On beethoven's back

The Vienna Symphony orchestra is going to make its debut on the Chinese mainland in June, collaborating with high-profile conductor Simone Young to serve up a classical music feast of authentic Viennese flavor.

The 114-year-old orchestra will kick off its tour to six cities with a Beethoven night at Xinghai Concert Hall in Guangzhou on June 2. The Austrian orchestra's repertoire for its China tour features masterpieces from German and Austrian composers from the classical and romantic periods, including Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Brahms.

They were all closely connected to Vienna, composing and debuting their works in the capital of classical music.

"We are a Viennese orchestra, so we want to bring the Chinese audience the traditional, Viennese orchestral sound that we are especially good at on our debut," Johannes Neubert, the orchestra's managing director, says in a phone interview.

The Vienna Symphony is one of the city's three major orchestras, the other two being the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. It is a latecomer to the fast-growing classical music market in China: The Vienna Philharmonic first visited the country in 1973 and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2001.

"I was surprised that the orchestra had never been to the mainland when I took over the job as the managing director three years ago and we started to plan a tour," Neubert says.

"China has the most dynamic development of classical music, with so many wonderful concert halls newly built and symphony orchestras rising to high levels."

With an increasing number of visiting world-class orchestras, China has become an attractive new market for classical music and even "has the potential to become the world's largest consumer for classical music", according to Yu Xinzhi, project director of the Vienna Symphony's show at the Xinghai Concert Hall.

"Many orchestras that have visited our hall told me that they are surprised at the big number of younger audience members, while a symphony concert overseas attracts mostly older people," Yu says.

Good venues can not only attract visiting orchestras but also greatly support the local orchestras' development. Neubert says that he believes that China has big potential to become "an orchestral music center equally important as Europe in the 21st century".

"China is the country in Asia that has a long history of authentic orchestral music," he says, both in Western and Chinese styles.

Italian conductor Mario Paci expanded the brass band Shanghai Public Band, founded in 1879, into an orchestra in 1919 and extensively introduced Western orchestral music to China. That orchestra was the predecessor of Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, the country's first modern Chinese orchestra that was made up of traditional Chinese musical instruments and formed like a Western symphony orchestra, was established in 1952.

Neubert says that at least 50 Chinese orchestras visit Vienna every year, and he is impressed by the works of Chinese contemporary composers, such as Chen Gang, the co-writer of the violin concerto Butterfly Lovers.

"They combine Western orchestral presentation and traditional Chinese music. These pieces will be a very nice addition to the world's orchestral music scene," he says.

Neubert says the orchestra plans to revisit China in 2017, if the imminent tour proves successful.

Yu from Xinghai Concert Hall is optimistic. The concert in Guangzhou has had a good box office, with only a few high-priced tickets left available now.

"Many classical music fans in China have a 'Beethoven complex'," Yu says. "The composer is deemed a strong man with his famous words about seizing fate by the throat. His works are well-received by the general public."

Concert halls in four out of the six cities on the China tour chose Beethoven's No 3 and No 7 symphonies for the repertoire. National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing is the only one that chose a repertoire without Beethoven: The centerpiece there will be Brahms' Symphony No 2.

The 53-year-old Australian conductor Simone Young is one of the world's top two female conductors, the other being Marion Alsop, according to Zhao Yimin, a Guangzhou-based classical music critic and radio-show producer.

Young was the first woman to have recorded the complete Ring Cycle of Wagner, a task that "no more than 10 conductors active now, male or female, have been able to accomplish," Zhao says.

"Young has a powerful conducting style and she is good at large-scale works, which makes her a perfect match with the tour's repertoire," he says.

Young is excited about her first visit to China. "I am very much looking forward to meeting Chinese audiences - and of course to visiting many museums and historic buildings," she says. "I would also like to sample the regional cuisines of the cities that we are visiting."

If you go:

Guangzhou: 8 pm, June 2. Xinghai Concert Hall, 33 Qingbo Lu (Road), Ersha Island, Yuexiu district. 400-108-8808.

Zhongshan: 8 pm, June 3. Cultural and Art Center, 73 Xingzhong Lu (Avenue), East district. 0760-8822-3666.

Foshan: 7:30 pm, June 4. Qionghua Grand Theater, 22 Zumiao Lu (Road), Chancheng district. 0757-8224-7300.

Shanghai: 7:30 pm, June 6. Grand Theater, 300 Renmin Lu (Avenue). 400-106-8686.

Beijing: 7:30 pm, June 7. National Center for Performing Arts, 2 West Chang'an Jie (Avenue), Xicheng district. 010-6655-0000.

Tianjin: 7:30 pm, June 8. Grand Theater, 24 Youyi Lu (Road), Hexi district. 022-8388-2000.

http://www.ecns.cn/experience/2014/05-29/116598.shtml