Review | 2025 Beare’s Premiere Music Festival in Hong Kong ends on a high note

Regular Hong Kong concertgoers know the annual Beare’s Premiere Music Festival serves up a feast of the finest chamber music performances, played on some of the rarest stringed instruments in existence. The 2025 festival, which also featured talks, masterclasses, exhibitions, educational outreach programmes and open rehearsals, wrapped up on January 22 with a concert titled “La Belle Époque”. This was a period of enlightenment and cultural innovation in late 19th century France, and one in which most of the concert’s repertoire was composed. The event offered not only passion-fuelled performances but the chance to compare the sounds of two outstanding ensembles back to back, the Verona Quartet and the Sitkovetsky Trio. The opening work, Giuseppe Verdi’s String Quartet in E minor from 1873, is a rare non-operatic work by this composer, written on a whim when he had time on his hands after the postponement of the Naples premiere of his opera Aida. The Verona Quartet, who also impressed at Tai Kwun’s JC Cube the previous weekend – despite that venue’s unsuitable acoustic – showed a clear affinity for Verdi’s only instrumental work. Even if there was some emotional restraint in their execution of passages of agitation in the opening Allegro, the quartet often shone with their fine, breezy lyricism, and much refinement in tone wherever tenderness was called for. First violinist Jonathon Ong’s rock-solid intonation up high was a given, and the solo, singer-like lilts that he and second violinist Dorothy Ro added to the mix were charming and infectious. Being a Verdi piece, it includes a sensitive, yet expressive “tenor” voice in the midst of all the frenzied spiccato and pizzicato. Cellist Jonathon Dormand relished that role, which prompted one of the many rounds of applause between movements. Given that the musicians were poised to plunge into the work’s Scherzo Fuga finale, the irritation of the inappropriate applause probably contributed to the quartet’s initial rockiness in the movement. Thankfully, the fugue that ensued was, for the most part, edgy and engaging. The acclaimed Sitkovetsky Trio followed with a performance of the 1887 Trio No. 2 in A minor by French female pianist and composer Cécile Chaminade. The performance of the little-known piece was a compelling introduction to Chaminade’s music. All three artists demonstrated towering musicality while unearthing a plethora of gems in the score. Bold climaxes were played with homogeneity in both Allegro movements, and exquisite sounds emanated endlessly from Alexander Sitkovetsky’s 1679 “Parera” Stradivarius violin and cellist Isang Enders’ Tononi cello – made in around 1720. Shanghai-born pianist Wu Qian was a dexterous partner throughout and particularly inspired with her reflective, heartfelt playing in the Lento. That Chaminade’s trios and her 400 other compositions seldom appear on programmes is a pity, but brilliant renditions like the Sitkovetsky’s can only help prevent her works falling into obscurity again. When Seoul-born violinist So-Ock Kim and French violist Adrien La Marca joined Enders and Qian after the intermission for Gabriel Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor (1879) the sound blend was less homogenous. Kim’s slick and sensual playing in the two Allegro molto movements on a Guarneri violin from around 1690-1700 was occasionally overshadowed both by the earthy tones of La Marca’s 1780 Bergonzi viola and the playing of Enders. Things were spot on, however, in the Adagio, the ensemble achieving a profound stillness that Qian nurtured with perfectly weighted chords and shimmering keyboard cascades. Georgian-born principal bassist of the Hong Kong Philharmonic George Lomdaridze then joined all four violinists for a right romp in the form of British composer, violinist and arranger Julian Milone’s Fantasy on Bizet’s Carmen for 4 Violins and Double Bass. Even if the technical demands called for in this quirky arrangement are a far cry from those in Sarasate’s better known Carmen Fantasy for violin and orchestra, Sitkovetsky led with flair, bravura and a reckless abandon that spurred the others on to outdo him. In similar vein the encore, an arrangement of Vittorio Monti’s Czardas, hit the mark as pure entertainment. As the schmaltz factor was turned up a few notches, things turned deliciously over-the-top, drawing ecstatic cheers from the Hong Kong City Hall audience. “Beare’s Premiere Music Festival Finale: La Belle Époque”, Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall. Reviewed: January 22.

Review | 2025 Beare’s Premiere Music Festival in Hong Kong ends on a high note

Titled ‘La Belle Epoque’, the finale of the 2025 Beare’s Premiere Music Festival brought out the best from an acclaimed line-up of musicians