Capital anticipates musical feast

Marking the 60th anniversary of China-France diplomatic relations, it will feature soloists, including cellist Wang Jian, violinist Lu Wei and suona (traditional Chinese wind instrument) player Liu Wenwen, playing music from the two countries, such as A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix, one of the most famous pieces for the suona, Bolero, a one-movement orchestral piece by French composer Ravel and Tan's Passacaglia: Secret of Wind and Birds.

On Oct 6, under the baton of conductor Yu Long, founder of the Beijing Music Festival and chairman of the festival's artistic committee, the China Philharmonic Orchestra and the Lanzhou Concert Hall Choir will perform Emigre at the NCPA, an oratorio about Jewish refugees navigating their new lives in Shanghai during World War II. Commissioned by Yu, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, the oratorio is composed by award-winning musician Aaron Zigman, Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist Mark Campbell and songwriter Brock Walsh.

Premiering last year in Shanghai and later staged at New York's Lincoln Center in February, the oratorio will be performed by singers including tenor Arnold Livingston Geis, soprano Song Yuanming and bass-baritone Shen Yang.

Zou says that the festival continues to expand the commissioning of new work, including Jiu Ge +Immortal Love by Zhou Long and Richard Dubugnon, a contemporary composition exploring traditional Chinese culture through a modern lens, which will make its world premiere.

In 2013, the Beijing Music Festival commissioned Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Zhou to write a symphonic epic for solo vocalists and orchestra called Nine Odes, which was based on the Jiu Ge (Nine Songs), composed by patriotic Chu state poet Qu Yuan during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). According to Yu, with the new commission, Zhou continues his exploration of the Jiu Ge but unlike the 2013 commission, the new piece highlights traditional Chinese instruments and will be performed without lyrics.

"Without lyrics, audiences will be provided with a space of unlimited imagination, which will allow the orchestra to create vivid musical characters while depicting aspects of traditional culture," says Yu.