The Macao Orchestra

2011-2012 Concert Season

Rhythm speaks the dynamic beauty of music; movement sings praises to the heavenly sounds.

Time flies – the long-awaited 9th Concert Season of the Macao Orchestra is just around the corner!

In this new Concert Season, the Classic Series will still be our central focus. Most of the musical pieces are primarily selected from the profound and magnificent well of Austro-German music. A wide range of classics and symphonies from Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner, Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss are to be discovered in this Concert Season.

While serving as a gateway to appreciating the core of Western symphonic music plus the ‘orthodox’ classical pieces, this forthcoming Concert Season also bears witness to the maturity and progress of the Macao Orchestra, and fully embraces the artistic pursuits of the Orchestra in terms of their mastery of performing style and refined expression.

Certainly, the inimitable international standard recitals of the Classic Series are the highlights of this concert season. Several world-class musicians will join forces with the Orchestra and Music Director and Principal Conductor Lü Jia. The group of renowned masters – including prominent flautist Emmanuel Pahud, the youngest Gold Medal Winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Zhang Haochen, much-talked-about violinist Li Chuanyun, prestigious cellist Qin Liwei and piano maestro Jorge Luis Prats – will surely bring music aficionados the essence of various classical pieces, enabling them to indulge in their masterly performances. They will experience in person their charms on stage and excellent musical performances.

This year is Liszt Year as well as Mahler Year. To extol upon the immensely significant contributions of these two maestros in the history of music development, the Macao Orchestra will stage their classical pieces - the Faust Symphony and Kindertotenlieder - during the 25th Macao International Music Festival. These two extremely challenging works - the masterpieces in the long list of musical documentation and ones that exert influence over succeeding artistic development – are, indeed, works that should not be missed by music aficionados.

In addition, in the Special Production Series, The Perfect Match – Commemorative Concert of Fr. Matteo Ricci will be performed as a tribute to Matteo Ricci for his great contribution to enhancing multicultural exchanges. These highlighted the important role of Macao as the crossroads of Chinese and Western cultures, and the embodiment of harmonious co-existence of different cultures.

The refined ensemble performance of Popular Classics and E-Game Music as part of the Macao Arts Festival are the first undertakings of the Orchestra in the Special Production Series. These two performances seek to broaden and deepen the artistic tentacles of audience members, targeting in particular young adults, and seeks to attract many more concert-goers of all ages to attest to the eccentric uniqueness as a result of the fusion between classical/popular music and electronic music.

One of the most important components of the Macao International Music Festival every year is the Opera Series. The appearance of the Macao Orchestra in recent years has provided a quality guarantee of the performance of each of these operas. In the coming Music Festival, under the lead of opera specialists and the Music Director, the Orchestra will collaborate with renowned vocalists from various parts of the world to jointly present the groundbreaking German romantic opera Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber.This opera performance not only makes its Hong Kong and Macao debut but debuts in Greater China, thereby commemorating a truly spectacular musical event.

Acclaimed as a conductor who ‘knows Italian Opera better than Italians’, Lü Jia will direct the Orchestra and soloists in the Valentine’s Day concert to present two timeless operas from Puccini – La Bohème and the first scene of Madama Butterfly – to send out the most passionate greetings of love to all lovers and couples on this most romantic day!

As per usual practice, the Macao Orchestra will for the Festive Series select a myriad of masterpieces to celebrate festivals with the general public. In addition to the superb opera performances on Valentine’s Day, the Orchestra will respectively stage Antonio Lucio Vivaldi’s Magnificat and various pieces of sacred music with Mozart’s Mass in C Minor. Furthermore, the Chinese New Year Concert will once again send festive greetings, love and care to the elderly and socially vulnerable.

For the purpose of co-ordinating with policies governing the cultural and creative industries of the Macao SAR, the Orchestra collaborated with local animation talent to present a ‘Children’s Day Concert’ in the previous concert season. The fusion of animated stories and classical music takes our future masters of the world into a wonderful, innocent and colourful world of the imagination. This concert season, the Orchestra will continue to work in this direction, joining hands with local animation talent to produce another performance of Music of the Imagination, thereby sending children festive gifts on Children’s Day.

Chamber music not only attracts knowledgeable music aficionados of the highest degree but poses challenges to the performers in mastering the styles of musical pieces penned in different eras by different composers. Therefore, in this concert season, the Orchestra has arranged six music concerts of the Chamber Music Series, including The Voice of Nationalism, Romantic French Music, Experience Beethoven, Colourful Echoes, Masters Rising behind the Iron Curtain and Appointment with the ‘Red Priest’.

These are works of various styles such as that of Baroque, the classical, romantic, modern and experimental. Together, they will surely satisfy the tastes of every music lover. If you are willing, you will always be able to find your ‘favourite’ in this series!

The Chamber Music Series is often hosted in World Heritage site Dom Pedro V Theatre to indulge music aficionados with the essence of various musical pieces whilst experiencing the ‘atmosphere’ of the place. Altogether, three concerts of Music Journey into the Heritage Sites will be staged – An Encounter of Arts, Emotions and Scenes, The Feast of Emotions and The World of Rhythm – taking audiences to various unique buildings in the Historic Centre of Macao, which is part of the world’s cultural heritage.

The staging will not only deepen understanding and encourage appreciation of such precious World Heritage sites through the guidance of docent services but enable music aficionados to enjoy familiar masterpieces within such hallowed sites. This is, indeed, a ‘double enjoyment of the art’ – both the audio and the visual. Since the first launching of this series last year, concerts have been very well received by local music lovers and overseas tourists, with all concerts fully housed!

As an orchestra in Macao, it must root itself in Macao. Thus, the Macao Orchestra, as a local professional orchestra, always bears in mind its mission of music education and popularisation. In light of this, in the Educational Series the Orchestra will especially design two pieces for its brand new concert Journey into the World of Music, the two pieces of which seek to suit the taste of primary and secondary students of different age levels, thereby launching music education and popularistion in a more targeted manner. These two pieces are Fairytales of Music and Colourful Life Experience.

The Orchestra will once more collaborate with local institutes of tertiary education to host University Concert on the university campus, as well as ‘sending music’ to various local primary and secondary schools to host vivid and lively Campus Concerts.

The Orchestra will also join hands with local students of music as well as musicians from various associations and organisations to jointly perform Hope of the Future to share with them the joy of music creation and re-creation. The exchange of stage experience will surely help cultivate future stars of the Macao music arena. Certainly, the shaping of ‘future stars’ relies on your participation and support.

In regard to promoting music to local residents, the Orchestra will organise two concerts - Eternal Melody and Music in Kaleidoscope - to bring to local residents familiar and remarkable masterpieces, thereby guiding them to enter the wonderful, colourful world of music!

From the foregoing, it is evident that the magnificent and diversified performances in this concert season will surely enable every one of us to hear our favourite pieces. The superb delivery of such pieces by the Macao Orchestra will also bestow upon us both comfort and enjoyment in the midst of hectic city life in an attempt to nourish our hearts. Let us meet in these concerts to share and enjoy the wonders of music - and be inspired by them!