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Pianists perform at "A Night for Piano in China" concert at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing on August 19, 2008. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com/NCPA]
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After a year of preparations, ten pianists with diverse cultural backgrounds joined hands to put on a spellbinding concert for Beijing audiences on Tuesday.
The artists, who hail from five countries, included France's Philippe Entremont, Spain's Guillermo González and China's Lang Lang. They performed to a packed house at the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA).
Echoing the concert's theme, "A Night for Piano in China," they dressed up in the Chinese traditional clothing, Tangzhuang, which were handmade by Chinese designers.
Supported by the Beijing Symphony Orchestra that was led by acclaimed conductor Tan Lihua, Entremont kicked off the show with a solo interpretation of Chopin.
The night's repertoire also covered Mozart, played by German-born American pianist Claude Frank; Tchaikovsky, presented by Lang Lang; the Chinese audience's favorite concerto "Yellow River," jointly performed by 70-year-old Liu Shikun and 14-year-old Huang Nansong, both from China.
To celebrate the ongoing Olympics, French soloist Cyprien Katsaris even performed an improvised version of a song to herald the Olympic spirits.
"The concert was like an 'artistic Olympics'," Russian-born American pianist Vladimir Feltsman, the night's another performer, said.
"But the difference is that each of the performers is a winner."
The four-hour concert was wrapped up when all of the pianists played "China Jubilance," a four-chapter concerto that is a blend of Chinese regional music.
