Tom Lee Hong Kong Youth NeoWinds Orchestra and Hong Kong Youth Choir celebrated the year-end festivities with hundreds of audience in Hong Kong City Hall on 29th December 2007. Founded in 2004, in just three years NeoWinds has already grown into a wind orchestra that consists of more than one hundred young musicians.
The evening's program included standard concert band literature, rearranged works of golden classics and recent chart-toppers- a great selection that was comfortable to the orchestra, and family-friendly. Band B started the champagne flowing with Lexicon, one of composer Ed Huckeby's most vibrant and appealing compositions, followed by Cross Creek, two popular repertories played by marching bands with colorful percussion. Keeping the fun and sparkle alive, Band A captured the audience's heart with an instrumental version of I Need To Be In Love. The flute and clarinet parts were poetically subtle, as if they were resembling the soft and lyrical quality of Karen Carpenter's voice. The saxophone-led reprise was also worth-mentioning, for its upward surging solo and stylistic choice of notes did a wonderful job on displaying the timbre characteristics of the instrument.
Moving on, the band presented ABBA Gold, a medley of pop hits such as Dancing Queen and Mamma Mia that took the world by storm in the 70s and 80s. Special thanks should be addressed to the trumpet and horn players - for they brought glimmer, as well as reproducing the velvety richness and warm texture that rekindle the spirits of the pop music written and arranged in that period.
Assured and relaxed by the well-reception of the ABBA medley, NeoWinds was unencumbered by technical hurdles set by the closing theme of the well-liked Japanese TV Drama series called《Nodame Cantabile》, which is about the development of an orchestra in a music college. The theme was a medley extracted from few influential, enduringly classical pieces; for instance, Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 and Mozart's Oboe Concerto K.271k. The piece was occasionally punctuated with bursts of brass section and of course, percussive thwacks that are gripping, and somewhat close the manic cartoonishness found in the drama's comical plot.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong Youth Choir borrowed a set of themes picked from some of Andrew Lloyd Webber's most celebrated musicals. Who doesn't love tunes like Memory、Don't Cry for Me Argentina and The Phantom of the Opera? The group's rendition of Raymond Cheng's About Going to a concert of Messiah salted the event with extra fun and laughter. As the title suggested, the piece reflects a typical scenario that can be found in most concert halls' auditorium. Atypical to choir performances that we are accustomed to, members of the Youth Choir sneezed, felt asleep and made phone calls while they sang the sacred lyrics. Speaking of that, the lyrics were partially replaced with chatty, informal Cantonese phrases to match the acting of the choir members. With leadership from the choir's conductor, the audience enjoyed being part of the performance, by crying out "Encore" and "Bravo" loud at the very end of the piece. The choir at last performed Cloud Burst together with NeoWinds.
NeoWinds and Hong Kong Youth Choir's holiday concert timed perfectly to grace the spirit of the season. To thank the audience's great applause and support throughout the year, the band closed this heart-warming concert with
a brassy version of Japanese R&B singer Ken Hirai's Pop Star. |
