String quartet pushes musical boundaries at Italian festival

Listening to the Amber Quartet is to witness the convergence of two musical worlds, where the resonance of ancient Chinese traditions meets the refined legacy of Western classical music.

Since its founding in 2005, the Beijing-based string quartet has consistently pushed boundaries, making its mark both on domestic and international stages.

The quartet performed on July 4 at Italy's prestigious Spoleto Festival, one of the country's longest-standing cultural events. The concert formed part of the ensemble's 20th anniversary celebration and powerfully showcased its unique ability to bridge cultures through music.

The program combined classical Western works with contemporary Chinese compositions, and unfolded into a compelling narrative of cross-cultural dialogue.

The evening opened with Puccini's Crisantemi, a work suffused with haunting melancholy. The Amber Quartet's lush, expressive interpretation found a poignant counterpart in Wang Liping's Buried Flowers, drawn from his score for the 1987 Chinese television adaptation of Dream of the Red Chamber, the classic Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) novel. Both pieces explore themes of loss and introspection — one through the lens of Italian elegy; the other steeped in Chinese sentiment.

"We wanted to create a musical dialogue by pairing these two pieces, blending the solemnity of Puccini's lament with distinct Chinese sensibility," says cellist and cofounder Yang Yichen.

The dialogue continued with Totem by contemporary Chinese composer Zhang Zhao, whose music draws on the folk melodies of his native Yunnan province, followed by Debussy's String Quartet in G Minor, a cornerstone of the Western chamber repertoire.