In the Show – 27th December 2011

2011 is almost over, and it was a year in which we had some very impressive and even some very strange music in our studio.

In today’s show we’retaking a look back at some of the highlights. And we’ll begin with one of the stranger ones. A musical instrument that you can play without even touching it. It’s the theremin, as played by Lydia Kavina, a maestro who learned it from the instrument’s inventor Léon Theremin.

It’s hardly possible to get a greater contrast to that than the guest who visited our studio in April. He’s the legendary clarinettist Richard Stoltzman. Richard was in Hong Kong for “The Intimacy of Creativity”, an annual two-week series of events devoted to promoting a dialogue between composers of new pieces and their performers. For us he played a composition by the man who initiated the two-week workshop, Bright Sheng.

In February last year, the young pianist Shen Wenyu came to our studio. Eight years ago, he was the youngest ever winner of the Queen Elizabeth International Piano Competition. At 24, he has already performed with over 30 orchestras worldwide. And this despite coming from a Wenzhou, a town in China that didn’t – when he was a child – have one piano.

Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla revolutionised the music of the tango, and there are lovers of the more traditional music who hate him for it. But musicians, ranging from classical to jazz, have found much to inspire them in his work. And many of those who come to The Works studio want to play their own interpretations. Last year, Timothy Sun and Jacqueline Leung gave us a Hong Kong interpretation of one of his pieces, while bandoneonist Carel Kraayenhof and violinist Karen Gomyo, who were in town for a performance with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, brought us more traditional versions.

Tango music is, of course, song music. Even more importantly it’s dance music. And dance is a big area of interest to The Works and its viewers. Our studio isn’t the biggest of studios. But despite that we did manage to squeeze two highly impressive dance troupes in here when they came to Hong Kong to give shows. STOMP showed us that you don’t always need music to dance. While Riverdance took us to the mist-covered hills of Ireland.

Happy New Year from all at The Works