“…The Beijing-based orchestra, along with the Shanghai Opera House Chorus, will perform Mozart’s “Requiem” for the pope at Paul VI Audience Hall…While the orchestra has played in Rome before, in 2005, this would be the first time it would be appearing at the Vatican…”

By Don Lee
Source: Los Angeles Times

In a move that could herald warmer relations between the Vatican and Beijing, the China Philharmonic Orchestra will perform for Pope Benedict XVI next Wednesday in Rome.

The Beijing-based orchestra, along with the Shanghai Opera House Chorus, will perform Mozart’s “Requiem” for the pope at Paul VI Audience Hall, people familiar with the plans said today. While the orchestra has played in Rome before, in 2005, this would be the first time it would be appearing at the Vatican.

“I certainly feel very excited,” China Philharmonic’s music director, Long Yu, said in a telephone interview from Beijing, confirming a report of the concert by Vatican Radio.

Vatican Radio called the performance “important,” noting that “music is confirming its role as a language and most precious medium for dialogue among peoples and cultures,” according to Reuters.

In February, the New York Philharmonic orchestra gave an unprecedented performance in the North Korean capital city of Pyongyang, though the reclusive nation’s leader, Kim Jong Il, did not attend.

It wasn’t clear how much the concert would help the Vatican and Beijing move toward reconciliation. But Pope Benedict has made the improvement of relations with Beijing a priority of his papacy, hoping to secure greater freedom for Chinese Catholics.

At the very least, China Philharmonic’s debut at the Vatican, part of a three-city European tour that begins May 4, would carry significant symbolism for the millions of Roman Catholics in China, who are split between official and underground churches. Chinese Catholics are only allowed to worship at state-backed churches, and many worshipping at clandestine sites and professing loyalty to the pope have been persecuted.

The Chinese orchestra is under the control of the officially atheist central government, which has had icy relations with the Vatican since severing diplomatic ties two years after the Communist Party took power in 1949. While Beijing has recognized the pope as the Catholic Church’s spiritual leader, it has clashed with Rome over the authority to appoint priests and bishops in China, as well as the Vatican’s diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

“If it’s true that the China Philharmonic is performing at the Vatican, it is a great example that the two sides are moving forward through an exchange of culture and arts,” said Liu Bainian, vice chairman of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Assn., which represents more than 6,000 official churches and 5.6 million Catholics.

Plans for the China Philharmonic to perform at the Vatican apparently came together fairly quickly. “It’s quite short notice,” said Yu, the orchestra’s Shanghai-born, German-trained director.

He indicated that what helped pave the way was a performance of the Requiem on April 8 at St. Ignatius Cathedral in Shanghai. More than 1,000 people, including some high-level Beijing officials, were said to have attended that event.

“That opened up this kind of territory,” Yu said, noting that a such a musical concert provides a common vehicle for promoting dialogue and peace.