How theclassics got hot to trot
- Source: Global Times
- [08:58 August 05 2010]
- Comments
By Hu Bei
This Summer in Shanghai, classical music will befound not just inits usual serious, elegant and formal surrounds but also inalaid-back, relaxed special venueinthemiddleof thecity.
Two music festivals are setting out to delight - the Music in the Summer Air (MISA) organized by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra (SSO), and the Mu-Jean-Sic Festival organized by the Shanghai Concert Hall (SCH) - and both offer cheap tickets and a new approach.
MISA runs from August 12 to 22 and is the first outdoor classical music festival in Shanghai.
It will be staged in a huge 50-meter by 30-meter outdoor tent at the intersection of Huahai Road Middle and Fenyang Road in downtown Shanghai.
"For the first time in China a 1,500-square-meter tent, which can accommodate 800 people, will be the venue for classical music concerts.
Traditional indoor concert halls used for classical music often appear too formal to attract ordinary people," Yu Long, the artistic director of the SSO, said.
"Classical music is high and serious art, but this doesn't mean it has to be limited to an enclosed interior space. For this festival, we want to create a relatively relaxed and open environment for people to enjoy classical music."
Yu told the Global Times that although the performance venue is a tent, its acoustics are as good as a traditional auditorium.
The equipment in the tent includes 16 sets of loudspeakers designed specifically for classical music and insulation and air conditioning designed by a professional team from Tongji University.
As well as the SSO, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) will be participating too. The artistic director and world-famous conductor of the RPO, Charles Dutoit, is a co-director for MISA.
"More than 200 Chinese and foreign musicians will perform during MISA, including the famous opera singers, Wei Song, Liao Changyong, the Chinese pianists, Li Yundi, Xu Zhong, Kirill Gerstein from Switzerland, and Canadian violinist, Chantel Juillet," Yu said.
"As well as the performances, we also have a series of interactive music activities like face-to-face meetings with the musicians, lectures and rehearsals," he added.
MISA's opening concert (at different ticket prices) will see Yu Long conducting the SSO and the China Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert that includes baritone Liao Changyong, tenor Wei Song, soprano Xu Xiaoying and pianist Xu Zhong performing works by Wagner, Rossini, Puccini, Chopin and Respighi.
Incidentally the RPO will perform at the Shanghai Grand Theater on August 12, playing Sibelius' Finlandia, Korngold's Violin Concerto in D Major and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.
The Shanghai Student Symphony Orchestra made up of music students all aged under 15, from city middle schools, will join the festival.
"They have been rehearsing under the guidance of local conductor, Cao Peng, for nearly a month, and before the performance in MISA, they will meet musicians from the SSO and the RPO," Yu said.
"Adolescents are our target - they are the real future for classical music. Nowadays we see more and more talented musicians appearing both in domestic and international classical music fields, like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, and they are very young."
Ticket prices for MISA range from 30 yuan ($4.43) to 300 yuan and the interactive music activities are free.
Tickets for the Mu-Jean- Sic Festival organized by the SCH start at 50 yuan and this festival which started on July 21, ends this week.
Although the musicians here perform in a traditional auditorium, the concerts are marked by their distinct variety.
The pianist Song Siheng's multimedia concert borrowed its theme from a Japanese television series about classical music.
