Debra Li

debra_lidan@163.com

AS big-name local companies set their eyes on the global market and made an impressive presence at the recent 2024 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra (SZSO) is about to make an entrance into the U.K.’s classical music landscape.

Between next Monday and March 22, the orchestra, with over 100 musicians, will tour around the country, debuting in eight cities and presenting two sets of wide-ranging programs.

“This would be SZSO’s first tour to the British Isles in its 40-year-old history, and the first time that a Chinese orchestra has ever been part of the regular season at British concert halls,” Luo Bin, the ensemble’s deputy, introduced during a pre-tour media briefing Monday.

The orchestra has prepared two sets of programs for the tour. For the concerts in Birmingham, London, Manchester, Edinburg, and Basingstoke, the program will include excerpts from Chinese composer Tan Dun’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” Ernest Chausson’s “Poème for Solo Violin and Orchestra,” Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28,” and two of Ottorino Respighi’s “Roman Trilogy.” For the rest three shows in Sheffield, Perth, and Croydon, the second half of the program will be swapped for Mahler’s colossal “Symphony No. 1 in D Major,” also known as “Titan.”

Conducted by its artistic director Lin Daye, the concerts will headline Chinese cellist Nie Jiapeng and British violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen.

Nie, a faculty member at Guangzhou’s Xinghai Conservatory of Music and CUHK-Shenzhen’s School of Music, was praised by Tan himself as one of the best interpreters of his work. The young talent will perform three out of six short movements from Tan’s cello concerto recomposed from the original Oscar-winning film score, which perfectly blends lyricism and drama.

Lin said he has performed alongside Nie many times, and highly appreciates the cellist’s virtuosity and dramatic interpretation. He also looks forward to collaborating with Cohen for the first time.

“We hope to welcome orchestral audiences new and old – we’ve created a program that includes moments of exciting drama, serene beauty, and virtuosic brilliance, which we know British audiences will enjoy,” Lin told Shenzhen Daily.

“Tan’s ‘Crouching Tiger’ Concerto was indeed commissioned by London Symphony Orchestra and premiered at the Barbican Center in London in the year 2000,” he said. “As an orchestra coming from a Chinese cultural background, we wish to bring something new and different in the interpretation of this contemporary masterpiece.”

Sarah Mann, U.K.’s Consul-General in Guangzhou, said she expected the audience in her home country to enjoy the concerts.

“Music is a language that connects and brings people closer together, as with other aspects of the culture,” she said, adding that she hopes the U.K. and China can deepen their exchanges across the full spectrum of culture.

Yao Rui, head of Beijing Poly Theater Management Co., Ltd. that serves as SZSO’s tour manager, said about 75% of the U.K. tour’s tickets have been booked, thanks to the effort of Chinese communities and British collaborators who help to promote the project.

“Previous performance projects by domestic ensembles were mostly exchange programs meant for a select small audience,” he explained, adding that SZSO’s current tour is a commercial project, where British audiences willingly pay out of their own pockets to attend the concerts.

“For many years, Poly has introduced foreign orchestras and other performing troupes into the Chinese market. We wish that SZSO heralds a trend that sees an increasing number of Chinese artists and ensembles touring to other countries.”

This year, the Shenzhen-produced dance show “Wing Chun” will also tour to the U.K., followed by “Journey to the West,” a dance show based on Wu Cheng’en’s eponymous classical novel, and the Chinese-version drama of “Les Misérables” touring to France, and acrobatic show “The Butterfly Lovers” touring to Russia.

That said, Yao acknowledged that developing cultural projects are costly, which couldn’t have gone smoothly without the support of the government and successful businesses.

The Shenzhen Symphony Development Foundation, a non-profit institution that infuses funds to support the growth of musicians and ensembles, wrote a 2-million-yuan (US$280,000) check to subsidize the tour.

“You have to see the bigger picture,” Yao explained. “The intangible benefits — a city’s enhanced image and expanding clout — transcend numerical quantification. Cultural exchanges are the key to closer ties between peoples, which may foster more business opportunities and make the world a better place for all.”