Selection of works by Anton Bruckner starts new season, Chen Nan reports.

The China NCPA Orchestra opens its 2023-24 season with two concerts at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing on Aug 31 and Sept 1. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

For the past three performing seasons, the China NCPA Orchestra, led by its music director and conductor Lyu Jia, has been playing symphonies by the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner.

With the project titled The Bruckner Ciphers, Lyu aims at leading the orchestra to play the symphony cycle by the composer.

On Aug 31 and Sept 1, under the baton of Lyu, the China NCPA Orchestra played two concerts, featuring Bruckner's Symphony No 1 in C Minor. The concerts also featured art songs by Richard Strauss, performed by tenor Xiahou Jinxu.

The concerts kicked off the 2023-24 season of the China NCPA Orchestra, which will continue the project, The Bruckner Ciphers.

"We've run a survey, asking our audience about their favorite concerts in our last season and the concerts featuring Bruckner's symphonies topped the list," says Ren Xiaolong, the general manager of the China NCPA Orchestra in Beijing on Aug 31, announcing the coming season.

"This new season will see the orchestra playing Bruckner's symphonies No 1, 5 and 6. We plan to bring The Bruckner Ciphers to an end by playing the composer's fourth symphony," says Ren, adding that in 2024, the year marking the 200th anniversary of Bruckner's birth, the orchestra will record an album featuring all of his symphonies.

Members of the orchestra and guests at the news conference to announce the new season. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

"He is one of my favorite composers, whose music and life story inspired me. Thus, I initiated The Bruckner Ciphers, hoping to decode the composer's music," says Lyu, who has been conducting and leading the China NCPA Orchestra for a decade.

"The great legacy left by Bruckner is his symphony cycle. He wrote 11 symphonies in all, but only nine were officially numbered. Though the composer was a late starter when it came to symphonies, all of his symphonies were successful."

Before he was appointed as the artistic director of the National Centre for the Performing Arts and chief conductor of the China NCPA Orchestra, Lyu was previously music director of Verona Opera in Italy, and was the first Asian conductor to serve as the artistic director of a major Italian opera house, the home of the European opera tradition. He was the chief conductor at Trieste Opera, and he also led productions at La Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the Bavarian State Opera, among others.

After the NCPA opened in 2007, the China NCPA Orchestra was launched in 2010 as its resident symphony orchestra to meet the demand of the venue's busy schedule.

"For over 10 years, the young musicians, who were in their early 20s when they joined the orchestra, have become mature musicians in their 30s and 40s. I am glad to witness their evolution," says Lyu.

Tenor Xiahou Jinxu performs songs by Richard Strauss during the concerts with the orchestra. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Lyu notes that he is very excited about this new season because, during the past three years, schedules of performances of the orchestra's performing seasons were changed or canceled repeatedly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year, 123 concerts, featuring 41 symphonic concerts, 24 chamber music performances and 58 performances of opera productions, will be staged during the orchestra's new season.

According to Ren, the new season is themed with Tales of Home, "because the China NCPA Orchestra is like a big family, full of love".

"Home gives us warmth and a sense of security and belonging. We also consider music our spiritual home, which is a place to relax, rest and escape," says Ren. "From a broader view, we want to present music to the audience from the hearts of the musicians and offer the audience warmth, happiness and moments of peace."

Highlights of this new season will have international musicians returning to the NCPA.

On Oct 27 and 28, Daniele Gatti, who was named the new chief conductor by the Staatskapelle Dresden this July, will visit the NCPA to give a concert along with the China NCPA Orchestra, playing Brahms' Tragic Overture, Op 81, Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn, Op 56a and Symphony No 3 in F Major, Op 90.

Conductor Lyu Jia. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

From Nov 1 to 5, Zubin Mehta will return to the NCPA after eight years, conducting Verdi's opera Aida.

On Nov 3 and 4, South Korean conductor Chung Myung-whun will lead the orchestra, along with pianist Bruce Liu, who is the winner of the 18th International Chopin Piano Competition, performing Chopin's Piano Concerto No 1 in E Minor, Op 11 and Brahms' Symphony No 2 in D Major, Op 73.

On Nov 11, the Philadelphia Orchestra will perform with the China NCPA Orchestra and cellist Jan Vogler under the baton of conductor Su Yifan, featuring Chen Qigang's L'Eloignement, Leonard Bernstein's Divertimento for Orchestra and Dvorak's Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op 104.

Celebrated violinist Ning Feng will be named as artist-in-residence during the 2023-24 season of the China NCPA Orchestra. He will give master classes and recitals during the season, including his recital on Sept 17 featuring Bach's sonatas and partitas and a concert with conductor Zhang Xian, who is the music director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, performing violin concertos by Brahms and Karl Goldmark on Sept 27 and 28.

"I have a long relationship with the NCPA. When it opened in 2007, I was one of the musicians playing during its opening concert," says Ning, whose career was rising in 2007. In September 2006, Ning won the first prize, as well as two other special prizes, at the prestigious 51st Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa, Italy.

Ren Xiaolong, general manager of the China NCPA Orchestra. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

"I have returned to the NCPA and performed with the China NCPA Orchestra many times during the past decade, which feels like coming home," says Ning, whose wife was a cellist with the China NCPA Orchestra.

The new season will also see premieres of some new commissioned works, including Phaenomena for the sheng and orchestra by Austrian composer Bernd Richard Deutsch, who was inspired by the traditional Chinese musical instrument, the sheng (a free reed wind instrument), Roosters of Dawn by composer Bright Sheng and The Butterfly Exchange by composer Huang Ruo.

According to Ren, the China NCPA Orchestra will expand by adding more musicians since the orchestra will have a new home, the Beijing Performing Arts Centre, where test runs will be conducted later this month.

Located in the east side of the capital, the new venue will become a new hub for music lovers.

"Now the China NCPA Orchestra has about 110 musicians. We will increase the number of our musicians to 170, meeting the demand for more performances at our three venues," says Ren.

The orchestra now performs at two venues: the NCPA and the NCPA Taihu Stage Art Center in Beijing's Tongzhou district.

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn