Music for global harmony

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's violinist Ray Chen and conductor Vasily Petrenko perform at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing on Thursday. Under the baton of its music director, Russian-born conductor Vasily Petrenko, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra launched a tour of China on Thursday with nine concerts in seven cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Xiamen, Fujian province. "All the programs are designed to show how music bridges and connects cultures and people, to show that classical music is one of the most unique forms of art, which allows people in any nation, background or religion to enjoy and experience the same emotions," the conductor said in Beijing on Wednesday, a day before the orchestra's two concerts at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing on Thursday and Friday. Violinist Ray Chen, who was born in Taiwan and raised in Australia, will join the orchestra and Petrenko on the tour, performing Austrian-American composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Violin Concerto in D Major, Op 35, which will coincide with the release on the Deutsche Grammophon label of his new recording of the concerto, also with the orchestra.