Ligeti's It!

HKAAA members can enjoy -15% discount for $300 tickets (limited quota).

[link_to | http://hknme.org/ligeti.html | HKNME] 6TH SEASON OPENING CONCERT

Portrait Concert Series: Ligeti's It!

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* The first retrospective in Hong Kong of Hungarian composer György Ligeti (1923 – 2006). Featuring soloists of the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, led by guest conductor Ulrich Pöhl (Netherlands/ Germany)

* Launch of HKNME Chamber Voices, led by Dr John Winzenburg (HKBU)

* Hong Kong premieres of seven Ligeti works, and a performance with 100 Hong Kong school children for his Poème Symphonique

* Premiere of a new work by Hong Kong composer Lam Fung, with saxophone soloist Timothy Sun

Hungarian composer György Ligeti’s creative journey encompasses some of the most diverse music of the 20th century, and reveals an imaginative world of astounding variety and expressive power. It is no surprise that of the entire post-WWII generation who were at the forefront of the avant garde in the 1950s and 60s, it is Ligeti who is still played the most in the world’s concert halls. Despite this fact, rarely is Ligeti’s music performed in Hong Kong.

This concert is a retrospective of and homage to the diversity of Ligeti’s musical output, reflecting the composer’s interest in diverse musical systems and philosophies. We start with his early choral works, composed while he was still living in communist Hungary; through to works more influenced by Bartok and Stravinsky, his Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet (1953). Then we explore his fascination with mechanical processes and automata, as we fill the stage with 100 metronomes for Poème Symphonique (1962). A fascination with rapid granulated patterns influences his solo harpsichord work Continuum (1968) and large ensemble work the Chamber Concerto (1969-70). Finally, we explore Ligeti’s interest in alternative tuning systems and early music in his Trio (1982)

Ligeti is the 20th century composer with the most cosmic connotations in popular consciousness. That's thanks to the way Stanley Kubrick used (initially used without permission) Ligeti's music in his movies starting with 2001: A Space Odyssey, music of teeming, horrifying vastness and unearthly intensity.

As the first retrospective portrait concert of Ligeti in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble has specially commissioned leading Hong Kong composer Lam Fung to write a new work for this occasion.  

Programme enquiries: [link_to | info@hknme.org | HKNME] +852 3568-8470

For tickets, please send this [link_to | http://www.hkaaa.org.hk/uploads/hkaaa/201309/20130911_150137_wn1RcNo4uH_f.pdf | form] and the crossed cheque to the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, 2B, 3/F, Blue Box Factory Building, 25 Hing Wo Street, Tin Wan, Hong Kong; or email the bank transfer slip along with the form to [link_to | info@hknme.org | HKNME]. For enquiries, please contact Ms Sharon Chan at 3568 8470 or [link_to | sharon@hknme.org | Email].

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