Preview: Laurent Korcia & HKPO

Laurent Korcia /HKPO/Yip Sing Wei on two dates for Le French May Arts Festival
15th April: Lam Lan Chee/Bernstein/Stravinsky
16th April: Items from Korcia's album Cinema
For TimeOut Magazine, Hong Kong
400 Words

Laurent Korcia has a split personality, or at the very least, is a man of many sides. The Frenchman, having graduated with the Premier Prix from the Paris Conservatoire and won an abundance of prestigious accolades, including the Paganini Jacques Long-Thibaud and Zino Francescatti International Competitions, is certainly an acclaimed performer of classical repertoire. But in recent years, he’s also indulged his more ‘pop’ side, finding widespread success with films, television commercials, and his 2009 release Cinema, a collection of movie score themes from Gershwin to Morricone. This fortnight, he shows off both of these sides to Hong Kong audiences.

Ruminations on love, virtue and mortality provide the theme for the Hong Kong Sinfonietta’s season-opening concert, with Korcia performing Bernstein's elegant Serenade after Plato's Symposium. Yet, in his second performance, he reveals a more playful side with a programme of party-pieces, filled with favourites from Cinema.

Rather refreshingly, Korcia sees little distinction between these musical genres. “I don't think of the [classical] repertoire as a special repertoire. To me, it is interesting that whatever I play I don't think of categories,” he says over the phone from Paris. “I think music is very universal and it talks about emotions that are very universal. I think that what people want in music is the integrity and intensity of playing and composing, and then this has little to do with what kind of repertoire they choose to perform.”

There has traditionally been a bit of snobbery over classical-mainstream crossovers, but this has started to change, thrust along by artists such as Korcia bringing the identity of the crossover artist to a new technical and conceptual realm. And for Korcia, this metamorphosis all starts with how you approach the music. “[Film music] is like any music. At the moment you play, you have to forget about your conceptions. As an interpreter, I always think it's good to be fresh in front of the piece of music.”

Indeed, cinematic scores seem to have a particular resonance with Korcia, especially in its ability to bring past experiences and images back to life. Korcia’s attitude is almost summed up in his in his own orchestration of Grappelli's Les Valseuses – a work that references films about youths living in the wilderness, wartime tragedy, and history, and that he will play in his second Hong Kong concert. Says Korcia: “I like the way that music brings you back to emotions or memories that you could have forgotten; with just a few notes it can bring back so much.”