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Tuesday October 24, 2017

Debra Lidebra_lidan@163.com

THREE decades ago, the Chinese public got their fi rst chance to witness the New Year’s concert broadcast by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (VPO). Ever since, each time the orchestra has guest-performed in China has been greatly celebrated by Chinese classical music fans.

Conducted by Latvian conduc-tor Andris Nelsons, VPO made their debut in Shenzhen last week. Founded in 1842 and considered one of the fi nest orchestras in the world, VPO performed two sold-out concerts Thursday and Friday nights for local audiences, bringing works by Beethoven, Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner. Ceaseless waves of “bravo” accompanied by a long standing ovation from the audience took place when the fi nal note was struck.

A pupil of maestro Mariss Jansons, the 36-year-old Nelsons is one of the most sought-after young conductors in the world today.

VPO, with no resident directors since 1933, collaborates exclusively with the world’s top conductors. With Nelsons, they plan to perform all of the Beethoven symphonies until 2020, the year of Beethoven’s 250th birthday.

VPO debuts at SZ Concert Hall

Debra Lidebra_lidan@163.com

SEVEN musicians from VPO visited Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra (SSO) on Friday morning and rehearsed the third and fourth movements from Mahler’s “Symphony No. 1 in D Major” with local Chinese musicians.

After section rehearsals, the VPO musicians rehearsed with the full orchestra conducted by SSO artistic director Lin Daye.

“It’s a deliberate choice to rehearse Mahler’s ‘Symphony No. 1,’ because Mahler had conducted VPO, who premiered many of the composer’s works,” Lin said. “Their interpreta-tion of Mahler is authentic and per-suasive.”

The VPO musicians were willing to share their expertise. “The fourth movement is emotional but also ret-rospective. Sometimes people play it in a way too sentimental. It’s better to play it down a little bit,” Jun Keller, VPO’s assistant concertmaster of fi rst violin, told his Chinese peers.

Guo Shuai, assistant concertmaster of SSO, highly evaluated the Austrian musicians. “They shared many top-notch musical techniques in detail with us, like the handling of fl owing emotions and specifi c musical phrases. They are meticulous and reasonable but expressive at the same time.”

VPO’s principal violist Tobias Lea also had a high opinion of the SSO members for their “fl exible playing, quick reactions and wonderful musi-cianship.” He called SSO a really fi ne orchestra too.

Just months prior in August, SSO performed alongside the prestigious Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra led by Zubin Mehta at a summer music festival in Harbin. “We are a young orchestra without the aura of a long-standing glorious tradition,” said SSO president Nie Bing. “But we are work-ing hard to narrow the gap between ourselves and the world’s best.”Beethoven himself had conducted his

“Symphony No. 7” and “No. 8” with the Orchestra of the Opera House, the predecessor of VPO, and so had Richard Strauss and Wagner. Given that long and closely-overlapping history and tradi-tion, the orchestra gathered that the Chinese audience would enjoy hearing the original classical repertoire played by VPO this time.

They were right. The audience loved their rendition of the “Voices of Spring” from Johann Strauss as encore.

“We want to touch the audience in

the heart when we play,” said Michael Bladerer, contrabass player and man-ager of the orchestra.

“When it comes to Beethoven’s sym-phonies, I am sure a Chinese orchestra will also play it perfectly ..., this is not about what is better. We just try to play very special, very intense, and bring out a special style for articulation and phras-ing the music.”

Shenzhen is the fi rst stop of VPO’s China tour, which will include eight more concerts in cities like Guangzhou, Shanghai, Nanjing and Macao.

International exchange with local orchestra

WHEN tickets became available two months ago, the fi fth Wuzhen Theater Festival sold out 15 of its 24 plays in about an hour.

The annual international festival, which kicked off Oct. 18 and continues until Oct. 29, has gradually become one of the most signifi cant events of Wuzhen, a traditional waterfront township in East China’s Zheji-ang Province. The modest town has a his-tory that traces back 7,000 years.

The Wuzhen Theater Festival, jointly founded by the chairman of Culture Chen Xianghong, award-winning play-wright and theater director Stan Lai, well-known Chinese actor Huang Lei and highly-reputed experimental drama pioneer Meng Jinghui, is welcoming its fi fth year since the fi rst Wuzhen Theater Festival was launched in 2013.

Over the past four years, the festival has expanded at a spritely pace, now totaling

a cumulative 65 plays, 218 performances, 16 theater activities and more than 5,100 carnivals attracting nearly 100,000 the-atergoers and almost 1 million tourists.

Chen Xianghong summarized the past fi ve years as “the renaissance of a town” which has broadened the Chinese vision of plays and acts as a window into Chinese theaters on the world stage, making this unassuming yet charming town known to foreign audiences.

Because the Wuzhen Theater Festival has attracted a large number of young people and artists, the town has trans-formed from a commercial tourist town to an authentic art scene.

“It is now hard to imagine Wuzhen without a theater festival,” Chen said.

The town has become busier the last four years, with the number of theater productions and outdoor carnival events constantly rising. (SD-Agencies)

Wuzhen Theater Festival: The resurgence of an ancient town

Andris Nelsons conducting VPO at Shenzhen Concert Hall on Thursday evening.

VPO at Thursday’s concert. Photos by courtesy of Shenzhen Concert Hall

Jun Keller (L), VPO’s assistant concertmaster, shakes hands with SSO conductor Lin Daye.

Courtesy of SSO