A
POSTCARD from
HONG KONG - From President Neil Page
One
Friday evening in 1974, only 3 years into my time as Director of Music at
Hurstpierpoint College, I took the over-night sleeper from Durham (where I had
been rehearsing the Berlioz Requiem for performance the following
evening) to London’s Bedford Square to be interviewed to become an ABRSM
examiner. 9am the following morning, having shaved in a railway siding
near Kings Cross, I was sat before a formidable triumvirate: William Cole, John
Stainer and Herbert Howells. I can recall little of the relaxed occasion except
HH’s repeated stage-whisper to Cole: “Ask him about ornaments”. Mercifully
he didn’t and after several days of training (one of them with Noel Cox whom
12 years later I was to follow as conductor of the Nottingham Harmonic) I was
appointed to the Board. Now 35 years on I am sitting overlooking Hong Kong’s
wonderful Victoria Harbour responding to Alan Owen’s request that I “explain
my absence and what I am up to”.
The
first overseas exams were held in South Africa in 1894 just 5 years after the
Board has been established partly in an attempt to reconcile differences then
existing between the RCM and RAM. Exams started in Hong Kong in 1951 with just 3
examiners. By 1976 that number had grown to 8. In 1997, the year of the
“handover” of Hong Kong back to China there were 40.000 candidates – now
in 2009 that number has more than doubled and the tally of examiner trips to the
South China Seas from May to November has risen to an astonishing 156. For
many years the candidates were mostly pianists but in the past few years there
has been a significant increase in “instruments” (sic) – this tour I will
be have heard about 4 weeks of violins, cellos, flutes, clarinets, saxophones,
trumpets, horns, trombones, euphoniums and lots of percussion. Singers
also feature as well as a small but growing number of organists. While pianists
and organists still feature strongly among the examining team, they no longer
dominate as much as they once did – this year my colleagues have included
several orchestral players, private teachers, conservatoire professors,
recitalists, a BBC music producer and a rocker with a PhD on the tritone in
Gregorian chant. (At a recent drinks party for 14 guests the headcount was
Organists 3, French Hornists 4).
Christian
churches of all flavours flourish. In this hot and humid climate keeping a pipe
organ playable can obviously be challenging if the building does not have the
benefit of air-con and consequently electronic instruments feature more
often than not. St John’s Anglican Cathedral (no air-con) and The North
Point Alliance Church (built within an underground train station) both have fine
digital instruments. The St Barnabas Schola Cantorum sang mass in
Kowloon’s Rosary Church in August where I was faced with a cross-breed
pipe/electronic instrument. I found the driving instructions incomprehensible
– as, rather bafflingly did the resident music team - and so had no
choice but to resort to (oh the shame of it!) the “crescendo” pedal.
(The vast - and air con’d – Catholic Cathedral ejected their pipes some
years ago.)
Recent
times have seen quite a surge in informed organ tuition – the late David
Cooper was based here for some years after he retired from Norwich Cathedral and
Robert Langston (formerly at St Bride’s Fleet Street) is here still. As far as
pipe organs go without doubt the most impressive beast in the jungle is the
majestic 4-manual Rieger in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre – the region’s
major concert hall seating 1500. The Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts (a
major music conservatoire) also has a fine but smaller instrument by the same
firm. An ever-expanding Organ Education programme based at the Cultural
Centre is attracting new players all the time and making an impact – I
have heard recently two well-prepared distinction-level grade 8
candidates. Top international recitalists are regular visitors to the
hall.
The
choral life of Hong Kong is especially buoyant – the 150-voice Oratorio
Society directed by Professor Chan Wing Wah performs the major works while St
John’s Cathedral maintains the Anglican choral tradition. A mixed-voice choir
of 30 singers that can rival Nottingham’s best, they have been directed for
some years by the inspirational Raymond Fu while the organ is in the
capable hands of RAM-trained Peter Yue. Raymond, himself a fine singer, is Head
of Music at St Paul’s College, one of Hong Kong’s leading boys’ secondary
schools and so he has a ready supply of fine young male voices to fill the
back row – counter-tenors included.
But
the jewel in the region’s musical crown is without doubt the truly
wonderful Hong Kong Childrens Choir. (I must at this point admit an interest as
for the past 10 years I have been their “Honorary” Choral Adviser.)
Remarkably most of the towns around Hong Kong have their own
children’s chorus but the HKCC is by far the largest, most
ambitious and best. It is a vast organisation providing choral training for over
5,000 young people from the age of 4 to 19 in 6 centres spread across Kowloon
and Hong Kong Island divided into some 60 choral ensembles for all ages and
abilities. The pick of the bunch is the “Concert Choir” of about 80
singers. They are world class and much in demand at International
Festivals. Last evening I was able to attend their 40th Anniversary
Concert directed by the indomitable Kathy Fok-Choi. Plans for them to visit the
UK are at an early stage but I hope you will have a chance of hearing them
in Nottingham before too long.
In
35 years of examining that has taken me from Bradford to Borneo,
Kettering to Kuala Lumpur, Pontyprydd to Penang, two moments stick out above all
others – falling off a horse inside a volcano (Java) and the elderly
lady in the North of England who having taken her grade 6 piano exam (rather
well as it happens) brandished a chair over her head shrieking that she was
going to kill me. She wasn’t successful.
Yam
Sing!
Neil
[ Neil explains: two people clink their glasses and say at the
same time ‘Yam Sing’ -
Cheers ! ]
|
The Hong Kong Childrens’ Choir
(and the Cultural Centre 4-manual Rieger)