A Double Bill from Recorder Virtuoso Stefan Temmingh

Description

While the recorder may evoke childhood trauma for a certain generation of failed music students, Stefan Temmingh is living proof that dedication to your calling can elevate the humblest of instruments.

The South African virtuoso has performed with leading ensembles such as the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken-Kaiserslautern and Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, and at major festivals and venues such as the Leipzig Bach Festival, Musikfest Bremen and Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal. His award-winning discography has received an OPUS Klassik Award, a Gramophone Editor’s Choice distinction and a Diapason d’Or. He is a professor at the University of Music in Freiburg since 2019 and joined the faculty at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in 2025.

On a forthcoming visit to Hong Kong he will perform two very different programmes: a period-themed duo recital and a varited orchestral programme with Hong Kong Sinfonietta. Collectively, the concerts trace the recorder’s journey from the music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods to contemporary composition and symphonic storytelling.

At the first engagement, on 27 August, he joins harpsichordist Sebastian Wienand for a baroque-inspired recital themed around the works of the Bach clan. As well as a duo arrangement of Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach’s Symphony in D Minor and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Organ Concerto, concessions are made to the modern day with the Asia premiere of Elena Kats-Chernin’s Re-Inventions (2004). A sonata attributed to Johann Sebastian and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach also highlight the recorder’s expressive range and enduring connection to the Baroque tradition.

Then, on 29 August, Temmingh breaks with tradition to perform two concertos back to back: Vivaldi’s Recorder Concerto and the Hong Kong premiere of Danish composer Thomas Koppel’s Moonchild’s Dream (1991). Led by music director emeritus Yip Wing-sie, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta programme concludes with Rimsky-Korsakov’s dreamy all-time favourite Scheherazade.

Each performance starts at 20:00 and lasts approximately two hours with a 15-minute intermission.