Classical music fans are soon to be inundated by opportunities to listen to leading international and Chinese musicians as the Eighth Beijing Music Festival opens on Saturday.

Sara Chang, the 25-year-old Korean violinist who opened the event in 2000, will raise the curtain once again with her stylistic and charming talent under the baton of Edo de Waat.

She will perform Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No1 in A Minor, with the accompaniment of the China Philharmonic Orchestra.

The big names familiar to classical music fans the world over also include the American violinist Joshua Bell and Stuttgart Radio Symphony, the French sister-pianists Katia and Marielle Labeque and Polish pianist Ivo Pogorelich.

British conductor Roger Norrington, the viola soloist Tabea Zimmermann and the cellist Alban Gerhardt, who have won recognition in the world classical music scene, will make their first appearances in China.

The star-studded cast will offer Beijingers the chance to sample the diversity of global cultures at the event, according to Yu Long, artistic director of the Beijing Music Festival.

For instance, there will be two special chamber concerts, one dedicated to the Czech Republic on October 21 and the other to Poland the following day.

The two concerts rich in Eastern European flavour will present a dozen contemporary pieces composed by Czech and Polish musicians in the 20th century.

Promoting Chinese music is one of the major goals that the festival devotes itself to every year.

In the past seven years, many world-renowned Chinese composers such as Tan Dun, Guo Wenjing, Ye Xiaogang and Chen Qigang have presented their signature works at the festival.

This year, Ye Xiaogang will return to hold a concert to premiere his Song of the Earth.

The work was commissioned by the China Philharmonic Orchestra with Yu Long as its artistic director. It is the Chinese answer to Mahler's great work of the same name, which was written in 1908 and based on Chinese poems from the Tang Dynasty (618-907). It has already gained some critical acclaim when it premiered in the United States and Europe.

On October 22, Beijing's concertgoers will be able to enjoy the full-length Chinese Song of the Earth played by the China Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of the rising conductor Zhang Yi and features young soprano Lu Qi and baritone Yang Xiaoyong.

Berlin Philharmonic's return

The festival will reach its climax in early November when the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra returns to Beijing after 26 years.

Simon Rattle will conduct the orchestra at two closing concerts at Poly Theatre on November 4 and 5, in addition to the orchestra's accompaniment of Nuremburg State Theatre's presentation of Wagner's Ring Cycle.

In 1979, Herbert von Karajan took the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra to premiere in Beijing. At a time when the country was just recovering from the disastrous "cultural revolution" (1966-76), the organizer could not find a concert hall and the renowned orchestra had to perform at the Capital Stadium.

According to Yu Long, when the plane landed at Beijing International Airport, a high hanging ladder was specially prepared to receive the orchestra.

Karajan was the first to step on to the ladder. However, the makeshift ladder was not firm enough and the famous conductor missed a few steps.

Twenty-six years later, Beijing is booming both in economy and culture. It has received a good many world famous orchestras and conductors. With great improvements in social and cultural life, the local audience's taste in music has been refined, too.

Meanwhile, the famed Berlin orchestra has shifted from the period of Karajan to Claudio Abbado and now Simon Rattle.

This year's Beijing Music Festival will move its master class out of the Central Conservatory of Music to Peking University to attract more young people.

"Promoting classical music means spreading it to a wider public rather than music students. I hope to bring them closer to classical music by providing them with opportunities to communicate with the masters," said Yu.

(China Daily October 11, 2005)