The HK Phil presents three Great Conductors in three Great Programmes during October and November
26 SEP 2017
Hong Kong
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Meggy Cheng
Director of Marketing
Tel: (852) 2721 9035
Email: meggy.cheng@hkphil.org
Becky Lee
Media Relations Manager
Tel: (852) 2721 1585
Email: becky.lee@hkphil.org
| • | Eschenbach’s Dvořák (6 & 7 October 2017) |
| • | Jaap’s Bruckner 8 (13 October 2017) |
| • | Dutoit & Lugansky (17 & 18 November 2017) |
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[26 September 2017, Hong Kong] Audiences in Hong Kong will enjoy a very musical autumn when the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) presents three great programmes featuring three of the greatest conductors of our time – Jaap van Zweden, Christoph EschenbachandCharles Dutoit.
Bravo Series: Eschenbach’s Dvořák (6 & 7 October 2017)
“Eschenbach can be counted on to deliver individualistic interpretations of almost anything”
--- Baltimore Sun
In this concert with the HK Phil, the German-born maestro will offer his searing interpretation of Dvořák’s Symphony no. 8. He will also direct Brahms’s magnificent Piano Concerto no. 2 featuring the amazing pianist Tzimon Barto.
The Eighth has long vied with the Ninth (“From the New World”) as Dvořák’s most popular symphony. Its blend of innocence, folk melody, drama and grandeur make it one of his most colourful compositions.
Eschenbach and Barto have performed together frequently since 1988. Their unique personal chemistry promises to provide a fizzing interpretation of Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto, a work which changed composers’ whole approach to writing piano concertos. Instead of three movements, it has four, and while it is not the biggest piano concerto of all, it is certainly one of the longest and most lavishly scored. It requires so much virtuosity from the orchestra that the noted critic Eduard Hanslick described it as “a symphony with piano obbligato”.
Bravo Series: Eschenbach’s Dvořák will be held on 6 & 7 October 2017 (Fri & Sat), 8PM, in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall.Tickets priced: HK$680, $480, $380, $280 are now available at URBTIX.
Artists
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor [full biography]
Christoph Eschenbach is the Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra and the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts. He is the former Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris, Philadelphia Orchestra, NDR Symphony Orchestra and Houston Symphony. Eschenbach has been awarded the Légion d’Honneur, Commandeur dans I’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Commander’s Cross of German Order of Merit and the Leonard Bernstein Award from the Pacific Music Festival.
Tzimon Barto, piano [full biography]
Born and raised in Florida, Tzimon Barto received his first piano lessons from his grandmother at the age of five, and later attended the Juilliard School of Music where he won the Gina Bachauer Competition two years in a row. Tzimon Barto’s international breakthrough came in the mid-1980s, when he appeared at the Vienna Musikverein and the Salzburg Festival at the invitation of Herbert von Karajan. He has since performed with nearly every major international orchestra.
Jaap Essential Series: Jaap’s Bruckner 8 (13 October 2017, one concert only)
“[Jaap van Zweden] is now the leading interpreter of Bruckner’s symphonies”
--- BBC Music Magazine
Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony is a truly monumental work. It took him more than five years to write and was to be the last symphony he would ever complete. Jaap van Zweden, Music Director of the HK Phil and conductor of the concert, has said of Bruckner; “In our time when we seek religious experience and are looking for the light, if one composer can bring us close and show us light, it is Bruckner.”
For this very special concert, Jaap will be presenting his very personal take on Bruckner’s glorious, magisterial and intensely beautiful Eighth Symphony.
Jaap’s Essential Series: Jaap’s Bruckner 8 will be held on 13 October 2017 (Fri), 8PM, in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall.Tickets priced: HK$680, $480, $380, $280 are now available at URBTIX.
Artists
Jaap van Zweden, conductor [full biography]
Over the last decade, conductor Jaap van Zweden has become an international presence on three continents. The 17/18 season marks a major milestone as he completes his ten-year tenure as Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and simultaneously is Music Director Designate in New York, anticipating his inaugural season (2018/19) as the 26th Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. He continues as Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, a post he has held since 2012. 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.
Bravo Series: Dutoit & Lugansky (17 & 18 November 2017)
“[Charles Dutoit’s] decades of familiarity have brought about a deep and intimate understanding of what works best.”
--- Straits Times
For over 50 years Charles Dutoit has been recognised as one of the leading orchestral conductors. He has just been awarded with one of classical music’s highest honours, the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal. The Swiss conductor returns to the stage of the HK Phil to reveal his special affinity with Stravinsky and his instinctive feel for French music. He is joined by Nikolai Lugansky, one of the best Rachmaninov interpreters of our time, in the epic Third Concerto.
