Sit in the Moonlit Forest and Savor a Musical Feast

 

With the crisp autumn air and the fragrance of sweet osmanthus, the 2024 Nanjing Forest Music Festival officially kicked off at 7:30 PM on September 13th at the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum Music Stage. Celebrating its 10th year, this beloved festival has become a cherished event for Nanjing residents and music enthusiasts nationwide. This year’s opening performance, themed “A Forest Symphony with Stars and Moon as Prelude”, transported audiences from the mysteries of the cosmos and the grandeur of the starry night to the vibrant sounds of the forest, ending in a joyous celebration of life. The Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra delivered a nature-inspired concert with exceptionally high oxygen levels.

 

Before the official opening of the Nanjing Forest Music Festival tonight, a few special guests arrived at the Nanjing Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum Music Stage. They were Hong Kexin, Xu Shiyan, and Cai Qi, the Nanjing athletes who competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics. They were greeted with customized gifts from volunteers, as the audience applauded in recognition of their dedication on the Olympic stage.

 

 

With familiar melodies filled in the air, the Nanjing Forest Music Festival returned once again in golden September at the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum Music Stage. As a thematic symphony crafted by renowned composer Wang Danhong for Nanjing, Forest Symphony made its fourth appearance under the moonlight at Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum Music Stage. Forest Symphony consists of three movements: Jinling, Yuhua, and Chasing Dreams, which represent ancient, modern, and contemporary Nanjing, respectively. The piece also incorporates the melody of the Jiangnan folk song Jasmine Flower, offering a profound interpretation of the city’s rich history and culture.

 

 

The opening concert, performed by the renowned conductor Yang Yang and the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, embarked the audience on a romantic journey through music, starlight, and the forest. Yang Yang, hailing from a musical family and a graduate of the Central Conservatory of Music where he studied under Dean Yu Feng, conducted China’s top-tier Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra. Under his direction, the orchestra brought a youthful and vibrant interpretation to the piece. The movement Jinling opened with rich, profound melodies, evoking a nostalgic reflection on Nanjing’s history, as though one could hear the ancient battle drums of the city and feel the weight of its historical depth.

 

 

As the concert moved into the second movement, Yuhua, the music softened and took on a poetic quality, immersing the audience in the lush hills of Yuhuatai and reflecting the heroic and resilient spirit of Nanjing. With the familiar melody of Jasmine Flower marking the transition, the symphony entered the third movement, Chasing Dreams, which, with its stirring melodies and dynamic rhythms, portrayed Nanjing’s modern character and its aspirations for the future.

 

 

Regarding this “high-oxygen” forest concert, conductor Yang Yang shared his unique understanding, “Sitting in the forest, you hear composers from different periods and styles portraying their own vision of the forest through various performance types and themes. For instance, singers might depict puppets or birds in the forest, while the cello might celebrate the quietude of the woodland. The audience experiences a rich tapestry of sounds, each offering a distinct auditory portrayal of the forest.”

 

 

 

After hearing the familiar melodies, as the lights brightened, a series of melodious notes transported everyone from the tranquil depths of the forest to the mysterious and vast universe, beginning an interstellar journey beyond time and space. This was the imaginative Thus Spoke Zarathustra. 

 

Famously featured in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, every melody and harmony in the music is imbued with power and passion, evoking a sense of vitality and a yearning for the unknown.

 

 

Next, the soothing and melodious piece Silent Woods by Dvořák was beautifully performed by cellist Zhai Huili. This short, melancholic work, often referred to as “Klid” in Czech, meaning “tranquility” or “silence”, conveys the composer’s longing for his homeland.

 

 

Zhai Huili, the principal cellist of the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, brought her extensive performance experience to the piece, using the cello’s deep, resonant tones to transport the audience into a serene and mysterious natural world. At the beginning of the piece, the cello introduced the theme almost as a whisper, allowing audience to feel the tranquility and depth of the music. As the piece unfolded, the woodwinds gradually entered, joining the strings to create a scene that is both peaceful and subtly lively. It evoked the feeling of being bathed in the evening sunlight, drifting through a dreamlike interplay of light and shadow.

