Description

Fresh from their residency with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in October 2024, the Hong Kong-based Cong Quartet (winners of the 2022 Adolfo Betti Award at the Virtuoso & Belcanto Chamber Music Competition in Tuscany) once again unfold their local roots on a universal canvas. Opening with the Cong Quartet’s reimagining of Hong Kong-born, Philadelphia-based composer Adrian Wong’s Childhood Sweet, a quasi-impressionistic sampling of local desserts (from durian to herbal jelly and tofu pudding) originally written for solo piano, the evening culminates in Schubert’s String Quintet, a mature musical statement far removed from the charming tunes of the composer’s early Viennese salons. Joined by ACO Principal Cellist Timo-Veikko Valve, the Cong plumb the depths of Schubert’s final musical thoughts, where dance-like joy mingles with late-in-life ruminations on mortality.

Cong Quartet

Violin: Francis Chik Yiu Ting

Violin: Ayaka Ishiwarati

Viola: Caleb Wong

Cello: Cheng Yan Ho

Guest cellist: Timo-Veikko Valve

Programme

Performed by Cong Quartet

Guest cellist: Timo-Veikko Valve (Principal Cellist of Australian Chamber Orchestra)

Adrian Wong│Childhood Sweet

Schubert│String Quintet, D.956

Duration: Approximately 1 hour 10 minutes without interval