Have cello will travel
YO-YO Ma, one of the world's leading cellists, returns to Hong Kong for two mixed recitals at the Cultural Centre on November 10 and 11 as part of the Alcatel Alsthom series.
The great ambassador of classical music will include works by Beethoven, Bernstein and Bright Sheng in his repertoire, and will be accompanied by Kathryn Scott on the piano.
This year, Ma has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the L'Orchestre National de Paris, and in Boston, Baltimore and Los Angeles. Following his recording work with Isaac Stern and Jaime Loredo, Ma has this season done a second recording of the Brahms Cello Sonatas with Emanuel Ax and the Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante, and Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, due for release before Christmas.
This season he will play in festivals in Tokyo and Amsterdam, and will perform a new diverse series of concerts, including unaccompanied cello pieces, around the world.
IN an effort to team up top musicians, the Urban Council is producing a ''Masters in Harmony'' concert with world famous violinist Isaac Stern performing in duo with celebrated young pianist Yefim Bronfman who won the Avery Fisher Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Music in 1991.
On November 7, at the Cultural Centre, the pair will perform Mozart's Sonata No 5 in A, Sonata No 7 in F and Sonata No 12 in E Flat, as well as Franck's Sonata in A.
Bronfman, who recently recorded Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos 2 and 3 with the London Philharmonia, will give a solo piano recital on November 8.
BAWDY tales of the bordello take to the stage this month in that much-loved musical comedy The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the first show of the season for the American Community Theatre and the play's first showing in Hong Kong.
Complete with lovely leggy ladies and handsome halfback hunks, Whorehouse will run until this Saturday at the Shouson Theatre with a 30-strong dancing cast, a live band on stage and the promise of ''quite a raunchy show'' from ACT's administrator, Sue Humphreys.
THE Hong Kong Sinfonietta is celebrating its third birthday with two anniversary concerts on Saturday at the Sha Tin Town Hall and on Sunday at Lut Sau Hall.
Under the baton of Yuan Fang, the orchestra will play Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71A by Tchaikovsky, Strauss's Oboe Concerto, Copland's Quiet City and Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 by Dvorak.
Yuan Fang has been an active conductor in the international music scene for nearly 30 years and is lead conductor of the China Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra.
A RARE portrayal of the colourful and complex cultural life of the Russian state of Daghestan makes its Hong Kong debut at the Cultural Centre from November 7 to 10, with state dance company Lezginka.
The company performs a truly spectacular extravaganza of folk dances and astonishing acrobatics to the compulsive beat of the drum.
The 45-member troupe of dancers and musicians combines more than 100 local dances and songs to reflect the traditional life of Daghestan, home to 33 different national groups.
The troupe's highly colourful tunics and trousers in gauze and jewelled silk fabric are the product of the region's world famous goldsmiths and weavers, and are authentic reproductions of the traditional dress.
TO mark the opening of the Silk Road Arts Festival of Chinese music and dance at Sha Tin Town Hall, there will be two performances of Ancient Dunhuang Music, based on a score that is believed to be the earliest music still in existence from the Tang Dynasty.
The two performances on November 12 and 13, by the Dunhuang Art Ensemble of Gansu, are based on the music decoded from scrolls uncovered in the Monastery of Dunhuang in 1900. To recreate the ancient sound for modern ears, the ensemble has even manufactured authentic Tang-style instruments modelled on the originals.
All musicians come from the Dunhuang Arts Academy of Gansu, renowned for researching national minority music and dance and bringing it to a wider audience. The Academy was the first Asian troupe to perform at La Scala Opera House in Milan.
