Following a good start with operas, chamber music, symphonic and Chinese folk, the Seventh Beijing Music Festival will reach its climax in the next few days.
Three well-known violinists, three great cellists and the prestigious Orchestra de Paris under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach will thrill local classical fans at their concerts.
If you missed last night's concert featuring Cho-Liang Lin, Wang Jian and Emanuel Ax, never fear as today you will have one more chance at the Poly Theater.
As yesterday, it is a concert dedicated to the great German composer Johannes Brahms (1833-97).
One regret you may have is that yesterday the three who co-operated with China Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Michael Stern gave an incredible interpretation of Brahms' concertos.
But today, you could enjoy their brilliant technique and passion in the chamber works. The programs are "No 2 Sonata for Cello and Piano in F major," "No 3 Sonata for Violin and Piano in D minor" and "No 1 Piano Trio in B major."
Prestigious musicians
"Ax once received a Grammy award for the 'Brahms Trio' recording with Yo-Yo Ma on cello and Richard Stolzman on violin. Let's see how is the chemistry between he and Wang and Lin," said Yu Long, artistic director of the Beijing Music Festival.
"Both Wang and Lin are wonderful artists. I have been friends with Lin for about 15 years and played together many times. I am just acquainted with Wang and look forward to collaborating with him," said the pianist.
Although it is Ax's first visit to China, he said he "is completely at home" during a break in rehearsals with China Philharmonic Orchestra on Monday.
"Yo-Yo Ma, Cho-Liang Lin and I have been friends for quite a long time. They often took me to restaurants in New York's China Town. So I like Chinese food very much," the gourmet pianist said about the Sichuan dishes, Hunan dishes and Cantonese dishes.
"Apart from the delicious food, you have the most wonderful pianists in the world such as Lang Lang and Li Yundi. They are fantastic," Ax praised the Chinese talents without stint.
He also told the local press that the other day he was impressed by a young Chinese woman playing Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsodies" on TV. "She was fabulous," he said.
The woman player Ax mentioned was Chen Sa.
Acclaimed for his poetic lyricism and super technique, the Polish-American pianist Emanuel Ax is one of today's best known and most highly regarded musicians.
He first caught the public's attention in 1974 when, aged 25, he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. Five years later he took the coveted Avery Fisher Prize in New York.
Today Ax is in demand all over the United States, both in recital and orchestra, regularly performing in New York, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia and St. Louis.
In addition, he makes regular festival appearances at Aspen, Blossom, Hollywood Bowl, Mainly Mozart, Ravinia and Tanglewood. And now, the Beijing Music Festival will be added to the list.
Child prodigies usually have a short shelf life. If they don't burn out through excessive or premature exposure, they tend to lose interest in their prodigious skill and disappear without trace. One startling exception is Wang Jian.
The 36-year-old Shanghai-born cellist began studying the cello at the age of 4 and was enrolled in the Shanghai Conservatory of Music when he was 9.
Only one year later, he achieved worldwide fame, thanks to Isaac Stern, who was in China making a documentary video "From Mao to Mozart."
Stern discovered the young prodigy and featured him in the video. Even at that youthful age, Wang played with a beautiful, serious mastery of the instrument.
During the decade following Wang studied at Yale and also at Julliard.
In the years since he graduated from Yale in 1989, Wang has played throughout Europe, North America and Asia.
Cho-Liang Lin, the Taiwan-born virtuoso, is renowned for his soulful expression of emotion in classic, romantic and modern music.
He learned at Juilliard with Dorothy DeLay and made his European debut in London in 1981. He has since appeared as soloist with many of the front-line orchestras in the world.
The magazine Musical America named Lin its Instrumentalist of the Year in 2000.
Lin's recordings have been recognized with awards such as Gramophone's Record of the Year, not to mention two Grammy Award nominations.
Following Wang Jian, the other two cellists to be featured in the Festival are Yo-Yo Ma and Anssi Karttunen.
Karttunen will perform Tan Dun's "Map: Concerto for cello, video and orchestra" at the concert featuring Tan's works at the Poly Theater on October 31 while Ma will give a recital at the Poly Theater on October 29.
