The Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of its music director Huang Yi, staged a concert at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing on Sunday.
The concert featured a new music piece commissioned by the symphony orchestra, titled To the Light, Op 68, by composer Gong Tianpeng.
Inspired by The Internationale, the symphonic piece utilized a traditional four-movement classical-romantic structure while infusing elements of Guangdong folk music.
Gong, a classically trained pianist-turned-composer, spent over a year working on the music piece. He shared that the creation of the music piece involved multiple rounds of revision, aiming to convey universal emotions across cultural and historical boundaries.
The concert also staged Metropolis by Zhou Tian, the first Chinese composer nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Commissioned to mark the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra's 65th anniversary, Metropolis portrayed the rich, layered history of Guangzhou, seamlessly blending the city's ancient cultural heritage with its vibrant modern spirit.
Another music piece performed during the concert was the erhu concerto La jole de la souffrance by renowned composer Chen Qigang, featuring young erhu soloist Lu Yiwen. Through the ancient, weathered tones of the traditional instrument, the piece eloquently narrated humanity's deep emotional journeys through joy, sorrow, hardship, and triumph, offering the audience a profound connection to traditional Chinese aesthetics.
According to Huang, this concert was part of a broader initiative by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra to nurture and promote new Chinese symphonic works.
Huang emphasized the importance of promoting Chinese original compositions.
"Chinese orchestras must not only excel in Western classics but also champion Chinese original works," he said. Commissioning new works and using Western instruments to tell Chinese stories enable these pieces to be more widely performed internationally.
By actively commissioning and performing original works, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra not only amplifies the Chinese voice in the global music scene but also demonstrates the limitless possibilities of Chinese symphonic music.
