Review | Chamber music excellence from Miró Quartet, Chinese violinist Ning Feng and others in Hong Kong’s Beare’s Premiere Music Festival
- Hong Kong’s annual festival of chamber music returns with passionate, skilful and emotional performances from Miró Quartet and fellow musicians
- Chinese violinist Ning Feng’s sweet tones in a Mozart trio stood out, as did the quartet’s Asia premiere of composer Caroline Shaw’s Microfictions
Drawing a laugh from an audience at a string quartet recital is rare.
But given the wave and holler of “Hello” from the second violinist that indicates movement “3½” of Microfictions by American composer Caroline Shaw, the chuckles came as no surprise.
Her six miniatures, dedicated to and premiered in Asia by the Miró Quartet at the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall on January 15, were inspired by science fiction prose posted online by T.R. Darling during a Covid-19 lockdown.
Their playing preceded by short texts read in turn by the musicians, they launched the first programme of the 2024 Beare’s Premiere Music Festival, “Spotlight on the Miró Quartet”, in an unconventional, and beautiful, manner.
Clean, flute-like harmonics from first violinist Daniel Ching were passed along fluidly by the rest of the ensemble, and as the lushness of the sound developed, pizzicato passages began to pepper the score.
