“The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra under music director Jaap van Zweden will perform complete cycles of Beethoven’s symphonies and concertos next season and the season after that to mark the 250th anniversary of the German composer’s birth,” writes Kevin Kwong in Wednesday’s (5/8) South China Morning Post. “Soloists Lang Lang, Rudolf Buchbinder, Rachel Cheung Wai-ching, Vikingur Olafsson and Nobuyuki Tsujii will accompany the orchestra in Beethoven’s five piano concertos…. Next season will also see the 30th anniversary of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, the venue where the orchestra is based. In November, Macau-born conductor Lio Kuok-man will team up with soprano Louise Kwong, the Ping Ting Piano Duo, Hong Kong Children’s Choir and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Chorus for a concert that includes new works by local composers.… Soprano Renée Fleming will [perform] in Samuel Barber’s ‘Knoxville: Summer of 1915,’ … part of a program conducted by Van Zweden that includes Wagner’s Tristan und Iseult: Prelude and Liebestod, and Shostakovich’s Symphony No 9…. The next season will see the return of [Hong Kong native] Elim Chan, now chief conductor designate of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, to conduct Kalevi Aho’s Sieidi, a percussion concerto, and Stravinsky’s Funeral Song and Petrushka.”
Posted May 10, 2019
