Lunchtime Harmonies

Sunny.29C!!

I have to say, it was highly commendable for a commercial institution to host a week long's lunch time recitals, free of charge! Especially in such a commercialised city, when everything has a price, bringing good music to the ears of a busy crowd certainly set a different tone, as aptly described by the recital series' subtitle, "Setting the Tone in Central".

From yesterday till the end of the week, members of the HKPO will form different groups to perform music from the Baroque era to the Romantic period and the 20th Century. Unfortunately, I could only make it to today's concert as time allowed. The two pieces of today's performance were Schubert's Octet: Variations and Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A major. Both pieces were something that I wasn't familiar with, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the classical/neo-classical harmonies and they have certainly soothed my busy mind.

I wasn't sure when they designed the lift lobby, they have something like this in mind, because the space and the height have allowed the sound to flow and resonate nicely. It certainly wasn't a grand space, compared to any decent concert hall. But the setting is rare, if you consider that it's being placed in a class A Central office building.

Today's concert has drawn a large crowd, which was rather out of my expectation. Some of the audiences seem to have come especially for the concert from another part of the city, some looked like tourists; while most seemed to be people like me, who worked in the area and have sneaked out during lunch time. The arranged seating area didn't seem to have expected such a large crowd either, so almost half, if not more, of the audience had to stand to enjoy the performance.

And because I'm not familiar with the pieces, I can't comment much on the music or the playing, except that it was like oasis in a desert. I wish there were more of these events in the future!