The Works：Finnish tango Dallapé, pianist Anne Queffélec, Giuseppe Castiglione at City U & in our stu

Think of tango and you most likely think of Argentina. It’s the country that has given us the music of Astor Piazzolla, singer and songwriter Carlos Gardel, and dancers such as Ada Cornaro, Celia Blanco, and Juan Carlos Copes. But there’s a somewhat more chilly city in Northern Europe that’s also fascinated with tango, and that’s Finland. Tango music was taken there from Buenos Aires in the 1910s by travelling musicians. By the 1930s, Finland had begun to develop its own forms of tango, and it became even more popular in the 1940s. Last month, the vocalist Juha Hostikka and accordionist Niko Kumpuvaara of the Helsinki-based Dallapé Orkesteri brought Finnish tango to Hong Kong.
The family of French pianist Anne Queffélec has more than one claim to cultural fame. Her brother and father Yann and Henri Queffélec are both prominent writers.
In an entirely different field, Anne had made more than 30 recordings covering a very diverse repertoire. Ms Queffélec was in Hong Kong last month as part of Le French May, performing highlights from the repertoire, including the music of her favourite composer Erik Satie, as well as Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc and Reynaldo Hahn.
The Jesuit missionary St. Francis Xavier first tried to take Catholicism into China in 1552. Unfortunately he died on an island off the coast of the mainland. Three decades later, the Jesuits tried again, and were more successful this time, doing much to develop cultural exchange between the East and the West. In the late Ming and Qing dynasties, Italian missionaries such as Giuseppe Castiglione were invited by the emperors to share their knowledge of Western philosophy, science and art. Organised by the City University of Hong Kong and the National Palace Museum, the exhibition “Giuseppe Castiglione – Lang Shining New Media Art Exhibition” combines analog and digital technology to present the masterpieces of the missionary and painter.
Describing himself as an “enfant terrible” of the harp, Emmanuel Ceysson says he wants to dispel all the clichés associated with this 47-stringed instrument. No stranger to Hong Kong, he’s revisiting the city for an upcoming concert this Friday. He’s here with Ben.