JAAP!: JAAP｜Mozart (19 & 20 April 2019) 
Music Director Jaap van Zweden begins the 5-week Performance Cycle
with Principal Horn Lin Jiang and a night of magical Mozart

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

[16 April 2019, Hong Kong] The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) and Music Director Jaap van Zweden introduce a spectacular 5-week classical extravaganza. At the forefront is a magical evening of an all-Mozart programme featuring the orchestra’s Principal Horn Lin Jiang as soloist on the coming Friday and Saturday, 19 & 20 April, at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. This tribute to Mozart opens with his Symphony no. 1, and continues with Horn Concerto no. 4 and one of his final masterpieces, Symphony no. 40.

“(Lin Jiang) oscillated with confidence between brassy outbursts and mellow lyricism.”
--- South China Morning Post

All four of Mozart’s horn concertos are masterpieces in the instrument’s repertory. The horn concerto no. 4 dated from 1786 and was written for the greatest horn player of the age, Joseph Leutgeb. Composer and soloist were old friends, and the performance of the HK Phil’s own Principal Horn Lin Jiang, who is considered as an extraordinarily gifted horn player of his generation, will captivate the audience as Leutgeb did over 300 years earlier.

Following on from the performance of Mozart’s last Symphony - Jupiter - earlier in the JAAP! Series, Maestro Jaap van Zweden pays homage with two other Mozart’s symphonies.

The concert commences with Mozart’s first symphony, composed at the composer’s age of nine. Although this is a youthful work, it reveals Mozart’s emerging genius. The concert concludes with one of just two symphonies Mozart composed in a minor key - Symphony no. 40. Metaphorically, the symphony is Mozart’s “grin in the mist of tears”, brimful of compositional complexities albeit portraying the tragedies and despair over his life. Though the first known performance of the symphony in Leipzig in the 19th century was regarded as “shivering” and “dull”, it has not stopped it from becoming one of the all-time favourites.

JAAP!: JAAP｜Mozart will be held on 19 & 20 April 2019 (Fri & Sat), 8PM in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Tickets priced: HK$480 $380 $280 $180 are now available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit hkphil.org

Artists
Jaap van Zweden, conductor [full biography]
Over the past decade, conductor Jaap van Zweden has become an international presence on three continents. The 2018/19 season marks his first as the 26th Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. He continues as Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, a post he has held since 2012 - his seventh season with the HK Phil in 2018/19 season, the orchestra’s 45th professional season. He is also the Conductor Laureate of Dallas Symphony Orchestra where he has just completed a ten-year tenure at its helm. Born in Amsterdam, Jaap van Zweden was the youngest ever Concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He began his conducting career in 1995 and in 2012 was named Musical America's Conductor of the Year.

Lin Jiang, horn [full biography]
Principal Horn of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Lin Jiang is considered an extraordinarily gifted horn player of his generation. Born in Shanghai in 1986, he moved with his family to Australia at the age of five and began playing the horn at the age of ten. He continued his studies at Scotch College Melbourne, the Victorian College of the Arts and graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Music degree with honours. Being one of Australia's most sought after horn soloists, he has performed solos with the Melbourne and Sydney Symphony orchestras, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Australian Youth Orchestra.


JAAP!: JAAP｜MOZART
19 & 20 | 4 | 2019
FRI & SAT 8PM
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$480 $380 $280 $180
Tickets are currently available at URBTIX
For ages 6 and above

Artists

Click the thumbnails to download press images

Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
Music Director: Jaap van Zweden
Principal Guest Conductor: Yu Long

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) is recognised as Asia’s foremost classical orchestra. Presenting more than 150 concerts over a 44-week season, the HK Phil attracts more than 200,000 music lovers annually.

Jaap van Zweden, one of today’s most sought-after conductors, has been the orchestra’s Music Director since the 2012/13 concert season, a position he will continue to hold until at least 2022. Maestro van Zweden is the 26th Music Director of the New York Philharmonic from the 2018/19 season.

Yu Long has been Principal Guest Conductor since the 2015/16 season.

Under the dynamic leadership of Music Director Jaap van Zweden, the HK Phil has attained new heights of artistic excellence, garnering international critical acclaim.

Following on from the success of the European tour which included a filmed concert from Vienna’s Musikverein, the HK Phil has toured extensively within the mainland China. In 2017, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR, and with support of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices, the orchestra performed in Seoul, Osaka, Singapore, Melbourne and at the Sydney Opera House.

Jaap, the HK Phil, a superb cast of soloists and a chorus successfully completed an epic four-year journey through Wagner’s “Ring Cycle” in January 2018. The concert performances and live Naxos recordings have been enthusiastically received by audiences and praised by critics at home and abroad. The recording of Götterdämmerung was released in November 2018.

Conductors and soloists who have recently performed with the orchestra include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Joshua Bell, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Matthias Goerne, Stephen Hough, Evgeny Kissin, Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Ning Feng and Yuja Wang.

The HK Phil promotes the work of Hong Kong and Chinese composers through an active commissioning programme, and has released recordings on the Naxos label featuring Tan Dun and Bright Sheng, each conducting their own compositions. Its acclaimed education and community engagement programmes in schools, hospital and outdoor space, bring music into the hearts of tens of thousands of children and families every year.

The Swire Group has been the Principal Patron of the HK Phil since 2006. Through this sponsorship, which is the largest in the orchestra’s history, Swire endeavours to promote artistic excellence, foster access to classical music and stimulate cultural participation in Hong Kong, and to enhance Hong Kong’s reputation as one of the great cities in the world.

Thanks to a significant subsidy from the Hong Kong Government and long-term funding from Principal Patron Swire, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and other supporters, the HK Phil now boasts a full-time annual schedule of core classical repertoire and innovative popular programming, extensive education and community programmes, and collaborations with, among others, Opera Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Arts Festival and the Hong Kong Ballet.

Originally called the Sino-British Orchestra, it was renamed the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in 1957 and became fully professional in 1974. The HK Phil is a charitable organisation.


The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra is financially supported by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and is Venue Partner of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.
SWIRE is the Principal Patron of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.