Vienna performance in 1998 seen as breakthrough for China National Traditional Orchestra, Chen Nan reports.

On Feb 5, the day of the Lantern Festival, an album, titled The Year of Roaring Tiger, was released by NCPA Classics, the music label of the National Centre for the Performing Arts.

The album is a live recording of a concert by the China National Traditional Orchestra under the baton of Chen Xieyang, which was staged at the NCPA on Feb 15, 2022, the Lantern Festival of the Year of the Tiger.

Featuring music pieces, such as Spring Festival Overture, Blossoms on a Spring Moonlight Night and Erquan Yingyue (The Moon Reflected in the Erquan Spring), the album also commemorates a landmark concert by the China National Traditional Orchestra, also conducted by Chen, in Vienna in 1998.

"The concert held on the day of the Lantern Festival in 2022 celebrated the 24th anniversary of the China National Traditional Orchestra's concert at the Musikverein in Vienna in 1998. It was the first time that the orchestra performed at the iconic venue, which was a glorious and historic event in the orchestra's history," says Zhao Cong, president of the China National Traditional Orchestra, who is also a veteran pipa (a four-stringed Chinese lute) player.

Back in 1998, Zhao was a student of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She can still recall vividly that she watched the news on TV about the concert of the China National Traditional Orchestra at the Musikverein.