The rarity value of a team of dedicated amateurs assured the Royal SNO

chorus of large audiences in the Far East, as Keith Bruce discovers.

ROYAL SNO Chorusmaster Christopher Bell has a theory to explain the

lack of any large choir in Hong Kong. ''It is because of the way of life

of the Chinese people in Hong Kong. They live to eat, sleep, and make

money. It is very difficult to get them to rehearsals.''

That rarity value assured the chorus of a warm welcome and large

audiences during its eight-day sojourn to the British protectorate, the

culmination of the choir's 150th anniversary celebrations.

''There are no choirs of our size and status working in that part of

the world so it was a fundamentally new experience for most of the

audience,'' said Bell. ''But the idea of a group of dedicated amateurs

meeting weekly to rehearse to the highest standard was also foreign to

them.''

Audiences, according to Bell, were more or less evenly split between

Chinese and expats, and the singers found they had advantages in their

common nationality with some of the latter. The fund-raising effort for

the tour was significantly eased by the reduction of the rate they were

paying at the Hilton Hotel to one-third of normal. The manager, James

Smith, is -- of course -- a Scot.

Considerable enthusiasm for the visit had also been generated by three

Scots players in the Hong Kong Philharmonic: trumpeters Brian Thompson

and Laurie Gargan and second oboe Ann Rankine. The choir sang the Faure

Requiem and Verdi's Te Deum with the orchestra, under its principal

conductor David Atherton, in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.

The orchestra is managed by Stephen Crabtree, a former principal

double bass with the SNO, who was ecstatic after the performances, which

featured soloists soprano Patrizia Kwella and baritone Stephen Roberts

and were recorded for the local classical radio network. ''This is what

I've waited to hear in this hall,'' he said. ''We just don't hear that

sound in Hong Kong.''

Underlining quite what a new experience a big choir is for local

musicians was a performance -- conducted by Bell himself -- of Handel's

Messiah, that most-performed of works in the choral repertoire which the

choir was formed to sing 150 years ago.

The concert closed the summer festival of the Academy of Performing

Arts and was the first time the orchestra and singers from the college

had performed the work. It had a cast of 20 soloists, some singing only

one recitative or aria, and Bell worked with each of them and with the

band, to give them a sense of the style of the work.

Although the students were studying Western music, they had little

feel for a large-scale choral piece, but the results, said Bell, were

fresh and vibrant.

''A lot of the members of the choir felt that particular Messiah had a

particularly sensitive appeal -- it was really quite poignant.''

In a very full programme, the chorus also split into two choirs for

Sunday appearances at St John's Cathedral, where the Anglican

congregation heard Mozart's Coronation mass and two Rachmaninov Vespers,

and at the Presbyterian Union Church (also celebrating its 150th year)

for a programme of John Taverner and Scots songs.

Bell paid tribute to the organisation of the trip by choir members,

who also funded part of the cost of the visit themselves. There were no

problems except for those caused by the weather -- the heat and humidity

claiming a few casualties.

That apart, the only mishap was the predictable missing luggage on

return to Glasgow. The chorusmaster did not reveal whether one of the

victims was the woman with some 67 kilograms of baggage.

''She went out with four cases and returned with seven. I think she

must have her wardrobe organised for the next six months,'' said Bell.