Viva Beethoven!
Hong Kong Sinfonietta presents works by the great composer
with eminent conductor Chien Wen-pin & Japanese pianist Noriko Ogawa
Be dazzled by Beethoven’s charm!
Hailed as the Chinese pride, conductor Chien Wen-pin and renowned Japanese pianist Noriko Ogawa will join the Hong Kong Sinfonietta in this all-Beethoven programme. Catch a glimpse of how the unyielding composer defined “heroism” in his breathtaking Third Symphony, “Eroica” (“Heroic”) and how he defined “craftsmanship” in his exquisite Fourth Piano Concerto, which has since become one of the best-loved concertos in the repertoire.
The concert will be held on 11 September 2009 (Fri), 8pm at HK City Hall Concert Hall.
Tickets: $280, $200, $120
Noriko Ogawa – “Pianism of the highest order.” The Times
Since her success in the Leeds Piano Competition, Japanese pianist Noriko Ogawa has gained respect and admiration from critics and audiences throughout the world. Her playing has been described as “most elegant and scrupulously sensitive”. This will be her revisit to Hong Kong after her appearance in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1 with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta in 2003.
Chien Wen-pin – The Chinese Pride
Prize-winning conductor Chien Wen-pin is one of the greatest Chinese conductors of our time. He has been the Resident Conductor of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein since 1996 and was the Music Director of Philharmonia Taiwan (NSO) from 2001 to 2007, during which time he turned the orchestra into one of Asia’s leading orchestras.
Beethoven’s “Eroica”
Written in 1803, Beethoven Symphony No 3 “Eroica” was originally intended to be dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte. Beethoven was an admirer of the idea of the French Revolution, and regarded Napoleon as the ‘hero’. However Beethoven was disgusted after Napoleon proclaimed himself as the Emperor in 1804 and he scratched the name Bonaparte out so violently that he even created a hole in the manuscript. Beethoven changed the title of the Symphony to Sinfonia eroica instead, a heroic symphony which was composed to celebrate the memory of a great man.
For further information, please contact Ms Amanda Mok, PR & Communications Manager:
Email：amanda.mok@hksinfonietta.org Tel: 3607 2328
For photos, please download from http://www.hksl.org/eng/media/imageLibrary.aspx or contact Ms Amanda Mok.
Hong Kong Sinfonietta
Viva Beethoven!
Conductor: Chien Wen-pin*
Piano: Noriko Ogawa
11 September 2009 (Fri), 8pm
Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall
Tickets: $280, $200, $120
An all-Beethoven programme:
Fidelio Overture, Op 72c
Piano Concerto No 4 in G, Op 58
Symphony No 3 in E-flat, Op 55, “Eroica”
* Mr Chien Wen-pin replaces original conductor Jimmy Chiang.
Noriko Ogawa Piano
"Ogawa responds to every fleeting whimsicality with such clarity and refinement that you are lost in wonder." Gramophone
Noriko Ogawa has achieved considerable renown throughout the world since her success at the 1987 Leeds International Piano Competition. She appears with all the major UK, European, Japanese and US orchestras in concerto repertoire, which ranges from the well-known Romantic works to 20th-century composers such as Takemitsu, Debussy and Ravel. Ogawa also collaborates widely on new commissions. Amongst the leading conductors she has worked with are Dutoit, Vänskä, Vonk, Lazarev, Pešek, Slatkin, Handley, Otaka, Rozhdestvensky and Tortelier.
Ogawa is also renowned as a recitalist and chamber musician and such appearances have taken her all over the world, including a recent trip to Kenya. In February 2008 Ogawa made her recital début at Suntory Hall, Japan for her 20th anniversary concert. As a chamber musician, Ogawa has been involved in various projects, including a tour of Japan with the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Ensemble and the leader of the Vienna Philharmonic, Rainer Honeck. In 2001, Ogawa and Kathryn Stott launched their piano duo collaboration and together they have recently completed a highly successful Japanese tour. Ogawa has also worked with Steven Isserlis, Isabelle van Keulen, Martin Roscoe, Michael Collins and Peter Donohoe in chamber projects.
