Program
Carl Orff (1895–1982)
Carmina Burana (1937)
(version for 2 pianos and percussion)
Michael Tippett (1905-1998)
Five Negro Spirituals from A Child of Our Time (1941)
OZNO (b. 1969)
Cantata Nr. 4: Things Unseen, op. 29 (world premiere)
Details
Date: 11 December 2023 (Monday)
Time: 8:00pm
Venue: Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Concert Hall
Ticketing
$400 / $320 / $240 / $160
Tickets available from 18 October 2023 (Wednesday) at all URBTIX outlets
Online Booking: https://www.urbtix.hk/event-detail/10855/
Credit Card Telephone Booking: 2111 5999
Mobile App Booking: My URBTIX
[Updated 30 Nov 2023] More seats are released!
Discount Scheme
訂票優惠
10% off: Members of the Law Society of Hong Kong
Members of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers
Members of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects
Members of the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors
Members of the Hong Kong Arts Administrators Association
25% off: Friends of the Hong Kong Bach Choir
50% off: Full-time students, senior citizens aged 60 or above, people with disabilities
and the minder, and CSSA recipients
Group Discount schemes
5% off: Each purchase of 5 to 9 standard tickets
10% off: Each purchase of 10 or more standard tickets
For further information, please visit http://www.bachchoir.org.hk or write to info@bachchoir.org.hk
[8 October 2023] “Turn on, tune in, drop out!”
That famous Hippie slogan from the Summer of Love also applies to another group, from
another time: Goliards – 12th- and 13th-century Hippies who dropped out of universities and
monasteries, living off the grid, carousing, and writing racy poetry. It was that poetry which
was set to elemental, pounding music by German composer Carl Orff in his 1937 superhit
Carmina Burana.
The Hong Kong Bach Choir opens its 2023-24 season with Orff’s Carmina Burana on
Monday evening, 11 December, at 8:00 pm at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
in Tsim Sha Tsui, conducted by music director Jerome Hoberman.
Carmina Burana, which opens and closes with “Fortune, Empress of the World,” is in three
parts and runs for about an hour. The first part, “In Spring,” deals with the season when
young people’s thoughts turn to love. The second, “In the Tavern,” is focused not only on
food and drink – always to excess – but also on gambling and on what’s going on upstairs.
The final part, “The Court of Love,” gestures toward imitating the romantic idealism of the
Knights of the Round Table but ends up making do with a more earthy – perhaps a more
realistic – version of love.
But what must not be forgotten is that Carmina Burana is also the most celebrated artistic
work to emerge from Nazi Germany. In recognition of that, The Hong Kong Bach Choir
balances Carmina Burana with music by British composer Michael Tippett: Five Negro
Spirituals from “A Child of Our Time”.
Tippett’s 1941 oratorio, modeled on the Passion settings of Johann Sebastian Bach, was
inspired by the events of November 1938 that culminated in the so-called Kristallnacht – the
“Night of Broken Glass,” the starting gun of The Holocaust, during which two-thirds of
Europe’s Jewish population was murdered, as well as hundreds of thousands of Roma,
gays, and other “enemies of the state.”
Five Negro Spirituals are excerpts from the larger oratorio. A young Everyman is the Christ
figure in A Child of Our Time – an anonymous adolescent who could be any hopeless
refugee from genocide. And instead of the Lutheran chorales Bach interpolated in his
Passions as moments for reflection, Tippett used African-American “sorrow songs,” music
created by yet another oppressed people longing for freedom from persecution.
Jerome Hoberman, Conductor
Music Director and Conductor of the Hong Kong Bach Choir and Orchestra since 1992,
Jerome Hoberman has been enthusiastically received in Hong Kong, Mainland China,
Eastern Europe, and the US. Festival appearances have included the Aspen Music Festival,
Shanghai Spring International Music Festival, and the Baguio Cathedral International Music
Festival (the Philippines), which he inaugurated in 2008 to remarkable acclaim.
The Hong Kong Bach Choir
The Hong Kong Bach Choir (the Choir) is one of Hong Kong’s longest established vocal
ensembles. Comprising a multinational membership of over 100 singers, the Choir has
enjoyed the direction of a number of conductors over its 40-year history, from its earliest
days with Carl Halter through productive associations with notable local musicians Peter
Stevenson and Michael Ryan. Since 1992, the Choir has been under the musical leadership
of Jerome Hoberman, and it now has the widest repertoire of any choir in Hong Kong,
ranging from the 15th century to the present day. Demonstrating a flair for originality in
programming, the Choir has performed a number of significant local premières. It also
regularly collaborates with other ensembles and participates in music festivals in the city,
including Le French May and, most recently, other works under the batons of Helmuth Rilling
and Nicholas Cleobury.
