Mozart meets rock in festival finale

The jaunty notes of the Toy Symphony (Kindersinfonie) brought the 29th Beijing Music Festival to a cheerful close on the night of Oct 20, as conductor Yang Yang led the Beijing Symphony Orchestra in a performance at the National Centre for the Performing Arts.

Since opening on Oct 9, this year's festival has presented 12 concerts spanning a range of musical styles, bringing a diverse soundscape to Beijing's autumn.

With 2026 marking the 270th anniversary of Mozart's birth, a tribute to the Austrian composer ran through the festival's program, linking classical repertoire with contemporary interpretations and unexpected musical encounters.

Following the opening Toy Symphony by Leopold Mozart, Mozart's father, young Chinese pianist Ju Xiaofu took the stage to perform Chopin's Variations in B-flat Major on La ci darem la mano, Op 2.

Written when Chopin was just 17, the work draws its theme from the duet La ci darem la mano in Mozart's opera Don Giovanni.

The evening then took a sharp turn from the classical to the rock, as Cui Jian, a pioneering figure in Chinese rock music and a former trumpet player with the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, appeared with his guitar and signature baseball cap bearing a red star.

His arrival transformed the cool autumn night into a charged musical gathering.

The fusion of works drew on material from the musician's long career, blending elements of several of his best-known songs with musical ideas from other works. Strings, brass and percussion expanded the textures of his original music, while Cui's vocals retained their raw rock edge.

Rather than simply placing rock songs against an orchestral backdrop, the performance brought the two musical forces into direct confrontation, building a powerful sound that sent the audience into a frenzy.

The performance offered a fitting finale to a festival that brought together different musical traditions, from Mozart-inspired classical works to the energy of Chinese rock, turning the concert hall into a meeting place for contrasting sounds and generations of music lovers.