A regular commissioner of new pieces, Ogawa has been involved in numerous premières. She has recently completed a chamber tour in Japan with Evelyn Glennie, for which she commissioned and premiered an exciting new work for two pianos and percussion by Yoshihiro Kanno. Ogawa will perform the première of Ampere, a concerto written for her by Dai Fujikura, with the Philharmonia Orchestra in February 2009. A new solo work for Nambu bell and piano by Yoshihiro Kanno, Hikari-no-Ryushi (A Particle of Light) will also be premiered by Ogawa this season.
Ogawa has made numerous recordings of a wide range of her orchestral, chamber and solo repertoire. Since 1997 she has been an exclusive recording artist for BIS Records. Her recordings include Toru Takemitsu’s Riverrun (Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice) and Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition (BBC Music Magazine Critics’ Choice). Ogawa has also released the piano concertos of Rachmaninov and discs of music by Tcherepnin, Saint-Saëns and Grieg. Recent releases include Delius’ music for piano duo and Graham Fitkin’s double concerto Circuit, both with duo partner Kathryn Stott.
Ogawa has been recording the complete solo works for piano by Debussy in an ongoing series with BIS. Volume II won the Gramophone Magazine’s Editor’s Choice. Equal admiration has been awarded to Volume III, also winning Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice, and further establishing Ogawa’s profile as a Debussy expert. The recently released Volume IV, including the complete 12 Etudes, has already won critical acclaim and prompted Roger Vignoles on BBC Radio 3 CD Review to admire the “beautifully nuanced and many-layered playing from Noriko Ogawa”.
Alongside performing and recording, Ogawa also has a busy schedule in other guises in the music world. As an adjudicator on various panels, Ogawa regularly judges the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition and the Scottish International Piano Competition. In Japan, Ogawa acts as artistic advisor the MUZA Kawasaki Symphony Hall in her hometown. The Japanese Ministry of Education awarded Ogawa their Art Prize in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the cultural profile of Japan throughout the world and she has also been awarded the Okura Prize for her outstanding contribution to music in Japan. A regular contributor to the music press, Ogawa has recently published her first book Together with the Piano in Japan to great success. Ogawa makes regular radio and television broadcasts for both NHK and Nippon television and in autumn 2008 presented BBC Worldwide’s Visionaries series.
Noriko Ogawa has bases in both the UK and in Japan between travelling around the world for her numerous engagements.
Chien Wen-pin Conductor
Born in Taipei in 1967, Wen-Pin Chien began to study violin, piano and composition at an early age. In 1988 he graduated from the Taiwan Academy of Arts summa cum laude with major in piano, and moved on to the National University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where he obtained his Master’s Degree in conducting from 1990 to 1994.
Chien has been the Resident Conductor of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein since 1996 and was also the Conductor of the Wiener Kammeroper (1995-1996) and Resident Conductor of the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan (1998-2004). In 1999 Chien was invited to be the Principal Guest Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan and was then appointed the Music Director in 2001. Under his direction from 2001 to 2007, the orchestra successfully created the annual Subscription Concerts and celebrated its 20th anniversary in September 2006 with Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen ― the first-ever presentation of the four-opera cycle in a Chinese speaking nation which was highly praised by international press and critics.
As a guest conductor, Chien has worked with orchestras in Italy, The Czech Republic, Russia, France, Japan, Germany and Taiwan. On the operatic stage, Chien has conducted several significant new productions, such as the world premiere of Beuys by Franz Hummel, Eleni Karaindrou’s ballet Phaedra, the German premiere of Drei Schwestern by Peter Eötvös and Richard III by Giorgio Battistelli with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf, as well as the world premiere of Snowfall After Sunlight, a unique production combining western and Peking operatic elements by Chung Yiu-Kwong with the National Symphony Orchestra and Guo Guang Opera in Taipei. He is also recognized as an outstanding interpreter of operas by 20th-century composers like Alban Berg and Leoš Janá?ek. In March 2009, he conducted the new production of Schönberg’s Moses und Aron. Upcoming engagements include the Swiss premiere of Alice in the Wonderland by Unsuk Chin at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in June 2010.
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10% discount for group booking of 4 or more adult tickets
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Hong Kong Sinfonietta is the Venue Partner of the Hong Kong City Hall
Hong Kong Sinfonietta is financially supported by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative region
Hong Kong Sinfonietta reserves the right to change the programme and artists
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