"Music is the crux of the matter" is the motto of the
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.
The orchestra is committed to focusing on, listening to and
wrestling with the work in question and exploring its spiritual
background. In this way, each concert becomes an emotional and
cognitive experience.
Chinese audiences will soon get to be part of such an experience
as the orchestra will tour Shanghai, Wuhan, capital of Central
China's Hubei Province, and Beijing this month as part of the
Germany and China - Moving Ahead Together program.
The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin orchestra emerged in 1923
from a group of musicians involved in the first public radio
program ever produced in Germany.
The foremost living composers picked up the baton or performed
as soloists, spreading contemporary music over the airwaves. Today,
it is regarded as one of the best orchestras in Berlin.
In 2005, Simon Rattle led the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra to
captivate Beijing and Shanghai audiences with a strong German-style
sound.
Now, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin brings a repertoire
of the great Germany composers Beethoven and Brahms. And taking the
baton is the renowned Russian conductor Pmitrij Kitajenko, who has
collaborated with the orchestra for some 30 years.
The orchestra will participate in the Shanghai International
Arts Festival on November 4 and 5, and the Eighth China Arts
Festival in Wuhan on November 7 and 8 before wrapping up the tour
at the Great Hall of the People on November 9.
Shaanxi People's Radio Station will broadcast the Beijing
concert live. It is the first time that a provincial radio station
is allowed to broadcast an event at the Great Hall of the
People.
"It's thrilling to see a large German orchestra cover the huge
stage of the Great Hall of the People and play the most powerful
Beethoven's Symphony No 5," says Kitajenko.
"You have to give the musicians space for their own images, to
use their own individual emotional intelligence. That is the only
way that music can come to life. Musicians are very sensitive, and
if you work with them at their own level, ideas come alive: Both
sides become richer from the experience," says the veteran
conductor.
"I know many Chinese soloists and composers have earned fame in
the world. I love Tan Dun's music, and the
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester once performed his work. And I have
attended the concerts by Lang Lang and Li Yundi in Germany. Li's
talent and understanding of music is rare of a soloist of his age.
He is really a poet of a pianist," says the conductor, who will
collaborate with Li to record Chopin's concerto at the end of the
year.
(China Daily November 3, 2007)