Season 2014-2015 Friday, November 7, at 8:00 China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra Lü Jia Conductor Yuja Wang Piano Chen Qigang Wu Xing (The Five Elements), Suite for Orchestra I. Water II. Wood III. Fire IV. Earth V. Metal Ravel Piano Concerto in G major I. Allegramente II. Adagio assai III. Presto Intermission Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 I. Andante—Allegro con anima II. Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza III. Valse: Allegro moderato IV. Andante maestoso—Allegro vivace This program runs approximately 1 hour, 50 minutes. China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra’s 2014 Tour is sponsored by Bank of China. NCPAO_Ad_letter_Layout 1 10/29/14 12:50 PM Page 1 In Celebration of the 35th Anniversary of China-US Diplomatic Relationship Chen Ping President, China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts Philadelphia On the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the diplomatic relation between China and the United States, China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) Orchestra sets off for its historic first tour to the United States and makes music in Chicago, Washington D.C., New York and Philadelphia. As one of China’s most dynamic orchestras, the NCPA Orchestra, formed of some of the nation’s finest young musicians, is excited to see their friends and audiences in the United States and celebrate their shared passion for music and friendship. As a great example of China’s renewed effort in culture and arts, the NCPA has created enormous opportunities for artists from around the world to meet each other and their Chinese audiences, and transform artistic aspirations into substantial presentations, and witnessed significant growth of valued partnerships between the NCPA and leading international arts institutions like the Philadelphia Orchestra. Following the huge success of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s NCPA Residency Project in the past several years, I believe that the NCPA Orchestra’s return visit to Philadelphia will undoubtedly reaffirm our unique friendship and continuous partnership. Music knows no boundary, and beautiful melodies will draw our people even closer. I hope we would bring the cultural exchange between China and the United States to a new high, and leave brilliant marks in people’s memories. I hereby would like to express my gratitude to Ms. Allison Vulgamore and her wonderful team at the Philadelphia Orchestra for their great effort to make this tour a reality. I wish the NCPA Orchestra’s North America Tour a complete success. NCPAO_Ad2_V2_Layout 1 10/29/14 4:34 PM Page 1 The Philadelphia Orchestra thanks the sponsors of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra’s Philadelphia Concert for their support of the ongoing cultural exchange programs between the U.S. and China. Presenting Sponsor of the NCPAO in Philadelphia Supporting Sponsor Supporting Sponsor Media Partner 30 Conductor Lü Jia is chief conductor of China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) Orchestra in Beijing. Born into a musical family in Shanghai, he began studying piano and cello at a very young age. He later studied conducting at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, under the tutelage of conductor Zheng Xiaoying. At the age of 24, Mr. Lü entered the University of Arts in Berlin and the following year was awarded both the First Prize and Jury’s Prize at the Antonio Pedrotti International Conducting Competition in Trento, Italy. Over the past decades he has conducted over 2,000 orchestral concerts and opera performances in Europe and America, becoming the first Asian conductor to serve as the artistic director of a major Italian opera house and the first Chinese conductor to lead the Chicago Symphony. Since his appointment in 2012 as chief conductor and artistic director of opera, the NCPA’s productions of Wagner’s Lohengrin and The Flying Dutchman, Verdi’s Otello and A Masked Ball, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Puccini’s Tosca, and many other works have received glowing reviews from the international press, launching an exciting new chapter in the history of professional opera productions in China. Having directed nearly 50 operas in Italy and Germany, Mr. Lü has been praised by Italian music critics as “a conductor who understands Italian opera even better than the Italians themselves do.” In 2007, in recognition of his important contribution to musical culture in Italy, he was awarded the President’s Prize by President Giorgio Napolitano. The NCPA Orchestra, under Mr. Lü’s baton, has also established itself as one of the leading new ensembles in the orchestral world in China. Mr. Lü was the first Chinese conductor to record Mendelssohn’s complete orchestral works, and he is also the only conductor so far who has recorded the complete works by the Swedish composer Ingvar Lidholm. Before taking up his current posts in Beijing, Mr. Lü served as music director at Verona Opera, artistic director at the Tenerife Symphony, and chief conductor at Trieste Opera, the Florence Symphony, the Lazio Chamber Orchestra in Rome, and the Norrköpping Symphony in Sweden. In addition to his NCPA music directorship, he is also currently music director and principal conductor of the Macao Orchestra. 