China NCPA Orchestra
One of China’s great orchestras makes its Carnegie Hall debut in a program that features a work by Qigang Chen (music director of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing) along with Sibelius’s heroic Symphony No. 2. Haochen Zhang—gold medal–winner of the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition—is the soloist in the legendary Yellow River Concerto, a work beloved for its blend of Chinese themes, colorful Western orchestral writing, and devilishly challenging solo part.
Performers
China NCPA Orchestra
Lü Jia, Music Director and Conductor
Haochen Zhang, Piano
Program
QIGANG CHEN Luan Tan (US Premiere)
XIAN XINGHAI Yellow River Concerto (arr. Yin Chengzong, Sheng Lihong, Chu Wanghua, and Liu Zhuang)
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 2
Encores:
CHOPIN Nocturne in C-sharp Minor, Op. posth.
YUANKAI BAO "Bamboo Flute Tune" from Chinese Sights and Sounds
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately two hours, including one 20-minute intermission.At a Glance
QIGANG CHEN Luan Tan
According to the composer, Luan Tanrepresents “quite a departure from my usual musical territory.” The work draws inspiration—as well as its name—from a style of Chinese drama rooted in folk traditions and originating in the 1600s that was bolder and blunter than the established style of the time.
XIAN XINGHAI Yellow River Concerto
The Yellow River has long served as the mother river of the Chinese people, the spiritual totem of the nation, and an inexhaustible source of creative inspiration for many Chinese works of art. Created in the late 1960s, the Yellow RiverConcertois a classic work that extols the bravery, resolution, and heroic spirit of the Chinese nation. For nearly half a century, the concerto has been standard repertoire in the classical literature of Chinese symphonic music.
JEAN SIBELIUS Symphony No. 2 in D Major,
Op. 43
Sibelius’s contribution to Western musical culture has always been shifting and ambiguous. A unique mix of the old and the new, his music has inspired strikingly contradictory assessments. Written in 1901–1902 and premiered by Sibelius himself, the Second Symphony has an unmistakable “twilight-of-Romanticism” quality; it has a way of sounding lyrical even though most of the thematic material is hesitant and fragmented.