Global Times - 30.07.2019

Tuesday July 30, 2019 LIFE

18

The EU-China Youth Music &
Art Festival 2019 opened on
Saturday night in Zandhoven,
a small town in north Belgium.
Nearly 100 young people and
folk artists from Belgium and
China gathered for musical
performances.
Artists playing musical
instruments such as piano,
saxophone, flute and guzheng
shared a stage to hold the
New Silk Road concert, which

attracted people from Europe

and China.

Belgian composer Han

Flintrop wrote the music piece

The New Silk Road especially

for the concert.

The performance by 25

teenagers from the Art Star

artistic troupe in Nanning,

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous

Region in South China, togeth-

er with teachers and students

of the Municipal Academy of

Music, Word and Dance of Lier

(SAMWD Lier), brought the

concert to a climax.

New Silk Road is divided

into eight chapters. Each one

uses different music elements

along the Silk Road to tell sto-

ries of Chinese and European

civilizations learning from

each other.

Chinese Ambassador to

Belgium Cao Zhongming said

in his opening address that the

Belt and Road Initiative has

closely connected China with

Belgium.

The art festival provided

an opportunity for European

audiences to learn more about

traditional Chinese culture,

such as overseas Chinese

living in Belgium presenting

calligraphy works and Chinese

tea ceremonies.

Ying Hong, one of the

Chinese organizers living in

Belgium, said: “Music has

crossed the mountains and

waters, and language barriers.

I believe that the EU-China

Youth Music & Art Festival

will further promote relations

between China and Europe.”

Xinhua

EU-China Youth Music & Art Festival 2019 held in Belgium

Page Editor:

xuliuliu@

globaltimes.com.cn

S

oaring to new musical heights,

a German-born innovator has

crafted what is believed to be

the world’s largest grand piano.

It is without question one of a

kind: Attached high on the wall of

a concert hall in Latvia, the steel-

framed vertical grand piano hangs as

if in mid-air some three stories above

the audience.

To play it, pianists must climb a

steep flight of steel stairs to a balcony.

Although the Guinness Book of

World Records has not yet measured

the new instrument, it was made

by David Klavins whose Model 370

piano unveiled in 1987 is currently

regarded as being among the world’s

largest.

Klavins’ standard new model, the

470i Vertical Concert Grand piano,

has strings that are 4.7 meters long.

The custom-built 470i piano

installed at a new concert hall in the

Baltic seaside port and resort town of

Ventspils is even larger; its imposing

navy blue-painted steel frame is six

meters high.

With some strings measuring

almost five meters, the instrument

emits bold, sonorous music.

“The most suitable music for

this instrument would be all the

very expressive works, for example

Rachmaninoff, Scriabin but also

Beethoven’s sonatas would sound

totally different on this instrument,”

Klavins told AFP.

The innovator, who has Latvian

roots, has worked on pianos nearly

all his life, driven by a desire to push

the boundaries of the instrument first

created by Italian Bartolomeo Cristo-

fori around the year 1700.

“Since I was 16 years old and

dropped out of school to become a

piano restoration apprentice, I have

been trying to explore new designs

and principles, which deviate from

the 140-year-old construction of the

traditional grand piano,” Klavins, now

65, told AFP while sitting at the 450i.

He crafted his first vertical piano

in 1985. Now at his workshop, the

Klavins Piano Manufaktura based

in the town of Vac just north of the

Hungarian capital Budapest, he

dreams up his signature vertical

designs.

It is not just his new instrument’s

mammoth size that makes it stand

out; having no wooden casing means

that audiences seated in the concert

hall can see its long, steely strings.

Laying them bare in this way lets

music lovers “hear every sound nu-

ance unmuted,” Klavins said.

Opening this Friday in Ventspils,

the Latvija venue where the piano

is installed, boasts two concert halls

with a combined seating capacity

of 1,000. It is also home to a music

academy for emerging young talent.

“Traditional pianos are meant to

be transported in and out of the con-

cert venues, but my vertical design

has to be mounted on the building’s

structure,” Klavins said.

“The size of the piano and length

of strings do not set records for a

record’s sake: The idea is to create

the best imaginable sound for all the

performers and listeners who come

to this particular

hall,” he added.

On display to the pub-

lic for the first time on Friday,

the instrument has already cre-

ated a buzz among piano enthusiasts.

“Composers and performers from

all around are interested in playing

the new Klavins piano, which will

open new avenues of artistic expres-

sion for them,” said Miks Magone,

the creative head of the new concert

venue.

Pianist Lubomyr Melnyk from

Canada, known for a technique using

an extremely rapid succession of

notes, will be among the first to play

the 450i next week, Magone said.

One of six German pianists will

also use it in a performance of Six

Pianos by Steve Reich, he added.

Ventspils Mayor Aivars Lembergs

has his fingers crossed that the

record-breaking piano will help the

industrial port city of 40,000 rebrand

itself into a family-friendly tourist

destination.

“We’re hoping to attract foreign

music lovers as well,” he said.

AFP

Klavins Piano Manufaktura based

to this particula

hall,” he added.

On display to

SIZE MATTERS

^ World’s largest concert piano strikes chord in Latvia

David Klavins Photo: AFP