On 17 September, the 2021/22 Season of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra and Choir was officially released. In the new season called "Hearts and Minds", the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra will once again gather the world-class "Super China United" to pay tribute to the orchestra and music director Lu Jia's extraordinary journey of 117 symphonies, chamber music and operas. At the same time, in addition to the opera, the Choir of the National Centre for the Performing Arts will also give 17 concerts with different backgrounds and eclectic styles.
In the evening, the two iconic groups of the National Centre for the Performing Arts joined hands with conductors Li Xincao and Zhang Qiang, Zhao Ling, Wang Haitao and Zhou Xiaolin to stage Zhao Jiping's "Red Star Shines on China" and Sheng Zongliang's "Nanjing, Nanjing!" and the magnificent "Yellow River Chorus", directly expressing the strong feelings of home and country, playing the light of the inner hao, opening the curtain of the new music season.
Explore the beautiful Dawn of Light
For the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra, the challenges of the last season are even more surprising: in the face of the epidemic, the orchestra released the season in two parts for the first time to ensure that the performance information is as accurate as possible. In the 17-month super season, they dynamically adjusted their performances, online and offline parallel, combined with resident tours, and won the support of fans with a high spirit of "Daily New" in more than 130 performances, becoming one of the orchestras with the most performing, smoothest and most eye-catching performances in the world since the epidemic. The first China tour, the Mini Chamber Music Week, the davos cloud debut, and the 32 online performances that embraced hundreds of millions of viewers are all shining footprints for his tenth birthday.
In order to polish hope with music and return to Beijing on the occasion of the Olympic Games, the new music season will be named "Heart with Haoyao", implying the mission of spreading light with music and paying tribute to the Olympic flame that illuminates the heart. "Haoyao" means "bright sunshine, white light", in the eyes of Ren Xiaolong, the general manager of the orchestra, this "light" full of Chinese meaning is "not only the hope of people in difficult times, but also the moving characteristics of the Olympic Games, and the richest treasure in music". Music director Lu Jia said emotionally, "Literary and art workers are often fortunate to bathe in light from art, so they always want more people to be lucky with this." Through our work and this theme, I hope that more people can see extraordinary light through music. ”
Zhu Wei", "Heart has Haoyao"
On the occasion of the new season, Mr. Zhu Wei, who has been the orchestra's guest artist for two consecutive years, also held the new work, with a huge painting of six meters long, which captured the fusion of the orchestra, the audience and the music, and also fixed an orchestra with light in its heart into an unforgettable group portrait. Orchestra Chief Li Zhe was inexplicably moved when he first saw this painting, he said: "In this orchestra, there are people with light in their hearts, this painting 'silent is better than sound' to paint our immersion in dreams and light, the kind of concentration, enjoyment and enthusiasm that we and the audience share, is our most unique beauty, but also our glory." ”
Super China United regrouped
In the absence of international artists, the burden of lifting up Chinese musical life falls on the shoulders of local musicians. Ren Xiaolong, general manager of the orchestra, believes that "since the epidemic, China has been the most normal place for musical life in the world, and the talent and responsibility of Chinese musicians are indispensable. Lu Jia believes that the barrier of international exchanges brought about by the epidemic has become a big test and a big display of the strength of the Chinese music industry, "Facts have proved that we have the strength of the world in many fields from conducting, to performance, to composing, which is also the key to China's current music life is still complete and innovative." ”
In the 38 symphony concerts this season, in addition to Lv Jia, Li Xincao, Chen Lin, Yu Feng, Tan Dun, Zhang Guoyong, Xu Zhong, Li Biao, Zhang Yi, Yuan Ding, Huang Yi, Lin Daye and other conductors will successively lead the baton, and the two new generation leaders Sun Yifan and Lai Jiajing will also cooperate with the orchestra with extraordinary strength.
Pianists Zhang Haochen, Zuo Zhang, Zhang Qiu, Luo Wei, Gina Alice, violinists Lu Siqing, Huang Mengla, Xie Nan and Wang Xiaoming, cellist Qin Liwei and Nie Jiapeng, oboe player Liu Mingjia, horn player Han Xiaoguang, percussionist Bai Weiqi, singers Zhang Ningjia, Zhu Huiling, Zhou Xiaolin and Lei Jia will all be on stage. The Choir of the National Centre for the Performing Arts will be conducted by Wu Lingfen, Li Xincao, Zheng Jian, Jiao Miao and Meng Xian, and will brilliantly interpret the natural sounds from the classics of the Red Revolution, to the rhymes of ancient Chinese poetry, to the classic operas of the world.
Musicians from the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra are also increasingly participating in our season as soloists, and this year there will be eight musicians on stage, namely Li Zhe, Principal Orchestra, Dou Congchang, Assistant Principal of the Orchestra, Zhuang Ran, Principal Viola, Xu Ting, Deputy Principal Cello, Liu Yiming, Principal Double Bass, Ye Yirong, Principal Flute, Zhou Yang, Principal Oboe, and Zhang Yue, Piano of the National Centre for the Performing Arts.
Adhering to the spirit of innovating and promoting Chinese music culture, the orchestra will have an east-west dialogue with guqin player Chen Leiji, pipa players Zhang Qiang and Zhang Hongyan, erhu player Lu Yiwen, pipe player Han Lei and other folk music masters in the "Music is hometown of Ming" series, and stage the popular classics and the new school works of Chen Qigang, Sheng Zongliang, Yu Jingjun, Zhou Wenzhong, Zhou Long, Tan Dun, Chen Xinruo and Yao Chen. The orchestra, together with the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Eisen Theatre in Germany, co-commissioned Huang Ruo's "Butterfly Change", will also usher in a world premiere.
