Review | Pianist Eric Lu brilliantly reflects Chopin’s genius in HK Phil concert

As it turned out, it was the spiralling and moments of playful whimsy that ultimately saved Chen’s waltz from such a fate, offsetting any tendency to layer the orchestral texture too densely along the way.

With resident conductor Lio Kuokman at the HK Phil’s helm, Chen’s fragments, which stem partly from a Sichuan mountain song and a Cantonese melody, were lent a buoyant character, soon morphing into a quasi “panda motif” – an idea Chen took from Wagner, drawing inspiration both from the “giants” of his operas and from the composer’s use of distinct leitmotifs.

For all its spinning and sliding, not to mention the addition of two extended rainsticks for extra effects, Chen’s “Waltz 2.0” packed a great deal of musical material into a piece lasting less than 10 minutes.