Shanghai Contemporary Music Festival Remembers Victims of Nanking

The Shanghai Contemporary Music Festival hosted by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the annual week-long celebration of living composers and their outputs, kicked off Monday evening at the Shangyin Opera House.As the opener, Zhang Liang conducted the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra performing music by Zhang Qianyi, three SHCMF’s resident composers Marco Stroppa, Zhou Long, and Jia Daqun.Two works by Ye Xiaogang, China’s pre-eminent composer, were played next to each other. Composed by Ye in 2005, My Faraway Nanjing for cello and orchestra was dedicated to the victims of Nanjing massacred by the Japanese military during China’s war against Japanese aggression.Here Ye talks about what it means to have this piece revived at this very moment amid heightened global tension.This is a Chinese language programme with Chinese subtitles. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit klassikom.substack.com