The Wuxi Symphony Orchestra was founded in 2023 and has quickly become one of the most dynamic new ensembles on the Chinese symphonic scene. The city of Wuxi lies in the southern part of the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu and is rapidly establishing itself as an important cultural centre. In 2025 Wuxi was designated China’s first “City of Music” and included in UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network. The orchestra is dedicated to the development of classical music and to enriching the cultural life of the local community, and performs with increasing frequency across Asia and Europe. Its artistic director and principal conductor is Daye Lin, who trained in Shanghai and Berlin and in 2012 became the first Chinese conductor to win the Sir Georg Solti Competition. The orchestra is joined by tenor Haoyin Xue and Qianyuan Zhang.

The evening opens with the dramatic overture from the opera I vespri siciliani, composed in Verdi’s mature creative period and based on the historical uprising of the Sicilians against the rule of Charles I of Anjou in 1282. The programme continues with the symphonic suite Flying Apsaras by Shaosheng Li, which was premiered in 2024 by the Wuxi Symphony Orchestra. Inspired by efforts to explore the universe, the work represents a characteristic example of contemporary Chinese symphonic composition combining traditional and classical instruments. The centrepiece of the programme is Brahms’s Symphony No. 1, a work that took more than twenty years to complete, so aware was the composer of Beethoven’s daunting symphonic legacy.