Cool quartet

Andreas Grobbauer, chairman of the Vienna Philharmonic, announces in Beijing that the orchestra will tour China every year from 2017 to 2021. [Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily]

Ahead of major concerts by Vienna Philharmonic in China, few members are now playing in the country. Chen Jie reports

In 2013, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra treated audiences in Beijing to a few of Beethoven's symphonies and piano concertos under the baton of Christian Thielemann.

It was the orchestra's fifth visit to the Chinese mainland after its Beijing debut in 1973 was conducted by Claudio Abbado. Conductor Zubin Mehta came to the city with the orchestra in 1996 and 2009, and conductor Seiji Ozawa to Shanghai and Beijing in 2004. Then, in 2014, when a classical concert venue opened in Shanghai, conductor Gustavo Dudamel presented the orchestra.

Chinese fans are now awaiting the Vienna Philharmonic's long-term concerts in China.

Andreas Grobbauer, first violin as well as chairman of the orchestra, recently announced in Beijing that under a five-year contract signed with Wu Promotion, a performing arts agency, the Vienna Philharmonic expects to tour the country every year from 2017 to 2021, with up to 11 concerts in five cities during each visit.

"We see huge development here. I'm a little jealous. You have the youngest audience in the world. ... It's good for the future of classical music," Grobbauer, 41, tells China Daily.

As a warm up to the main tours, the violinist along with concertmaster Volkhard Steude, viola player Tobias Lea and the first cello Tomas Varga are presently in China as a string quartet.

They were scheduled to play their first concert in Beijing on Sunday, but due to flight cancellations, they couldn't make it. Nevertheless, they performed at Shanghai Oriental Arts Center on Wednesday, at Xinghai Concert Hall in Guangzhou on Thursday and will wrap up with a concert at Tianjin Grand Theater on Saturday.

Grobbauer describes the orchestra as "self-managed", with a vote held every three years to pick a chairman.