On the evening of December 20, the closing ceremony of the 2021 Australian "Jiangsu Year of Culture and Tourism" and the China-Australia New Year Concert were successfully held in Suzhou Culture and Arts Center. At the event site, the China-Australia New Year Concert was jointly performed by the Suzhou National Orchestra and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra of Australia in a combination of online and offline, and broadcast live through the cloud.
Under the circumstance that the global COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control situation is still grim, and the cast and crew of the two sides cannot visit and meet each other, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra of Victoria, Australia and the Suzhou National Orchestra interpret Chinese and Western music through the combination of online and offline and the joint efforts of Chinese and Western orchestras, presenting a musical feast of Chinese and Western artistic exchanges and mutual learning for the audiences of the two places. This is also a new attempt in the field of people-to-people exchanges between Jiangsu and The Australian sister city of Victoria.
Accompanied by a crisp and bright scream, the Suzhou National Orchestra's version of "William Retreat" kicked off the concert, and the combination of Chinese and Western instruments brought the audience a fresh experience of this Rossini".
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra played "Jasmine" with strong jiangsu local characteristics through video playback. The arrangement retains the original beautiful melody of the song, and then changes and develops it, giving the music rich expressiveness and appeal. Next, the two orchestras of China and Australia alternately played "Spring River Flower Moon Night", Kunqu opera "Peony Pavilion", "Australian Folk Song Ensemble", "Erquan Yingyue" and other Chinese, Australian and Western classics, and the scenery videos of Jiangsu and Australia were played on the stage screen with the music. The perfect combination of sound and painting, wonderful audio-visual effects, made the audience mesmerized, and the end of each song was rewarded with thunderous applause. Amid the warm applause and voices of the audience, the Suzhou National Orchestra returned to the scene to perform the enthusiastic and cheerful "Thunder and Lightning Polka" and the popular "Friendship lasts for a long time". In the midst of long and warm applause and applause, the concert ended successfully.
Blatter Stevens, chief representative of the Victorian Government of Australia for Greater China, described his feelings about the concert as "stunning.". He said that as a cultural symbol of Victoria and Jiangsu, the Joint Performance of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Suzhou National Orchestra is a good attempt to celebrate Australia's "Jiangsu Year of Culture and Tourism" and to celebrate the 42nd anniversary of Victoria's friendship with Jiangsu.
"The Suzhou National Orchestra and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform on the same stage and connect with each other through music, the universal language of the world, is a wonderful cultural dialogue of great significance," said Peng Jiapeng, artistic director and chief conductor of the Suzhou National Orchestra. ”
In accordance with the requirements of normalized epidemic prevention and control, this offline event adopted the measure of limited reservation, and at the same time conducted global live broadcasting through domestic and foreign platforms such as Jiangsu Provincial Radio and Television Station, Sydney Chinese Cultural Center and China Daily Network. It is worth mentioning that this concert attempts to organically combine the tourist scenery films of Australia and Jiangsu with the music played, enriching the audience's audiovisual experience and highlighting the deep integration of culture and tourism.
This year, the Department of Culture and Tourism of Jiangsu Province and the Sydney Chinese Cultural Center held the "Jiangsu Year of Culture and Tourism" activity in Australia, showing the rich and colorful cultural elements with Jiangsu characteristics to the Australian people in a combination of offline and online, and also through this New Year's concert, let the Australian people truly feel the landscape scenery, traditional culture and humanistic creativity of "Water Charm Jiangsu", further promote people-to-people exchanges and cooperation between the two places, and enhance their confidence in fighting the epidemic and embracing a better life.
Yangtze Evening News/Purple Cow News reporter Kong Xiaoping