Chinese tenors (left to right) - Dai Yuqiang, Warren Mok and Wei Song - and American singer Michael Boton. Photo: Courtesy of BMF

Though the weather was cold and miserable Friday night, the buoyant atmosphere inside the Forbidden City Concert Hall was enough to warm the cockles of music lovers' hearts. China's top three tenors - Dai Yuqiang, Warren Mok and Wei Song - teamed up with American pop crooner Michael Bolton and the China Philharmonic Orchestra to bring the curtain down in style on the 15th Beijing Music Festival (BMF).

"The festival is 15 years old and has entered an age of adolescence, full of dreams and imagination. We are dedicated to providing audiences with more diverse, rich experiences. Tonight's closing ceremony is not an ending but a new beginning," said Yu Long, artistic director of the BMF, at a press conference Friday.

Innovative festival

Under the all-encompassing theme of "music for you," this year's festival made innovational changes by involving more performers spanning a diverse musical cross-section of genres.

"The 15th BMF differed from previous years' festivals, as reflected by the program schedule and venues chosen for performances," music critic Zhou Hao told Metro Beijing.

Classical music has traditionally been a pillar of the BMF, but this year saw pop and rock music also included into the festival's repertoire.

Bolton performed a solo concert and also collaborated with China's tenor trio for "None Shall Sleep," an aria from Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot.

The respected godfathers of Chinese rock and pop - Cui Jian and Lo Ta-yu - also joined the festival in a dialogue with conductor Yu Long and composer Tan Dun.

The Orange auditorium at The Village in Sanlitun, Chaoyang district's fashion and shopping hub, provided an alternative to the usual grandiose concert halls.

Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder performed a seven-day spectacle of Beethoven sonatas at The Orange, where a giant screen outside entertained passersby and revelers unable to buy tickets to see the show.

Classical musicians and ensembles such as the Hallé Orchestra, the oldest British orchestra; Buchbinder, concerned the best living performer of Beethoven's piano sonatas; and Russian violinist and violist Maxim Vegnrov all made this year's festival memorable.

South Korean soprano Sumi Jo, universally regarded the best soprano in Asia, performed with the China Philharmonic Orchestra.

In another dynamic collaboration, China's celebrated contemporary guitarist Yang Xuefei teamed up with famous Northern Irish flautist Sir James Galway. Zhou noted it is important to invite famous musicians and orchestras to China, but creative arrangement is also needed at future festivals to attract younger audiences.

Bright future ahead

According to Yu, the future of the BMF not only hinges on its appeal to audiences spanning all ages, but also in evolving as an important force leading the development of Chinese music.

Cooperation between the BMF and Salzburg Easter Festival, a prestigious music festival founded by Austrian conductor Hebert von Karajan in 1967, hints at the bright future ahead for both festivals. Peter Alward, director of the Salzburg Easter Festival, told Metro Beijing that the BMF and Salzburg Easter Festival will co-present the Chinese premiere of German composer Richard Wagner's last operatic masterpiece Parsifal, first at Salzburg in March and then at next year's BMF in October.