Turn of events that STILLED THE BATONS & BOWS

Orchestra prepares for a belated anniversary celebration

As members of the China Philharmonic Orchestra flew back to China on Jan 21 after a taxing whirlwind tour of Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania covering just eight days, they would no doubt have been yearning for at least a little rest.

Chinese New Year, which the orchestra had just helped China's friends in eastern and central Europe celebrate with some wonderful music, was four days away, and once those festivities were over, a busy year, including celebrating the orchestra's 20th anniversary, lay ahead.

However, orchestra members would have had little inkling of the shape that this rest of theirs would eventually take. Signs that a year unlike any other for the orchestra might be shaping up appeared as early as Jan 28, when management announced that the closing concert of the Chinese Symphonic Works Exhibition in Celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China, which was to have been performed in Beijing on Feb 19, would be postponed.