World Harmonica Festival '97

on 15 - 19 Oct 97

at Trossingen, Germany

Diary of 17 Oct 97 (Fri)

We finally see sunshine since we arrived in Germany 3 days ago!  It makes us feel better even though it is tough work ahead today.  The scenery during the ride from the hotel to Trossingen is marvellous - as the sunshine is trying to break into the area, our bus is travelling in and out of the fog masses that are starting to give way to the sunshine.

The day starts with the presentation of own choice piece of the chromatic solo category.  In general, our performance is up to our own expectation.  Something worth special mention is the quick passages of notes in Ho Pak Cheong's presentation of Bach's flute sonata.  Also, the use of Super 64X by Lau Chun Bong to play Tchaikovsky's Canzonetta is also special - the range of notes in this piece is more than 3 octaves.  Furthermore, to deepen the tone color of the piece, it is transposed down which fully utilizes the low register of the Super 64X.  The solo competition ends at noon.

We then need to quickly have lunch, do a little rehearsal for the competitions in the afternoon, and take another dash from Konzerthaus to Lindensaal to catch the trio competition there starting at 2pm.

It has been quite a chaos.  We are barely on time to arrive there, face a large audience packed in the hall, try to find some space to settle down, and then are asked to draw a ballot to reshuffle the order of appearance.  The performance of both entries we enter suffers - a solo passage of the Rumanian Folk Dances are missed (it is probably the biggest noticeable mistake ever made in a public performance), while the group playing Horse Racing is struggling for the right tempo.

Despite these difficulties, we quickly concentrate on our next target - the group competition which starts at 3pm.  Unlike trio, the quintet is our 'home' combination.  The piece we play - the American Quartet has been played numerous times.  All we need is concentration.  The fresh cool air outside Lindensaal really helps.  After we play, we know that we have performed our best and the rest is with the jury.

We skip the jazz concert in the evening, in preference of a leisurely dinner after a stressful day.