In this, much is made of alleged precision knowledge of individual nations, rather than the discredited “Pan Asian” ideal. At the same time, a recent levelling-off of record buying seems to show that consumers are fed up with the vapid Taiwanese ballads, Hong Kong’s Cantopop idols and Bon Jovi ad nauseam that have hitherto sold in container loads.Part of Midem Asia therefore centres around a search for new sounds. “It seems to me Hong Kong is just as likely to take over China.”
The reason for Midem Asia and the presence in Hong Kong of offices for all the multinational record companies is the importance of the Asian market – around a billion people under the age of 25, with a decade’s economic boom already completed and the vast Chinese market just coming on stream. Record executives scoffing champagne and duck canapes at Midem’s opening reception at the Cafe Deco up on the Peak don’t seem particularly worried though, and looking down at the forest of skyscrapers, neon, and bumper- to-bumper Mercedes it’s easy to understand the remark of Don Atyeo, former editor of London’s Time Out and currently general manager of Channel V music television company. Here in the colony, singers and composers continue to leave for the USA and Canada (Vancouver’s Cantopop scene is booming nowadays) as evidence of China’s intentions after the 1997 handover accumulates. Across the border in mainland China, dozens of petition signers and dissidents cool their heels in detention until the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square uprising is safely passed.

Hong Kong and the music business go together like braised pork and crispy noodles. The first Midem Asia, an eastern version of the music world’s annual showcase/ conference/ trade fair in Cannes, filled the centre’s yuppie nightclubs and vast, chilled marble hotel foyers with glitz, hyperbole, wheeling and dealing and conspicuous consumption. City of London Festival concert performance, conducted by Richard Hickox, with Philip Langridge as Grimes, 20 June, Barbican Hall, London EC2 (0171 638 8891). very well.” After a reception at the Savoy, Britten went home to St John’s Wood. In the early hours he had to pour water over howling cats outside Critics and cats silenced in quick succession. A decent night’s work.nRoyal Opera production, conducted by Arturo Tamayo, with Ben Heppner as Grimes, 7pm tonight on BBC Radio 3.

“We slammed into it a bit – but still had been knocked absolutely sideways.” Leonard Thompson quietly found his own way by tram back home to Lambeth: “I thought it had gone… “I had dinner with Michael Tippett afterwards,” John Amis recalls. “The stage staff thought it was some sort of riot,” said Joan Cross.To friend, foe or mild sceptic, the significance of Grimes was lost on no one. And so thunderous was the final ovation that some back-stage interpreted it as mass revulsion. The great shouts of ‘Peter Grimes!’ in Act 3 cannoned around.