For this year's concert, NCPA, as usual, invited lots of world-renowned music artists, showing its steadfast pursuit of elegant art. The Beijing New Year's Concert has been a cherished memory for Beijing citizens since 5 years ago and attracted such highly acclaimed conductors as Seiji Ozawa, Daniel Harding, David Zinman, Lorin Maazel, among others.
At 8PM, under the gaze of over 2,000 audiences, Christoph Eschenbach stepped onto the podium and, together with China NCPA Concert Hall Orchestra, opened the celebration with Johann Strauss’s classic Overture to Die Fledermaus. Then, Marisol Montalvo, the world class soprano once appeared in the Paris Opera, greeted the audience with the melodic Voices of Spring Waltz. Leonard Bernstein's most popular and effervescent Candide Overture was also revived by the Orchestra, who successfully brought to life with its remarkable virtuosity the work's variable beats and humorous ideas. The grand finale of the first half was the jazz-styledRhapsody in Blue performed by pianist Tzimon Barto, which again took the stage by storm.
The second half of the concert was also immersed in festival cheerfulness with an opening of the last movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 and the last movement of Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4, "Italian". The former's jubilant festive radiance and the latter's Roman carnival vibe made a splendid celebration of the New Year's Eve. After a series of Western classics, several traditional Chinese works came onstage: excerpts from the opera White-haired Girl, trumpet concerto Ode to Beijing and Guan Xia's symphonic fantasia Farewell My Concubine. Eschenbach, the maestro who has conducted countless top-notch European and American orchestras, endued Chinese works with a distinctive appeal. Farewell My Concubine also made an impressive show with the successful rendition of soprano Chen Junhua and folk music performers Zhang Xiaohong, Ning Yingjie and Wang Shuang. InBinging a Plait with Red Ribbon, an excerpt from White-haired Girl, tenor Chi Liming and soprano Judith Howarth charmed everyone with their vivid interpretation, especially with the amusing contrast of a Chinese “Yang Bailao” and a foreign "Xi'er'. Trumpet player Dai Zhonghui, with the peculiar bright tone of trumpet, presented a solemn yet delicate melody in Ode to Beijing (adapted by Jiang Ying), expressing a deep love for the motherland. Finally, percussionist Li Biao enthralled the audience with the concert's closing piece: the 3rd movement of Schwantner's Velocities, turning the venue into a joyful ocean with his astonishing techniques and the complex and unpredictable rhythms of percussive music.