After a half-year hiatus, local music fans will finally be able to sit and enjoy a live classical concert this weekend, as the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra (SZSO) will present two vibrant works featuring pianist Yuan Fang.

Conducted by Liu Sha, principal conductor of the Macao Chinese Orchestra, Yuan will perform the solo part of Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 4,” which is in her own words “vibrant and full of life.”

A leading contemporary Chinese pianist who has collaborated with maestros like Zubin Mehta and Lawrence Foster, Yuan has always considered playing Beethoven her “specialty.”

Because of her love for Beethoven, she spent seven years studying with German pianists Gerhard Oppitz and Michael Schaefer, and graduated in 2008 from the prestigious Munich University of Music and Performing Arts with a double major in Piano and Chamber Music. She also attended master classes with Andras Schiff.

One of the most sought-after Chinese concert pianists active on venues home and abroad, Yuan is also a professor at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and a Bosendorfer artist.

For the second half of the concert, the SZSO will perform Sergei Prokofiev’s “Symphony No. 7,” a piece described by some as “simple.”

The final symphony written by Prokofiev in 1952, it is often called the “Children’s Symphony” because of Prokofiev’s attempts to keep the music simple and because it was written for the Soviet Children’s Radio Division. He is well known for writing music for children including the score of “Peter and the Wolf.”

There are marches in the first and final movements, and a reoccurring theme in both movements invokes Prokofiev’s fantasy and imagination, well suited for a children’s symphony.

The simplicity that Prokofiev first strived for is apparent in the first movement. The second movement is a beautiful waltz with full strings sections and arching winds. The third movement loses the simplicity not in the music but in the emotions. The music dances between fantasy dreams and horrific nightmares in the third movement, with the listener awakening at the end, grateful that it was only a dream. The fourth movement is a rounded musical jaunt, fast-paced and vibrant. The symphony originally ended on some sad notes, but Prokofiev added a few more measures, a coda, to bring back the happy themes from the first movement.

As only 30 percent of the seats will be available in accordance with social distancing rules, audiences need to rebook tickets and seek refunds for their previously bought tickets. Tickets can be booked at the WeChat public account and website of Shenzhen Concert Hall as well as at the venue’s box office.

The show will also be recast at v.qq.com at 8 p.m. Saturday.

Live show: 8 p.m., July 3

Tickets: 50-880 yuan

Venue: Shenzhen Concert Hall, Futian District (福田区深圳音乐厅)

Metro: Line 3 or 4 to Children’s Palace Station (少年宫站), Exit D(Debra Li)