Sharing a Music Director with the New York Phil is quite a feather in the cap of the Hong Kong Phil (and they got Jaap van Zweden first!), and his credentials as a fine orchestral trainer are borne out by the fine fettle of this 62-year-old ensemble. To record Wagner’s Ring is not a project to be taken lightly and the completion of this Hong Kong Naxos cycle last year crowned an impressive musical journey. As Rob Cowan comments in the July issue, ‘the music has the impact of a fresh-minted epic soundtrack’, and Mike Ashman, reviewing Götterdämmerung, commented that ‘each instalment has represented a measurable advance on the last’. Impressive work, then, from an ensemble that has grown hugely in stature.