Riding on a May warm breeze, the annual NCPA May Festival is returning for a grand reunion. From May 1^st to 25^th, the NCPA and the Beijing Performing Arts Centre will join in the jubilation together with 24 highly attractive concerts to be held for a concentrative presentation of spectacular chamber music that will enthrall more music lovers with its infinite charm. Themed, “Brighter Future in Music”, this year’s May Festival will be held as a top carnival of chamber music in the presence of internationally renowned artists and orchestras, who will interpret the classics and create new pieces to tap the unlimited potential of chamber music.

 

The NCPA May Festival has accompanied Beijing audiences for over 14 years, becoming an annual cultural feast for the people living here in the capital city. The current year’s May Festival will feature “prestigious artists and orchestras”, with “talented musicians to contend in artistic virtuosity” this May. Among those musicians, Siqing Lu, Artistic Director of the NCPA May Festival, Sumi Jo, one of the most prominent coloratura sopranos in the world today, Pinchas Zukerman, an ageless legend in the classical music scene of the 20^th century, WU Wei, an avant-garde sheng artist in the world’s music scene, NING Feng, a resident artist at the NCPA in its 2023/24 season, SHEN Fanxiu, the most outstanding representative of Chinese pipe organ artists, NI Haiye, Cello Principal of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and LI Quan, a musical genius, among others, will appear at the May Festival and revolve around “music” in their virtuoso performances.

 

Meanwhile, numerous world-renowned orchestras will return to the stage of the NCPA after a few years’ separation. The I Musici, Concerto Copenhagen, Wiener Cello Ensemble 5+1, Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonie Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Piano Quartet, Quatuor Van Kuijk, Quintessence Saxophone Quintet and Major Trio will all present a colourful world of chamber music composed of their most representative repertoire and creative composition.

 

At this year’s festival, classical masterpieces will be performed in an innovative manner, while excellent works that “receive little attention” will be placed on stage to demonstrate the diverse charm of the chamber music art. As for the interpretation of the classics, the I Musici and SHEN Fanxiu will both perform pure Baroque music. The Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonie Orchestra, which is “the spokesperson for Haydn music”, will deliver an amazing concert of Haydn’s music for the first time to authoritatively present something rustic, humourous and interesting hidden in his works. The violinist NING Feng will conduct and hold two concerts of Mozart’s violin concertos to please the listener’s ear. Zukerman will, for the first time, give a solo concert and interpret Beethoven’s three violin sonatas to show his never-fading virtuosity as a grandmaster. The highly popular China Trio, will hold a concert of Beethoven’s classic trios. The Quatuor Vankuijk will give a concentrative interpretation of French works in a most agreeable manner.

In addition to classic chamber music, this year’s festival will be characterised by continuous innovations of the performance forms, expansion of the music genres and presentation of many other music expression forms. The opening concert will be upgraded to “Bowstring Feast” 4.0. Young and middle-aged famous string musicians from at home and abroad, including Siqing Lu, HUANG Mengla, CHEN Xi, LUO Chaowen, SU Zhen, Li-Wei Qin and SUN Yingdi, will once again share the stage. Renowned performers at the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Qingxin Chamber Music have been invited, enriching the repertoire with the flute and the harp adopted as a supplement to the violin family, in order to maximize a fair-sounding combination of bowstrings. The Chinese and foreign artists will perform chamber music ensembles and concertos including Baroque chamber music, Classical chamber music and commissioned Chinese works. CAO Xiumei and the I Musici will present a sideshow of cantatas and oratorios amidst the performance of The Seasons, with musical instruments and vocal music adding radiance and beauty in order to make chamber music livelier. The Concerto Copenhagen’s “Spring Time” will begin with the Baroque music composed with inspiration from “spring” and end up with a contemporary melody. The audience can taste the spring-featured music in May, the most beautiful month. In the second half of the concert, the Wiener Cello Ensemble 5+1 will share their creative musical story - “Spring in the Famous Vienna Forest”. WU Wei will work with the China NCPA Orchestra for the Chinese premiere of Bernd Richard Deutsch’s piece composed for the Chinese instrument sheng. They will also perform Bartók’s Two Images, a piece with distinctive Hungarian national characteristics, to present a dialogue between different nations. The most-anticipated Midnight Rose will be rendered by LI Quan with six musicians who have tremendous influence in China’s jazz music scene and some promising jazz musicians who are highly popular today. Three elements - classical, pop and jazz - will be mixed together and interpreted anew as a romantic, swing classic melody to offer music lovers an auditory feast of jazz that deeply touches the soul.