No, I didn’t attend any of the 11 concerts—four orchestral and seven chamber music—given by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra during its residency in Shanghai at the end of June. Dubbed the orchestra’s “first residency” in China by the press and the China Shanghai International Arts Festival (CSIAF) which hosted the orchestra, around 135 musicians and administrators arrived in Shanghai by chartered China Eastern Airlines flight. Granted VIP access, members of the press and representatives of the concert promoter greeted the artists and the orchestra leadership inside the restricted area of the airport. A photo taken at the jet bridge of artistic director Andrea Zietzschmann, principal cello Olaf Maninger, principal viola Meidi Yang and pianist Yuja Wang went viral: A moment the audience has waited for seven years.

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… is an independent music journalist and critic based in Shanghai, where he was born in 1980. His journalism and criticism has appeared in Musical America, FT Chinese, das Orchester and elsewhere.