2019年7月19日
Celebrating
its twenty-second year, the 2019 Beijing Music Festival (BMF) presents an art
feast for audiences during Beijing’s golden autumn. Over the past two decades,
world-renowned conductor Long Yu established a rich artistic foundation for the
Beijing Music Festival. And beginning in 2018, the new artistic director Shuang
Zou, with the support of Maestro Long Yu, the BMF Artistic Committee, and supporting staff,
has succeeded in incorporating more inclusive and avant-garde artistic elements
to the festival, which are sure to surprise and impress audiences.
On the morning
of July 18, at the press conference held at Beijing’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel,
BMF announced 22 performances for the 22nd festival (16 unique
programs), taking place October 4 through 28 and including a wide variety of
operas, symphonic concerts, recitals, chamber music concerts and virtual
reality music experiences. The Festival also presents more than 12 free educational events, including
children’s concerts, masterclasses, lectures, and more.
With the theme “Timeless Music into the Future,” the
22nd BMF strives to explore a new style of
classical music with today’s most cutting-edge expressive forms, and to
incorporate more new ideas with a “Chinese Concept” which the Festival has long
advocated and refined. A young generation of internationally acclaimed
composers will be on BMF’s stage, including the
opera highlight Angel’s Bone by Du
Yun, the first female Chinese Pulitzer Prize winner. Additionally, by focusing
on innovative and avant-garde programs and inviting a group of trend-setting
neoclassical musicians, BMF wishes to lead the Chinese classical music stage to
brand new artistic realms. Among them, BMF’s commissioned composer Michel van
der Aa’s latest work of mixed-reality musical theater Eight receives its Asia debut, and composer Max Richter, a
contemporary classical figure, presents his monumental eight-hour composition Sleep at the foot of the Great Wall.
The 22nd BMF
invites an extraordinary line-up of national and international ensembles,
conductors and performers, including the legendary
sopranos Edita Gruberová and Renée Fleming; the first resident orchestra,
Mahler Chamber Orchestra led by Vladimir Ashkenazy; master pianist Jean-Yves
Thibaudet; Opera Fuoco conducted by David Stern; Maestro Charles Dutoit
with Shanghai Symphony Orchestra; Maestro Pinchas
Zukerman; and the music prodigy Alma Deutscher.
At the press
conference, the Beijing Music Festival officially announces its three-year
artistic collaboration – from 2020 to 2022 – with the Opéra Comique based in
Paris. Three operas co-produced by the two parties, including two classic
Western operas and a Chinese opera, will be staged at the Opéra Comique in
Paris and the Beijing Music Festival. Cultural officials from the French
Embassy in China also conveyed congratulations from the French Minister of
Culture on this partnership.
Two Star Sopranos, Gruberová and Fleming
BMF’s Grand Opening Premiered at NCPA
Beijing Music
Festival has long-presented outstanding vocalists, including José Carreras, Kathleen Battle, Agnes Baltsa, and Anne Sofie von Otter, all of
whom have left lasting and wonderful impressions on audiences with their
beautiful voices. This year, Edita Gruberová and Renée Fleming, two of the most
brilliant, internationally celebrated sopranos, make appearances at the Grand
Opening and Closing Gala of the 22nd Beijing Music Festival.
At the Grand
Opening concert on October 9, Edita Gruberová, who is widely considered one of
the greatest coloratura sopranos of the century and is rightfully called the
“Queen of Coloratura,” makes her BMF debut. Gruberová has enjoyed an unparalleled
artistic career, with a virtuoso coloratura technique and a unique and charming
voice, making her shine on the European and American opera stage for more than
half a century. She has not only collaborated with great conductors like
Herbert von Karajan, Georg Solti and Karl Böhm, but has also released countless
classic recordings. This time, the 72-year-old diva joins the China
Philharmonic Orchestra in an opera featuring renowned arias by Donizetti,
Rossini, Bellini and Verdi.
