Tenth Anniversary Concert on 12 Dec 97 8:00pm

at Concert Hall, City Hall

The official tenth anniversary of the Quintet is on 28 Jun 97.  As a result of a number of scheduling factors, our tenth anniversary concert is staged exactly one year after our last concert.  We are pleased to have this concert organised by the Urban Council again, and at an even better venue, the City Hall Concert Hall.  At the same time, this is a challenge to us due to its much bigger capacity than the City Hall Theatre - we have to demonstrate the appeal of our music.  The delay in this concert actually helps because we managed to obtain the title of world champion before the concert.  With the propaganda efforts of the organiser, various mass media,  and ourselves, we are delighted at the attendence of nearly 1000 people.

If you are one of them, may we take this opportunity to express our gratitude to your support.  Please share your view on this concert with others by posting it to the guestbook.  If you missed this occasion, we really feel pity of you.  We hope that the following can compensate.

First, here is the propaganda leaflet for the concert:

When we were planning the programme of this anniversary concert, we established our objectives: first, the form of harmonica quintet, which we advocate,  should be fully demonstrated to the audience; second, we wish to get our friends involved.  The first must-have combination is to play with Dr Poon Chung-keung, who is a founding member of the Quintet and has returned to Hong Kong after his Ph.D. studies.  For that matter, we have a recent arrangement for six people of Grieg's Holberg Suite.  We have a number of friends whom we wish to invite.  So we have an idea of a harmonica ensemble (much like a string ensemble).  We searched our repertoire for pieces that would benefit from a larger group, and we picked Bartok's Rumanian Folk Dances and Rossini's Overture to Barber of Seville and rearranged them for a total of 10 players.  We have not forgotton our very best piano accompanist for our solo performances in past concerts.  We are all eager to try out the combination of harmonica quintet and piano.  We identify a beautiful movement from Dvorak's Piano Quintet.  We want to play something commemorative of our tenth anniversary.  A natural candidate is our first piece we practised ten years ago.  It was Borodin's famous Nocturne.  We like Borodin's two quartets very much and we decide to play the best movements from them.  Villa-Lobos' Quartet No.1 is a recent addition to our repertoire and quickly captivates our mind.  We did it in our recording for RTHK earlier this year, and we want to play it in a concert.  Finally, we need an opening work.  The first movement of Vivaldi's Spring fits the purpose very well.

This is our first time to play in the Concert Hall of City Hall.  Before our rehearsal on 1 Dec 97, we were quite worried about the acoustic effect.  How would harmonica sound in this big hall which regularly houses a full orchestra?  We hate the sound of harmonica being distorted by amplification.  How would we balance the sound of harmonicas and piano?  These worries were totally cleared up after the rehearsal.   Here, we have to be grateful to the design of the hall, the microphone and amplification system, and Mr. Chan who sets up the sound system.

The concert opened with Vivaldi's Spring.  This piece would sound good easily and the effect is further enhanced with a good sound system.  The audience was thus treated with a easy-listening and good-sounding "welcome" piece.

Selections from Borodin's Quartets are the highlight of the Quintet in the first half.  We select the movements in a way that they really link together to resemble a string quartet piece.  The first "movement" is the first movement of Quartet No.2 which has a wonderfully natural spontaneity and buoyancy.  It links to the second movement of Quartet No.1 which begins with a singing melody, interrupted by a brief agitation.  The central part is fugal in style before recapitulation.  To contrast with the celebrated Nocturne which completes the selections, we have the third movement from Quartet No.1, marked Prestissimo.

Towards the end of the first half, we add more players.  First, the Holberg's Suite which is a sextet.  Then with all our 5 harmonica friends that we have invited, we play Rumanian Folk Dances and Overture to Barber of Seville.  They don't need detailed description, as we interpret the music faithfully, with effects enhanced with the richer sound of  more instruments and a deepened bass offered by Mr Hui Yau-fong.  Please press to listen to our performance of the opening piece of Rumanian Folk Dances.

After an intermission of 15 minutes, the second half began at 9:25pm.  The Dumka from Dvorak's Piano Quintet Op.81 is an elegiac Ukrainian dance form.  The principal melody is a very sad one.  Interludes of different moods are inserted between re-appearances of this melody.  These interludes are generally lighter and more cheerful, at times dream-like, and at one time hysterical.