31 Soloist Fadil Berisha Fadil In the years since her 2005 debut with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, 27-year-old pianist Yuja Wang has performed with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras. This season she returns to the Concertgebouw to perform Shostakovich’s Concerto No. 1 with Mariss Jansons; tours North America and Europe in a continued collaboration with violinist Leonidas Kavakos; performs in a U.S. tour with the London Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas; and makes her concerto debut with the Berlin Philharmonic. She is also featured as artist-in-residence with the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, appearing three times over the course of the season. Highlights of recent seasons include a tour of the U.S. with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields led by Neville Marriner; an appearance as guest soloist with the YouTube Symphony and Mr. Thomas at Carnegie Hall; performances and a recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at the Lucerne Music Festival; and performances with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra on tour in China. Ms. Wang made her Carnegie Hall recital debut in 2011 and regularly gives recitals in major cities throughout Asia, Europe, and North America. Ms. Wang is an exclusive recording artist for Deutsche Grammophon. Following her debut recording, Sonatas & Etudes, Gramophone magazine named her the Classic FM 2009 Young Artist of the Year. For her second recording, Transformation, she received an Echo Klassik award as Young Artist of the Year. She next collaborated with Claudio Abbado and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra to record her first concerto album, featuring Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and his Concerto No. 2, which was nominated for a Grammy as Best Classical Instrumental Solo. Most recently she joined Mr. Kavakos to record the complete Brahms violin and piano sonatas for Decca Records. Ms. Wang studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and at the Morningside Music summer program at Calgary’s Mount Royal College before moving to the U.S. to study with Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music. She graduated from Curtis in 2008 and in 2010 was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. 32 China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra Established in 2010, China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) Orchestra is the only resident orchestra of the NCPA in Beijing. Its current chief conductor is Lü Jia, who took up the post in 2011, succeeding Chen Zuohuang, who now serves as conductor laureate. In just a few years, the NCPA Orchestra has demonstrated an abiding commitment to the highest level of artistic excellence, and takes pride in its collaborations with some of the finest musicians of our time, including Lorin Maazel, Christoph Eschenbach, Plácido Domingo, Leo Nucci, Lior Shambadal, Rudolf Buchbinder, Lang Lang, Yuja Wang, and Ning Feng, among others. Mr. Maazel praised the orchestra for its “amazing professionalism and great passion in music.” The NCPA Orchestra balances a busy and distinguished performance schedule, playing for the Centre’s opera productions as well as presenting its own concert season. The ensemble has performed over 20 opera productions, many of them for the first time in China, including Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman and Lohengrin, Verdi’s Otello, and Puccini’s Tosca. The quality of these performances has set a new benchmark for opera in China. On the concert stage the orchestra has firmly established itself as a major player with such high-profile projects as the NCPA Gustav Mahler Project in 2011 and the Chinese premiere of Ring without Words under the baton of its creator, Mr. Maazel, in 2012. The orchestra is committed to commissioning and promoting contemporary music. Having presented the Chinese premieres of major works by Tōru Takemitsu and Giya Kancheli in 2013, the ensemble gave the world premieres of 10 works commissioned by the NCPA and written by composers from across the globe, including Michael Gordon, Augusta Read Thomas, and Joby Talbot. The NCPA Orchestra has embarked on a number of international tours. In 2012 the ensemble was invited by the Kissingen Summer Music Festival and the Schleswig- Holstein Music Festival, and its first German tour continued with concerts in Nürnberg, Hamburg, and Berlin, followed by appearances at the Sydney Opera House. In 2013 the orchestra undertook its first Asian tour with concerts in Singapore, Seoul, and Macao. With its commitment to educational and outreach activities, the orchestra has presented a popular series of Weekend Matinee Concerts at its home venue since its establishment, and also frequently initiates wide-reaching educational projects in association with educational institutions across the city.