01 / 12 / 2023 | Madrid | Activities > public diplomacy
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The Symphony Orchestra RTVE will offer a commemorative concert next Friday, December 1 with reason del 50 anniversary dethe establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Spain. Ebased on this framework, andl Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, Casa Asia and the RTVE Symphony Orchestra, with the collaboration of the China Cultural Center in Madrid, organize this extraordinary concert, with a musical program that combines pieces from both countries.

The program includes five works that have a clear international vocation, as well as its creators, who connect us with the best Spanish and Chinese symphonic music of the last century, with works by Joaquin Turina, Isaac Albéniz and Juan Francisco Padilla on the Spanish side and Tan Dun, Zhou Long and Liu Chi on the Chinese side. The concert will also feature a performance by the virtuoso of erhu or “Chinese violin“, the famous Wang Xiao.  

LSpectators attending the concert will be able to listen exclusively to the absolute premiere of the orchestral version of the Alhambra Suite of the teacher Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909), by the Almeria musician Juan Francisco Padilla. Padilla himself has said that "I have studied the orchestration written by Albéniz to make a continuous version, tracing the melodic and harmonic developments, as well as the general sonority in the style of what Albéniz had written."

The prestigious Chinese American composer so dun He is known for the soundtracks of the films Tiger and Dragon or Hero. He is the author of the Internet Symphony “Eroica” for the first project of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, a group made up of musicians from all over the world. 

Joaquín Turina (1882-1949), wrote what has become his most performed piece: Fantastic Dances, Op. 22, which can also be heard at the concert. An original piano work that Turina himself orchestrated. 

Zhou Long is a Chinese American composer who won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2011. His exciting The Rhyme of Taigu (The Rhyme of Taigu), written in 2015, explores the energy and spirit of Japanese taiko (taigu in Chinese pronunciation). 

Liu Chi (1921-1998), one of the most important Chinese composers of the XNUMXth century. XX, is the author of My Motherland, arranged by Wang Danhong for erhu soloist and orchestra. The melody played by the erhu, inspired by the folk songs of northern China, is lyrical and melancholic, but also contains virtuosic passages that dialogue with the orchestra's festive interludes.   

Wang Xiao She is a renowned erhu virtuoso. She began playing this instrument at the age of six and graduated with distinction from the Wuhan Conservatory of Music in China. She is part of the UK Chinese Ensemble's award-winning Silk String Quartet, and performs regularly in the UK and Europe.  

El erhu or “Chinese violin” is a bowed string instrument with two strings that is played while resting on the legs with a bow. It has a neck formed by a long vertical rod that ends in a small resonance box covered with python skin, whose vibration gives it its characteristic sound.  

Programme 

I PART
Tan Dun – Internet Symphony “Eroica”
Joaquín Turina – Fantastic Dances
Liu Chi – My Motherland. Concerto for Erhu and Orchestra (Arr. Wang Danhong) 

PART II
Isaac Albéniz – Alhambra Suite (Juan Francisco Padilla orchestration)
Zhou Long – The Rhyme of Taigu 

Interpreted by:
RTVE Symphony Orchestra
Josep Gil, director
Wang Xiao, Ehru 

 

Joseph Gil
Director

He studied conducting at the National Conservatory of Estonia (Tallinn) where he completed a Master's Degree in Orchestral Conducting and a Master's Degree in Choral Conducting with Professor Toomas Kapten. He has worked as assistant conductor in the following institutions: Opera Royal de Wallonie, Radio Philharmonie de Saarbrücken, Teatro Municipale Giuseppe Verdi di Salerno, Les Arts de Valencia, Gran Teatre del Liceu de Barcelona, ​​Teatro Real de Madrid and National Orchestra and Choir of Spain . He has assisted teachers such as Gustavo Dudamel, James Gaffigan, Gustavo Gimeno or Daniel Oren.

As an Opera director, his debuts stand out at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, ​​directing Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor in 2021. In the 2021/22 season he makes his debut in a German theater, the “Komische Oper Berlin” with the opera Orphée aux Enfers by J. Offenbach. His operatic repertoire has more than 25 titles.

In the symphonic field, his participation as guest conductor with the Vallés Symphony at the Palau de la Música Catalana, with the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra at the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium, and the Valencian Community Orchestra at the Palau de Les Arts Reina stand out. Sofía, with the National Orchestra of Spain at the National Auditorium and with the RTVE Symphony Orchestra at the Teatro Monumental in Madrid.

Since 2019, he has been the Artistic Director of the Crea Escena Classical Music Series in Vila-real, his hometown. Since the 2023/24 season he has been Musical Director of the Gran Canaria Youth Orchestra.

Wang Xiao
Soloist Erhu

Wang Xiao is a renowned erhu virtuoso. She began playing this instrument at the age of six and graduated with distinction from the Wuhan Conservatory of Music in China. She is part of the UK Chinese Ensemble's award-winning Silk String Quartet, and performs regularly in the UK and Europe. Her performances have taken her to prestigious venues: Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Barbican, Rich Mix and LSO St Luke's.

He has also collaborated with renowned artists, such as pianist Lang Lang, cellist Matthew Barley, composers Gabriel Prokofiev and Peter Wiegold. In May 2014 she collaborated with composer and conductor Ludwig Vicky and performed "Star Trek" with the XNUMXst Century Swiss Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at the Royal Albert Hall. Wang Xiao has filmed "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings", BBC's "Doctor Who" and "WildChina".

He recently performed with Lang Lang and the London Symphony Orchestra again for the Disney Mulan Project at the Royal Festival Hall, as well as at the British Museum for the major exhibition "China's Hidden Century."

RTVE Symphony Orchestra
The Spanish Radio Television Symphony Orchestra and Choir is a symphonic-choral formation dedicated to the interpretation and dissemination of quality music. All of his musical production is broadcast through Spanish Television and Radio Clásica, from National Radio, developing intense activity in the recording of radio and television tunes, as well as soundtracks for series and films.

The presence of the RTVE Symphony Orchestra is common at the main Spanish festivals, such as Cuenca, Granada, Úbeda, Soria or Santander. Its international dimension is forged through exchanges with the European Radio and Television Union, and its performances abroad, on tours, festivals and concerts in the United States, Switzerland, Japan, France, Romania, Italy and Portugal.

Among the awards received are the Medals of Honor from the International Music and Dance Festivals of Úbeda and Granada; the Extraordinary Golden Antenna of the Federation of Radio and Television Associations of Spain; the Iris Award for Best Soundtrack for the TVE series Isabel; the honorary award for the defense and dissemination of religious music from the SMR of Cuenca; or the Iris Award from the Academy of Television Sciences and Arts to the RTVE Symphony Orchestra for its “fifty years of brilliant professional career and for its contribution to Spanish musical culture.” Since September 2023, its chief director is Christoph König.

01/12/2023

Friday, December 1, from 19.30:21.00 p.m. to XNUMX:XNUMX p.m. CET

Monumental Theater
Atocha Street, 65
Madrid

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Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, Casa Asia and the RTVE Symphony Orchestra, with the collaboration of the China Cultural Center in Madrid.
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