Zhao Jiping's "Focus Composer" series will continue this season, and will perform works such as "Pipe Concerto", "Pipa Concerto No. 2", "Red Star Shines on China" and "Qingyun Music". At the same time, Zhao Jiping's symphonic chorus "The Story of flowers", commissioned by the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra and based on the dance music of the same name, will make its world premiere and will undoubtedly become another blockbuster work of the 76-year-old composer.
Neoclassical and "unbounded" chamber music
The wonderful theme section of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra season has long been a "egg sex" feature that music fans talk about, and this season is no exception. Taking advantage of the 50th anniversary of Stravinsky's death in 2022, the orchestra has curated the "Echoes of Neoclassicism" series, bringing together the modernist pioneer with Respiky, Ravel, Bartók, etc., taking the audience back to the boiling controversy of the literary and artistic circles at the beginning of the last century, and recalling how the two forces of the new and the retro have pushed the times forward in the same way. Among them, Stravinsky's "Card Game", "Symphony of Three Movements", "Dumbarton Oaks", "Violin Concerto in D major", Respiki's "Ancient Tunes and Dances", Bartók's "Orchestra Concerto", etc., have far-reaching influences in history, and it is rare to hear them in China, which will surely make music fans feast their ears.
Over the years, many chamber music groups built by orchestraists have become increasingly stable and frequent, and chamber music has become a new highlight of the glittering season. Following the launch of the "Mini Chamber Music Week" for the first time, they will continue to work closely with three artistic consultants Li Weigang, Liu Mingjia, Han Xiaoguang, violinist Wang Xiaoming and Shanghai Quartet, and cross-border with guitarist Yang Xuefei, guqin player Chen Leiji, erhu player Lu Yiwen and other soloists to launch an all-star "Unbounded" chamber music series, through 13 resident concerts and 6 touring concerts, presenting the string works of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schoenberg and Piazola, exploring Richard Strauss , Beethoven's wind works, as well as rare pipe band adaptations of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and Mussorgsky's Picture Exhibition.
In addition to the above sections, a number of blockbuster works are also eagerly awaited, including Mahler's "Sixth Symphony" performed by Zhang Yi, Schubert's "Rosamond" with Yu Feng, Stravinsky's "Spring Sacrifice" with Li Xincao, Shostakovich's "Fifth Symphony" staged with Huang Yi, and "Don Quixote" by Richard Strauss staged by Tonglin Daye. With the improvement of the epidemic prevention and control situation, the signature opera of the National Centre for the Performing Arts will also make a strong return: from world classics such as "Jani Skiki", "Troubadour", "Turandot", "La Traviata", "Sweetheart of Love", to wonderful originals such as "Long March", "Daughter of the Party", "Song of Youth", "Summer Rainbow" and so on, which will surely make the audience addicted to opera.
The "Jiayin Ten Years" of mutual knowledge
This season, the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra will celebrate its 10th anniversary with Lu Jia: in February 2012, Lu Jia made her debut as Principal Conductor and was named Music Director in 2017. Over the past ten years, the orchestra led by Lu Jia has become a well-deserved spokesperson for the top orchestras of the new generation, not only establishing and consolidating the lofty artistic prestige, but also becoming the leader of the new style of management and operation, and making outstanding contributions to the development of music life in Beijing and the whole country.
Lu Jia, Music Director and Principal Conductor of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra (second from right)
Ren Xiaolong, General Manager of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (second from left)
General Manager Ren Xiaolong said in looking back on the past ten years, "The National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra was born in the new era, of course, to explore new standards, new styles and new cultures for Chinese orchestras. On this journey, Lu Jia is our most powerful backing in art, the most shining soul, and the most lovely, amiable, respectable and reliable director in everyone's heart. Chief Li Zhe believes that "after ten years of working together, we and Director Lu Jia are entering the golden age, and we will certainly bring more big leaps and surprises in the future." ”
On this commemorative occasion of the decade together, Lu Jia and the orchestra's years of love and exploration of Theo-Austrian works will also bear fruit: starting with "Paris", "Hafner", "Linz" and "Prague", the performance and recording program of Mozart's late symphonies will soon begin, and the "Bruckner Code" series, which started last season, will continue to march, and will be staged next year's Ninth Symphony.
In April, the orchestra's first tour of China received rave reviews, with The Paper commenting that it had "a sense of power for the national symphony orchestras" and Music Weekly praising it for "coming up with such a difficult and scarce repertoire... Reflect strength and sincerity. "This season, although the long-planned and magnificent European tour may be delayed due to the epidemic, the plan to re-tour China is still advancing in an orderly manner, and it is possible to let more fans across the country share the joy and fruits of the orchestra and Lu Jia Le's decade of travel with the magnificent Bruckner Symphony.
For more information about the season, please visit the official website of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra (www.chncpa.org/ncpao) to download the electronic version of the season booklet. The season information was simultaneously published on the WeChat public account and Weibo of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra. In addition, the season video has been released on the national centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra video number and the official Bilibili account, which can be viewed here. For information on the season in English, please visit the official Website (www.chncpa.org/ncpao/en) and the orchestra's official Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Source: National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra
Correspondent: Chen Huihan
Press conference photo: Niu Xiaobei
Edit: Gao Jian