A guide to this year’s programme
With the theme ‘Entering the 21st – Dawn of a New Era’, the festival will host 21 performances across three weeks (12-26 Oct). It opens in style, with a reimagining of a Peking Opera classic titled Farewell my Concubine. Bernstein’s centenary is celebrated over two nights. His Symphony
No. 2, The Age of Anxiety, will feature pianist Krystian Zimerman and the Philharmonia Orchestra under Esapekka Salonen (16 October), while the China Philharmonic will give a concert performance of West Side Story on 25 October.
Other highlights include the premiere of Orfeo, an opera by Fay Kueen Wang (19-21 Oct), Mozart and Mendelssohn performed by clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer and the Shanghai and HK Phil Quartets (13 Oct), and a programme of Chinese composers played by the Beijing Symphony (15 Oct).