Fernando Gros

Hong Kong Arts Festival — Roundup

First of all, the organ­isers of this year’s fest­ival deserve credit for a great series of fix­tures, with some smart and cour­ageous decisions on artists and sta­ging. Second, they seem to have done a good job with tick­et­ing, with far fewer of the good seats at events going empty (and seat alloc­a­tions being more even). Finally, this year’s events star­ted much closer to their sched­uled times than and the venues were far more strict on latecomers.

It also has to be said that, for reas­ons I can’t explain, this year’s audi­ences were quieter and more focussed. There was far less talk­ing and cough­ing and, as men­tioned, people were enter­ing the aud­it­or­i­ums and in their seats much earlier. Moreover, the queues for food and drink before shows and at inter­vals seemed more respect­ful (on the whole). Best of all, there were fewer early leav­ers from the more chal­len­ging shows.

From my per­spect­ive the events were still plagued, all too often, by tech­nical issues, with sound and light­ing being par­tic­u­lar prob­lems. I know I’m repeat­ing myself, but Hong Kong really needs a better, warmer sound­ing venue for Jazz and live music. City Hall, which I like, is too small and the Con­cert Hall is too brassy.

This year I found my way to eight events and each them was mem­or­able and unique, you can follow the links to read the full reviews.

Chick Corea and John McLaugh­lin
Meta­morph­osis
Omar Sosa
Esto­nian Phil­har­monic Cham­ber Choir
Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk
I/In
Karbido: The Table
Alice In Wonderland

It’s hard to choose a “best” from such a diverse list of per­form­ances. All were mem­or­able and none were dis­ap­point­ing. Per­haps the greatest rev­el­a­tion for me was Omar Sosa, because he turned out to be such an extraordin­ary show­man and per­former, not just a bril­liant musi­cian. Meta­morph­osis will surely linger in the mind a long time, for sheer verve and cre­ativ­ity, as well I/In. Then again, Corea and McLaugh­lin (together with Blade, McBride and Gar­rett) deserve another men­tion for the depth and breadth of talent they mar­shalled together.

Whilst I love this fest­ival, I do wish that Hong Kong could move towards a more even and sus­tained arts cal­en­dar. At the moment it feels like flood and drought as we move from very busy fest­ival months of plenty to arid months of want. This is espe­cially the case in jazz, theatre and modern dance.

Tech­nor­ati Tags: Hong Kong Arts Festival

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 1:55 pm. It is filed under Creativity, Daily Life, Expatriate, Globalisation, Hong Kong, Jazz, Music Reviews, Theology and Culture, Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.