Harmony: Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra Principal Huqin Quartet

HARMONY

HONG KONG CHINESE ORCHESTRA PRINCIPAL HUQIN QUARTET

ESPLANADE RECITAL STUDIO

16 FEBRUARY 2013

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 18th February 2014 under the title "Delightful game of one-upsmanship"

The second day of the Huayi Chinese Festival of Arts showcased the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra Principal Huqin Quartet, featuring Hsin Hsiao-Ling (gaohu), Hsin Hsiao-Hung (erhu), Liu Yang (zhonghu) and Tung Hiu-Lo (gehu) - all principal players of the respective huqin sections in the orchestra.

While the huqin quartet is a relatively new genre in Chinese music, the setting mirrors that of its Western counterpart, the String Quartet - the gaohu and erhu serving the roles of violins 1 and 2, the zhonghu that of the viola and the gehu replacing the cello.

Performing on eco-huqins, a modernised version of the bowed-string instruments, the group's immaculate ensemble particularly shone through in tricky works such as The Four by Cheng Baohua - an interplay of the four performers taking on the roles of scholars of ancient China indulging in a game of intellectual one-upsmanship.

Here, all four take on equal importance as they mimic the human voice in a series of laughter, argument and reciting of poems. Joshua Chan's Game explored a similar interaction of the soloists, imbuing traditional Chinese melodies and harmonies with Western compositional techniques. The quartet hardly batted an eyelid as they manoeuvred through the potential minefield in the fugal section.

The performance opened with two works with a similar theme, that of the composer's homeland. In Singaporean composer Phoon Yew Tien's Concord, a rearrangement of an earlier a cappella work, Song Without Words, Tung held a steady fort throughout while the quartet wove a harmonious metamorphosis of three short motifs from the major ethnic groups in Singapore.

The Land Of My Home was Zhou Chenglong's tribute to his hometown of the Loess Plateau. Ingenious use of glissandi harmonics on the gaohu allowed Hsin's erhu to sing exquisitely, imitating the song and call of birds, while the lower strings lightly fluttered with tremelos evoking vivid imagery of dance and festivities.

It speaks volumes for music's ability to transcend boundaries, that one of the most respected composers of Chinese music today is a born-and-bred German.

Robert Zollitsch's Ran Shao Xi Wang (Burning Hope) reflected his intimate understanding of the musical idiom. Focusing on "yun", which refers to the essence of Chinese music, the music milked sentimentality for all its worth. It is here that the lower strings received their time in the limelight.

Liu's luscious tone was the perfect riposte to Tung's unwavering intonation while playing the opening at a higher register than the gaohu.

Chew Hee-Chiat's No Rules evolved from the idea that music-making involves three parties - the composer, performer and audience - and that each should be allowed to indulge their vastly different interpretations. The music written was, however, no novelty act. A single melodic line was shared among the four parts, undergoing a musical transformation of inversions and retrogression, including a ostinato lower strings section, not unlike that of a jazz trio.

After an hour of serious music, the quartet finally let their hair down in their encore - Zhou's arrangement of Chinese pop music from Forever Leslie Cheung. How often does one get to hear a zhonghu jiving and grooving?

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