Yuja Wang Triptych 3 – Brahms Piano Concerto no. 2 with the HK Phil (19 & 20 June)

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[2 June 2015, Hong Kong] The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) proudly presents the Yuja Wang Triptych in June, comprising five concerts with three different programmes. The last programme will be held on 19 & 20 June in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall, with Yuja Wang playing Brahms Piano Concerto no. 2, under the baton of Music Director Jaap van Zweden.

Brahms finished this Concerto twenty two years after his first. It is an enormously challenging work that demands the greatest artistry, intensity and sheer stamina from the soloist. Brahms himself, famous for his witty self-deprecation, wrote of this work: “I don’t mind telling you that I have written a tiny little piano concerto, with a tiny little wisp of a scherzo.” His friends could guess that he meant precisely the opposite – this work is one of the most ambitious of all piano concertos.

In addition to Brahms’ Piano Concerto no.2, do not miss out on the other great works in this concert.

La mer is Debussy’s evocative portrayal of the sea in all its moods and is considered his finest orchestral work, inspired by the sea seen from his hotel room in the south of England and by nautical literature. Debussy had a life-long fascination with the sea and once declared that “I was destined for the fine career of a sailor…only the accidents of life put me on another path.”

Ravel’s Boléro is one of the most famous orchestral showpieces in all music. Based on a continually repeating pattern from the side drum and only changing key once, it is a dazzling exhibition of orchestral virtuosity building up dramatically and inexorably to a shattering climax. Ravel described it as “orchestral tissue without music”. Come and hear this brilliant work live.

Heroine: Yuja Wang Triptych 3 – Brahms will be held on 19 & 20 June 2015 (Fri & Sat), 8PM, in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall.Limited tickets priced: HK$680, $480, $320, $220 are now available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit www.hkphil.org.

Artists
Jaap van Zweden, conductor [full biography]
Amsterdam-born Jaap van Zweden is one of today’s most sought-after conductors. Named Musical America’s Conductor of the Year for 2012, he has been Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra since 2012/13 season.

The maestro has recently conducted the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Symphony to high acclaims.

At the age of nineteen, Jaap was appointed as the youngest Concertmaster ever of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Maestro van Zweden is also currently Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Honorary Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Honorary Conductor of the Radio Chamber Philharmonic.

Yuja Wang, piano [full biography]
Yuja Wang has toured with the New York Philharmonic and Lorin Maazel to Japan and Korea, with Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and Neville Marriner to the U.S., with the London Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding to China, and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel in the U.S.. She has performed with the world’s most prestigious orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia and NHK Symphony.

Yuja Wang was awarded Classic FM’s Young Artist of the Year, and the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2010. She is an exclusive artist for Deutsche Grammophon, releasing numerous records with great reviews.

Heroine: Yuja Wang Triptych 3 - Brahms
19 & 20 | 6 | 2015
FRI & SAT 8PM
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$680 $480 $320 $220
Tickets are available at URBTIX now
For ages 6 and above

Click the thumbnail to download photos
Jaap van Zweden Photo Credit: Cheung Chi Wai / HK Phil	Yuja Wang Photo Credit: Susan Diesner	The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra Photo Credit: Keith Hiro / HK Phil

Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
Music Director: Jaap van Zweden

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) has recently returned from an extremely successful five-country, seven-city tour of Europe, with concerts in London, Vienna, Zurich, Eindhoven, Birmingham, Berlin and Amsterdam. Most concerts were sold out, there were standing ovations, and the reviews were universally positive. The concert in Vienna’s Musikverein was filmed for future broadcast on TV. With a history stretching back to 1895, when it was formed as the Sino-British Orchestra, the HK Phil was re-named in 1957 and became fully professional in 1974.

Thanks to 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.

Conductors and soloists who have recently performed with the orchestra include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Ning Feng, Matthias Goerne, Lang Lang, Yu Long, Yundi Li, the late Lorin Maazel, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yuja Wang and Edo de Waart, the HK Phil’s previous Music Director.

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 ten of thousands of children annually.

This season is Jaap van Zweden’s third as Music Director of the HK Phil. With him, the orchestra is undertaking major expansion and new projects, including the first-ever performances by a Hong Kong or mainland Chinese orchestra of Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung. The four operas are being performed, one a year, in concert and recorded live for the Naxos label.

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.

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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