The last item in the programme is Villa-Lobos' String Quartet No.1 which comprises of 6 colourful movements, alternately slow and quick in tempo.  Cantilena is song-like in character.  Brincadeira is a Brazilian polka.  Canto Lirico features the tenor harmonica playing a moving melody.  Canconeta is another song-like movement accompanied by triplets in the bass.  Melancholia is a sad movement with a restless interlude.  The final movement (jumping like a jumping bean) finally brings some cheers to the music, and is fugal in style.

The audience were obviously hoping for an encore.  As to the most appropriate piece to play as an encore, we were obliged to present the winning piece in the World Harmonica Festival - Finale from Dvorak's American Quartet.  Please press to listen to our performance.  We were not let go until we played all the pieces that we have prepared - Popular Song and Comedian's Gallop.

After the concert, we have the pleasure to receive the following critiques:

We would like to thank:

Before we leave, let's review what we said in the foreword to the concert booklet...

Foreword by Ho Pak-cheong

Chinese version (in BIG5 code)

"A harmonica soloist would have had difficulty finding a good accompanist already. It is absolutely amazing to find five guys like you who can be bonded so firmly by this instrument for more than a decade!"

"Playing the harmonica for a profession is already considered crazy by many.  Yet you guys - each with a full-time job of your own - still show such a passion for the instrument.  You must be crazier than I!"

These were the comments by two professional harmonica players on our group.

The existence - or the success - of the Quintet is indeed supported by this zeal on our part.  And behind this zeal, there is the overwhelming, captivating charm of an ingeniously designed instrument called the harmonica.

The harmonica has many attractions.  It is reasonably priced, easy to carry, liltingly melodious, full of variations, and highly adaptable to music of all ages.  In other words, it is a music novice's best friend.  That is why the harmonica was so popular during the 1970s in Hong Kong and even around the world.  But as we entered the 1980s, social cultures underwent a drastic change.  The direction of the policy-makers on music also changed.  Music activities related to the harmonica were phased out as a mainstream music culture began to take shape.  It was amidst such an unfavorable climate that the King's Harmonica Quintet was born.

Five school boys who shared the same passion for the harmonica saw what was happening, were dissatisfied with it, and refused to take it hands down.  So they started cultivating a field of their own.  We were not urged by any farfetched dream, nor did we have the knack for organising and planning.  What was holding us together was the wish to share the joy of classical music.  We wanted to play the very orthodox classics and chamber music on our harmonica.  We wanted, not without reason, to set an example for the new generation of music learners so that they can have very clear goals.

It has been ten years since the Quintet was first formed.  Although there was a change in the membership, with Dr Poon Chung-keung leaving the group in 1992 to pursue his studies and Lok Ying-kei taking over the second tenor harmonica part, we managed to keep up with our ardent relationship.  There were emotional experiences beyond description in the course of our practices and performances.  But what was worthy of note was that the very positive image we strike and the very firm concept about music we uphold over the decade - that we are not just playing the harmonica, but playing music on the harmonica - have obviously cast an influence, no matter how great, on the people we meet, who were harmonica performers or aficionado of this music genre in Hong Kong or overseas.  The quintet is a new direction we attempt to take in harmonica playing.  We also firmly believe that with two treble harmonicas, two tenor harmonicas and one bass harmonica forming a balance in performance, it is the most effective way to promote and intensify the art of harmonica playing.

Ten years of hard work now bear fruit.  We brought back with us a prize galore after participating in the international harmonica competition held at Trossingen, the capital of the harmonica in Germany.  In the eleven categories of events, we were among the first five in nine of them.  The most heartening of all was of course our winning the Overall Champion in the 4 to 11 ensemble category in this world class contest.  We have reached the dream of becoming the world's champion.  We were among the first five in the individual categories.  Our members Lau Chun-bong and Kuan Man-hou won the fifth position in two solo events, performing very well on the less popular tenor and bass harmonicas in competitions against the prevailing treble harmonicas.  It was a well-supported indication of our theory that harmonica music should consist of parts with a distinct character of their own.

As we present this Tenth Anniversary Concert, we take this opportunity to express our gratitude to those who have given us unending support and encouragement, in particular Mr Lee Sheung-ching and Mr Hui Yau-fong, who have guided us and lent us their hand on our road to maturity.  Today we are honored to be able to share the stage with these bona fide harmonica aficionados, and we hope to present the audience with a Tenth Anniversary gift, that is the music that comes from our hearts played through the small instrument called the harmonica.