The National Symphony Orchestra is to open its 2020/2021 season in Taipei tomorrow, with a concert featuring violinist Ray Chen (陳銳) and the Taipei Philharmonic Chorus.
The orchestra is to present Maurice Ravel’s ballet Daphnis et Chloe and two other works, Violin Concerto No. 3 by Camille Saint-Saens and Paul Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a widely known piece from Disney’s animated film Fantasia, it said.
The concert is to begin at 7:30pm at the National Concert Hall with the orchestra’s artistic adviser and former music director Lu Shao-chia (呂紹嘉) as conductor, and John Ku (古育仲) and Regina Chang (張維君) as chorus masters, the orchestra said.
Prior to assuming his post earlier this year, Lu served as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra for 10 years.
On Friday and Saturday next week, the orchestra is to present five classic pieces, including Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major, in a concert titled “Timeless Encounters.”
Featuring violinists Chen, Hu Nai-yuan (胡乃元) and William Wei (魏靖儀), “Timeless Encounters” is also to be conducted by Lu, the orchestra said.
The other pieces presented in the concert are Johann Sebastian Bach’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in E major and his Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, as well as Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto for Three Violins in F major and Igor Stravinsky’s Concerto in D for strings.
Performances are to be held at the National Concert Hall on Friday and at the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) on Saturday, on each of the night beginning at 7:30pm.
Praising Taiwan’s COVID-19 response, Lu said that “in Taiwan, everyone can still go about their daily lives and go to concerts.”
“Now, every concert is an educational shock, testing our ability to adapt and our creativity,” he said.
Due to COVID-19-related travel restrictions, many foreign musicians had to cancel their trips to Taiwan, the orchestra said.
However, it has also presented a rare opportunity for award-winning Taiwanese musicians who usually reside in different parts of the world to perform together in front of the nation’s audiences, it said.
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