The Great Chinese New Year Concert 2013
The idea was intriguing from the first moment on. It was born in Vienna, when the present owner of Wu Promotion Co Ltd Beijing studied in Vienny and had the idea to supply a Chinese New Year Concert with Chinese instruments - similar to the concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for the New Year and in the same concert hall, the Golden Hall of the Musikverein.
This idea found enthusiastic response in the Vienna public scene and was supported by the former Mayor of Vienna, Zilk, and the Austrian State President, Klestil. 1998 the first concert could be arranged as "Into the Year of the Tiger". Since then, the concert ist no longer avoidable in the world of music in Europe, and it has spread even into North Africa, and today it is a far reaching highly valued performance with many fans of the Chinese Music.
-
The Tour 2013
The Great Chinese New Year Concert 2013 performs this year in Europe in the following venues:
25.Jan: Lucerne (KKL)
29.Jan: Stuhr (Gut Varrel)
31.Jan: Ostrava (Kulturzentrum)
2.Feb: Prague (Smetana Saal)
4.Feb: Berlin (Komische Oper)The Orchestra
Every year, Wu Promotion Co Ltd, Beijing, the production company for the concert, selects one of the leading Chinese orchestras for the tour. In close cooperation with the culctural ministries of the Chinese province governments who resume responsibiliy for such cultural exchange activities, the tour is organized. In this year 2013, the SHAANXI BROADCASTING CHINESE ORCHESTRA conducted by ZHANG LIE visits Europe. The orchestra is one of the five leading traditional orchestras in China. The conductor Zhang Lie accompanied the Mongolian State Orchestra also last year on tour of the Great Chinese New Year Concert as the conductor.
The orchestra is a big sinfony orchestra in Chinese costumes and plays in its program pieces of the Chinese classical music tradition. The orchestra plays on traditional Chinese instruments, of which the most important instruments are the Erhu, the Pipa, the Suona and the Guzheng, beside many others, above all the Chinese percussion instruments, beginning with the Great Gong to the small rattles and clappings.
Regularly, the orchestra plays as a second encore a German folk song in their own arrangement, so that the audience can hear a well known melody in strange sound.
-
The Artists
The orchestra brings along own soloists in the tour to demonstrate the typical sound of single instruments and also of singing. In the tour 2013 there will be a fluit soloist who plays the Chinese bamboo fluit (Dizi), a Guzheng player and a Suona player, all of these musicians are master of their instrument with overwhelming international experience, and they are awarded many times for their aptness. There are also two junior singers for the Chinese traditional vocal arts.
The Music
Chinese traditional music - even if it appears in modern contemporary compositions and arrangments, is always program music and tells a story. For European audience, such story is not always understandable immediately, because often the background and the history connection are not known. But the story can be understood from the music. It is also not deemed to be corny if, for instance, in a musical description of nature the sound of a bird is aped realistically. If you know the title of a piece and perhaps a short description, it is very easy to submit to the music and understand it.
The program
The program contains old traditional music, partly in modern arrangements, as well as contemporary music for traditional orchestras. The conductor himself is a well-known composer and arranger in China, has written many pieces for orchestra and composed film musics. A description of the program of the tour 2013 you will find here