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Dirk Luiten

Strict, conservative definitions of Western classical music would not be sufficient to encapsulate the repertoire in harmonica player Cy Leo’s concert with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. Each of the pieces they performed relies heavily on influences from other musical styles.
French composer Ravel draws upon Spanish folk traditions, the American Gershwin infuses jazz elements in his compositions, and Canadian Robert Farnon references music of a lighter vein in his work for harmonica.
Hearing their compositions, we experience how these external stimuli can coexist with more traditional forms of music-making.
Ravel’s Alborada del Gracioso is somewhat hard to define (some call it The Morning Song of the Jester in English) but it served its purpose in setting the stage for the evening’s eclectic musical mix.

The “jester” appears midway through the piece in the form of a lone bassoon, played by Tommy Liu Tung-bo with some self-indulgent melancholic notes. A more carefree and speech-like delivery would have better suited a section marked quasi recitative. The seguidilla dance fragments could have been better framed orchestrally as part of the story being told.
Leo then introduced us to Robert Farnon and his Prelude and Dance, which offers a range of effects wrapped in a work of great emotional depth.
The soloist leveraged these technical moments in a way that never seemed forced, unfolding the narrative seamlessly and drawing us into phrasal contours of beauty and meaning.
He is a musician who is deeply committed to the material, at times playing within himself but always expressive.
Amplification of the instrument is a necessity, but conductor Yip Wing-sie nonetheless kept the Sinfonietta in check, ensuring that balance was never an issue, and interactions between soloist and orchestra were treated with careful consideration.

Ravel’s well-known Bolero concluded the first half of the concert, the playing of its instrumental solos ranging from perfunctory to detailed and expressive.
For a 15-minute work that contains only two themes, variety needs to be found elsewhere – either by reconfiguring the phrasing, showing originality with the articulation, or injecting creativity with layering. Here there was no innovation, and the well-worn work came across as pedestrian.
Nonetheless, many in the audience found this reading acceptable, showing firm appreciation for it and enthusiasm for some of the soloists.
Rhapsody in Blue saw Leo return, and he produced a fresh take on the work’s opening glissando by bending the pitch more than is customary and prolonging the jazzy blues notes.
Leo was much more animated here and interacting physically with the orchestra more than in Farnon’s Prelude. The downside to do this was a lack of consistency in the harmonica’s amplification.

Yip’s opening address to the audience and the rather lengthy interview with Leo that followed the performance of the Rhapsody was didactic padding. Leo supplemented his responses with an impressively complex encore that involved a loop machine (for instant playbacks) in an updated take on Gershwin’s classic I Got Rhythm.
The Sinfonietta concluded the concert with more Gershwin, the colourful and humorous An American in Paris. The piece calls for a unity of purpose, and unfortunately some parts were under-rehearsed; as a consequence, the playing in some passages was not as tight as it should have been.
The orchestra is certainly musically capable, so one has to wonder what might be achieved if musical objectives were precisely communicated to ensure a united vision.
Still, through creative programming choices like this, the public is exposed to a more diverse palette of musical experiences.
“Cy Leo x Hong Kong Sinfonietta: Rhapsody in Blue”, Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall. Reviewed: Aug. 10.


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Harmonica player Cy Leo and Hong Kong Sinfonietta’s eclectic concert a mixed bag

Harmonica player Cy Leo performs with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta on August 10, 2024, at the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall. Photo: HK Sinfonietta Ltd

Music director emeritus Yip Wing-sie conducts the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and harmonica soloist Cy Leo (front) at the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall. Photo: HK Sinfonietta Ltd

The Hong Kong Sinfonietta under Yip Wing-sie gave a pedestrian rendition of Ravel’s well-worn Bolero. Photo: HK Sinfonietta Ltd

Harmonica player Cy Leo (front) interacted physically with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Photo: HK Sinfonietta Ltd

The time Jiang Zemin outsang Pavarotti in Italian recalled in Hong Kong impresario’s book

Luciano Pavarotti signs autographs following his first concert in Hong Kong, in February 1990. In his memoir, John Duffus  (right) recalls the time Pavarotti sang a duet with Jiang Zemin in Beijing. Photo courtesy of Blacksmith Books 

Austrian President Thomas Klestil smiles while then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin sings with unidentified musicians during a banquet in Beijing in 2001, the same year he outsang Luciano Pavarotti in an Italian duet. Photo: AP

A career highlight for John Duffus was arranging a concert by The Three Tenors (Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras) at Beijing’s Forbidden City in 2001. Photo: courtesy of Blacksmith Books 

John Duffus on the Great Wall of China in 1986, during the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s first tour of China. Photo: courtesy of Blacksmith Books 

A poster for the 1984 Coliseum concert Duffus arranged with Capital Artists featuring three of its most popular artists, Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui and Lui Fong, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Photo: courtesy of Blacksmith Books 

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Jaap van Zweden and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra receive the applause of the audience at the end of his farewell concert on June 25, 2024. The Dutchman has stepped down as music director after 12 years. Photo: Keith Hiro/HK Phil

Jaap van Zweden in his final interview as music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. He had words of warning about the hiring of very young conductors. Photo: Keith Hiro/HK Phil

Music director Jaap van Zweden and Hong Kong Philharmonic chief executive Benedikt Fohr hold up the Gramophone Orchestra of the Year Award in 2019. Photo: Christine Cheuk/HK Phil

‘’It was a young orchestra when I arrived,” Jaap van Zweden said, reflecting on the start of his 12 years as music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Photo: Keith Hiro/HK Phil

Tarmo Peltokoski, 24, named as HK Phil’s next music director. Why he ‘couldn’t say no’

Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski is the new HK Phil music director. Photo: Keith Hiro/HK Phil

Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski, 24, has been named as the ninth music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, beginining in 2026. It was an appointment he could not refuse, he tells the Post. Photo: Keith Hiro/HK Phil

Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski, born in 2000, will be the ninth music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra when he takes up the post in 2026. Photo: Keith Hiro/HK Phil

Soloists and conductor Jaap van Zweden with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus and the Netherlands Radio Choir after a performance of Wagner in June, 2024. Photo: Desmond Chan/HK Phil

Jaap van Zweden during his final interview as music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Photo: Keith Hiro/HK Phi)

At 24, Tarmo Peltokoski is part of a wave of young conductors picked to lead orchestras. Among them, fellow Finn Klaus Mäkelä, 28, will become music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2025. Photo: Keith Hiro/HK Phil

Peltokoski (left) and David Cogman, chairman of the board of the HK Phil, sign the contract that makes Peltokoski music director designate. Photo: Enid Tsui

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Sinfonietta and harmonica player gel in Rhapsody in Blue, but orchestra out of sync in another Gershwin work and pedestrian in Bolero


Orchestra and soloist were in sync for programme that included an animated Rhapsody in Blue, but without Leo the Sinfonietta were not tight enough in another Gershwin piece, and boring in Ravel’s Bolero.


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Review | Harmonica player Cy Leo and Hong Kong Sinfonietta’s eclectic concert a mixed bag

Sinfonietta and harmonica player gel in Rhapsody in Blue, but orchestra out of sync in another Gershwin work and pedestrian in Bolero