“In the program, I don’t attempt to provide an overview of “Hong Kong contemporary music” (because it is impossible). I feature several other young composers of my generation who in my opinion have high artistic merit and have a different depth of engagement with Hong Kong in their life stories. Instead of conjuring a unified musical impression of Hong Kong, I hope the program presents distinctive individuals who share a similar origin. Therefore, no sweet-and-sour pentatonicism nor “Oriental texture” is guaranteed and Hong Kong can be heard in many different imaginative ways.”

“And so the concert reflects a paradox: on the one hand, the modernist realisation that, as the programme’s curator, composer Charles Kwong, says, “geographical differences should no longer be as restrictive as they used to be”. ...... Clemens Thomas, on the other hand, (says the concert is) an excursion to Hong Kong, even if it is only aural one, now contains a lot of “utopia”.”