On October 28,
the most internationally influential American soprano Renée Fleming marks the
end of the 22nd BMF. Also the most renowned soprano by Chinese
audiences, Fleming has won many Gramophone
Classical Music Awards and Grammy Awards. A representative figure of soprano, she
is well known for her virtually unmatched skill and eloquent performance, making achievements in the Italian, French and German
opera fields. This time, Fleming debuts in the Closing Gala of BMF, in which
Maestro Long Yu joins with the China Philharmonic Orchestra.
For the first
time in Beijing Music Festival’s history, the Grand Opening on October 9 will
be held in the Concert Hall of the National Centre for the Performing Arts. A
broader cooperative space has been reached, as the two major art institutions
in Beijing join hands. Previously, the China NCPA Orchestra was invited to
participate in the opening concert of the 19th Beijing Music
Festival in 2016. While in the same year, Maestro Long Yu,
Chairman of the Artistic Committee at BMF, conducted the China Philharmonic
Orchestra in the NCPA’s opera production, La
Traviata.
The Pulitzer Prize Winning
Opera Angel’s Bone Debuts
BMF and Opéra Comique Join
Hands in International Collaboration
At the core of
the Beijing Music Festival since its establishment over two decades ago, opera
performances have ranged in focus from French and Italian classic operas to
German and Austrian romantic operas, and later to modernist works in the 20th
century. In recent years, more avant-garde and cutting-edge stage works have
been introduced on BMF’s opera stage. This
year, on October 18 and 19 at Poly Theatre, the 22nd BMF features
the 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning opera
Angel’s Bone by composer Du Yun–another
original opera by a Chinese composer at BMF after Fay Kueen Wang’s
BMF-commissioned immersive theater L'Orfeo last
year.
As a leading
figure in China’s new generation of globally active composers, Du Yun won the
Pulitzer Prize with her opera Angel’s
Bone, which took her seven years to accomplish. She was the second Chinese
composer to win the Prize after Zhou Long, who won with the BMF-commissioned
work Madame White Snake. Presenting
another Pulitzer Prize-winning opera not only showcases the continuing focus of
the Festival on the outstanding Chinese artists abroad under the long-standing
“Chinese Concept,” but it also introduces the outstanding achievements of the
new generation of Chinese musicians to domestic audiences.
Further
realizing the artistic vision of opera art, Beijing Music Festival and Opéra
Comique reached a three-year agreement of artistic collaboration, which was
highlighted at the press conference. The two sides will jointly produce and
promote their own representative works. In 2020, Opéra Comique takes the lead
to present Georges Bizet’s Carmen,
directed by the famous opera director Andreas Homoki, and conducted by Maestro Long Yu
on the stage of the 23rd Beijing Music Festival. In 2022, the two
parties will feature a brand-new staged version of Madame White Snake by Zhou Long. Opéra Comique is the third
collaboration with internationally renowned artistic institutions for BMF after
working with the Salzburg Easter Festival (Osterfestspiele Salzburg) and
Festival d'Aix-en-Provence/Château La Coste.
Sleep Creates Dream at the Great
Wall
Eight Showcases Cutting-Edge Virtual Reality Music Experience
With the theme
“Timeless Music into the Future,” BMF
seeks to make breakthroughs in the avant-garde performance area, thus
redefining classical music. The main event is Holland’s treasured composer Michel van der Aa’s latest “mixed reality” musical theater
work, Eight. Co-commissioned by the
Beijing Music Festival, Holland Festival, KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen and the
Festival d'Aix-en-Provence /Château La Coste, Eight is a unique fusion of music, theatre, visual art and virtual
reality. From Oct 10 to 27, at The Red of Taikoo Li Sanlitun North, BMF will
present nearly 900 performances over 18 consecutive days to celebrate its
premiere as BMF’s resident musical.
Standing
as one of the most influential figures in contemporary music, British-German
composer Max Richter comes to BMF with his monumental eight-hour composition Sleep. Originating from his 2015
Deutsche Grammophon recording, this concert features Richter playing the piano
and keyboard with string quintet and soprano. On October 4, when this
innovative piece receives its first performance in Asia at the foot of the
Shuiguan Great Wall, the audience (provided with beds) will fully immerse
themselves in the eight-hour experience from midnight to dawn, connecting this
mysterious world of sleep and dreams with the eternal glory of the Great Wall
of China.
