2002 Hong Kong


Hong Kong

Festival info

Start:

End:

Locations: Hong Kong

Hosting member(s)

Description

Contemporaneous reviews

“A large education project made connections with the young people of the city and in the concert programme an attempt was made to engage with a wider audience through the introduction of a series of ‘Signature Concerts’. Krzysztof Penderecki, Tan Dun, Jo Kondo, Zhu Jianer, Per Nørgård, Michael Nyman and Kaija Saariaho each gave their name to a concert featuring one of their works and a programme over which they had exercised some artistic control.”

–Christopher Fox, “ISCM World Music Days in Hong Kong 2002,”
World New Music Magazine 13 (2003), p. 69.

“The organizers featured the composers with the best of ensembles, so we were presented with excellent performances. Ensembles like KammerensemleN, LINensemble, Ensemble Antipodes, and Shanghai New Ensemble made every composition sound its best. When there are no particular issues concerning the quality of performance, then the poverty of content seems to stand out. Too many pieces sounded similar to one another in their use of ‘effects’, in avoiding melodies and in their alienation from the roots of the composer. The ‘contemporary’ elements in these compositions were so similar that the expression ‘contemporary clichés’ was formed in my mind. And clichés lead to a dead end.”

–Shlomo Israel, “Hong Kong October 2002 ISCM Festival – A report,” World New Music Magazine 13 (2003), p. 72.

“[At] all the World Music Days festivals which I have attended there has been at least one moment when I have found it difficult to remember why I ever thought new music was interesting. I am in a concert hall and music is being played, but the performers have no commitment to what they are playing to an audience who would not by choice be listening to either them or to this music. If we love music why do we allow this to go on?”

–Christopher Fox, “ISCM World Music Days in Hong Kong 2002,”
World New Music Magazine 13 (2003), p. 70.

Programme information
Locations