Best bets

Joshua Bell & The Academy of St Martin in the Fields

Date: May 26 - 7:30 pm

Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts

With a career spanning more than 30 years as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and conductor, Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated violinists of his era, and his restless curiosity, passion, and multifaceted musical interests are almost unparalleled in the world of classical music. Named the Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in 2011, he is the only person to hold this post since Sir Neville Marriner formed the orchestra in 1958, and recently renewed his contract through 2020. The Academy of St Martin in the Fields is one of the world's premier chamber orchestras, renowned for its fresh, brilliant interpretations of the world's most-loved classical music. Through its live performances and vast recording output - highlights of which include the 1969 best-seller Vivaldi's Four Seasons and the soundtrack to 1985's Oscar-winning film Amadeus - the Academy quickly gained an enviable international reputation for its distinctive, polished and refined sound.

Jukka-Pekka Saraste & WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne

Date: May 27 - 7:30 pm

Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts

Jukka-Pekka Saraste has established himself as one of the outstanding conductors of his generation, demonstrating remarkable musical depth and integrity. Born in Heinola, Finland, he began his career as a violinist before training as a conductor with Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. An artist of exceptional versatility and breadth, Saraste feels a special affinity with the sound and style of late Romantic music. WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne is one of the most influential orchestras in the musical landscape of North Rhine Westphalia - thanks to its subscription series at Kolner Philharmonie and Funkhaus Wallrafplatz as well as partnerships with the region's largest concert halls and festivals. International tours and a growing number of award-winning CD releases confirm its international rank as an outstanding representative of the German orchestra scene.

Contemporary Ballet: Nina - Materialize Sacrifice

Date: May 19-20 - 7:30 pm

Venue: Shanghai International Dance Center Grand Theater

Nina - Materialize Sacrifice studies how one might produce an energy strong enough to give a sense of the beauty and power to a body before it moves in space, and explores how to create a body which would absorb the energy of the floor and would not fall even when being pushed. French-born Vietnamese composer An Ton That creates a compact music with mechanical sound and hammering percussion, together with the mysterious dim stage light, the piece transpires a sense of thrilling tension. The female dancers' bodies are stiff like robots with no facial expression, yet their movement is sharp, fast and skillfully controlled, contrasting to the powerful but arbitrary manipulation of the male dancers.