Under the baton of Huang Yi, the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra (SZSO) will present a night of Stravinsky and Brahms as well as French composer Jean Françaix this Friday evening. Chen Qing, head of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, will perform oboe solo.

Due to the recent flare-up of COVID cases in town, the concert performed at Shenzhen Concert Hall will not admit a live audience but offer a live stream on the official accounts of the SZSO on Bilibili, Douyin and WeChat Video at 8 p.m. Friday.

The program will include Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella Suite,” Françaix’ “L’Horloge de flore” (“The Flower Clock”), and “Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 98” by Brahms.

The “Pulcinella Suite” is a pared-down version of the ballet that Stravinsky composed with inspirations from past masterpieces as well as the commedia dell’arte, an Italian improvised theater and its stock characters. Instrumental passages replaced the singing roles in the suite. Stravinsky’s work with music of the past retains much of the charm of the original pieces, but with harmonic and rhythmic twists that are pure 20th-century inventiveness, and pure Stravinsky.

The most familiar work by Françaix is the charming “Flower Clock,” a suite that contains seven pieces, each of which depicts a flower whose blooms open at specific times of day. Delicate, spry, witty, and charming, the oboe concerto includes virtuosic passages for the solo instrument.

Brahms’ “Symphony No. 4,” the last of its genre by the composer, is a masterpiece that sums up classical traditions and the composer’s profound thoughts on life and music.

Huang is one of the most sought-after conductors in China today.

A graduate of Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and the Hanns Eisler Music University in Berlin, Huang was appointed artistic director and principalconductor of the Kunming Nie’er Symphony Orchestra in 2016 and in 2019 took up the positions as the chief conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the National Ballet of China and as the principal conductor of the China Philharmonic Orchestra.

He conducted the world premiere of Andy Akiho’s “Ricochet” (“Ping Pong Concerto”) with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra at the 2015 Shanghai MISA Festival.(Li Dan)