Yao Jue

Together with young Chinese conductor Zhang Lu and veteran violinist Yao Jue, the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra (SZSO) will perform a concert this Friday evening, featuring a colorful repertoire that includes the works of Beethoven, Chinese composer Ye Xiaogang, Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodály and Polish composer Adam Weso?owski.

In the first half of the concert, Yao will be the soloist at Beethoven’s “Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61.” Written in 1806, this piece was premiered by his colleague Franz Clement, just before Christmas of that year, on Dec. 23.

Nine symphonies, five piano concertos, 32 piano sonatas, stacks of chamber music and plenty more besides — Beethoven’s output in nearly every musical genre was prolific — so it’s perhaps surprising that he wrote only one concerto for one of the most popular instruments of his day: the violin.

Unlike many other pieces by Beethoven, the three-movement piece didn’t become an instant hit. He took just a few weeks to compose the work, and it was premiered within days of its completion. The soloist hadn’t had time to learn his part, so he spent a good portion of the concert sight-reading.

Considered to be Beethoven’s most lyrical work, the piece was revived in 1844 by the then 12-year-old violinist Joseph Joachim with the orchestra of the London Philharmonic Society conducted by Felix Mendelssohn, and has since become a fan favorite and concert staple.

Yao, born in Shanghai, was educated first at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, then at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Zaven Melikian on a scholarship, and then at the Juilliard School with Dorothy DeLay.

She has launched an international career after her graduation, performing alongside orchestras around the world and appearing at music festivals. Her expanding discography includes many classic works of the Chinese repertoire, with her most popular album featuring the “Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto” accompanied by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Yao plays on a 1713 Stradivarius violin.

For the second half of the concert, the program will include Ye’s “Lingnan Suites,” Kodály’s “Dances of Galánta” and the Chinese premiere of Weso?owski’s “Dance of the Heavenly Spheres.”

Consisting of four short movements, Ye’s work depicts the beautiful landscapes of Guangdong with lyrical music, singling out ocean waves, migratory birds, mountain covered in red flowers and serene creeks as the memorable images.

Kodály’s work exemplifies the link between ethnic musical sources and formal classical composition — and shows why it matters so much in today’s world. The exotic, copper-hued modes of this dance suite seem to echo with the sounds of the Romani people’s wanderings of many generations throughout the Indo-European region, yet they also sound decidedly Hungarian. The suite remains one of the composer’s most popular works, a musical reminiscence of a small market town where he had spent seven years of his childhood.

Weso?owski’s work, lasting 15 minutes and 43 seconds to pay homage to year 1543 when Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus died, is a contemporary composition depicting the life of this great scientist, who proposed that Earth and other planets revolve around the sun.

Zhang, born in a musician’s family, was enrolled into the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 2006 to study conducting with Yu Long and Zhang Guoyong and the piano with Wu Ying, Shao Dan and others. He then studied at the Santa Cecilia Music Conservatory in Rome. The young talent was appointed as an assistant conductor with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in 2020 and has since conducted the orchestra in Mahler’s “Symphony No. 10” and other works, which earned rave critical reviews. The 2022 concert series “Mozart Is Busy” that he curated — several of which he also conducted — was recommended by Gramophone magazine.

Time: 8 p.m., Jan. 26

Tickets: 50-880 yuan

Venue: Shenzhen Concert Hall, Futian District (深圳音樂廳)

Metro: Line 3 or 4 to Children’s Palace Station (少年宮站), Exit D