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 Tuesday, 30 January 2018 |
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20th Macau International Music Festival |
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Written by Administrator
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Thursday, 06 July 2006 |
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Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macau SAR Government Press Release, 06 July 2006
20th MACAU INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL
Two decades at the sound of the MIMF
The Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macau SAR Government presents the
20th Macau International Music Festival (MIMF) from 6 October to 5
November 2006.
The 20th anniversary of the MIMF is celebrated with a touch of
romanticism. Jazz, classical, electronica, Chinese folk-pop, rock and
fado will fill Macau's autumn nights with magic. The eclectic programme
of 28 performances promises to delight Macau audiences, accustomed to
the festival's annual offering of the best music from all over the
world.
Two decades of history have made the MIMF a tradition throughout Asia.
Such noble Macau venues as the Dom Pedro V Theatre and the Lou Lim Ieoc
Garden have received many indelible names in the arts. In 1989 Alfredo
Kraus and Jennifer Smith, and in 1990 Christa Ludwig and Teresa
Berganza put Macau on the bel canto map. Sˆhndor Vˆmgh and the Deutsche
Kammerphilharmonie gave an unforgettable performance in Taipa the
following year, and more recently, the great Chinese composer Tan Dun
left his mark on the St. Paul's Ruins. Among the notable Portuguese
artists, names like Carlos Paredes, Sequeira Costa, Maria Joćo and
Mˆhrio Laginha, and the Gulbenkian Chorus, Orchestra and Ballet shine
brightly.
With such a rich tradition, the 20th MIMF can't help but open with an
extra dose of the romantic. The Chinese prodigy Lang Lang blows out the
first of twenty candles from the piano bench at the Macau Cultural
Centre, playing concertos by the melodic Chopin and the extravagant
Tchaikovsky. The Macau Orchestra joins the festivities under the
leadership of two of the region's most important conductors, Pang Ka
Pang and En Shao. The lyric expression continues on the same stage with
an ambitious concert by the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne on 7
October, marking the return of large ensembles to the MIMF stage.
 Amid
the magical ambience of the Mount Fortress venue, the popular French
pianist Richard Clayderman charms the public with his romantic classics
and later courts the ladies of Feng Huang, who return his affection
with Chinese tradition.
Following the tryst between Europe and China in the nostalgic Mount
Fortress, one of this year's preferred venues, New York's Shanghai
Quartet diversifies the exchange with a universal encounter between the
music of East and West. The performance will warm another of Macau's
historical settings, the Dom Pedro V Theatre (10 October), the very
same stage to which the legendary voice of Carlos do Carmo returns to
echo the fado tradition. For two incredible nights the singer who knows
better than anyone how to rekindle the Portuguese spirit will light the
fuse of saudade in the hearts of Macau's multicultural audience.
The best of fado and Portuguese rock
This year the Cultural Affairs Bureau invested in great names in
Portuguese music, and rock band Xutos e Pontapˆms complete the deal.
Last year they celebrated their silver anniversary with O Mundo ao
Contrˆhrio (The World Upside-Down) and they ring in another year with a
voyage to Macau. New and old favourites celebrate the return of the
legendary Portuguese band on 27 October.
Before Xutos e Pontapˆms present their Circo de Feras (Circus of
Beasts) at Nam Van Lake, opera elevates the tone of the festival to its
most romantic. For three nights in the Cultural Centre (13, 14 and 15
October) two tales of love-triangles full of intrigue are told in song.
Mascagani”¦s Cavalleria Rusticana is the keystone of the verismo style,
and Rugero Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci is its twin companion on stage,
filled with the same Italian passion.
Musica Antiqua Cologne (16 October) lights up the Dom Pedro V Theatre with their genuine interpretation of Baroque music.
The electronics of Sakamoto in pure form
 The
more modern sounds of electronica are added to the classics of the
MIMF. It is with the music of Insen that Ryuichi Sakamoto makes his
Macau debut on 18 October. He is joined by another musical scientist,
the young German Alva Noto, and they fill the Mount Fortress with the
celestial sounds of their lounge laboratory.
Seven soloists, three orchestras and four choirs will make Nam Van Lake
overflow with joy on 20 October. Musicians from Macau, the Mainland and
Taiwan will shake the entire city with the grandeur of Gustav Mahler's
"Symphony of a Thousand", written near the turn of the last century.
The Macau Chinese Orchestra holds Hong Kong's Canto pop star Paula Tsui
in its arms for three nights at the Cultural Centre (22, 23 and 24
October), in a concert that guarantees a heady dose of Chinese
nostalgia. The Orchestra sends five of their best musicians back to the
stage on 19 October.
The curtains of the MIMF open on the festive Divertimento Berlin as
well, whose musicians hail from the renowned Berlin Philharmonic and
Berlin Opera orchestras. Not excluded from the celebration are the
Batavia Madrigal Singers, from Indonesia, who perform alone on 24
October and later join forces with the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa to
honour another celebration, the 250th anniversary of the birth of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-2006).
A happy ending with Guys and Dolls
Jazz enters among the ranks of the MIMF genres with the Instant
Composers Pool Orchestra, liberating that intense creative fervour so
often consigned to the privacy of the musician's studio. This musical
intimacy is shared on 26 October at the Mount Fortress, which two days
later will host four Chinese bands who revive their regional traditions
in the pop and rock idioms of today.
Chamber music ventures away from the classics of the MIMF in the
concert of the Vienna Symphony Virtuosi (30 October). The Austrian
ensemble offers the poetry of Johann Strauss, Mozart and Hummel on the
Dom Pedro V Theatre stage, only to charm audiences in the second half
with the jazz smooth talk of Cole Porter and Claude Bolling.
The MIMF closes with one of the greatest of all Broadway musicals. The
1950 production Guys and Dolls will draw the final burst of applause in
two decades of festival tradition. The story of Miss Sarah Brown and
the gambler Sky Masterson finds an ideal setting in Macau, providing a
very happy ending to the celebrations of the Cultural Affairs Bureau.
Workshops and conferences on the events will be held to promote public
interest and participation in the arts. As in previous years”¦
festivals, rehearsals for some shows will be open to the public.
Tickets for the 20th Macau International Music Festival will be
available after 10am on 23 July 2006 at all Kong Seng Ticketing
outlets. Online and telephone reservations will be available from 4pm
on the same day. A variety of discount plans is offered. Detailed
publicity materials are available at the ticket counters.
For more information please visit the website of the Cultural Affairs Bureau at:www.icm.gov.mo
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Last Updated ( Friday, 21 July 2006 )
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