 

 

Celestial Waltz is both charming and evocative, blending rationality with emotion. The piece began with the harp and trumpet leading listeners into a fantastical and beautiful “celestial realm”. As the first waltz unfolded, the melody was flowing and expansive, creating a strong sense of propulsion, akin to drifting through space. The finale saw the orchestra’s sound intensify, with brilliant colors and a grand, majestic atmosphere.

 

 

As the lights dimmed and the pleasant melodies resumed, the audience’s thoughts returned from the distant galaxies to the deep, enchanting forest. These suites, tailored to the unique characteristics of the Nanjing Forest Music Festival’s natural concert stage, echo the forest theme. Several of these pieces were being performed at the Nanjing Forest Music Festival for the first time.

 

Wagner’s Forest Murmurs, taken from the opera Siegfried, unfolded within a dreamlike, slumbering forest woven intricately by the strings. The flute introduced a lively motif of birdsong, which was then echoed and layered by the clarinet and oboe with horn motifs. In under nine minutes, the piece murmured an entire summer’s worth of secrets, with its delicate and beautiful melodies providing the audience with a perfect prelude.

 

 

Soprano Li Jingjing, known for her role as the puppet girl in The Tales of Hoffmann, performed Offenbach’s challenging The Birds in the Bower with her virtuosic coloratura. This well-known aria made its debut on the Nanjing Forest Music Festival stage.

 

In the piece, Olympia uses lively melodies to mimic birdsong. As a “puppet”, she occasionally “runs-down” and needs to be wound-up by the inventor, adding a comical and fantastical element to the performance. This role demands exceptional technique, flexibility, and high note control from the soprano, often making it one of the most captivating moments in the opera.

 

 

The Planets offered an unparalleled sense of time and space travel. It is a grand, powerful work and one of the defining pieces by the British composer Gustav Holst. Considered a pioneering work in sci-fi music, The Planets has influenced film scores for movies such as Star Wars and Alien. Tonight’s performance featured Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity, a piece that, with its bright melodies and lively rhythms, captures humanity’s curiosity about the vast and mysterious sky.

 

 

Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome explores the enchanting connections between music, nature, history, and emotion through the theme of Rome’s pine trees. Conductor Yang Yang noted in an interview that a particularly intriguing section of Pines of Rome involves birdsong. During the performance, the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra opted to use the musicians’ own whistling rather than a recorded sound, creating a unique stereophonic effect as the whistling resonated throughout the music stage.

 

The thrilling performance left the audience craving more. Amidst enthusiastic applause, conductor Yang Yang and the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra returned for encores featuring The Chicken, Moon River, and Hunting Polka. Hangzhou Philharmonic’s Associate Conductor, Hong Yin, shared in an interview the intention behind designing these engaging encore pieces.

 

 

 

Since its debut in 2015, the Nanjing Forest Music Festival has entered its 10th year. As a cultural hallmark of the city, the festival is not only the highest-profile and largest-scale event but also one of Jiangsu Province and Nanjing’s premier outdoor classical music brands, renowned both nationally and internationally. This year’s festival continues its tradition of elegance and purity while introducing unprecedented highlights. With over 500 artists performing together, it has become the largest-scale lineup in the festival’s history, offering every classical music enthusiast a dual feast for the senses and the soul beneath the Purple Mountain.

 

 

The Forest Music Festival is not just a celebration of melodies but also a tribute to the city’s soul and a shared memory for Nanjing’s residents. In a relaxed and joyful atmosphere, the audience experiences the profound cultural power conveyed through music and reminisces about the past through the melodies. People of all ages come together through music, weaving a unique tapestry of memories for the city at the music stage.

 

 

On the evening of September 14, the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra will present the second performance of the 2024 Nanjing Forest Music Festival, titled “Lute & Psaltery in Sync, Bow & String in Whisper”. Russian conductor Yaroslav Zaboyarkin and Danish cellist Senja Rummukainen will join the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra to lead the audience on an exhilarating global festival journey.