Histoires croisées : France – Hong Kong

Presented by Concerto in F minor (L.2-1049624/3-1049627)’ The intimacy of chamber music » The Strad Salué by Gramophone as a "Prodigy", the cellist Trey Lee and its critically recognized ensemble, Musicus Soloists Hong Kong, present this concert celebrating the launch of their new album, Histoires Croisées: France - Hong Kong. To bring these stories to life on stage, the brilliant musicologist and presenter of radio & television Pauline Lambert joins them as a narrator, in order to unveil three unsung stories of intercultural collaboration and beneficence, tracing how the French and Hong Kong communities have mutually enriched each other from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century through a dialogue between the French and Chinese musical traditions. The program establishes a bridge between the discovery by a French missionary of the iconic flower of Hong Kong, the Bauhinia blakeana, and the arrangement by Bazelaire des Pièces in Concert de Couperin. He evokes the Sisters of Saint-Paul de Chartres and their charitable work with an arrangement in world creation of Ma Mère the Oye de Ravel for Western strings and Chinese instruments. It apprehends the plague epidemic of 1894 through the shared context of Alexandre Yersin of Institut Pasteur and Billowing Waves, work of Chan Man-tat. Composers Ng Cheuk-yin and Alfred Wong close the evening with a vibrant portrait of the modern Hong Kong. On stage will join the Musicus Soloists Hong Kong ensemble of Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra musicians and Hong Kong Academy dancers for Performing Arts.