Part of: Concertos Plus
This performance is proudly supported by ICBC U.S. Region.
Lead support for the 125 Commissions Project is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Additional funding is provided by members of Carnegie Hall's Composer Club.
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.
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.
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.
The China NCPA Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the National Centre for the
Performing Arts (NCPA), Beijing. Established in March 2010, the orchestra has performed in
more than a dozen opera productions presented by its home venue each year, as well as in
regular orchestral concerts throughout its own season.
Artists associated with the orchestra have included Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev,
Myung-Whun Chung, Christoph Eschenbach, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Fabio Luisi, Lang Lang, Stephen
Kovacevich, Leo Nucci, and Yuja Wang, among many others. Lorin Maazel worked closely with
the orchestra before his passing and praised the musicians for their "amazing
professionalism and great passion in music." The NCPA Orchestra's performance of Maazel's
mammoth The "Ring" Without Words was released worldwide on Sony Classics--the only
recording the great maestro ever made with a Chinese orchestra.
The China NCPA Orchestra has gained critical acclaim for its performances in NCPA's opera
productions of Tosca, Die Fledermaus, Lohengrin, Aida,
and Nabucco, as well as newly commissioned works like The Chinese Orphan
and Rickshaw Boy. The orchestra also has explored other contemporary music, giving
the Chinese premieres of works by Toru Takemitsu and Giya Kancheli, among others, and the
world premieres of many works by Michael Gordon and Augusta Read Thomas.
The China NCPA Orchestra has taken to the international stage, receiving widespread praise
for its performances at the Kissinger Sommer and Schleswig-Holstein music festivals, as
well as on tour in Sydney, Singapore, Seoul, Daegu, Taipei, and Macau. During the 2014-2015
season, the orchestra undertook its first North American tour, performing in seven major
cities across the United States and Canada under the baton of Lü Jia.
Lü Jia is artistic director of music of the National Centre for the Performing Arts
(NCPA), music director and chief conductor of the China NCPA Orchestra, and music director
and principal conductor of the Macao Orchestra. Previously, he acted as music director of
the Fondazione Arena di Verona (Italy) and artistic director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de
Tenerife (Spain).
Mr. Lü has conducted nearly 2,000 orchestral concerts and opera performances in Europe and
the United States. He has worked with such renowned opera houses and symphony orchestras as
the Teatro alla Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chicago
Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphony,
Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
(UK), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lyon, and many
others.
A highly acclaimed opera conductor, Mr. Lü has led more than 50 productions
internationally. As the first Asian conductor appointed as music director of an important
opera house in Italy, he has been praised by critics and audiences alike.
In 1989, he was awarded both the first prize and jury's prize at the "Antonio Pedrotti"
International Conducting Competition in Trento, Italy.
In 2007, Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano recognized Mr. Lü for his exceptional
contribution to Italian culture with an official award. That same year, Mr. Lü conducted a
production of Rossini's La gazza ladra at the Rossini Opera Festival.
Since his gold medal win at the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009,
27-year-old Chinese pianist Haochen Zhang has captivated audiences in the United States,
Europe, and Asia with a unique combination of deep musical sensitivity, fearless
imagination, and spectacular virtuosity. In 2017, he received a prestigious Avery Fisher
Career Grant, which recognizes the potential for a major career in music.
A popular guest soloist with many orchestras in his native China, Mr. Zhang made his debut
in Munich with the Munich Philharmonic and the late maestro Lorin Maazel in April 2013. He
has also performed in China with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and David Robertson; in
Tokyo, Beijing, and Shanghai with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Thomas Hengelbrock;
and in Beijing with the Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev, who immediately invited him
to the Moscow Easter Festival. Mr. Zhang has performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra, San
Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Kansas City Symphony,
Seattle Symphony, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Singapore
Symphony Orchestra, and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. In recital, he has performed at
Spivey Hall at Clayton State University, La Jolla Music Society, Celebrity Series of
Boston, the University of Colorado's Artist Series, Cliburn Concerts, Krannert Center for
the Performing Arts, Wolf Trap's Chamber Music at The Barns, Lied Center of Kansas, and
University of Vermont Lane Series, among others. International tours have taken him to
cities that include Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Berlin, Munich, Paris, Dresden,
Rome, Tivoli, Verbier, Montpellier, Helsingborg, Bogotá, and Belgrade. His performances at
the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition were recorded and released to critical
acclaim by Harmonia Mundi in 2009. He also is featured in Peter Rosen's award-winning
documentary A Surprise in Texas: 13th Van Cliburn International Piano
Competition.
Mr. Zhang is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Gary
Graffman. He previously trained at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Shenzhen Arts
School, where he was admitted in 2001 at the age of 11 to study with Dan Zhaoyi.