Last night proved to be a magical musical journey back to the 20th century at the Shanghai Concert Hall. There, we were led from Gyorgy Ligeti's Melodien to Dmitri Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No.1, and right up to Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story (Symphonic Dances).

The past four days have seen three orchestral concerts, two chamber music events, four lectures and one film, all staged as part of the 2013 Mini Festival: Listening to the 20th Century, a sample of the year-long The Rest Is Noise festival taking place at Southbank Centre in London this year. The event aims to take a deeper look at the story behind the classical music of the 20th century.

"Classical music took many different directions during this period in which no one style dominated. And if one style did appear to prevail at times, another style quickly came along to take the music to a different place," said Julian Johnson, professor of music at the University of London who accompanied the musicians to Shanghai from the UK. For Johnson, the music of the 20th century is where "a radical avant-garde is found side-by-side with music that looks back to earlier traditions."

Under the baton of conductor Rory MacDonald, the London-based Aurora Orchestra was the festival's resident ensemble. Established in 2005, Aurora is now considered one of the most significant chamber orchestras to have emerged in more than a generation. The orchestra has performed at the BBC Proms and the Aldeburgh Music Festival, as well as at a number of other high-profile music events in the UK.

Warmly received

The repertoire the orchestra performed for Shanghai audiences included Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Vaughan Williams' Lark Ascending and Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, which were all warmly received.

On May 3, the Aurora Orchestra joined hands with The Symphony Orchestra of Shanghai Conservatory of Music to present Igor Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, widely regarded as one of the most important and popular modern ballet dance pieces of the past 150 years.

Chinese orchestral works from the 20th century were also staged. At the closing concert on May 5, three pieces - Flower Drum from Fengyang, Love Song from Kangding and The Girl from Daban City - were performed. They were all rearranged by the composer Huang Ruo, based on popular Chinese folk songs.

"I think it helps listeners if they know something about the historic times in which the music was composed. One of the greatest things about music is its power to transcend everything and express the inexpressible, so I think that it's also important to be able to enjoy music just for itself," said Southbank Centre head of classical music Gillian Moore.

Together with the BBC Radio 3 presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Johnson, Moore spoke at the lectures in Shanghai on a variety of topics including the repertoire of the Shanghai concerts. In the UK Mohr-Pietsch is active as a host for pre-concert talks, events and podcasts for a variety of ensembles and venues.

Rapid changes

"The 20th century saw huge and rapid changes in all areas of life, so it is not surprising that its art and music reflected this. But it takes time to become accustomed to new styles in music, and works can be bewildering at first hearing - even Beethoven's audiences 200 years ago had similar problems. That's why creating the space to explore musical works in lectures and workshops, and entering into a dialogue with audiences about new works is such an important thing to do," Johnson told the Global Times.

Located on the south bank of the River Thames in London, Southbank Centre holds a variety of festivals throughout the year, covering music genres including classical and rock, as well as hosting dance, literature and visual arts events.

"I'm really excited by the idea that classical music can be of real use in the world," added Moore. "I really don't think of music as an escape from the world in which we live but as a way of making sense of the world. I believe that music is for everybody and, at Southbank Centre, we constantly try to find ways in which people of all ages and backgrounds can join in making music and learning about music. We also believe in big, bold, important ideas - it's no good being apologetic and 'safe' in programming the arts, because you won't capture anybody's imagination."