Programme:
Tan Dun: Passacaglia: Secret of Wind and Birds
Zhao Jiping: Violin Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major

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Nikolaj Rimski-Korsakov: Scheherazade, Op. 35

Ever since its founding in 2009, the Guiyang Symphony Orchestra has been blazing a new trail in China as the first and only privately funded symphony orchestra in the country. The orchestra performs regularly in major Chinese cities, as well as in Korea and Singapore and, increasingly frequently, other countries around the world. Its music director is the conductor and teacher Guoyong Zhang, who trained at the Shanghai Conservatoire of Music, where he currently teaches, and then in Moscow with the renowned Gennady Rozhdestvensky. The orchestra will be joined by violinist Ning Feng, recognised internationally as an artist of great lyricism, as demonstrated on several recordings for Dutch label Channel Classics. The first part of the programme will consist of works by two Chinese composers. Jiping Zhao is a prolific composer – and renowned teacher – known principally for his film music. He describes his Violin Concerto No. 1 as being “based on the principles of the Western concerto, with some compositional and aesthetic adaptations to Chinese music.” The Chinese-born American composer Tan Dun draws on a range of Western and Chinese influences, and his music is therefore marked by the constant tension and harmony between these two worlds. Passacaglia: Secret of Wind and Birds explores sounds from nature produced by wind, water and birds. The second half of the programme will consist of the eastern-flavoured symphonic suite Scheherazade by the great master of orchestration Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, inspired by stories from the collection of folk tales One Thousand and One Nights.