Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell returns to Hong Kong to open the HK Phil’s milestone 50th season
- The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2023/24 season, led by music director Jaap van Zweden, begins with the Asian premiere of Bell’s project, The Elements
- Also marking the golden jubilee season will be a series of international tours, appearances by classical music stars and an exhibition of the orchestra’s archival collection
When Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell was invited to present his latest music project with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) to kick off its 50th season in September, his answer was an “easy yes”.
“I always have a good time in [Hong Kong], having played several times with the HK Phil. But I haven’t been back in a while because of the pandemic, so it’s exciting to return and present the Asian premiere of my latest work,” Bell said in an interview with the Post from New York City, where he is currently based. “I think of Hong Kong as a major hub for culture and a place I want to come to more often.”
He recently returned from a music festival in Colorado, where he heard The Elements – a highly anticipated music project envisioned and commissioned by Bell – workshopped from start to finish for the first time.
“The work is derived from a concept I’ve had for several years of wanting to come up with not just a new violin concerto, but something with a prominent theme that could be interesting for an audience in the same way that Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Gustav Holst’s The Planets have been and still are,” Bell explains.
The Elements, which will first premiere in Europe before making its Asian debut in Hong Kong, is a collaborative work that celebrates the beauty of our natural world. It is made up of six distinct pieces themed around the classical elements and written by leading American composers: Jake Heggie with Fire, Jennifer Higdon with Air, Edgar Meyer with Water, Jessie Montgomery with Space and Kevin Puts with Earth and Earth (reprise and finale).
“I thought this could be a unique opportunity to expand the earthly elements and add Space, expanding the project to involve five composers, because I had so many people I wanted to include,” Bell explains. “So, as an audience, you’re getting five different composers and musical languages, depicting their abstract idea of each element, which I think is fascinating.”
Picking the composers who would take on each element proved to be an effortless process. “Everything just fell into place,” says Bell, who is also the music director for the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, a chamber orchestra based in London.
“Edgar Meyer – who, in my opinion, is probably the greatest double bass player that ever lived – likes writing a lot of running notes and passage work, so I imagined that style of music could be very good for Water. He agreed.”
Meanwhile, Puts, who recently won a Grammy for contemporary classical composition, was the fitting choice for Earth. His work opens the concert and is also reprised for the finale. “It’s incredible and tonally accessible to the audience from the very first note. It’ll feel like you’re witnessing the beginning of time,” Bell says. “Puts brings us back at the very end with a remembrance of his first [movement], Earth, and a conclusion, which I think will nicely tie the piece together as a cohesive whole.”
In Hong Kong, The Elements will be conducted by the HK Phil’s music director, Jaap van Zweden, who is marking his final season with the orchestra. “He’s also the music director of the New York Philharmonic, and when The Elements eventually premieres in the US, he will also be conducting the piece, which is great,” Bell says.
“We’ve worked together many times before, but it’s still unknown [with The Elements], so we’ll see when we get together, look at the score and decide how we want the piece to go,” he adds. “Our musical ideals have to align. It’s all very exciting to me.”
The HK Phil’s chief executive, Benedikt Fohr, is just as excited about opening the 50th anniversary season, if not even more so. “It is a remarkable milestone for the orchestra, and we feel privileged to be a part of such a significant season,” he says. “As the largest professional symphony orchestra in Hong Kong and the city’s cultural ambassador, it is important for us to continue to strengthen Hong Kong’s role as one of the cultural hubs in the world.”
Fohr adds that Hong Kong audiences of all generations can expect the HK Phil to not only continue presenting world-class concerts to the city, but also bring in the finest international music makers. “This season, we have curated a diverse programme of exceptional performances, including 34 main stage programmes, featuring a star-studded line-up of some of the most celebrated conductors and musicians from around the world,” he says.
In addition to Bell, the HK Phil will be joined on stage by renowned talents such as pianist Lang Lang, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and piano legend Rudolf Buchbinder.
“The programmes include some of the most popular pieces in classical music, as well as works which are yet to be discovered, contemporary music, jazz, opera or live music with movies,” Fohr explains. “It is very encouraging to see how many highly acclaimed conductors and soloists are eager to perform with us.”
To further celebrate its golden jubilee season, the HK Phil will go on tour to more than 18 cities in mainland China, Asia and Europe. The orchestra is also presenting an exhibition in Hong Kong showcasing its archival collection, which includes its marketing materials, house programmes and official correspondence as well as a recording of Bell’s first concert with the HK Phil in 1994.
Fohr adds: “We are also thrilled to release over 5,000 HK Phil Jubilee Tickets in our home city, specially priced at just HK$50, so we can spread the joy of music to a much wider demographic.”
Beyond the significance of opening the HK Phil’s 50th season, Bell notes that the Asian premiere of The Elements may provide an opportunity for the orchestra to be part of music history. “We don’t know where a piece like this will go, but it’s very possible that if it goes well, that this could be, in 100 years or 200 years, the 21st-century version of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons,” he says. “There’s a special feeling in the audience to be part of something that no one has ever heard before.”