Winter Dreams – a concert featuring Akiko Suwanai and the Asian Premiere of Hong Kong-born Raymond Yiu’s
The London Citizen Exceedingly Injured

Download HERE

[1 March 2017, Hong Kong] Experience the magic and mystery of Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony as you travel through a snowy Russian landscape on 7 & 8 April in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Conductor Lawrence Foster also leads the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) and soloist Akiko Suwanai in Walton’s beautiful and melancholic Violin Concerto. The concert opens with Hong Kong-born composer Raymond Yiu’s portrayal of London through a series of vibrant and colourful orchestral tableaux.

Raymond Yiu was the winner of the British Composer Awards 2010. The Hong Kong audience now has a chance to listen to this innovative composition from this almost self-taught composer. The London Citizen Exceedingly Injured was premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2013.

Akiko Suwanai is the youngest-ever winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition. The Times described her as “a tall, imposing violinist of striking stage presence: big-boned, noble playing, with its rhythmic life taut and rigorous”. She will perform William Walton’s Concerto which is full of his love for Italy expressed through lyrical violin lines and shimmering, sensual orchestral effects.

Last but not least, Lawrence Foster and the HK Phil will draw the audience into the magic and mystery of Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony. He was just 28 when he completed the Symphony yet it already has all the hallmarks of expressiveness and emotional power which we associate with Tchaikovsky’s music. With its evocation of the Russian landscape in winter, it includes some of Tchaikovsky’s most vividly pictorial orchestral music.

Swire Maestro Series: Winter Dreamswill be held on 7 & 8 April (Fri & Sat) at 8PMin the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Ticket prices: HK$480, $380, $280, $180 are now available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit www.hkphil.org

Artists
Lawrence Foster, conductor[full biography]
Since 2013 Lawrence Foster has held the position of Music Director of l'Opéra de Marseille and l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille. He has been appointed Conductor Laureate of the Gulbenkian Orchestra following his ten-year tenure as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor. He has conducted leading orchestras in Copenhagen, Brussels, Frankfurt, Cologne, Shanghai, Budapest and Paris.

Akiko Suwanai, violin[full biography]
Universally acclaimed for her performances of key works for the violin from composers such as Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Mendelssohn, Akiko Suwanai is also noted for the breadth of her repertoire, ranging from Bach to the contemporary works. The 2016/17 season sees her return to NHK Symphony Orchestra and Hamburger Symphoniker. Other appearances include City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic and Iceland Symphony Orchestra as well as a debut with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

SWIRE MAESTRO SERIES: WINTER DREAMS
7 & 8 | 4 | 2017
FRI & SAT 8PM
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$480 $380 $280 $180
Tickets are now available at URBTIX
For ages 6 and above

Artists

Click the thumbnails to download photo
Lawrence Foster Photo Credit: Marc Ginot	Akiko Suwanai Photo Credit: Takaki Kumada	Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra Photo Credit: Cheung Chi Wai/HK Phil

Programme

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. The Orchestra presents more than 150 concerts over a 44-week season and 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. In addition, Maestro van Zweden will also be the next Music Director of the New York Philharmonic starting with the 2018/19 season.

Yu Long was appointed for an initial three-year term in the 2015/16 season as Principal Guest Conductor.

Under Maestro van Zweden, the HK Phil is undertaking a variety of initiatives including a four-year project to perform and record the complete Ring of the Nibelung (Richard Wagner). The Orchestra is in the third of this four-year journey, performing one opera annually in concert. The performances being recorded live for the Naxos label are winning rave reviews internationally; and mark the first performances by a Hong Kong or mainland Chinese orchestra of the entire Ring cycle.

Also under van Zweden, the orchestra has toured to Taiwan, Europe and Mainland China. The orchestra will undertake an ambitious five-city tour to Seoul, Osaka, Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney in April and May 2017 in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR.

Conductors and soloists who have recently performed with the orchestra include Yo-Yo Ma, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Ning Feng, Matthias Goerne, Lang Lang, Yu Long, Yundi Li, the late Lorin Maazel, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Yuja Wang.

The HK Phil promotes the work of Hong Kong and Chinese composers through an active commissioning programme, and has released recordings featuring Tan Dun and Bright Sheng, each conducting their own compositions, on the Naxos label. Its acclaimed community engagement programme brings music to tens of thousands of children annually. A recording was issued free to schoolchildren throughout Hong Kong of Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Leopold Mozart’s Toy Symphony.

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 also 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 and other supporters, the HK Phil now boasts a full-time annual schedule of classical music concerts, pops concerts, an extensive education programme, and collaborations for staged opera with Opera Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

The Orchestra celebrated its 40th season as a professional orchestra in 2013/14.


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.