Classical Music Lecture Series: Music at Heart – Lecture 5: Echoes of Adversity

In Music at Heart, Calvin Lai leads you through eight thematic journeys, sharing a curated collection of audio and video recordings — inviting you to listen closely and step into the minds and worlds of great composers and performers, feeling classical music with fresh warmth.

Curator / Speaker: Calvin Lai

7 Oct 2026 (Wed)
Episode 1: Untamed Spirits
In A Musical Joke, Mozart transformed the wrong notes and missed beats dreaded by amateur musicians into irresistible comedy.  In Hexaméron, Liszt joined five other leading pianists in a dazzling display of competition, virtuosity and the swaggering brilliance of the self-proclaimed king of pianists.  Berlioz transformed his passionate infatuation with an actress into the rapturous and hallucinatory music of Symphonie fantastique.  This lecture explores the spontaneous and carefree sides of these legendary composers.

14 Oct 2026 (Wed)
Episode 2: Inner Storms
Behind the masterpieces lie sensitive and complex minds.  In Carnaval, Schumann gave voice to two contrasting alter egos — Florestan and Eusebius — revealing the inner conflict and dialogue within his psyche.  Mahler, deeply fearful of the “Curse of the Ninth,” nevertheless channelled his profound questioning of life and death into his own Symphony No. 9.  Scriabin sought to reach the mysteries of the universe and the spirit through his visionary Poème de l' extase.  Through anecdotes and music, this lecture delves into the turbulent inner worlds of three great masters, exploring how unease and struggle can be transformed into radiant, immortal works.

21 Oct 2026 (Wed)
Episode 3: Stage Mishaps and Controversies
Beethoven once angrily halted a performance of his Choral Fantasy after a mistake occurred on stage.  Stravinsky’s groundbreaking premiere of The Rite of Spring provoked an uproar among the audience.  Before Bernstein and pianist Glenn Gould performed Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Bernstein openly declared on stage that he disagreed with Gould’s choice of an exceptionally slow tempo.  This lecture revisits these astonishing moments in musical history and the ways musicians respond amid applause and boos.

28 Oct 2026 (Wed)
Episode 4: Secrets in the Score
Names, mottos, friendship and faith can all be turned into notes and hidden within music.  Bach often used notes to outline the shape of a cross on the stave, as an expression of his sincere faith.  Schumann, Brahms and Dietrich jointly composed a sonata, embedding their close friend's motto "Free but lonely" within its pages.  Elgar, in his Enigma Variations, painted musical portraits of his friends and left behind a riddle that has never been solved.  This lecture decodes these masterpieces and brings to light the secret language the composers left unspoken.

4 Nov 2026 (Wed)
Episode 5: Echoes of Adversity
This lecture explores how Haydn’s Farewell Symphony, with musicians leaving the stage one by one, subtly voiced their desire for a holiday; how Beethoven, after recovering from a serious illness, transformed his profound encounter with life and death into a string quartet expressing gratitude for a new beginning; and how Messiaen composed Quartet for the End of Time in a prisoner-of-war camp, continuing to seek hope in the midst of adversity.  Listen to the echoes of hardship and discover how music can preserve dignity, kindle hope and offer solace to the spirit.

11 Nov 2026 (Wed)
Episode 6: Musical Love Letters
The young Schumann poured his longing for his beloved Clara into Fantasie in C.  Wagner transformed his unattainable love into the unending desire of Tristan und Isolde.  The Adagietto from Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 is often regarded as a love letter beyond words.  Elgar presented Salut d’Amour as a gift to his fiancée.  From longing and desire to tender devotion, discover how music speaks for lovers and expresses the deepest emotions words cannot convey.

18 Nov 2026 (Wed)
Episode 7: The Art of Humour
Music can move the heart, and it can also make people laugh.  Haydn’s sudden outburst in the Surprise Symphony was said to be a prank on sleepy concertgoers.  Saint-Saëns used lumbering, comical music in The Carnival of the Animals to mock the music critics he despised.  Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony created fresh and unexpected twists through its playful use of classical conventions.  Richard Strauss brought a mischievous musical prankster to life in Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks.  Take your seat in a light-hearted mood and discover the ingenious touches in these famous works that are sure to make you smile.

25 Nov 2026 (Wed)
Episode 8: Modern Musical Imagination
Since the 20th century, the boundaries of music have been continually redefined.  Russian composer Scriabin sought to connect sound with colour and spiritual imagination.  American composer George Gershwin and Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla each brought jazz and tango into dialogue with classical music.  John Cage placed environmental sounds at the centre of listening through 4′33″, while Ligeti created a gradually dissolving soundscape from the interwoven sounds of one hundred metronomes.  Join us to explore the boundless possibilities of music.

(Information provided by the speaker)

Conducted in Cantonese.  Each lecture will run for about 1 hour and 30 minutes.  Free seating.

The programme does not represent the views of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.

The presenter reserves the right to change the programme.

LECTURE 5: ECHOES OF ADVERSITY

Presented by Leisure and Cultural Services Department

Only for age 6 or above