Vienna orchestra begins five-city tour in China
The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra embarks on a tour of China from Thursday, visiting Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai and two other cities.
Andris Nelsons, who is the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, will conduct 10 concerts for the orchestra through Oct 30.
According to Daniel Froschauer, the president of the orchestra and a violinist, the orchestra will perform two symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven — Symphony No 8 in F Major Op 93 and Symphony No 7 in A Major Op 92 — “whose music played a hugely important role in shaping the sound of the Vienna Philharmonic from the beginning”.
The orchestra will also play Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben Op 40 and Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, “two of the most important composers in our history”.
“Both of them conducted our orchestra and highly appreciated its sound. Richard Strauss especially remained a close musical associate and friend of the Vienna Philharmonic throughout most of his career,” Froschauer says in Beijing ahead of the orchestra’s China tour.
“Playing for audiences in China is always a treat, because you can tell from their reaction and their attention — how eager they are to know and learn about our music.”
This year marks 175 years since the orchestra was founded as was the New York Philharmonic.
And, a joint exhibition, centered around the history of both orchestras, showing photographs and documents from different periods from 1842 until now, is now being held in New York and will travel to Vienna in March.
“This tour marks my first time conducting on the Chinese mainland. I am already very excited to encounter Chinese audiences in each city and share the wonderful music of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra,” says Nelsons, who is also the music director-designate of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.
The conductor notes, “Wagner and Strauss are two incredibly important and significant composers in my life, and so the way the program has been put together is very special to me.”
This year is also the 190th anniversary of Beethoven’s death.
“For me, Beethoven is everything — an intimate, almost fragile friend, sometimes angry, impolite, polemic, sometimes encouraging, sometimes grand, sometimes a fighter, and so much more,” says Nelsons.
Froschauer says: “Over the past few years, Andris Nelsons has established himself as one of the great conductors of our time. We also started performing and recording all symphonies by Beethoven with him in 2016 — the tour through China will be part of this huge endeavor.”
In June 2014, Wu Jiatong, general manager of Wu Promotion, one of China’s first private music tour promoters, signed a five-year contract with Clemens Hellsberg, the former president of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and Dieter Flury, the former general manager of the orchestra, on an exclusive touring partnership with the orchestra over 2017-21.
The Chinese company’s tour plan covers the mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.