A Banging Percussion Orchestra

The Li Biao Percussion Group was established in 2005

In an orchestra setting, the percussionists are always in the back. They have big drums and other instruments like xylophones, triangles, a gong, and the occasional bird call.

It's pretty cool they can play a lot of different things, but usually they don't get much "air time" during a concert, which is why my friend YTSL and I chose to listen to a concert only featuring percussion, part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

Called From Baroque to Tango, the Li Biao Percussion Group is made of Li, who is originally from Nanjing, and five other musicians four from Germany one from Denmark. They don't seem to come together often, as they all have teaching jobs -- the Dane is based in Rio de Janeiro -- so having them perform together was a treat. Two of them also composed pieces we heard.



Li's specialty seems to be the marimba, as he played that the most, while the other musicians would alternate between marimbas, drums and other intriguing instruments making unique sounds. We heard pieces like Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto in D Major, RV93 with marimbas and drums, and even Johannes Sebastian Bach's Italian Concerto, BWV 971. It's different hearing classical music played with the marimba in particular, but Bach seems to match the instrument, with the accompaniment of a harpsichord.

Interesting set up of the instruments! Including a harpsichord

Then there were other pieces like Japanese composer Minoru Miki, who wrote Marimba Spiritual specifically for marimba virtuoso Keiko Abe. It starts off with Li playing a marimba solo and then gradually builds to include drums and ends with an energetic finish.

One arresting piece minus Li was Steve Reich's Music for Pieces of Wood. Five musicians have tuned claves, or short, thick wooden dowels and two of them are constantly playing throughout the 10-minute piece. Meanwhile others chime in and shift their speed.

Reich likes to describe it as "imagine listening to a kaleidoscope. A pattern is established, then shifts as with the click of the kaleidoscope". We were mesmerized by the synchronized beats and how well they played together.

Li had his own solo in Crossover for Snare Drum Solo by Wolfgang Reifeneder, playing four different kinds of music, military, Viennese waltz, pastoral and then "spirited", where Li even got down on his knees and hit his chair legs and anything else around him. It was fun.



The last piece was American composer Russell Peck's Lift-Off! Before they played the piece, Li warned it involved nine drums so it would be very, very loud. It required a lot of stamina to play the drums that long and together in time, rolling like waves, one set of drums very loud, then the next set, then then next, and then back again. It was thrilling to watch and hear!

After each piece, the musicians would point at Li with their marimba or drum sticks, while Li would point back at them, as if to say, "You're da man!" It was quite amusing.

Nevertheless, that was my last concert from the Hong Kong Arts Festival and glad it ended with a bang!

From Baroque to Tango, The Li Biao Percussion Group
Concert Hall, Hong Kong Cultural Centre

Rudolf Alexander Bauer, Seven Seas

Antonio Vivaldi (arr. Li Biao), Concerto in D Major, RV93
Allegro
Larghetto
Allegro

Steve Reich, Music for Pieces of Wood

George Hamilton Green, Ragtime Suite

Minoru Miki, Marimba Spiritual

Johann Sebastian Bach (arr. Li Biao), Italian Concerto, BWV 971
Allegro
Andante
Presto

Wolfgang Reifeneder, Crossover for Snare Drum Solo
Military, traditional
Highly Viennese
Pastoral
Spirited, hilarious

Philipp Jungk, Taklamakan

Astor Piazzolla (arr. Li Biao), Escualo, La Muerte del Angel, Libertango

Russell Peck, Lift-Off!

Playing Piano... Again

An upright piano ready to be played and it was a fun hour that whizzed by

The apartment building I live in has a clubhouse with a variety of facilities, such as a swimming pool, gym, classes for baking and making crafts, tai chi and so on.

In order to entice more residents to use the facilities, today was a day to try things out for free and booked in advance, though things like the swimming pool and gym were first come, first served.

Not having played piano for over 20 years, I thought this would be a good chance to see if my fingers still had the magic touch on the ivories and reserved myself a room for an hour.

I printed off some sheet music from the internet and then headed to the clubhouse at the appointed time. I was shown to a small room that had an upright piano and two chairs; a clock was right above the piano so there was no mistaking what time it was.

I got out my first piece, Minuet in G by JS Bach and started playing the right hand, trying to remember how to read sheet music, and then ventured to add the left hand and presto -- I was playing music!

It was very rough at first and immediately after playing at the end, I started the beginning again, hoping it would get better, and sometimes it was, and sometimes it was worse. How did I forget to play that note? Why is my fingering all wrong? I was determined to play it better the next time around.

Soon 30 minutes was over and I was still playing Minuet in G. I moved onto Fur Elise by Beethoven, but it turns out I had the abridged version. That's OK because I managed to play the first part OK, partly because it was arpeggios and easier to follow because there was a lot of repetition.

I used to love playing Fur Elise, channeling the romanticism of Beethoven; but now it didn't seem to hold as much meaning to me as it did as a 15-year-old trying to figure out her way in the world.

So I went back to Minuet in G for the last 15 minutes. It's funny how as a kid practicing piano an hour went by at a snail's pace, and here it whipped by and I was playing non stop to get as much practice in as possible. My fingers weren't doing exactly what I wanted them to do, but not bad for not having touched a piano in over two decades!

It was a good distraction to do something different, and also use my brain in another way.