Hong Kong Youth NeoWinds Orchestra European Tour Pre-tour Concert
3:00pm, May 28 2006
Tsuen Wan Town Hall Auditorium

Aiming to offer high-quality orchestral training to young music talents in Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Youth NeoWinds Orchestra gave a concert to public at 3pm, on 28th May 2006 at Tsuen Wan Town Hall Auditorium. This concert also served to raise travel funds for their European Tour in July in which they will be participating in the “MID EUROPE – Conference for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, and it was also their opportunity to get them prepared for the upcoming public performances. The local renowned percussionist, Mr. Choy Lap Tak, was invited to be the percussion soloist in one of the pieces.

The First Half
The cheerful clapping of the audience marked the grand opening of the concert. Every member of The Orchestra just waited for the starting signal from their conductor, Mr Danilo Delfin, for a Chinese festive celebration piece – “Jie Qing”. The melody of this piece was so familiar to each of you as it was based on a very popular Chinese New Year tune and consisted of different variations and chords. Although there were not Chinese musical instruments in this piece, The Orchestra was able to deliver a crowded and cheerful atmosphere with strong rhythm in the auditorium. Definitely it’s an excellent piece for opening use in a concert.

The second piece was “Chester”, by William Billings, during American Revolution. It was then became a marching tune for the Continental Army as it expressed the spirit of American patriotism and the burning desire for liberty. The current arrangement by William Schuman first introduced the tune in woodwinds followed the brasses. The melody was then given a more contemporary setting with mid-twentieth century rhythm and harmony. The closing theme featured with the hymn-like treatment and the work was brought to a dramatic ending.

The Orchestra then performed two shorter works. “Theme From ‘Green Bushes’” was dedicated to the memory of Perry Aldridge Grainger – to bring light one of Grainger’s many attractive works among neglected compositions. “Paloyoloyo” was selected from a collection of celebration and commemoration music of the Cahuilla tribe from the Mojave and Sonoran Desert region of Southern California. This beautiful piece was expressed with different graceful tunes such as imitating bird songs and desert vista which were created by Rattle and wind chimes.

After experiencing the American’s desert, The Orchestra brought us “Armenian Dances Part I”, which was written by Alfred Reed in 1972. The piece consisted of five authentic Armenian folk songs, and performed piece was a four-movement suite; this Part I was the first movement with five distinctive sections such as allegretto, cartoon-like, etc. With this rich-style piece, the first half of the concert came to an intermission.

The Second Half
The first song of the second half was “Concerto For Percussion” (written by Darius Milhaud). As the name suggested, it’s a fabulous piece tailor-made to percussion music. This time, The Orchestra had invited renowned Mr. Choy Lap-Tak to be the percussion soloist for playing this excellent with it. Mr. Choy was able to freely make use of his different strikes on different percussions to create different beats. His outstanding performance created a resonance with The Orchestra.

The Orchestra then played two distinctive pieces “Irish Tune From County Derry” (written by Percy Aldridge Grainger) and “Pride of Elkhard” (written by Warren Barker). Both pieces are very often adopted to serve as the theme song for motion pictures and other entertainment media.

“Funiculi, Funicula” was written bu Luigi Denza to commermorate the opening of a new funicular railway in 1880. The present version of this classic tune has been conceived as a tarantella setting for a wide range of woodwind ornaments to be integrated in such a lovely piece.

After appreciating a few relaxing pieces, it came to the last piece of the programme – “Vesuvius”. Mt. Vesuvius, which destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy in A.D. 79, symbolising power and energy, was the main theme of this piece. The tension of the impending cataclysm characterized the introduction of the main theme. Then the progressive rhythms and complex mode changes delivered the feeling of death and destruction. An interlude was then to describe the quiet peace in the village before disturbed by the fiery events on the mountain. The beauty of quiet did not last for long as the final battle of theme featured with extreme agitation, chaos, explosions and suffocating ash. The Orchestra was able to express the chaotic environment by their multifarious techniques and the audience could feel the shocks!

The concert lasted for one and a half hour and came to the end. All the audience and the Orchestra members would like to have Danilo Delfin get them a few more encores. Finally “Clear Track Polka” and “Amazing Grace” were played as the very last two pieces and marked a very successful ending for the concert. Wish the Orchestra to have a fruitful trip in Europe this summer!