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THE ARTS
For its live artistic entertainment Hong Kong depends particularly on its visitors and this year the Colony's most distinguished artistic visitors have all been musicians. The foremost of these was the well- known composer-pianist, Rudolf Friml, who while spending a holiday at Repulse Bay found time to give a piano recital at the Lee Theatre and a broadcast over Radio Hong Kong. At both of these he was assisted by two of the Colony's best singers, Dora Chih and Gaston d'Aquino, who sang excerpts from his operettas. Apart from his own music Friml played several works by Bohemian composers, including Smetana and his own master, Dvorak. At the Lee Theatre recital the house was packed to capacity, every seat having been sold within three hours of the opening of the box office.
Another highspot in the Colony's musical year was the visit of the young French pianist, Germaine Mounier, who gave several public recitals, at the Hong Kong Hotel and in the new auditorium at Queen's College. Musically the best parts of her programmes were those devoted to modern works by French and Spanish composers.
Her visits to the Colony, organized by the French community, were most welcome and provided local students with a much needed opportunity to hear a first-rate concert pianist playing a wide range of works.
The Colony's third pianist visitor was also French and a new name in French music. This was André Bader who gave a recital and a broadcast both of which included some good interpretations of Debussy and Ravel.
A novelty during the year was the Lee Theatre's presentation of a Scandinavian Ice Revue which turned out to be extremely popular in spite of unusually high prices for seats. For a moment it almost looked as though other cinemas would be turning over to occasional stage shows, but the next revue put on at another theatre was not of the same high standard as the Ice Revue in which several champion skaters from Belgium and Scandinavia took part. Public response to the second show was poor and no further entertainments of this kind were put on.
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