Under red lights in the concert hall of the Chatswood Concourse, the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra celebrated the Lunar New Year with a blooming program of classic Chinese repertoire, capped off with Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto.

The orchestra, led by Chinese-born Australian conductor, Shilong Ye, launched the concert with the Australian premiere of HuanZhi Li’s Spring Festival Suite — a four-movement orchestral work composed in the 1950s evoking the sprightly energy of the week-long celebrations in mainland China.

Year of the Tiger in Concert

Year of the Tiger in Concert, The Concourse, Chatswood. Photo courtesy of Ausfeng

The overture’s flamboyance thrummed across the concert hall, with the string section harnessing a tight, clean sound and a gorgeous solo from principal oboist Josh Ning carrying on the composition’s lightness and playful urgency through to the second movement.

By the third and fourth movements, audiences may very well have felt themselves transported to the hills of rural China – the lush phrasing executed by each section of the orchestra proves Ye a competent, dynamic leader.

The concert, presented by Ausfeng Event Productions, a Sydney-based events company promoting traditional and contemporary Chinese arts in Australia, invited celebrated erhu...