Celebrating the New Year with a concert has become a Shanghai fashion. Continuous concerts have made this period a performance season almost as busy as the Arts Festival.
The Czech National Broadcast Symphony Orchestra is due to perform at the Shanghai Grand Stage. The 75-year-old ensemble has worked with Honegger, Khachaturian and Penderecki, among other masters, and attracted interest from Chinese audiences in May while appearing at the "Spring of Prague Music Festival".
The conductor is Wang Jin, a Chinese artist who has lived in Europe for 13 years and has won many international awards.
The sponsors decided to use the Grand Stage because of its large audience capacity, which is four times that of the Grand Theatre.
"We set the ticket price low in the hope of attracting more people to enjoy classical music," said Li Zhixiang of Eastern Shanghai International Culture & Television Co. Strauss will be on the programme.
Over half of the tickets are priced below 180 yuan (US$22), with the lowest price being 50 yuan (US$6).
(Shanghai Star December 20, 2001)
