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Seven musicians from VPO visited Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra (SSO) on Friday morning and rehearsed the third and fourth movements from Mahler’s “Symphony No. 1 in D Major” with local Chinese musicians.

Jun Keller (L), VPO’s assistant concertmaster, shakes hands with SSO conductor Lin Daye. Courtesy of SSO 

After section rehearsals, the VPO musicians rehearsed with the full orchestra conducted by SSO artistic director Lin Daye.

“It’s a deliberate choice to rehearse Mahler’s ‘Symphony No. 1,’ because Mahler had conducted VPO, who premiered many of the composer’s works,” Lin said. “Their interpretation of Mahler is authentic and persuasive.”

The VPO musicians were willing to share their expertise. “The fourth movement is emotional but also retrospective. Sometimes people play it in a way too sentimental. It’s better to play it down a little bit,” Jun Keller, VPO’s assistant concertmaster of first violin, told his Chinese peers.

Guo Shuai, assistant concertmaster of SSO, highly evaluated the Austrian musicians. “They shared many top-notch musical techniques in detail with us, like the handling of flowing emotions and specific musical phrases. They are meticulous and reasonable but expressive at the same time.”

VPO’s principal violist Tobias Lea also had a high opinion of the SSO members for their “flexible playing, quick reactions and wonderful musicianship.” He called SSO a really fine orchestra too.

Just months prior in August, SSO performed alongside the prestigious Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra led by Zubin Mehta at a summer music festival in Harbin. “We are a young orchestra without the aura of a long-standing glorious tradition,” said SSO president Nie Bing. “But we are working hard to narrow the gap between ourselves and the world’s best.”