Zigman's Tango Manos Piano Concerto Premieres
Master Pianist Thibaudet Joins A Concert of BMF Commissions
Since 2002,
the Beijing Music Festival has proudly commissioned some of the most exciting
musical voices of contemporary music, including domestic and overseas composers
such as Tan Dun, Qigang Chen, Krzysztof Penderecki, Philip Glass, and Howard
Shore. And 2019 is no exception as BMF presents the world premiere of Aaron
Zigman’s Tango Manos Piano Concerto, a work specially
commissioned for the Festival. His friend Jean-Yves Thibaudet will perform with
the China Philharmonic Orchestra, led by conductor Huang Yi.
In “A Concert
of BMF Commissions,” the audience will also have the opportunity to appreciate
some of the other significant commissioned works in BMF’s history, including
the Last Sacrifice by Zhou Long,
commissioned in 2013, and a version without words of Xiaogang Ye’s The Song of Farewell, commissioned in
2010.
A hallmark of
significant international music festivals, as well as for the development of
classical music, the importance of commissioned works is self-evident. The
Beijing Music Festival has played a vital role in advancing the development of
music in China, particularly as it pioneered the commissioning of various
domestic and overseas composers, and actively advocated and promoted them. This
reflects the clear artistic concept of Maestro Long Yu,
the renowned conductor and Chairman of the Artistic Committee at Beijing Music
Festival, to let China and the world hear each
other’s voice, and to pass down musical and cultural wealth of both sides
through our commissioned works.
Ashkenazy Leads “Resident Orchestra” Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Master Violinist Zuckerman Returns
This year, the
Beijing Music Festival inaugurates a new chapter of the "resident
orchestra" with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO), founded by Maestro
Claudio Abbado, as the first invitee. On October 20, 23 and 25, led by Vladimir
Ashkenazy, the MCO features three riveting performances and a special charity
event for audiences of the festival.
Founded in
1997, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra consists of elite performers from more than
20 countries around the world. The MCO has not only collaborated with many
well-known conductors like Abbado, Daniel Harding, Daniele Gatti, Paavo Järvi,
Gustavo Dudamel, but also becomes a core part of the annual Lucerne Festival
Orchestra. In 2015, the Orchestra made its debut on the stage of the Beijing
Music Festival led by Finnish Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen, leaving a lasting
impression on the audience by their exquisite performance.
On October 20
at the Poly Theatre, the MCO, led by Maestro Ashkenazy, perform Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and
selections from Songs of Travel by
the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, 2 pieces for String Octet, Op. 11 (orchestral strings version) and Symphony, Op. 110a by Dmitri
Shostakovich. On October 23, famous violinist James Ehnes joins forces with the
MCO to play Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No.
1 “Blumine” and Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin
Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19. Finally, on October 25, the MCO performs
works by Qigang Chen, Michel van der Aa, Pulitzer Prize-winner Du Yun, and
Grammy Award nominated-composer Zhou Tian. The third concert will be a feast of
modern music combining the domestic and overseas composers of the new
generation.
Both Zhou Tian
and Du Yun have been nominated for Grammy Awards. While Zhou Tian was nominated
for the 60th Grammy Awards for Best Classical Contemporary
Composition for Concerto for Orchestra,
the first Chinese composer ever nominated in this category, Du Yun was
nominated for the Best Classical Contemporary Composition for her work Air Glow, making her the first Asian
female nominee in the history of the Grammys.
On October 22,
after an absence of ten years, Maestro Pinchas Zukerman is back at BMF with the
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra conducting a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Egmont, Op.84 and Edward Elgar’s Enigma
Variations, Op.36. Zukerman foregoes the baton for a bow as soloist for
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Violin Concerto
No. 5 in A major, K. 219 “The Turkish”.
Commemorating
the Passing Anniversary of Handel and Berlioz,
Xerxes and La Damnation de Faust are Staged
2019 marks the 260th
and 150th death of composers Handel and Berlioz. The 22nd
BMF pays homage to the two legends with their operas Xerxes and La Damnation de
Faust.
