In tune with the new year

Yu Long [Photo/China Daily]

The concert will begin with Hector Berlioz's Le Carnaval Romain, a festive overture perfect for the occasion.

Next comes the violin concerto Sun Shining Over Toxkhurghon. On the east edge of the Pamir plateau, Toxkhurghon Tajik now is an autonomous county in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. The composer Chen Gang wrote the piece in 1976 based on the Tajik folk songs Beautiful Toxkhurghon and Spring in Pamir.

The concerto will feature two young violinists: Ma Qiaorong, 13, and He Shucong, 22. Both are gold prize winners of the 2014 CCTV Violin Competition. Ma won the junior category.

CCTV began a classical music competition in 2008. Every year, talented young pianists, violinists and cellists rise to fame from the screen.

"CCTV's competition has helped to discover many young talents while one of the CPO's missions is to promote Chinese musicians. So we would like to invite those new faces to share the stage with stars, such as Lang Lang," says Yu.

Next, you will hear the music from Central Asia. That's Russian composer Alexander Borodin's (1833-87) symphonic poem In the Steppes of Central Asia.

Then there will be some new works featuring folk instruments scored by Chinese composers.

Composed by Zou Ye, Muqam Fantasy is a concerto featuring a four-stringed instrument, aijieke, which originated from ancient Persia (now Iran) and is still popular among Uygur, Tajik, Armenian and Kashmiri people.

The Uygur instrumentalist Gulinaer Yiming will play the aijieke. The Urumqi-born, 46-year-old musician is versatile with many folk instruments.