“When I came to Hong Kong, I used to organize a lot of salon concerts at my home. And among my friends too – because that was the only place for chamber concerts and music about 18 years ago.” Thus divulged Leanne Nicholls, artistic director and principal oboist of the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong (CCOHK), before noting, “This is in contrast to now when chamber concerts are going into concert halls.”

Nicholls should know because the CCOHK’s 2006-2007 season closer, a special concert entirely devoted to the music of Sir Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846-1916) is scheduled for the HK City Hall Concert Hall, a venue with a 1,434 seating capacity.

Tosti was a cosmopolitan and celebrated music teacher now considered to be Italy’s greatest composer of salon music, and in homage to that Nicholls says of the programme of songs sung in English, French and Italian, “We’re not going to just play a whole concert of Tosti. Instead, we’re also going to create the 19th century salon drawing room atmosphere – all the gestures, the songs, the way [things were so that] it wouldn’t just be one person singing the whole night. It would be different people getting up to perform. And we’re going to create that on stage.”

Back in 2003, the CCOHK, which was established in 1999 by Nicholls, was described in a local newspaper as “small but professional” and “known for its quirky classical concerts, with as much emphasis placed on the staging as the music”. In an interview with the Australian-born musician, bc discovered she takes great pride in that characterization and thinks it remains true some four years later. “When I’m planning a concert, it’s not going to be your average ‘overture-concerto-symphony sandwich’ as we call it. Quite often, we’re very programmatic with our programming in the sense of choosing music that all sort of connects together in some way. And, yeah, that’s something we’ve always done. For example, to create a salon atmosphere for this concert is not something gimmicky at all. It’s just as it was.”

Why the focus on the music of Tosti? After all, he may have been knighted by his friend, Great Britain’s King Edward VII, but he is still less well known than Italian contemporaries like Verdi (Aida and Rigoletto) and Puccini (Madam Butterfly). Though, in his defence, this is less a reflection on his musical genius than his being a songwriter – of some 400 songs, in fact! – for high-society drawing rooms and royal salons.

As far as Nicholls is concerned, Tosti’s lack of fame makes for one good reason to organize a homage to the man and his music – in keeping with one of CCOHK’s missions to ensure that “Our audience can always expect to hear the familiar but, at the same time, there’s always something new”. And another reason is, as she points out, “His music is very much associated with the word ‘chamber’, which is what we’re all about. We create intimate concerts and Tosti’s music is in line with what we do.”

Then, as the discussion moves into the realm of overall objectives, she explains, “We believe that as people pay and make the effort to come out for a whole night, we should offer them the whole experience. And if at the same time they’re exposed to new music, then that’s also something that’s interesting for everyone – not just for the audience but for the orchestra too.”

And so Tostissimo is an entirely new programme especially conceived for the concert. As Nicholls says, “It’s unusual to hear a whole programme of Tosti. Because normally a singer would choose just one or two songs by Tosti as part of a recital. In contrast, this concert is entirely focused on the music of Tosti. So it’s very special.” And, she hopes, it is a great way to introduce local audiences to the music of a composer whose pieces were very popular during the Belle Époque.

In December, the CCOHK will tour Italy, and Ortona, the birthplace of Tosti, will be among the towns they will perform in. Some months before that – more precisely, this June – Professor Francesco Sanvitale, director of the National Tostiano Institute in Ortona and the world’s leading Tosti scholar, will visit Hong Kong bringing with him a collection of the composer’s correspondence, which highlights how highly regarded he was in royal and music circles alike.

Some of those letters – which include epistles from the likes of legendary Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba and famous Italian tenor Enrico Caruso – will be on display in the HK City Hall Concert Hall during the Tostissimo concert. Professor Sanvitale also will read from a selection of the letters to provide biographical background and historical context to Tosti in what will be a window into the composer’s life.

Nicholls emphasizes that Tosti really did have an amazing career: “He went to London [in 1875 at the age of 30] and five years later became the singing master of the royal family… for that post, he had to write a lot of singing music as well. He organized salon concerts in the royal court and he was also responsible for promoting a lot of the music of Verdi and Puccini in England.” And not only was he the first person to see the libretto of Verdi’s Aida, he “turned down the opportunity to be the tutor for some of the singers of these operas because he wanted to stay in London and establish himself there”.

Although Tosti did eventually return to his native Italy in 1910, he spent the best part of his life as an expatriate. As Nicholls observes, “He really made an effort to contribute something to life in England. It wasn’t just about prestige and money. Obviously, with his connections to the royal family, he was quite well off. But it was finding somewhere where his talents and abilities could be used to the full.”

Which mirrors Nicholls herself. As someone who has been in Hong Kong since 1990, the founder and artistic director of CCOHK can obviously relate to Tosti’s life. For her own part, “Coming to work in Hong Kong, I feel my role with the orchestra is fulfilling and a big contribution to society in the sense that we never had a chamber orchestra before. So I’m filling a niche. And am able to make use of the experience I have.” Which she finds very fulfilling. “Because it’s not good enough for me to be here and going out to parties – and parties are not my scene! I’d rather be doing something intellectually stimulating, whether it earns a lot of money or not!”

Tostissimo will be performed at the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall on June 6 at 8 pm. Tickets are priced at $100, $200 and $300 and available from URBTIX, 2734 9009.