NCPA to honor composer at festival

Violinist Lyu Siqing, artistic director of May Festival. [Photo provided to China Daily]

May Festival, an annual event to promote chamber music in China, will be held from May 6 to 27 at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing.

Initiated by the NCPA in 2009, the festival will honor Ludwig van Beethoven with 17 recitals, marking the 190th anniversary of the German composer's death this year.

The opening recital will be performed by the NCPA's own orchestra, Shanghai Quartet and French Ensemble of Eight Cellos, with musicians such as violinist Lyu Siqing, pianist Chen Sa and percussionist Li Biao.

The audience can expect to enjoy a two-hour recital featuring music pieces including Bach's Violin Concerto in A minor, Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No 1 in D minor, Verdi's excerpt from La Traviata and Franz Schubert's String Quartet No 14 in D minor, Death and the Maiden, D810.

Other highlights of the festival will be German pianist Lars Vogt performing Beethoven's five piano concertos along with the Royal Northern Sinfonia of Britain over May 17-18.

Norwegian string ensemble Trondheim Soloist will adapt Beethoven's String Quartet Op 95, Serioso, into a version for string orchestra in a recital on May 19.

Russia's Borodin String Quartet, an early music ensemble, which has recorded a collection of string quartet of Beethoven, will perform the String Quartet No 6 in B-flat major, Op 18 on May 24.

The festival will end with a recital by Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, featuring pieces by Debussy, Ravel and Beethoven.

"We want to have as much variety as possible on the program list for May Festival. Every year, we have something new for the audience," says Lyu, an award-winning violinist who is the festival's artistic director this year.

"When we first presented May Festival in 2009, chamber music was not a mainstream culture among Chinese classical fans and we didn't have a clear idea about what to introduce to them," says Wang Luli, deputy director of the programming department of the NCPA.

But he adds that the festival sold 93 percent of the tickets last year, which proves that more Chinese are embracing chamber music.

The festival also aspires to introduce recitals to an audience that has limited exposure to classical music. This year, it will host around 20 outdoor recitals at the NCPA.

"We want to bring these musicians outside the venue so they can get close to the audience," Wang says.