Meet B for lunch. B, whom I first met in San Francisco, lives nearby in the neighborhood called Quarry Bay. It is the next MTR stop west of my stop. I take the MTR and wait for B to meet me on the street corner just outside the MTR exit. Soon B is leading me to her apartment. She lives in an older neighborhood with older buildings. It is much different than my high-rise and shopping mall neighborhood--here there are produce shops, butchers, and seafood shops along the sidewalk. Life is on a smaller scale here. B says that she likes living here very much (she has been here over 5 years) and all of the shop owners know her and she finds it a very friendly place to live. Her building is a 7 story walk-up, and she lives on the 5th floor. Well, this is certainly good exercise!
B has a small 2 bedroom apartment that is stuffed with arts and crafts that she has collected over the years from around Asia. She also has 4 Mynah birds, including Romeo, who is quite talkative. One of his favorite phrases is "you are a piece of shit"! B confesses she taught him. When the birds get excited they are very loud and noisy! We sit and talk for a few minutes, and B's friend M soon joins us. M is also a flight attendant for United, and she, her husband and son live near me in Tai Koo Shing. We walk about 2 blocks to a local Chinese restaurant for lunch. After lunch B and M go back to B's apartment, and I head back home.
The Tschaikovsky concerto is being performed tonight, and I at about 6:30 I head back to the mall for a light dinner (lunch was very filling). I get a very tasty salmon sandwich--raw salmon, lettuce, tomato, light mayo, on french bread. Delicious. I then go back to City Hall, this time to the Concert Hall, for a performance by the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and a Japanese pianist, Noriko Ogawa. The Sinfonietta is a smaller orchestra, about 60 persons, lead by a young woman conductor, Yip Wing-sie. Ms. Yip is really great. I learn that her father is also a local conductor. I really enjoy the program which also includes Tschaikovsky Symphony No. 2, and a newly commissioned piece by a Hong Kong composer, Ms. Lam Shun, titled Reflections of the Mountains. Ms. Lam's inspiration for the piece was the mountains of northern Iran. It is an interesting and moody piece. Another evening of great music!
Chores day. Pick-up laundry; take dry cleaning; grocery shopping, etc.
That afternoon I am reading the newspaper, and I see that there is a classical piano recital tonight starting at 8:00 PM. The pianist is a young man from Beijing, Wei Danwen. I have missed going to concerts and recitals, and so I decide to go. At about 6:30 I head down to the mall, get a bite to eat, and then catch the MTR. I get off the MTR at Central and walk over to City Hall, which has 3 auditoriums. The recital is in the Theatre Hall. There is also the Concert Hall and a small one called the Studio Hall. The ticket is $90HK, about $12US. The hall seats just over 500, so it is a very good size for a recital. I sit in the back row, which is actually a very good seat. The hall is about 60% full--too bad there are not more people! The audience is about 80% chinese, and 20% western, and made up of all age groups. There are young people, students, families with children, grey hairs. I am happy to see such a diverse group, instead of just grey hairs like I usually see back home. At about 8:05 Wei Danwen strides onto the stage. He is wearing all black--black pants, black shirt, and a lightweight and shiny black jacket. Very avante-garde! He starts the program with a very early piece by Beethoven (composed when he was 11), the Dressler Variations, which at times sounds like Scarlatti, and at other times like Mozart. The program also included Chopin (Sonata No. 2; Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise), Schubert (two Impromptus, and Moment Musicaux in A flat), and ended with the Horowitz version of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. A very nice program!
While at the recital I pick-up various flyers and notices for other music programs. Tomorrow there is a concert featuring Tschaikovsky Concerto No. 1. I must go! Then on Friday and Saturday there are two more concerts--one in the Town Hall auditorium in Sha Tin (pretty far out of town), and the other at the HK Cultural Center. Yes, these look good too! I also get the monthly magazine of the local classical music station. It seems like classical music is alive and well in Hong Kong!
I walked back to the MTR the same way I had come. The Central MTR station has about 10 exits. Exit K is the best one to get to City Hall. However, it is on the other side of two very busy streets. The first one has a crosswalk. For the second one there is a pedestrian tunnel. Now during the Xmas holiday season this tunnel is all decked-out with lights and shiny decorations. Near the MTR entrance there is a small square (Statue Square) that has a large Christmas tree. Across the street there are more Xmas decorations and lights. It is all very festive. Yes, Hong Kong does celebrate Xmas!
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