Chinese touch to familiar forms

Chinese pipa player Wu Man and French cellist Gautier Capucon are touring with the NCPA Orchestra in North America. [Photo provided to China Daily]

During the tour, the orchestra will premiere two pieces by Chinese composers in the US－Luan Tan by composer Chen Qigang and Violin Concerto No 1 by Zhao Jiping.

Luan Tan is Chen's first work of orchestral variations, based on a musical style in Chinese drama of the same name, which originated in the 1600s during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

According to Chen, who wrote the theme song, You and Me, for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, he wanted to set a challenge for himself and to produce something different from his past works, which are usually described as being "melancholic" and "refined".

He started to work on the piece in 2010 and didn't finish it until 2015.

Zhao, whose credits include scores for a number of award-winning TV series and movies such as Red Sorghum (1987) directed by Zhang Yimou, spent a year turning his idea for his first violin concerto into reality. He had been thinking about the piece for nearly a decade.