The NCPA has a fond farewell in store for Cleveland Orchestra's tour of China, as it plans to webcast key performances live from Beijing, Zhang Kun reports.

The Cleveland Orchestra will conclude its China tour with two concerts at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing on Friday and Saturday.

Led by music director Franz Welser-Most, the orchestra-hailed by The New York Times as "America's finest" and by USA Today, which says "better performances don't exist", will present in Beijing Strauss' Ein Heldenleben, Prokofiev's Symphony No 3, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 5, as well as Beethoven's Emperor Piano Concerto No 5 with soloist Daniil Trifonov.

The program has been selected to "present a range of repertoire that showcases the orchestra's abilities and lets the artistry of this ensemble really shine", Welser-Most says.

"It's been over two decades since the Cleveland Orchestra last appeared in China-and we are thrilled to return to a country that is now one of the most important music markets in the world and to perform for audiences that are so enthusiastic and appreciative of classical music," says Andre Gremillet, president and CEO of the Cleveland Orchestra. "Performing in China in 2019 is important to renew our acquaintance with the many enthusiastic and new fans of classical music, and also perhaps in new concert halls that are attracting the passion and interest of these growing audiences."

The concerts will be webcast live across China and the world for free on the NCPA's website. Afterward a free video of the concert will also be made available to download.

The orchestra from Ohio, the United States, kicked off its China tour in March as part of its 101st performing season, and the 19th international tour that the orchestra has undertaken under the baton of Austrian conductor Welser-Most. The first leg opened in Taipei, Taiwan, on March 28 and 29, before moving to Macao Special Administrative Region and Shenzhen in Guangdong province. The tour continued onto Shanghai, Nanjing in Jiangsu province and Wuhan in Hubei province, before landing in Beijing.

One of the top five symphony orchestras in the US, the Cleveland Orchestra was founded in 1918, and made its first China tour in 1998, visiting Beijing and Shanghai. The concert in Beijing took place in the Great Hall of the People to an audience of 10,000 or so, according to Stephen Rose, the principal second violinist of the symphony.

"It was surreal," Rose recalls. "The Beijing concert was unlike any other I had ever played."

In Shanghai, the orchestra played at the Luwan Gymnasium, and in the city, musicians saw new buildings pop up everywhere, many of them half-finished.

"It will be interesting to see how much it has changed," Rose says in an email interview with China Daily, before arriving in Shanghai on April 4. "In many ways, it is probably a completely different city."

Of the 100-plus members of the orchestra, 44 are returning artists from the 1998 tour of China.

"The Cleveland Orchestra is a destination orchestra. It is quite common for members to stay until they retire. It is one of those jobs that is the pinnacle of the orchestra profession," Rose says.

Gremillet describes the symphony's sound as "chamber ensemble-like", and "the way the musicians listen to one another on the stage is truly unparalleled."

Serving the music is what matters most, says Gremillet. "In the Cleveland Orchestra, no individual musician, despite the fact that each one of them is a wonderful soloist, is more important than the orchestra as a whole."

Welser-Most, an honorary member of the Wiener Singverein, took up the position of music director at the Cleveland Orchestra in 2002 and conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert in 2011 and 2013. Since then, the conductor and the orchestra have formed "a great partnership that keeps growing and evolving artistically to ever greater heights", says Gremillet.

"Under the leadership of Maestro Welser-Most, the Cleveland Orchestra has evolved into an even more flexible orchestra with a warm and refined sound that is combined with the legendary precision and virtuosity that have long been associated with the orchestra."

The Cleveland Orchestra is all too often regarded as a hidden secret, says Welser-Most. "Sharing our work is important, so that more people can know and experience what we are creating in Cleveland. Only through live performances can people truly understand firsthand that we set a high bar-and that our standards are pretty much unmatched worldwide."

In Shenzhen, Shanghai and Wuhan, the Cleveland Orchestra offered master classes at local music conservatories, and the plan is to do the same in Beijing this week. In Shanghai on Monday, Gremillet spoke about the business operations, challenges and opportunities the Cleveland Orchestra faces in its second century, touching on topics as diverse as audience development, programming and fundraising.