"It took us seven years to catch Yo-Yo Ma at the festival since 1998. He is always in so much demand," said Zeng Wei, the Media Publicity Director of the Beijing Music Festival.
He has such a tight schedule that he will head to Beijing late in the afternoon before the concert on October 29, give a master's class at the China Central Conservatory of Music the next morning and fly back to New York on October 30.
But the recital will definitely be a feast for his fans with a wide variety of classical, jazz and lesser-known works including George Gershwin's "Three Preludes," Shostakovich's "Sonata in D minor," Astor Piazzolla's "Le Grand Tango," Egberto Gismonti's "Bodas de Prata & Quatro Canto" and Cesar Franck's "Sonata in A minor."
Yo-Yo Ma, 15-time Grammy-Awards-winner, was born to Chinese parents in Paris in 1955. At the age of 4 he was enrolled into private cello lessons.
Shortly thereafter, he and his parents moved to New York City where he began studying with Leonard Rose of the Julliard School.
At 15, he gained international attention when Leonard Bernstein presented him on a televised fund-raising event for the Kennedy Center.
To expand upon the knowledge he gained from Julliard, Yo-Yo Ma attended Harvard University and graduated with a liberal arts degree in 1976.
Alongside the performances, Yo-Yo Ma is working on his New Silk Road Project to explore the culture and music along the Silk Road.
For those who love chamber music and especially strings, today you have another choice at the Forbidden City Concert Hall, where the Vienna String Soloists, led by Rainer Honeck, concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, will play Mozart, Brahms, Dvorak, Gounod and Tchaikovsky.
Founded in 1974 by members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the world's best orchestras, the Vienna String Soloists started appearing abroad in 1979, toured extensively all over Europe and have given more than 100 concerts. Currently, the ensemble has 11 soloists.
German conductor Christoph Eschbenbach is one of the highlights of this year's Beijing Music Festival. Last year, under his baton, the NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg presented a thrilling concert to wrap up the Sixth Beijing Music Festival.
This year, Beijing's music lovers are waiting for a touch of French glamour by the Orchestra de Paris at two concerts at the Poly Theater on October 28 and 30.
The first concert will also feature the French violinist Renaud Capucon, who was acclaimed "Rising Star 2000" by the European Jury and "New Talent of the Year 2000" by French Victoires de la Musique.
The program includes Bright Sheng's "Flute Moon," Dutilleux's violin concerto "L'arbres des Songes" and Ravel's "Daphnis et Chloe Suite No 2," "La valse" and his highly popular orchestra showpiece "Bolero."
In the second concert, Orchestra de Paris will co-operate with Central Orchestra of Traditional Chinese Music and soprano Marisol Montalvo to play Berlioz's "Fantastic Symphony."
'Flute Moon'
Chinese-American composer Sheng Zongliang's "Flute Moon" is an eye-catching piece in the program.
Commissioned and premiered by the Houston Symphony Orchestra in 1999, it is for solo flute/piccolo with a chamber orchestra comprised of harp, piano, percussion and strings. The two-movement work was acclaimed the best premiere the Houston Symphony has offered in many years.
The music is based on Chinese mythology and a poem written by Jiang Kui (1155-1221). The title of the piece is implied in the poetry, which begins: "Oh, moonlight, my old friend, how many times have you accompanied my flute beside the winter sweet blossom?"
Sheng, who emigrated from China to the United States in 1982 at the age of 27, is a master at translating Eastern subject matter and sensibility into the language of Western contemporary classical composition.
He received the coveted MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in November 2001. "Sheng is a fresh voice in cross-cultural music," the Foundation Committee said. "He will continue to be an important leader in exploring and bridging musical traditions."
"Sheng's music is noted for its lyrical, limpid melodies inspired by the folk music of China, particularly from the remote Chinese province of Qinghai, where Sheng was sent during the 'cultural revolution' (1966-76)," said Li Cheng, a local music critic.
"His synthesis of his deep affinity for Chinese culture and his exceptional skill in writing Western art music was very impressive," he added.
Orchestra de Paris grew out of the acclaimed Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire, founded in 1828 by Francois Habeneck, the first exponent of Beethoven's symphonies in France.
(China Daily October 27, 2004)
