HKFO2016: A Tale of Two
HK Duo X HKFO & The French Requiem

DEBUSSY: Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to “The Afternoon of a Faun”), L 86
POULENC: Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in D minor, FP 61
FAURÉ: Pavane in F-sharp minor, Op. 50
FAURÉ: Requiem in D minor, Op. 48

For the first time in the history of HKFO, we introduce our winter season – HKFO2016: A Tale of Two, as we journey through the Romantic notions of dualities. On 20 November, HKFO presents HK Duo X HKFO & The French Requiem, the first concert of a pair.

A quintessentially French programme, beginning with Debussy’s Prelude to “The Afternoon of a Faun”, the orchestra is joined immediately by the HK Duo, Hong Kong’s most-celebrated pair of pianists and pedagogues, Hui Ling and Julie Kuok, as they present Poulenc’s Double Piano Concerto. Placing great demands on ensembleship, timing and precision, the Double Piano Concerto will no doubt charm the audience with the brilliant dialogues between two keyboards and the ensemble in ways that are rarely seen.

Closing the concert is none other than Fauré’s Pavane and finally, his Requiem. Often considered as the “French Requiem” as the counterpart to Brahms’s “A German Requiem”, Fauré’s Requiem explores the ideas of eternal rest, in stark contrast with previous attempts on works of the same kind that vision wrath and hellfire instead.