Award-winning piano-violin duo coming to Beijing

Wu Promotion, a local performing arts promoter founded in 1991, has been active lately bringing European classical musicians to Beijing for special one-time concerts. The company's at it again, this time with an award-winning duo -- Dutch violinist Frederieke Saeijs and Georgian pianist Nino Gvetadze -- who will be playing at the National Center for the Performing Arts this Sunday at 7:30 pm.

Saeijs and Gvetadze began their collaboration in 2007 with tours of several European countries. When Gvetadze won prizes at the 2008 International Franz Liszt Piano Competition, she and Saeijs were given the opportunity to tour China -- the first time for either musician in this country. Recently we emailed the duo regarding their musical experiences and visit to China.

How did this trip come about?
Gvetadze: Liszt organizes concert tours for their winners, and they connected us with Wu Promotion, which organized this wonderful tour for us. We don't know yet how different our performance in China will be from our other performances, but we are definitely looking forward to the concerts and hope the Chinese public will enjoy them.

What's been your favorite city or venue to play in?
It is always difficult to choose, as all the places are different and all the audiences are unique, but it's always inspiring and rewarding to play for audiences that can live through the music together with us. It gives us energy. And it can happen anywhere in the world, as music doesn't need translating.

Is there anything that makes your duet unique?
As a duo we enter a musical conversation and exchange musical ideas. There is communication and connection between us. It's about becoming one musician with four arms and with one voice... about painting one picture of a rich and colorful landscape with two brushes instead of one.

What inspires you as musicians?
People, surroundings, life, good and bad things that happen around us... everything affects the music as it affects us. We transfer our emotional state into music and try to express it in our way.

Do you have a favorite composer or composition?
For Frederieke, if she would have to choose one piece to bring to a deserted island, it would be the Chaconne by Bach because it covers the whole range of the violin and it's a deeply touching piece of music, like a prayer.

For me, it's always different as it always depends on my mood, but there are pieces -- such as Goldberg Variations by Bach, Schubert's A-major Sonata, Chopin and Brahms' concertos and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring -- that I'll always enjoy listening to and playing.

What can audiences expect from your performance?
They can expect to hear beautiful classical music performed with lots of devotion, love and excitement.

Saeijs and Gvetadze play this Sunday at 7:30 pm at the National Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets starting at 160 RMB are available from Piao.com.cn. The duo will play a program that includes Chopin, Saint-Saens, Brahms, Bach and Beethoven, among others.