stage decorate the festive atmosphere, and the two cute dragons are lively and lively, heralding the arrival of the Year of the Dragon. The cheerful "Spring Festival Overture", with a strong flavor of the New Year, kicked off the Beijing New Year Concert.
After an absence of four years, on the evening of February 1, the 20th "Beijing New Year Concert" returned to the stage of the Great Hall of the People. Conductor Zheng Jian conducted the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, and together with singers Liu Danli, Wu Bixia, Mo Hong and other singers, they brought familiar and popular folk songs to the audience, and sent New Year blessings to everyone with a wonderful "Folk Song New Year".
The entire concert takes the New Year as its theme and is divided into four chapters: family, friendship, nostalgia, and happiness. With the singing of "Back to My Mother's Home" composed and rearranged based on Hebei folk songs, the "Family Chapter" of the concert officially started. The concert that night featured a wide variety of repertoire, including not only folk songs with local characteristics such as "Returning to My Mother's Home", "Father's Grassland and Mother's River", "Want to Kiss" and "Watching Yangge", but also excerpts from the opera "Red Guards of Honghu Lake" and "Honghu Water". Familiar classics such as "Lang Da Lang", "My Chinese Heart", "Beijing Ode" and "Descendants of the Dragon", as well as new era melodies such as "China in the Lights" and "Pilot", as well as festive symphonic instrumental works and A large-scale symphonic choral musical work.
The melodious matouqin combined with Ao Riqileng's emotional singing voice brought the love for family in "Father's Grassland and Mother's River" full of grassland feelings to the hearts of every audience. Arranged by Zheng Jian, the artistic director of this Beijing New Year Concert and famous conductor, the symphonic chorus "My Chinese Heart" sung by the Beijing Musicians Association Choir sang the surging voices of the wanderers in the motherland. The children's song "Our Song" presented by the Beijing Music Association Children's Choir and the Beijing New Year Concert Children's Choir brought the audience back to the past, and the familiar melodies also attracted the audience to sing together. Liu Danli, the third-generation Han Ying performer in the opera "Red Guards of Honghu Lake", winner of the 22nd Chinese Drama Plum Blossom Award and the 14th Drama "Plum Blossom Award" and famous opera performing artist Liu Danli, brought the opera "Red Guards of Honghu Lake" An excerpt from "The Waves of Honghu Lake". The Chinese New Year Concert of the Year of the Dragon naturally has dragon elements. The chorus "Descendants of the Dragon", arranged by Zheng Jian and sung by the Beijing Music Association Choir, brought the blessings of the Year of the Dragon to the scene.
The Beijing New Year Concert has been insisting on charity donations for 20 years, insisting on focusing on special groups in charity activities, and insisting on the coexistence of charity and art. Every year, workers and family members from all walks of life and different groups are invited to the concert to join everyone. Share the joy of the New Year. This New Year’s concert also specially invited the parents of newly recruited soldiers from Guangzhou Foreign Studies University and Baizhifang Street to the scene. Their children are all outstanding soldiers who have made meritorious service and received awards in the army. Young singer Wang Qingshuang sang his parents' deep emotions and entrustment to the young warriors in a soulful song "Soldier and Mother", which was a special gift to the parents of the young warriors.
As an old friend of the Beijing New Year Concert, the famous soprano Wu Bixia is a frequent guest on this stage. In 2019, Wu Bixia also took her daughter Chun to the stage of the Beijing New Year Concert. For Wu Bixia, "The Beijing New Year Concert has always been adhering to high-level performances and taking promoting the excellent traditional Chinese culture as its own responsibility. The team's high standards and perseverance are very admirable." At the concert, Wu Bixia brought a song The melody of the new era "China in the Lights". "This is a very familiar and popular classic work. The first time I sang this song was with teacher Shi Yijie. This time I sang it solo. I hope to use this song to express my New Year blessings to all my friends." Amid the warm applause of the audience, Wu Bixia sang an additional song "Only Folk Songs to Respect Relatives" on the spot. Although it was only sung a cappella without musical accompaniment, Wu Bixia's crisp and melodious voice conveyed the charm of the song just right, attracting the attention of the audience. He beat the beat with his hands and sang along, creating a small climax at the scene.
Afterwards, the famous soprano Mo Hong appeared on the stage and sang the spirit of the new era with a magnificent song "Pilot", which brought the concert to a successful conclusion. Mo Hong has never been absent on the stage of the Beijing New Year Concert. It can be said that she has watched this concert step by step from childhood into youth, and gradually grown into a high-quality golden sign in the capital's Spring Festival performance market. "I can be said to be a veteran performer on the Beijing New Year Concert stage." Speaking of her fate with the Beijing New Year Concert, Mo Hong was quite emotional, "Over the years, many artistic talents and outstanding actors have been born on this stage. Through the works, I myself have gradually grown from a young actor to a mature actor. After the baptism of years, these classic works glow with the light of the times."
In the audience's endless applause, the familiar "I The melody of "Motherland" and "Singing the Motherland" sounded, and all the actors took the stage. The atmosphere reached its climax. The whole audience sang together, and a warm and peaceful atmosphere filled the Great Hall of the People.
The 20th "Beijing New Year Concert" is directed by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, hosted by the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, sponsored by the China International Cultural Exchange Center and Beijing Youth Daily, and planned, invested, and produced by Beijing Variety Expo Cultural Exchange Co., Ltd. . The "Beijing New Year Concert" is now in its 20th edition. Over the past twenty years, it has not changed its original intention and has always adhered to the artistic quality of all singers singing live and the symphony orchestra performing live, expressing true feelings with real singing, and is known as " Folk Song Spring Festival Gala in the Great Hall".
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Tian Wanting
Photography/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Cui Jun
Editor/Gong Lifang
