Music for global harmony

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra returns with concerts building bridges between people and cultures, Chen Nan reports.

Under the baton of its music director, Russian-born conductor Vasily Petrenko, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra launched a tour of China on Thursday with nine concerts in seven cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Xiamen, Fujian province.

The tour, which concludes on Sunday, marks the orchestra's first visit to China with Petrenko and its first tour of the country since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The orchestra and Petrenko are performing a repertoire comprising a rich blend of British, Chinese and Russian music, including works by Benjamin Britten, Tan Dun, Guan Xia, Dmitri Shostakovich and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.