Courtesy of the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra

 
Heading out of the traditional music hall, the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra on Saturday overcame transportation and weather difficulties to hold an livestreaming concert on the peak of one of the Five Great Mountains of China.

The mountaintop concert was held 2,082 meters above sea level on top of Mount Hua in Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province. Tang Muhai, the only Chinese conductor to win a Grammy Award, conducted the concert.

In addition to Western instruments, various traditional Chinese instruments such as the seven-stringed guqin were also played during the concert. A Huayin Laoqiang performance, a local style of opera listed as a national intangible cultural heritage, opened the concert, followed by a performance of the song “For the World” by young Chinese violinist Tang Sushan.

The concert ended with “My Motherland,” a song written for the Chinese movie Battle on Shangganling Mountain. Some audiences that tuned in commented that listening to the vigorous music sounding out in the magnificent natural environment was far more exciting than in an indoor hall.

According to the symphony orchestra, the stream has earned more than 50 million views as of Monday, with a majority of viewers giving positive feedback.

Many netizens praised the event as a grand feat. 

“It is fantastic. The preparation for the concert must have been so difficult. It is difficult to transport so many instruments and sound equipment to the top of the mountain, but they did it,” a netizen commented.

Courtesy of the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra

 
While preparing for the concert, workers from the orchestra surveyed the performance site many times and the 225 musicians held their rehearsals outdoors, Huang said.

Tang said he considered the concert to be a creative work of art. 

“The epidemic has promoted the innovation of music and this innovation continues. The Mount Hua Concert is of great significance. It proves once again that music can cross all borders, even beyond language barriers,” he said in a press release. 

One of musicians who performed at the concert is afraid of heights, but said that this fear was replaced by excitement once they started playing. “It was a rare life experience,” she told media after the concert.

This is not the orchestra’s first livestream concert. A similar event was held at the Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum in April in front of thousands of Terracotta Warriors. The concert earned more than 3 million views.