Review | Japanese drummer Senri Kawaguchi steals the show in fusion concert with Hong Kong Sinfonietta
- Fly LIVE! by Hong Kong composer Ng Cheuk-yin came alive through the inspired drumming of Senri Kawaguchi, and Ng on keyboards received a rock-star welcome
- The work, and another by Ng, formed part of a concert in which the orchestra played Copland’s Appalachian Spring with aplomb, and Barber’s Adagio for Strings
When a composer who is equally at home writing music for the Chinese sheng (a mouth-blown reed instrument) as he is keyboards or works to be sung a cappella produces a piece for drum set, bass guitar and full orchestra, the question of whether cross-genre fusion could turn into confusion inevitably arises.
Thankfully, this wasn’t the case on March 23 in Hong Kong Sinfonietta’s diverse and jam-packed Hong Kong Arts Festival concert at Hong Kong City Hall.
Fly LIVE! and An Array of Stars by Hong Kong composer Ng Cheuk-yin were the featured works after interval, and if the ecstatic audience reaction was anything to go by, both pieces were roaring successes.
Even if the rhythmic complexity of Fly LIVE! and its high volume levels were challenging at times, the work’s fascinating blend of jazz, rock, and contemporary orchestral sounds and rhythms always entertained.
Left untouched for years after its premiere at the Hong Kong Arts Festival in 2007 (also by the Sinfonietta), Fly LIVE! received a revival during the Covid-19 pandemic as Project FLY!, a recorded video performance initiated by Ng and motivated by a need to make music during the “deafening silence” of the health emergency.
