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RECREATION

Kertesz, or the tremendously popular performances by the Vienna Boys Choir. In the same hall pianist Arthur Rubinstein played to enthusiastic capacity audiences.

At the same time it is an exhilarating experience for local musical groups to play there. Among the most popular local performances have been the series of concerts organized jointly by the City Hall and Radio Hong Kong which has given equal weight to Chinese and western music. The majority of the audience at these concerts, where admission charges are only 50 cents and $1, have been students and young people.

The concert hall never seems more alive than during the annual Schools Music Festival when it is only one of several halls throughout the city ringing with the voices of well-trained young choirs and soloists. This year there were more than 4,900 entries in the festival and altogether some 24,000 students took part.

The existence of this fine hall, whose acoustic qualities have won praise from leading world musicians, helps in itself to draw to Hong Kong the top performers in their field. This year saw visits from such diverse, and high calibre performers as the Dave Brubeck quartet, Ella Fitzgerald, Pat Boone, and Zizi Jeanmaire and the French Ballet.

Visiting theatrical players have been fewer than musicians, but this scarcity is quite off-set by the vigorous amateur theatre which flourishes in Hong Kong and which has made regular use again this year of the 470-seat City Hall theatre. Plays staged by Chinese amateur groups included a Cantonese version of The Merchant of Venice by the Drama Group of United College, Chinese University of Hong Kong to celebrate the Shakespeare Quatercentenary. This was the first time that a Shakespearean play had been presented in Cantonese with the players in ancient Chinese costumes. Also in celebration of the Quatercentenary was a joint production of Twelfth Night by the Stage Club and Garrison Players. The theatre, which is also equipped as a modern cinema, was used for perform- ances of a series of Shakespeare films on the same occasion. This cinema is also the home of Hong Kong's successful film society, Studio One.

The traditional painting of China continues to be an admired art form in Hong Kong and an established teacher is not only a