French May turns the spotlight on local talent while getting a few stellar acts from France to collaborate with them. Neil Li reports.
Sylvain Gasancon traveled all the way from France in the time of a pandemic to conduct two Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra concerts. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
French May Arts Fest has been a part of Hong Kong’s cultural calendar since 1993, treating city audiences to some of the finest specimens of French music, dance, theater and art. Organizers managed to host the festival even in pandemic-hit 2020, albeit on a much smaller scale than usual. This year the festival is back with a more elaborate program.
Hong Kong-resident jazz vocalist Talie Monin sings at the Jazz in French Films concert in mid-June. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Think French, act local
“I think it was very important for French May to happen this year, for us to deliver a world-class program to the Hong Kong community,” said the festival’s general manager Xavier Mahe. “It’s also been a difficult time for artists, performers and artistic institutions as many are struggling. So we want to support them as well.”
Mahe and his team knew early on that flying in a huge number of artists from France to Hong Kong, like in years past, wasn’t going to be the easiest thing to pull off at a time of travel restrictions. Since they already had a sustained relationship with several local artists and cultural organizations, with the travel restrictions still in place, it made sense to focus on collaborations with Hong Kong artists and organizations as well as get more Hong Kong-based French artists and musicians to participate.
So French May approached Hong Kong theater director Tang Shu-wing to stage a Cantonese adaptation of a contemporary French play — Martial Courcier’s Larger Than Life. And Hong Kong-resident French cellist Laurent Perrin was recruited to play at the Hope & Harmony concert with the Chinese pianist Niu Niu.
By the end of June, the festival will have presented 80 events featuring over 500 performers as part of a program called “Your Artistic Getaway”.
“When the borders are closed, I think it’s extra important for us to continue to enrich and promote dialogue between different cultures and places,” says Mahe.
Jazz pianist Patrick Lui has adapted tunes of well-known songs from French films to be performed by his jazz band. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Cinema et musique
In mid-June, Hong Kong jazz pianist Patrick Lui will pay tribute to French films in a live show. He and his orchestra will perform big band renditions of tracks from famous French movies in the Jazz in French Films concert.
Lui got a sense of the range of French film scores during the rehearsals. That the legendary Miles Davis actually wrote the music for several French films came as a pleasant surprise to him and the process of rearranging the songs got way easier after such knowledge.
“Actually, some of the songs are already quite compatible with the big band format. For example, in the film Breathless, even though it doesn’t sound entirely jazz, the instrumentation used in the score, such as the saxophone and vibraphone, is really suitable for jazz and big band,” Lui said. Some of the other iconic films from which the songs were chosen include Amelie, The Thomas Crown Affair and The Young Girls of Rochefort.
The song “I will wait for you” from the film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is going to be the highlight of the evening. “Since the melody is so well-known, I had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to modernize it and put my personal touch to present this classic composition,” Lui says. “Plus, we’re going to have a very talented guest singer, Talie Monin, singing the original French lyrics.”
Vahan Mardirossian conducts a concert combining jazz and classical music, based on the compositions of Claude Bolling. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Peculiar pairing
Besides the cinema concert, Lui also figures in another French May performance, “Rolling with Bolling,” which combines classical and jazz music. Performed by the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, the show is led by chief conductor Vahan Mardirossian, and features jazz bassist Sylvain Gagnon and drummer Nate Wong.
The compositions to be played that evening include Suite for Chamber Orchestra and Jazz Piano Trio by French composer Claude Bolling. Mardirossian said playing Bolling’s compositions made him realize that music doesn’t necessarily have to conform to a specific genre. “For me, there is only good music and bad music. Bolling is one of those musicians who could mix two different music styles such as jazz and classical into one very good music composition. He never limits himself to music genres and instead just makes good music.”
In the performance, the jazz trio will play in their usual style while the orchestra will perform like they are playing classical music. While this might sound strange, Mardirossian assures that both jazz and classical music fans will enjoy the performance. “In the beginning, you would think you’re listening to classical music with the orchestra, then suddenly the jazz parts come on. At some point, you won’t even know if you are in the classical or jazz section,” he said. And like in any jazz performance, there will even be improvisations from the jazz trio.
Mardirossian is one of the few artists who have traveled all the way from Europe and been through Hong Kong’s stringent quarantine rules to participate in French May. He said he is more than excited to be performing in front of a live audience, his first since October 2020. “It makes me feel alive again because a musician without live performances is like a fish out of water. Now, I’m just looking forward to breathing again.”
French May Arts Fest general manager Xavier Mahe says it’s especially important to host the festival this year, in order to support the struggling arts community. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Musical treats
Like Mardirossian, French conductor Sylvain Gasancon has traveled to Hong Kong to take part in the festival and he too is feeling very fortunate to be performing to a live audience again. He is the conductor of two concerts performed by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra — The Red Violin: Movie in Concert and French Musical Bonbons.
In the Red Violin concert, Gasancon is joined by HK Phil’s second associate concertmaster Wang Liang, rendering the film’s unforgettable violin solos.
French Musical Bonbons comprises several short music excerpts that Gasancon believes represents a panorama of French music spanning the first quarter of the 20th century, was performed last weekend. “It’s a very colorful program, with small pieces expressing various colors, feelings and atmospheres. The audience got to experience the joy and beauty of the orchestra, which is the mark of French music as French composers love to compose for the orchestra,” he said.
Rather than choosing pieces by famous French composers like Gabriel Faure, Gasancon purposely selected lesser-known and more unusual works such as Albert Roussel’s The Spider’s Feast. The whimsical 17-minute piece depicts the lives of insects in a garden, transporting the audience into a wondrous world of nature. Other works on the list included Arthur Honegger’s Summer Pastoral and Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin.
The Bull Fight (1945) by Joan Miro, from the collection of Centre Pompidou, Paris, now on show at the Hong Kong Museum of Art , as part of the French May Arts Fest. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
The power of art
Yet another highlight of this year’s French May, the Mythologies: Surrealism and Beyond art exhibition, opened last week at the Hong Kong Museum of Art. In it more than 100 surrealist works of art from Paris’s Centre Pompidou, including masterpieces by Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Max Ernst, are on show.
Mahe thinks art will continue to play an important role in human society, perhaps especially so when much of the world is still in the grip of a raging pandemic.
“Art offers a window to discover new ideas and places. If we can offer some happiness to the local community during this complicated time, that’ll be amazing,” he said.
If you go
Le French May 2021
Jazz in French Films
Performed by Patrick Lui Jazz Orchestra
Date: June 17, 2021
Venue: Hong Kong City Hall, 5 Edinburgh Place, Central
Rolling with Bolling
Performed by City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, conducted by Vahan Mardirossian. Also featuring Patrick Lui, Sylvain Gagnon and Nate Wong.
Date: June 1, 2021
Venue: Hong Kong City Hall, 5 Edinburgh Place, Central
The Red Violin: Movie in Concert
Presented by Hong Kong Philharmonic, Conducted by Sylvain Gasancon
Date: May 29, 2021
Venue: Hong Kong Cultural Centre, 10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon.
Mythologies: Surrealism and Beyond: Masterpieces from Centre Pompidou
Date: Through Sept 15
Venue: Hong Kong Museum of Art, 10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
