Shanghai Symphony Orchestra embarks on Europe tour

China's classical music circle considers it the highest-level tour by China's orchestra.

Shanghai Symphony Orchestra has started to go abroad since the 1970s, when very few Chinese ensembles were able to tour abroad. They toured Australia and New Zealand in 1975.

Ever since Long Yu was appointed music director in 2009, the orchestra has been touring the US and Europe and the concerts were included in some theatre seasons.

During the 2010 Shanghai Expo, the orchestra's concerts were aired at New York's Central Park. In 2015, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra played at the United Nation's General Assembly Hall to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

Shanghai Symphony Orchestra has created many "firsts" among China's orchestras.

Among several tour invitations, they finally chose the four venues this summer because no orchestras from China have been to all these four. It is the first time that Luzerne Festival invited a China's orchestra in its 80 years. This year, they will perform at the same stage of KKL concert Hall with Riccardo Chailly conducting Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Bernard Haitink conducting Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Daniel Barenboim conducting West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.

The tour results from the collaboration between Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the world top orchestras and artists in the past years. In 2015, Gustav Kuhn's 24-hour "Ring Cycle" hit Shanghai and it is the production by Tirol Festival. In the same year, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra signed a 5-year collaboration with Elbphiharmonie Hamber.

In March, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra invited Grafenegg Festival's founder and music pianist Rudolf Buchbinder gave a performance of all Beethoven sonatas in a week.

Yu will plan an interesting program for the tour. They will play a Chinese work in each stop, including A Avshalomov's "Symphonic Poem Hutongs of Beijing " and "Violin Concerto Butterfly Lovers" by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao, which is probably the most well-known Chinese work in the Western world.

Violinist Maxim Vengerov will play the "Butterfly Lovers" concerto in Hamburg while Stefan Tarara will play it in Tirol. Tarara is one of the winners of the 2016 Shanghai Isaac Stern Violin Competition.

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