When young performers who have made their mark at the international competition venue come together on the chamber music stage, each one’s spark gains a new lustre as they echo one another. At this concert, a number of young musicians, who have distinguished themselves in international competitions, gather at the NCPA and join the China NCPA Orchestra to start a fresh dialogue on chamber music in a range of chamber formations.

Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C Major is rearranged for percussion, endowing familiar contrapuntal lines with an entirely new texture. Keyboard music of centuries ago comes into view in different timbres and sonorities, foreshadow‌ing the presentation of Milhaud’s Suite d’après Corrette‌. Milhaud, too, casts his gaze backward, but goes a step further. Drawing on the music by Michel Corrette, a French composer in the 18^th century, he sets old dances within the 20^th century’s rhythm, harmony and instrumental colour. The serenade, rondo, minuet and “cuckoo” still retain the lightness and wit of French music, yet carry Milhaud’s unmistakable stamp. In Mozart’s Piano Trio in B-flat Major, the piano shines as before, but it no longer holds the stage alone, while the violin and cello gradually acquire more distinctive sounds. The melody passes among the three instruments, each in turn bringing it to the fore, with soloistic brilliance and chamber-music rapport blending as one. The concise technique makes the first movement sound as if it were composed by Haydn, not Mozart. The Adagio, in part, seems to pay homage to Haydn, while the finale is a grand rondo. In Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, this dialogue space is opened still wider, so that the piano and string quartet spur each other on, preserving the delicacy of close interplay while unleashing an almost orchestral force. The second movement is a gloomy yet majestic march in C minor, which is especially unforgettable, because its heavy tread is punctuated by bright lyricism and sudden storms. This way of holding sharp emotional contrasts within a tempo later left a deep echo in late Romantic music, nowhere more distinctly than in Mahler’s.

Voices of different backgrounds and temperaments come together, lending familiar classics a vitality that belongs to the very night alone. All four works respond in their own way to the traditions behind them, and this corresponds to the gathering of young musicians tonight. They each come with their own character and experience. Together, in a shared breath and a shared sound, they make the tradition new for this night only.