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Elaine Wong

The Hong Kong Sinfonietta was not playing it safe when it commissioned Alice Yeung’s double concerto for chromatic harmonica and jazz piano – a combination that may be a world first.
Performed by the orchestra’s two new artist associates, the multi-genre mavericks Daniel Chu and CY Leo (real name Ho Cheuk-yin), Time (in-)Linear’s June 27 premiere was the highlight of an evening that also included traditional symphonies by Haydn and Beethoven, and was governed by the ethos of “surprises”, according to music director Christoph Poppen during his introductory remarks.
From Haydn’s signature musical pranks to the megaphone-wielding conductor shouting German time stamps, the concert certainly kept the audience guessing.
Time and its manipulation were the programme’s through lines. Haydn’s Symphony No 64, subtitled “Tempora Mutantur” (which translates as “Times Change”), was a fitting aperitif, and not just in title.
The largo kept the audience on edge, with abrupt silences that left melodies suspended. Under Poppen’s baton, the orchestra treated these moments not as full stops but as commas – witty pauses that made the audience lean forward, waiting for phrases to complete themselves. The effect was one of exquisite anticipation. By the time it reached its fervent finale, the audience was primed for something bolder.
Yeung’s concerto began with an insistent chug, like a train pulling out of a station, conjured by gentle taps from principal percussionist Chau Chin-tung on the snare drum’s rim. Ho’s harmonica entered with quick-fire precision, its range veering from car-horn thickness to piccolo-like brightness – an immediate display of virtuosity. Chu’s piano, deliberately pedalled and muffled, let its high notes shimmer against dense chords, prioritising texture over flash.

The first real duel came about a quarter of the way through, and it was pure theatre. Chu finally looked up from his score, face scrunching in that pained expression; Ho crouched, pulling back as if drawing power from the instrument itself. Their precisely timed staccato jabs and melodic echoes were so tightly woven they felt almost telepathic.
Then Poppen lifted his megaphone and shouted out different times in German. In theory, it could have been a gimmick. In practice, its tinny, station-announcement texture was genuinely disorienting – a jolt through time and space.
Chu’s five-minute cadenza was the concerto’s highlight while also revealing a weakness. Yeung had clearly studied his improvisatory language: the meditative opening, the gradual descent into Keith Jarrett-style possession. The result was a portrait of the pianist at his most unguarded.
Ho, by contrast, was given no such opportunity. His solos were clean and impressive, but never quite unleashed. The concerto seemed to trust Chu with its most dramatic passages; Ho was left to shine within tighter boundaries.
Chu’s signature piano punching and Ho’s incessant trilling propelled the music towards the edge, braking just in time
Elaine Wong
The finale succeeded because Yeung made the audience wait for it. For much of the 30-minute concerto, time had been fractured and granulated. When the orchestra fell away and the soloists took over, the chaos felt less like a breakdown than a breakthrough: all those disrupted timelines finally collapsed into a single, cathartic release.
Chu’s signature piano punching and Ho’s incessant trilling propelled the music towards the edge, braking just in time. Chu ended with a triumphant head-swing towards the audience, and after a brief hush, applause broke out in a sustained, grateful wave.
An encore of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” was an apt meditation on disrupted linear time. Chu played with a relieved smirk; Ho’s honeyed, saxophone-like tone was immaculate. The rendition was friendlier and warmer than the song’s usual pop-ballad treatment – more living-room jam session than torch song.
After the interval, Beethoven’s Symphony No 2 offered a return to more familiar terrain. The orchestra sounded assured and polished, its optimism a world away from Yeung’s fragmented dreamscape. But the contrast was perhaps too stark; after the audacity of the concerto, Beethoven’s dutiful, ordered classicism felt like a palate cleanser rather than a satisfying conclusion.

Still, the Sinfonietta’s crisp articulation and buoyant phrasing served as a reminder of why the piece endures.
Did the gamble pay off? Mostly. Yeung’s Time (in-)Linear held its own between Haydn and Beethoven. The dialogue between Ho’s clarity and Chu’s theatrical energy was often electrifying, and they arrived together with the orchestra exactly when it mattered. Surprises, after all, land best when the audience has expectations to subvert – and this concert had plenty of both.
“Concerto for Chromatic Harmonica, Jazz Piano & Orchestra”, Concert Hall, Hong Kong City Hall. Reviewed: June 27.
Time (in-)Linear travels to Portugal for the Marvão International Music Festival, making its European premiere on July 31.


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Time (in-)Linear composer Alice Yeung (second from left) on stage with conductor Christoph Poppen (left), jazz pianist Daniel Chu (second from right) and CY Leo (right) after the world premiere of Yeung’s concerto for chromatic harmonica, jazz piano and orchestra, on June 27, 2026. Photo: Hong Kong Sinfonietta

Jazz pianist Daniel Chu (left) and harmonica virtuoso Ho Cheuk-yin aka CY Leo (right) perform Alice Yeung’s concerto for chromatic harmonica, jazz piano and orchestra Time (in-)Linear, with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta at Hong Kong City Hall on June 27, 2026. Photo: Hong Kong Sinfonietta

Chu and Ho embrace on stage after the world premiere of Time (in-)Linear. Photo: Hong Kong Sinfonietta

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The orchestra was joined by pianist Daniel Chu and the harmonica star CY Leo for the electrifying world premiere of Yeung’s Time (in-)Linear


The orchestra was joined by pianist Daniel Chu and the harmonica star CY Leo for the electrifying world premiere of Yeung’s Time (in-)Linear.


World of performing arts

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra

Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Daniel Chu and CY Leo deliver Alice Yeung’s new concerto in style

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The orchestra was joined by pianist Daniel Chu and the harmonica star CY Leo for the electrifying world premiere of Yeung’s Time (in-)Linear

The orchestra was joined by pianist Daniel Chu and the harmonica star CY Leo for the electrifying world premiere of Yeung’s Time (in-)Linear