The China NCPA Orchestra will give two concerts on July 26^th and 27^th under renowned conductor Chung Myung-Whun’s baton. Then in August, they will start their first ever Europe tour. During the tour, they will appear on several world-class music stages one after another including the Edinburgh International Festival, Santander International Music Festival, Das Internationale Musikfestival Koblenz and Elbphilharmonie Summer. To this end, the China NCPA Orchestra and Chung Myung-Whun have jointly designed an exciting repertoire featuring French music. As a former managing director of the Opera de Garnier, opéra de la Bastille and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Myung-whun Chung possesses profound insight into French music. With his signature precision and authentic interpretive style, he will revisit the glorious century of French Romantic music, captivating the European audiences.

The six concerts will share one overture - Wu Xing, composed by Qigang Chen, a French-Chinese composer. The work came into being in 1998-1999 at the call of Radio France. According to the plan, one of the five movements would be played each time from Monday to Friday, while the whole piece would be performed on Saturday. After careful consideration, Qigang Chen took the “Five Elements” in traditional Chinese culture, i.e., “water, wood, fire, earth and metal”, as the core of the composition - by starting it with “water”, which is pure and quiet, and ending it with “metal”, which is bright and powerful.

The excerpts from Prokofiev’s ballet Roméo et Juliette will also be presented. In 1933, when he had spent 15 years of self-imposed exile, Prokofiev returned to his homeland and rekindled his passion for composing music. It was with such passion that he composed Roméo et Juliette. However, the work got mired in controversy before it was staged in public. That is, after reading through the music score, the directors at the Bolshoi Theatre asserted it was “impossible to choreograph a ballet”. Hearing this, Prokofiev choked back his anger and extracted two suites from it, which he accurately predicted would inspire public anticipation for the whole piece. Soon afterwards, he was pleased to see the Bolshoi Theatre and its formidable adversary, the Leningrad Kirov Ballet, compete fiercely with each other for the right to premiere this work. Indeed, Prokofiev created great masterpieces of dance and music as his two compatriot predecessors, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky, had done. At the concert, Chung Myung-Whun will present 10 excerpts from three concert suites. The music will pull the audience into a gripping dramatic story. When listening to the touching melody about the “death of Juliette”, they will be impressed by the eternal moment at which life is quietly passing away. The highlight of the second half is Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 “Organ”, which is one of the most famous symphonies in the history of French music. The composer said it was his crowning achievement, for which he had exhausted his talent. Throughout the history of music, there are some many orchestral works featuring successful use of the organ in their orchestration, but this piece by Saint-Saëns is the only symphony to have the organ take the lead role from beginning to end. Structurally, the work is not structured in the standard four-movement form, which is common in traditional German-Austrian symphonic music, but in a two-movement form, which is more concise. What makes it most charming is the combination of tender human feelings and heavenly solemnity. It not only expresses a sentimental attachment to life, but also tries to throw off the shackles of mundane through the organ’s roar, sounding as if the sunlight were penetrating through the church’s stained glass to shine in all its splendour. It is especially noteworthy that the organ soloist Hansjörg Albrecht is one of most outstanding concert organists in the world today. He has adapted and recorded all of Bruckner’s symphonies. So the concert is not to be missed if the audience wants to have the organ art impress them for a lifetime.