節目
柯夫 (1895–1982)
《布蘭詩歌》(1937)
狄伯特(1905-1998)
《五首黑人靈歌》，選自《我們世代的孩子》(1941)
OZNO (b. 1969)
第四號清唱劇《未見之事》，作品29 (世界首演)
詳情
日期︰二零二三年十二月十一日﹙星期一﹚
時間︰晚上八時正
地點︰香港文化中心音樂廳
票務
$400 / $320 / $240 / $160
門票將於二零二三年十月十八日起於城市電腦售票網各售票處發售
網上訂票： https://www.urbtix.hk/event-detail/10855/
信用卡訂票： 2111 5999
流動購票應用程式： My URBTIX
訂票優惠
九折： 香港律師會會員
香港工程師學會會員
香港建築師學會會員
香港測量師學會會員
香港藝術行政人員協會會員
七五折： 香港巴赫合唱團之友
半價： 全日制學生、六十歲或以上高齡人士、殘疾人士及看護人、及綜合社會保障援
助受惠人士
團體優惠
九五折： 每次購買五至九張正價門票
九折： 每次購買十張或以上正價門票
查詢節目或其它詳情，請瀏覽合唱團網頁www.bachchoir.org.hk或電郵至
info@bachchoir.org.hk。
（2023年10月8日）《布蘭詩歌》原文出自中世紀的吟遊書生之手，他們與20世紀的嬉皮
族有異曲同工之妙，不愛規條束縛，離開大學和修道院這些傳統的知識文化中心，隱身市井寫
下許多甚富刺激性的詩文。柯夫於1937年將這些詩文譜成《布蘭詩歌》，並一炮而紅。
香港巴赫合唱團將於12月11日晚上8時，在何博文指揮下假香港文化中心音樂廳演出柯夫
的《布蘭詩歌》，展開2023-24年樂季。本曲全長約一小時的，分為三部，以《命運，世界
的女皇》起始，亦以同一段詩歌完結。第一部《春天》描寫年輕人的心思被戀愛佔據的季節，
第二部《在酒館》除了描寫暴飲暴食之外，亦提及賭博以及酒館二樓所發生的羞於啟齒的事情。
第三部《愛之殿》一開始似乎尊崇圓桌騎士那種典雅的愛情，但結果妥協於更粗俗也更現實的
愛情。
然而，不可不忘的是《布蘭詩歌》是納粹德國時代中最廣為人知的藝術作品。故此，香港巴赫
合唱團同場演出英國作曲家狄伯特的《五首黑人靈歌》，選自《我們世代的孩子》。《我們世
代的孩子》作於1941年，結構參考巴赫的受難曲，靈感源自1938年11月發生的「水晶之夜」
事件，最終導致歐洲三分之二的猶太人口被屠殺。納粹所屠殺的對象並不只猶太人，許多羅姆
人（吉普賽人）、同性戀者和其他「國家的敵人」也是納粹屠殺的受害者。
《五首黑人靈歌》選自聖樂《我們世代的孩子》，以一名普通的年輕人作為耶穌的象徵。這名
年輕人無名無姓，可以是嘗試逃避大屠殺的任何一名難民。巴赫在其受難曲中插入路德聖歌，
引入沉思深省時刻；狄伯特則用黑人靈歌——另一個飽遭迫害族群的延伸——引領聽眾沉澱深
思。
何博文 指揮
何博文自1992年起擔任香港巴赫合唱團及樂團的音樂總監兼指揮。他在香港、中國內地、東
歐及美國均備受好評。何博文曾參與阿斯本音樂節、上海之春國際音樂節等，並在2008年協
辦首屆菲律賓碧瑤主教座堂國際音樂節，好評如潮。
香港巴赫合唱團
香港巴赫合唱團是本港歷史最悠久的合唱團之一，現時有百余名不同國籍的成員。合唱團四十
年來曾與多位指揮合作：初期有荷爾達博士，後期有本地知名音樂家如史提芬遜及賴恩。由
1992年起，合唱團由音樂總監何博文帶領，此後曲目更趨多元化，橫跨十五至廿一世紀。為
凸顯表演曲目的原創性，合唱團亦曾為多個作品作出本地首演。此外，合唱團經常與其它團體
合作，參加本地的音樂節等活動，包括法國五月、由里霖執棒的香港聲蜚合唱節、及2012年
英國著名指揮克里奧貝利執棒演唱當代英國合唱音樂。
The Hong Kong Bach Choir 