Guests at the opening ceremony of the 25th/26th Beijing Music Festival Photo: Courtesy of Beijing Music Festival
Taking “shared future” as its main theme, the 25th/ 26th Beijing Music Festival kicked off recently at the capital’s Poly Theatre.
The festival will include a total of 22 diverse concerts such as opera premieres, solo music performances, chamber music, visual symphonic concerts and so on. It aims to use the four concepts of “Music, Youth, Future and Attitude” to show the burgeoning music scene in Beijing as well as the rest of China.
A highlight of the festival is the music piece A World Far Away, while Joseph Haydn’s II Mondo della Luna in Three Acts will be shown to Chinese audiences for the first time.
In Hayden’s delightful piece, Chinese audiences can hear how the master used the key of E-flat major in compliment with other instruments like horns, bassoons and harmonicas to depict the story of the moon. With this piece, Haydn depicted human being’s shared longing for outer space.
The Chinese interpretation of Haydn’s II Mondo della Luna is being directed by Yi Liming, the artistic director and president of the Dahua City Centre for the Performing Arts. It will be conducted by Yu Ji, and young artist Yin Bojie will play the harpsichord.
Other than the Western music piece, the opening concert of the music festival commemorated Liu Tianhua, a prestigious Chinese composer and folk music reformer.
The whole performance is composed of three chapters to include all of Liu’s art creations on the classic instruments erhu and pipa. At the beginning of the 20th century, the 32-year-old Liu Tianhua pioneered the practice of integrating Chinese and foreign music, laying a solid foundation for the modern development of Chinese folk music.
Other shows such as the Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute featuring famous Chinese singer Gong Linna will be held on October 4. Music for Heroes, Poetry for the Screen, another music piece included in acclaimed conductor Tan Dun’s Martial Arts Trilogy, will debut at the Poly Theatre on October 6.
The 25th/ 26th Beijing Music Festival is an international music sharing platform that includes international classical music insiders from countries such as Germany, the UK and Spain.
The Mahler Foundation Festival Orchestra, comprising young musicians from various European countries, will participate as the festival’s resident orchestra.
Spanning 24 days, the 25th/ 26th Beijing Music Festival is scheduled to end on October 15.
