Wong Jum-sum loved music of all kinds, and had a particularly deep-seated passion for Western classical music.

In the 1950s, both Wong and classical music were finding their feet in Hong Kong society. The best they could do was to openly embrace the unknown.

To embrace the unknown, one needs support from all directions.

Thanks to Radio Hong Kong, Wong was able to listen to enticing music all day everyday, in that process learning to appreciate simultaneously the distinctive worlds of Shankar and Schubert.

Thanks to Leung Yat-chiu, he knew classical music held no special mystical aura. Whatever sounded good was good music.

Thanks to Wong Jum-sum himself, he learnt to read and absorb the principles and practices of making music, no matter whether they came from Bach or Beethoven.

Thanks to Hong Kong of the 1950s, he encountered a succession of visiting maestros, extending immensely his ideas about music and life.

Classics, live

As the 1950s wore on, the Cold War faded, Hong Kong gradually looked different. In culture, the younger generation looked up to the West, welcoming pop and classical music with the same pair of arms. During that period, the number of classical musicians visiting Hong Kong rose continuously. They also came bigger in renown. The trend reached its peak when the great conductor Herbert von Karajan led the Vienna Philharmonic at a concert at The Lee Theatre in 1959, playing Beethoven’s symphony no. 7 among others.

Music was indeed expanding in those days. So was life.