Sing Handel & Mozart Sing!
Charismatic Bass-baritone Andrew Foster-Williams Sings
Arias by Two Master Composers (22 & 23 June)

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[7 June 2012 – Hong Kong] Acclaimed by The Independent as “no praise is too high for Andrew Foster-Williams”, the charismatic bass-baritone will revisit the Hong Kong Philharmonic audience with his specialty repertoire of arias by Mozart and Handel from their Italian operas such as Le Nozze di Figaro and Rinaldo. Mozart +: “Sing Handel & Mozart Sing” will be held in the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall on 22 and 23 June (Fri and Sat), 8pm.

The Orchestra and Foster-Williams will be conducted by English baroque specialist Nicholas McGegan. The rest of the Baroque and Classical programme includes Rameau’s Naïs Suite and Mozart’s Linz Symphony.

Tickets priced at $320, $240, $180, $120, are available at URBTIX. Programme enquiries: 2721 2030.

Andrew Foster-Williams, bass-baritone

“Show-stealing force”

--- Washington Post

Acclaimed throughout the press for his authoritative, sonorous and regal voice, Andrew Foster-Williams has established himself as an exciting, young talent in the Classical Music world. Combining intelligent music-making with an instinctual dramatic sense, Andrew brings vocal virtuosity and charisma to concert hall and opera house alike.
A busy concert vocalist, Foster-Williams has sung Haydn Die Jahreszeiten with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis (also to be recorded for LSO Live), with Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and The Gulbenkian Orchestra Lisbon with Paul McCreesh; Messiah for the New York Philharmonic with Bernard Labadie; Bach Lutheran Mass with The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst; Mozart Requiem with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin; and Don Fernando in Fidelio for the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Edo de Waart.

Operatically, Andrew sings Leporello in Don Giovanni and Albert in Massenet‘s Werther for Washington National Opera; his first Four Villains in Offenbach Les Contes D’Hoffman in Moscow and his first Don Pizarro in Fidelio for Opera North; and Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress for Opera National de Lorraine.  Recent opera appearances have included singing Sleep, Winter, Corydon and Hymen in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at the 2009 Glyndebourne Festival with William Christie and Cold Genius, Aeolus and Comus in a new Mark Morris production of Purcell’s King Arthur for English National Opera and in San Francisco.

Nicholas McGegan, conductor

“One of the finest baroque conductors of his generation”

--- The Independent

Nicholas McGegan is loved by audiences and orchestras for performances that match authority with enthusiasm, scholarship with joy, and curatorial responsibility with evangelical exuberance. The London Independent calls him “one of the finest baroque conductors of his generation” and The New Yorker lauds him as “an expert in 18th-century style.”
McGegan has been a remarkably durable presence in the world of baroque music through long-term appointments with San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (which was named Musical America’s 2004 Ensemble of the Year), Germany's International Handel-Festival Göttingen, Sweden's Drottningholm Theatre, The Milwaukee Symphony and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. His discography of over 100 releases includes the world premiere recording of Handel's Susanna, which attracted both a Gramophone Award and Grammy nomination
He's one of the few baroque specialists to regularly conduct the world’s major orchestras, including those of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, St. Louis, Washington, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Göteborg Symphony Orchestra, and Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

In 2010 Mr. McGegan was made an OBE, an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, “for service to music overseas.”

Programme
Forget the stories about a jealous rival poisoning him. Mozart was admired by his contemporaries and continues to be so by musicians and music lovers to this day. His genius is revealed here in a symphony which, despite being written in record time, bears the true stamp of greatness and two fantastic arias for the operatic stage, which Mozart regarded as his ideal musical home.

And what of Mozart’s own musical heroes? Handel was his favourite, so what could be more appropriate than to hear some of Handel’s own great operatic arias for the bass voice. 

“No praise is too high for Andrew Foster-Williams”, wrote The Independent of our soloist who has made something of a speciality in singing the bass roles from Mozart and Handel, while fellow-Englishman Nicholas McGegan is admired around the world as one of today’s great interpreters of Baroque and Classical music.

Mozart+: “Sing Handel & Mozart Sing”
22&23 | 6 | 2012
FRI & SAT 8PM
HK City Hall Concert Hall
HK$320 $240 $180 $120
Available at URBTIX now

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Ticketing Information

Credit Card Booking
(852) 2111 5999
Online Booking
www.urbtix.hk

For programme enquiry, please call HKPO at
(852) 2721 2030

HONG KONG PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HKPO) is one of Asia’s leading orchestras. Enriching Hong Kong’s cultural life for over a century, the Orchestra has grown into a formidable ensemble of Chinese and international talents, attracting world-class artists to collaborate on its stage. The HKPO annually touches the lives of over 200,000 music lovers through more than 150 performances. Under the leadership of Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Edo de Waart, the HKPO has scaled new heights of musical excellence, and will continue to do so under the artistic leadership of Jaap van Zweden, the Orchestra’s Music Director from the 2012/13 season.

The HKPO stays in tune with our city by presenting the Orchestra in unexpected venues and bringing the excitement of the concert experience to every home through radio and television broadcasts including the largest symphonic event of the year, Swire Symphony under the Stars, at Happy Valley. The Orchestra runs a comprehensive schools education programme, HSBC Insurance Creative Notes, bringing the joy of classical music to primary, secondary and special school kids. The Orchestra also collaborates regularly with other performing arts organisations such as Opera Hong Kong in addition to its crossover series with Western and Chinese pop artists.

The Orchestra also builds its reputation and raises its artistic standards by touring. In September 2010, de Waart and the HKPO returned to China, performing at the Expo 2010 Shanghai, Xi’an and Beijing to critical acclaim.

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

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