It is almost unimaginable that a programme billed as “Czech Classics” could exclude any music by Dvorak and then be capped off with Mozart to boot.
Be that as it may, the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong (CCOHK) still managed to fulfil its billing on October 24 by featuring works by a handful of other quintessential Czechs.
Granted, the Mozart concerto stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb in this celebration of “A Year of Czech Music” at Hong Kong City Hall, but it did serve to showcase the evening’s Prague-born soloists, oboist Vilem Veverka and harpist Katerina Englichova.
There was much to admire in this predominantly Czech potpourri with Hong Kong born-and-bred conductor Sharon Andrea Choa at the helm.
Choa, a former chair of the school of music at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts coaxed some of the finest playing seen in recent times from the CCOHK’s players.
This was apparent right off the bat in Prague-born composer Zdenek Lukas’ rhythmically engaging Concert Music for Solo Harp and String Orchestra, whose tightly knit rhythms were deftly communicated by Choa to the upper strings with the help of the ensemble’s rock-solid concertmaster, Amelia Chan.
