The Munich Philharmonic Orchestra plays the closing concert for the 23rd China Shanghai International Arts Festival at Shanghai Symphony Hall on Nov 17. [Photo by Dong Tianye for chinadaily.com.cn]
The 23rd China Shanghai International Art Festival concluded on Sunday evening with a concert by the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Chinese pianist Zhang Haochen at the Shanghai Symphony Hall.
The festival, which was organized from Oct 18 to Nov 17, consisted of more than 1,600 performances and exhibitions presented by 16,000 artists from 27 cities and provinces around China, as well as 80 countries from other parts of the world. The shows were attended by more than 10 million audiences, 24 per cent of whom hailed from outside Shanghai across the country, and eight per cent coming from overseas.
"This is more than any of the previous sessions of the CSIAF, with more productions from home and abroad staging their Shanghai premieres at the festival this year," said Yang Jialu, vice president of the operation center for the festal. These statistics reflects the festival's strong attraction to renowned artists and groups from all over the world, she said.
The Munich Philharmonic Orchestra has a history of more than 130 years and has been a regular visitor to China since 2013, according to Paul Muller, executive director of the German music company. Musicians of the orchestra loved to play in China, because audiences always gave emotional and direct responses to their performance, and also in China, the audiences for classical music "is much younger than what we are used to in Europe," he said.
On the closing concert for CSIAF, the orchestra played under the baton of maestro Tugan Sokhiev Tchaikovsky's Polonaise from Eugene Onegin, and Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Maestro Tugan Sokhiev conducts the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, in collaboration with Chinese pianist Zhang Haochen at the concert on Sunday evening. [Photo by Dong Tianye for chinadaily.com.cn]
Zhang was featured in Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 in B-flat minor at the concert. The 34-year-old pianist was born in Shanghai and rose to prominence after winning the gold medal at the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009. Last month Zhang had his right index finger bone fractured while moving furniture, and at Sunday's concert he played with his finger still wrapped in bandage.
"I have recovered faster than anyone expected — the doctors and even myself. I am now able to play as normal, unaffected," Zhang said before the concert on Sunday morning. "It turns out a positive attitude and strong willpower is the most effective medicine."