The programme starts and ends with French music, opening with Berlioz’s extrovert and vividly colourful Roman Carnival Overture, and ending with Ravel’s lushly atmospheric Daphnis and Chloé Suite no. 2.
In the middle there will be two Russian masterpieces. The first is Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no. 3, which the composer wrote for his American tour in 1909. The premiere with the New York Symphony Orchestra was a huge success and the piece is regarded as the pinnacle of Romantic piano concertos. The second is Stravinsky’s The Song of the Nightingale inspired by a story by Hans Christian Anderson (The Nightingale). Stravinsky first intended it to be an opera, turned it into a ballet and, in 1919, arranged it as the orchestral tone poem the HK Phil plays in this concert.
Bravo Series: Dutoit & Lugansky will be held on 17 & 18 November 2017 (Fri & Sat), 8PM, in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall.Tickets priced: HK$680, $480, $380, $280 are now available at URBTIX.
For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit www.hkphil.org.
Artists
Charles Dutoit, conductor [full biography]
Recently appointed Chief Conductor and Music Advisor of the Philadelphia Orchestra as well as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Dutoit regularly collaborates with the world's pre-eminent orchestras and soloists. Charles Dutoit has been invited each season to conduct major orchestras in the United States and all the great orchestras of Europe, including the Berlin Philharmonic and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra as well as with all the London orchestras, the major orchestras of Japan, South America and Australia.
Nikolai Lugansky, piano [full biography]
Lugansky was awarded the honour of People’s Artist of Russia in 2013. Described by Gramophone as “the most trailblazing and meteoric performer of all” Nikolai Lugansky is a pianist of extraordinary depth and versatility. He regularly works with top level conductors including Charles Dutoit, and his concerto highlights for the 2017/18 season include engagements with the London and Baltimore symphony orchestras, the HK Phil and many more. He will also take part in European tours with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra/Sakari Oramo, and the Russian National Orchestra.
Tickets of the following three programmes are now available at URBTIX
Programmes are for ages 6 and above
BRAVO SERIES: ESCHENBACH’S DVOŘÁK
6 & 7 | 10 | 2017
FRI & SAT 8PM
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$680 $480 $380 $280
Artists
| Christoph Eschenbach | conductor |
piano |
Click the thumbnails to download press photos
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Christoph Eschenbach | Tzimon Barto | The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra |
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Programme
| BRAHMS | Piano Concerto no. 2 |
DVOŘÁK | Symphony no. 8 |
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JAAP ESSENTIALS SERIES: JAAP’S BRUCKNER 813 | 10 | 2017
FRI 8PM
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$680 $480 $380 $280
Artists
| Jaap van Zweden | conductor |
Click the thumbnails to download press photos
%20Cheung%20Chi%20Wai.JPG) | %20Cheung%20Wai%20Lok%20HK%20Phil.JPG) |
| Jaap van Zweden Photo Credit: Cheung Chi Wai/HK Phil | Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra Photo Credit: Cheung Chi Wai/HK Phil |
Programme
| BRUCKNER | Symphony no. 8 |
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BRAVO SERIES: DUTOIT & LUGANSKY
17 & 18 | 11 | 2017
FRI & SAT 8PM
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$680 $480 $380 $280
| Charles Dutoit | conductor |
piano |
Click the thumbnails to download press photos
 |
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Charles Dutoit | Nikolai Lugansky | Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra |
Programme
| BERLIOZ | The Roman Carnival Overture |
RACHMANINOV | Piano Concerto no. 3 |
STRAVINSKY | The Song of the Nightingale |
RAVEL | Daphnis and Chloé Suite no. 2 |
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 2022. Maestro van Zweden will be the next Music Director of the New York Philharmonic from the 2018/19 season.
Yu Long was appointed Principal Guest Conductor with the HK Phil for a three-year period commencing with 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 celebration of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR, and with support of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices, the orchestra recently performed in Seoul, Osaka, Singapore, Melbourne and at the Sydney Opera House.
Jaap, the HK Phil, and a superb casts of soloists, have presented concert performances and recordings of the first three operas from Richard Wagner’s epic Ring cycle. These have been enthusiastically endorsed by both audiences and critics at home and abroad, and in recognition of their quality, the orchestra and Jaap have been invited to perform Wagner’s Die Walküre in staged performances at the Beijing Music Festival this October in a co-production with the Salzburg Easter Festival.
Conductors and soloists who have recently, or shortly will have, performed with the orchestra include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Matthias Goerne, Stephen Hough, 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 of 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 and the Hong Kong Arts Festival.
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.
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.