (6 & 7 September 2019).

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In November 2019, the “birthday month” of the HKCC, the HK Phil will feature two fabulous programmes. Firstly, Hong Kong talents team up to celebrate the birthday of Hong Kong’s signature cultural venue. Conductor Lio Kuokman, Hong Kong-born artists, soprano Louise Kwong and Ping and Ting Piano Duo, joined by TheHong Kong Children’s Choir and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Chorus, will take to the stage in a programme of wonderful musical delights, including a brand new work, Theme and Variations, especially composed by Hong Kong’s emerging composers (1 & 2 November 2019).

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Star soprano Renée Fleming joins Jaap van Zweden in Barber’s Knoxville: Summerof 1915, an atmospheric recollection of the summer evenings in Tennessee. Icing on the cake of the evening is Wagner’s unforgettably ecstatic celebration of love, Tristan und Isolde: Prelude and Liebestod, andShostakovich’s delightful Symphony no. 9, a symphony of simple happiness (8 & 9 November 2019).

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Rounding up this celebratory journey, Principal Guest Conductor Yu Long and violinvirtuoso Ning Feng present the Hong Kongpremiere of Chinese composer Chen Qigang’s expressive violin concerto La joie de la souffrance, for an electrifying experience of the violin’s widest capacity to express human emotion. The concert includes two ravishing Russian ballet scores, Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite (1919) andShchedrin’s brilliant interpretation of Bizet’s famous Carmen Suite (6 & 7 December 2019).

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After the season-opening with Seong-Jin Cho (6 & 7 September 2019), there comes a programme of fantasy with Mahler’s famous song-cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer), Berlioz’s highly-imaginativeSymphonie fantastiqueand Brahms’ masterpiece Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn (13 & 14 September 2019).

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A concert showcasing the chemistry between remarkable piano duet siblings The Labèque Sisters has them performing Philip Glass’ tailor-made work Concerto for Two Pianos. In the same programme, the HK Phil proudly presents a HK Phil new commission by Hong Kong composer Chan Kai-young (22 & 23 November 2019).

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A great interpreter of Mahler, Jaap van Zweden will bring the first performance in 95 years of two movements from Mahler’sincomplete Symphony no. 10, prepared by the legendary conductor Willem Mengelberg, along with Shostakovich’s powerful Symphony no. 10 (13 & 14 December 2019).

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A night of symphonies presents Russian composer Prokofiev’s Symphony no. 5 and American composer Christopher Rouse’s Symphony no. 5, which was hailed as a “triumph” following its premiere by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra under Jaap van Zweden in 2017. The concert opens with a HK Phil new commission under The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Composers Scheme by another Hong Kong composer, Alvin Tam Lok-hei (23 January 2020 - one performance only).

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One of the greatest violinists of our time, Leonidas Kavakos, will perform Shostakovich’s epic Violin Concerto no. 1, pairing with another truly epic Russian symphony, Tchaikovsky’s popular and emotionally-charged Symphony no. 6, Pathétique, marking Jaap van Zweden’s first interpretation of this classic work on the HK Phil podium (29 & 30 May 2020).

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Jaap van Zweden will once again conduct the orchestra’s biggest annual outdoor symphonic event, Swire Symphony Under The Stars, at the Central Harbourfront, under the backdrop of the spectacular night view of the city (16 November 2019).

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The HK Phil’s 2019/20 Season starts on 6 September 2019 (Friday).

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Subscribers’ benefits include best savings (discounts up to 25%), good seats and flexible ticketing services.

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Season Subscription Booking Deadline: 8 July 2019 (Monday)

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Single Ticket will be available at URBTIX from 15 July 2019 (Monday).

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Season Subscription Enquiries: 2721 2332 / 2721 0132 or subscriptions@hkphil.org