On October 17, conductor
David Stern, son of the late legendary violinist Isaac Stern and longtime
friend of BMF, conducts a concert version of Handel’s opera Xerxes with the Opera Fuoco. Opera Fuoco
is primarily dedicated to the interpretation of operatic repertoire from the
Baroque period, using authentic period instruments. The ensemble brings
historic performances to audiences around the world and is quite popular among
Chinese audiences after three consecutive years’ performance at the Shanghai
Baroque Festival.
On October 21, Maestro
Charles Dutoit leads the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonic Chorus of
Tokyo in a performance of La Damnation de
Faust by Berlioz, only 17 years after the Chinese debut of the work under
the baton of Maestro Long Yu at the beginning of 2002. BMF is delighted to
welcome back Maestro Charles Dutoit to perform this epic masterpiece of
Berlioz.
Zee
Zee and Alma Deutscher Bring Youthful Energy
BMF Launches Lunchtime Concert Series
Together with Beijing Music Radio (FM 97.4), the 22nd BMF is delighted to launch Lunchtime Concert Series. From October 9 to 11,
young Chinese pianist Zee Zee will bring different styles of works over three
consecutive days, with repertoire ranging from the classic works of Bach,
Schumann, and Liszt to more modern composers such as Tan Dun and Piazzolla. BMF’s Lunchtime Concert Series will last approximately 30-40
minutes, similar to the lunchtime concert in Europe and America where it’s
quite popular, and will be broadcast to every corner of the city.
On October 12 and marking
the only instrumental recital at the 22nd BMF, audiences in Beijing
will have a chance to witness and feel the amazing talent of pianist,
violinist, and composer Alma Deutscher, the 14-year-old British music prodigy
who stunned the European and American music worlds. Music professionals ranging
from Sir Simon Rattle, to Zubin Mehta, and Daniel Barenboim unanimously believe
she is a genius. Alma will perform some of her best-loved and most impressive
compositions on the piano (composed from age four to fourteen) and play the
violin in the second half of the concert in a selection of Bach and Schubert's
chamber music masterpieces.
Launching
BMF Children's Festival Orchestra
Upgrading
Non-Profit Educational Activities
The 22nd
Beijing Music Festival takes its outreach initiative to new heights by
presenting a re-imagined Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach, an
opera created and performed entirely by children, staged in the grand hall of
Indigo Beijing.
2019 marks the
200th anniversary of Offenbach’s birth. This opera is based on three
short stories by E.T.A. Hoffmann, and combines comic, tragic and fantastic
elements. With the production of his magnum opus, BMF pays tribute to one of
the most influential French composers of the 19th century.
Drawing on the
rich experiences of a European and Chinese creative team, this youth project is
based on the idea of opera as a “total work of art.” Children have been
rehearsing for over two months, working through all performing, staging and
design aspects of Offenbach’s last great opera, getting fully involved under
the experienced guidance of professionals.
This will be
the first opera BMF presents that is produced and interpreted by children and
teenagers. Particularly impressive is that a first-ever BMF Children's Festival
Orchestra will be assembled, and conductor Zhang Bingbing will lead the
Orchestra with outstanding young singers of the Beijing Philharmonic Choir to
complete the opera performance. The BMF Children's Festival Orchestra is
planning opening audition to qualified young people aged 9-16. In the future,
the BMF Children’s Festival Orchestra will continue to operate, design, plan
and create a series of activities, an important part of the “Teenager Art
Project” launched by Beijing Music Festival and its strategic partner Kuke
Music. The performance will be at Indigo on October 19 and 20.
The Festival's non-profit
education projects boast a roster including Renée Fleming, Michel van der Aa, Alma Deutscher, Zee Zee, Du Yun,
Zhou Tian, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo, and more.
It features activities like concert appreciation guidance, lunch concerts,
special concerts for children's benefit, and communications with artists, as
well as a new “Philharmonic Stage” unit - a stage for a wider range of music
lovers.
At the press conference,
the Beijing Music Festival also announces two strategic partners, Kuke Music
and Tencent Arts. Dedicated to public and children’s music education and the
development of music industry, by creating a long-term and in-depth strategic
partnership, BMF will join hands with the two sides in the promotion of better
music in China.