Clara Schumann

3 Romanzen, Op. 22 (1853)

Helen Fisher, a Canadian-American anthropologist and human behavior researcher, is a leading expert on the biology of love. She divides the experience of love between men and women into three overlapping stages: lust, attraction and attachment; each involves the increased release of certain chemicals in the brain. I respect her research, but it just sounds too scientific for me. During the holiday of Chinese New Year, I saw a movie, ‘The Flowers of War’; by the end of it, I finished a whole pack of tissue paper. It talks of 12 prostitutes and a boy, sacrificing themselves to save the lives of the convent girls, in Japan’s ‘Rape of Nanjing’ in 1937. It shows the noblest side of the human soul. This makes me think: love, perhaps, is the unselfish concern for the good of the others. In music, I thought of Clara Schumann.

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One of my most memorable new year’s day was in the year 2010. I went to a friend’s place to watch a TV broadcast of the New Year Concert, live from Vienna, with several music lovers and critics. Before the concert, we were so excited about it as if we were children again, waiting to be taken to the ‘Neverland’. As soon as our discussion on music and the arts became heated, the program began. The concert took place in the most beautifully decorated Musikverein, with white Lilies in almost every corner of the Groβer Saal. The members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra were already seated on stage. Then, the 86 year-old George Prêtre slowly walked onto the podium. With a wave of his baton, he led the orchestra to embark on a journey with the delightful waltzes by Strauss. We, in Hong Kong joined in the ride with the audience in the Musikverein and many more listeners around the world. It was magical.
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‘Dead air’ to a radio presenter is like the name of ‘Lord Voldemort’ to ‘Harry Potter’… must not be named, nor heard. This moment of speechlessness creates an anxiety between the presenter and the listener as if the earth has suddenly stopped rotating. Yet, silence can be a powerful force in the arts.
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Hooked on Music: Choreographer Yuri Ng
Credit: RTHK Radio 4

Just hate it when people calls me a DJ. A disc jockey is someone who selects and plays music to an audience, often associates with the world of pop music. My role as a radio presenter/producer in classical music goes far beyond that. For me, radio program is an art.

I present a bilingual (English and Cantonese) radio show, ‘Four for Classics with Jenny Lee’ (愛樂同盟), on the only classical music and fine arts channel in Hong Kong, Radio Television Hong Kong Radio 4. It is a two hours music program, at 4-6pm, Mondays to Fridays, with a wide range of segments every day. The music is computer generated and monitored by my colleagues, however, I often make sure that it is well balanced; from popular classics to unknown works, from vintage recordings to fun arrangements, from performance by international stars to that of our local talents.
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