With a repertoire covering 100 years of French musical composition, the concert which conductor Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestre National de Lyon will co-stage in five Chinese cities from Dec 29 to Jan 4 stands out from among the flock of New Year concerts in China.

Under the direction of the seven-time Grammy-winning American conductor, the French orchestra based in Lyon is going to serve a feast of the most authentic flavor of French music with masterpieces from seven big names in the country's history of music, who are representatives of Romanticism, Neoclassicism and Impressionism.

The ONL and Slatkin's concert tour in China will kick off in Guangzhou, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of the establishment of its sister-city relationship with Lyon in 2013.

The concert at Guangzhou Opera House will start with the festive, wild Roman Carnival Overture by Hector Berlioz, who is honored as one of France's three most important figures of Romanticism, the other two being writer Victor Hugo and painter Eugene Delacroix.

Then the audience can relax in the lyrical, gentle Pavane in F-sharp Minor by another post-romantic composer, Gabriel Faure. The following pieces by Neoclassical composer Erik Satie will draw people further into a foggy wonderland with the soft tunes of a bit of bitterness.

While the suite from Georges Bizet's world-renowned opera Carmen gives the first half of the concert an exciting ending, the second half will begin with the passionate Bacchanale from Saint-Saens' opera Samson and Delilah.

Works by two Impressionistic giants, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, will wrap up the French night.

Also, 2014 will mark 50 years of Sino-French diplomatic relations, a milestone that has influenced the concert's program choices, according to conductor Slatkin.

"We want to bring a French program to introduce ourselves to the Chinese audience. Most of the pieces we will play are of a very standard repertoire, designed to show off the orchestra," says the musical director of the ONL. The orchestra gave its debut in China in 1979 and hasn't revisited the country until the coming New Year concert.

"With excerpts from Carmen, some short pieces by other composers and a cello concerto, we will cover about 100 years of French musical composition. It should be very entertaining for the audiences."

The energetic conductor is ready to meet his old friends in China. He has already visited twice, once with the National Symphony Orchestra in the 1990s and the second time with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008.

He has performed music by Chinese composers, such as Chen Qigang and Zhou Long, and is currently performing and recording works by Chinese-American composer Bright Sheng.

After their performance in Guangzhou, the ONL and Slatkin will travel to Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing.

Chinese cellist Wang Jian, one of the first Chinese artists signed by the famous classical brand Deutsche Grammophon, has been invited to collaborate with the orchestra on a cello concerto by Saint-Saens in the shows in Hangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing.

xujingxi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/22/2013 page9)