King's Harmonica Quintet 10th Anniversary Concert

REVIEW

The King's Harmonica Quintet

Concert Hall, City Hall

Friday, 12 December 1997

By Miranda Clarke

South China Morning Post

The King's Harmonica Quintet became the world champions at the 1997 World Harmonica Competition in Germany in October.  Fresh from this outstanding success, they returned to Hong Kong to give a 10th anniversary concert.

The quintet was formed by five enterprising King's College students who wanted to bring the best of the Western classical musical repertoire to the harmonica band.  This they have achieved with remarkable success, with the bulk of their programme arranged by the members themselves.  The most prolific of the musicians is Ho Pak-cheong, the lead treble harmonica player, who arranged four of the seven pieces.

The programme covered 300 years of classical music.  Beginning with the Allegro movement of Vivaidi's Violin Concerto No.1 in E, better known as Spring from The Four Seasons, the group then displayed their virtuosity in movements from Borodin's String Quartets No.1 and No.2.  The Prestissimo tested their technical skills, whereas the scaring beauty of the Notturno was beautifully played by Ho Pak-cheong and Chan Shu-keung.

For Grieg's Holberg Suite the quintet was joined by Poon Chung-keung whose additional tenor harmonica added weight to the more bucolic movements.

The highlight of the evening was a performance of seven dances from Bartok's Romanian Dances by 10 players, led by the renowned harmonica player Lee Sheung-ching.

The two Fast Dances gave bass harmonica player, Kuan Man-hou, an opportunity to demonstrate his phenomenal manual and vocal dexterity.

The group should be commended for its sensitive ensemble playing and its rhythmic solidarity - even the loud homophonic chords opening Rossini's The Barber of Seville were played with absolute precision.

In the two final pieces of the programme, the Andante from Dvorak's Dumka Piano Quintet and Villa-Lobos' String Quartet, the full range of the group's dynamic range, lyrical expression and musical artistry was exploited.