The haze of the epidemic has not yet dissipated, but the world is hoping for the arrival of 2022, and one New Year's concert after another is waiting to be staged. Since its inception in 2009, the "Shanghai New Year Concert" has long become an important new year's eve ceremony for Shanghai music fans. At 20:00 on December 31st, the "2022 Shanghai New Year Concert" will be a greeting from Shanghai to the world by the Shanghai Quartet and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, two music brands named after the city.
This year's Shanghai New Year's Concert will play the "Viennese Melody", knock on the door of 2022 time with romantic and cheerful music, and invite people to dance together in the round dance. The repertoire is very traditional, but the "Wang Bang Group" composed of the Shanghai Quartet and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra will try a new form of performance - there is no podium on the stage, and the four members of the Shanghai Quartet work with the orchestra as the lead to bring a different musical experience to the audience.
Viennese melody, Shanghai expression
As the originator of the Worldwide New Year's Concert, the Vienna New Year's Concert in 1939 laid the foundation for the performance of the Strauss family's round dance. This kind of three-beat dance that people can't help but dance with quickly conquered people of different skin colors and cultural backgrounds, and reached hundreds of millions of audiences through global live broadcasting, including Chinese audiences, these cheerful dance music became the earliest recognition of the New Year's concert in China.
In this New Year' day, which is still plagued by the epidemic, the Shanghai New Year Concert has chosen to perform the familiar "Viennese Melody", including the "Sound of Spring" round dance, "plucked strings" polka, "Thunder" fast polka, "Blue Danube" round dance and other signature songs of the Vienna New Year Concert. Coincidentally, this year's New Year's Concert by the Berliner Philharmoniker will also feature a Strauss family dance under the theme of "Tribute to Vienna". In addition, the Shanghai New Year Concert will present the "Gold and Silver Round Dance" that Hungarian composer Lehar was invited to compose for the carnival ball and Shostakovich's prestigious "Second Circle Dance".
The four members of the Shanghai Quartet will also perform with the orchestra as lead performances of Beethoven's Romantic Song No. 2 in F major, Dvořák's Whirlwind in G minor, Bruch's Romance in F major, Mondë's Chardash and Shahankun's Pastoral. Among the many Western classics, ShaHankun's "Pastoral" is unique. Yu Xiang, the second violin of the Shanghai Quartet, is a native of Inner Mongolia, and his "Pastoral Song" is composed by Chinese composer Sha Hankun based on the folk songs of Inner Mongolia,000 long tunes, depicting a beautiful picture of the vast grassland with the melody of the pastoral pastoral style.
Shanghai Quartet
A different perspective, perceiving the classics
Over the years, the Shanghai New Year Concert has invited many world-renowned conductors to take the stage in Shanghai. This year, unexpectedly, the podium in the center of the stage was removed, and the artist-in-residence of this season, the "Shanghai Quartet", was placed in the C position. The four musicians in the band's surroundings will lead the band to play and unleash their musical nature with the audience.
Li Weigang, the first violin of the Shanghai Quartet, was both nervous and expectant about this lead: "This is the first time that we have led a band of more than eighty people, so I am also curious about the effect of this performance form, after all, it has not yet appeared on the domestic stage."
Li Weigang, the first violinist of the Shanghai Quartet, led the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
In fact, today's international music scene is also testing such a form. At this year's Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, pianist Yujia Wang performed two concerts with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and mahler Chamber Orchestra, which were completed by the pianist or principal. Veteran music critic Christian Welhagen praised the Lucerne Festival's attempt in the Swiss New Zurich Times.
Of course, this does not mean that the role of traditional conductors in performances can be replaced. The repertoire suitable for this attempt is very limited, and most of the dance music such as round dance music and polka interpreted in this Shanghai New Year Concert was born in the folk, enthusiastic and cheerful, and the listeners are loved to dance with the music.
For this attempt, music critic Li Yanhuan is very much looking forward to: "In fact, the Vienna New Year's Concert was conducted and played by the orchestra for a long time, and the effect was very good. Led by the Shanghai Quartet, the concert led the band to present classic works in a more chamber-based manner, perhaps allowing both the player and the audience to perceive the music they are already familiar with from a different perspective. ”