The Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO; Chinese: 上海爱乐乐团; pinyin: Shànghǎi Àiyuè Yuètuán) is a professional

symphony orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

based in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

, China. It is under the administration of the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture, Radio, Film, and TV. The current music director is Muhai Tang and the deputy director is the young conductor Liang Zhang.

History

According to the orchestra's official web site, the orchestra was re-structured based on the former Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra (SBSO). SBSO was merged from two orchestras – Shanghai Film Orchestra, which was established in 1954 and Shanghai Broadcasting Orchestra, which was established in 1950. The merge happened in 1996, and the new orchestra was named Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra with Yongyan Hu as its first music director. The name of the orchestra was officially changed to the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra in April 2004 with famous conductor Zuohuang Chen as its Music Director, adopting the world’s most prevalent system of music seasons. When Muhai Tang took over the music director position in 2009, he told the journalist that the orchestra was not going to focus on overseas. Tang said they had to consider why the audience would like to listen to the music and how they could play the music well. He believed that the orchestra should be based on Chinese cultural values.

Repertoire

The SPO plays in neighborhood concerts, concerts promoting youthful Chinese soloists or Chinese composers, and concerts related to government activities, but they also perform challenging repertoire. In the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 concert seasons they performed a series of

Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

symphonies, Bartók's ''

Bluebeard's Castle ''Duke Bluebeard's Castle'' (, literally ''The Blue-Bearded Duke's Castle'') is a one-act Symbolism (movement), Symbolist opera by composer Béla Bartók to a Hungarian libretto by his friend and poet Béla Balázs. Based on the French folk legen ...

'', and a condensed version of

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

's ''

Ring Cycle (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the . The compos ...

''. From 2015, upon close cooperation with the

Shanghai Conservatory of Music The Shanghai Conservatory of Music (SHCMusic) is a municipal public college in Shanghai, China. It is affiliated with the City of Shanghai and is part of the Double First-Class Construction. The college was founded on November 27, 1927. The Sh ...

, SPO has hosted Hearing China concert series and commissioned composers around the world to compose for SPO and Chinese instruments. The orchestra has also made recordings. Most of these were orchestrated Chinese music and classical music composed by Chinese composers, made with the labels under

Naxos Naxos (; , ) is a Greek island belonging to the Cyclades island group. It is the largest island in the group. It was an important centre during the Bronze Age Cycladic Culture and in the Ancient Greek Archaic Period. The island is famous as ...

such as Marco Polo, Yellow River and Naxos itself.

References

External links

Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra official web site

{{authority control China symphony orchestras Musical groups established in 1996 Culture in Shanghai 1996 establishments in Shanghai

History

Repertoire

See also

References

External links