Traversing East, West, the Past and the Present

The development of Chinese symphonic music hinges upon the building of the repertoire, with a constant input of new, original compositions which open up channels between Chinese music culture and the rest of the world. Leading composers have contributed to the symphonisation of Chinese instrumental music over the decades with their consummate understanding of Chinese culture and mastery of compositional idioms by breaking down cultural, temporal or spatial boundaries.

To tie in with the theme of Chinese Music without Bounds of the symposium, this concert features some milestone works in Chinese orchestral music distinguished by orchestration. They include Doming Lam's Autumn Execution (1993) which was one of the ‘Twentieth Century Chinese Music Classics'; Peng Xiuwen's As the Moon Rises, which is a lyrical, impressionistic depiction of a moonlit scene through his ingenious orchestration; Zhao Jiping's Raise the Red Lantern, a work that has been recognized the world over through the soundtrack scores on television and in the cinema; Zhu Jian'er's inventive work, A Sorrowful Tune, which engages polyphony that consists of multiple, independent melodic voices; Guo Wenjing's Chou-Kong-Shan ('Sorrowful, Desolate Mountain'), a milestone in the history of development of the Chinese bamboo flute; Dirk Bosse's Hallow-e'en Dances, a piece that may be described as 'Chinese music written with a macro angle' by a Western composer; and Liu Xing's Symphony No. 2 for Chinese Orchestra, a monumental work fusing Chinese music with jazz, written in the 1980's. The programme by itself is a conglomeration of rich and modern Chinese orchestral sounds, so come and join us as we soar in this magic realm where no boundaries exist!