The sound of chamber music
One of the event's highlights will see violinist Weigang Li, a founding member of the established Shanghai Quartet, one of the first string quartets in the country, horn player Han Xiaoguang, who is the principal horn player of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and oboist Liu Mingjia, who is the principal oboe of San Francisco Opera Orchestra, performing together in a concert featuring programs, including French composer Henri Tomasi's Fanfares Liturgiques, German composer Wilhelm Berger's Serenade for Twelve Wind Players, Op 102, and Tchaikovsky's Serenade in C Major, Op 48.
On Sunday, the Tianjin Juilliard Ensemble, consisting mainly of faculty members from the Tianjin Juilliard School, held a concert featuring conductor Chen Lin. The music was composed by Tan Dun, Guo Wenjing and Chen Qigang. It was presented in that rare format of chamber music. Accompanied by the China NCPA Orchestra, they also premiered a music piece, Three Settings from the Book of Odes, composed by Tianjin Juilliard School's resident faculty member, Niccolo Athens, which is inspired by The Book of Odes, or Shi Jing, China's earliest collection of poems and songs. Performers of this concert on Sunday also included bass-baritone Shen Yang, guzheng player Chang Jing, pipa player Li Jia, and percussion player Yin Fei, in a conversation between Chinese and Western musical instruments.
According to Ren Xiaolong, general manager of China NCPA Orchestra, for the first time, the NCPA May Festival took musicians to perform in Tianjin, which would probably see chamber music find a new audience. On May 12 and 13, musicians of China NCPA Orchestra performed at the concert hall of the Tianjin Juilliard School.
On Friday and Saturday, violinist Ning Feng will perform with China NCPA Orchestra under the baton of Qian Junping in a concert, named after Ernest Hemingway's classic memoir of Paris, A Movable Feast, featuring music pieces by French composers Maurice Ravel and Charles-Camille Saint-Saens.
Besides performances at concert halls, the festival will introduce chamber music shows to audiences at public spaces inside the NCPA, combining classical music, jazz and pingtan, a form of storytelling and ballad singing in Suzhou dialect.
Since the inception of the NCPA May Festival, it aspires to introduce recitals to an audience that has limited exposure to classical music. This year, the festival will bring performances outside the venue to public places, such as schools, construction sites and communities in the capital.
