New Year's Italian Gala Is Coming to the Bund

If you're still mulling over your New Year's plans and the best way to celebrate 2024 being out of your life forever, here's an opportunity to spend the night in high style with some high art. Returning for their second Bund-side New Year's gala, the Nova Sinfonietta is performing a couple of centuries worth of jubilant chart-topping hits from the pantheon of Italian classical, soundtrack and opera music.

We're talking Vivaldi's "Four Seasons," Rossini's "William Tell Overture" and our favorite stone-cold shower time classic, "Nessun Dorma," made famous by Luciano Pavarotti, his version performed outside of his shower.

Under the baton of Roberto Fiore, 10 soloists from around the world will be performing in a beautifully renovated cathedral setting on the Bund. There are two performances scheduled for December 31, but we're eying the one that starts at 10:30pm. This late show concludes with a countdown at midnight after the performances and is just a really great way to greet 2025 before being unleashed onto the Bund in the first hours of the new year.

We caught up with the conductor and artistic director of the show, Roberto Fiore, to find out more about the "Bund New Year Concert: Italian Gala."

CNS: What can you tell us about the venue? It's a beautiful space.

Roberto Fiore (RF): Yes, it is. It dates back to 1865. Actually, maybe I have to double-check that specific year, but around that time. This whole area has such a history. The church was here, the English embassy was here, and the yacht club was in the building across from this one. The area was completely renovated and renewed just a couple of years ago, and the venue was launched as a concert hall in 2021. We've been performing here since 2022. Our first concert was on October 22.

CNS: Can you introduce yourself and tell us where you're from?

RF: My name is Roberto, and I'm from Italy. I was born in Napoli, in the south. Then I moved to the northern part of Italy, to Pisa and then Rome and Milano. And I studied music in Rome.

Then I traveled a lot for my studies. First in Argentina, Buenos Aires, for one year and a half. And then in Poland for one year, where I also worked after I finished my studies.

CNS: How did you first get into music? What are your earliest musical memories?

RF: Well, for sure, I love to listen to music. I remember my father had a big collection of LP records. When you're listening to records, you have to take out the LP, open the sleeve, take out the vinyl of the cover, and load it into a player. It's a really long process. So I just loved all that kind of process. Putting on my father's headphones to listen …

I still have a photo from when I was 3 years old with my father's headphones on …

CNS: Do you remember the earlier pieces or artists that inspired you to study and create music?

RF: I think for sure opera was a big part of my musical knowledge. From when I was really a child, it influenced me. My first concert experience was opera. And at the same time, everything is musical theater. There's also the ballet, and that also was a big part.

And for symphony, I think it's something that came after. Beethoven, Mozart, of course.

CNS: So you've been in Shanghai for a few years now. How has living in Shanghai influenced your musical journey?

RF: You know, Shanghai, if you want to have an optimistic view, it represents the future. It's a city that will be part of the story – the story of the future.

So Shanghai, for me, influences me to ask these questions: How will we understand classical music in the future? What will classical music be? Which form of classical music? How will it be performed, and who is the audience?

Shanghai is an everyday challenge and changes the music that we do because it makes us look ahead to the future. We're bringing the past into the future with us.

CNS: Looking at your work in this city, can you share a memorable concert experience that you've had in Shanghai?

RF: Yes, for sure, one of my wonderful concert experiences was at the Shanghai Concert Hall on September 15. We dedicated a concert to the music of Puccini, Giacomo Puccini. This year is the 100th anniversary of his death, so it's quite important. Quite a milestone year. And that concert was one of the most important concerts of this type in Asia.

It was full of people, sold out. It was a full house. And the reaction of the audience was amazing. Even if we play music that is not mainstream, there are many pieces that Puccini is well-known for – "O mio babbino caro," right? – so that aria everyone knows. But many other pieces, are just as beautiful, but they are not so well-known.

But the people participated really, really well. A huge success.

CNS: Tell us about the "Bund New Year Concert: Italian Gala."

RF: Yes, absolutely, this is the second time we're doing the New Year's concert. The event is two concerts, with the second commencing at 10:30pm and finishing at midnight.

And it's just a celebration. We're celebrating the new year together with music. We have a new program, a concert program that is all dedicated to Italian music. And it's absolutely festive, cheerful and happy music.

What is interesting and not at all usual is to have a classical concert at 10:30pm. And this kind of experience is really connected with the European tradition of New Year's concerts, too.

These days for classical concerts, the performance time is usually specifically around 7pm or 8pm. And everywhere around the world, it's like that. But if you go back in history, when this music was first written and performed, the concerts would take place much later.

And for us, this 10:30pm concert is an opportunity to reclaim that tradition and celebrate together. We will do the countdown, and then people can go off to continue their nighttime activities out in the world. It's a lot of freedom.

The program is specifically designed for this kind of event. And I'm really proud of it. We have 10 soloists this time …

CNS: Can you introduce the 10 soloists? And how did you all come together?

RF: So these 10 soloists were selected by me personally. They are from different cities, and different countries, coming together to work on the project. We've known each other for a long time. We're colleagues. We play in this orchestra, the Nova Sinfonietta – a chamber orchestra. Many of them have worked with me for two or three years.

Working together, we've selected pieces that show off their strengths as performers. So, if they are really great soloists for melodic pieces, we chose a slower, more intense, and more passionate piece.

We're doing an Italian soundtrack piece from Cinema Paradiso, and our cellist, who is Italian as well, is bringing the really intense love theme. His sound is amazing, so when he plays slow tunes, it's really, really good.

CNS: Can you choose a few other soloists and introduce them?

RF: Well, that's Ivo Martimenghi, I was just mentioning. He graduated from the Milano Conservatory of Music. He's lived in China for around four years. He is the first cello, also for the Nova Sinfonietta – a career soloist.

Another performer we're featuring is Lilly Shayakova, from Uzbekistan. She arrived in China about two years ago and has already made a great career for herself. She's a really good performer and a really good soloist. She will play Paganini's "Capriccio No. 24."

You might not know the name of the song, but you know the song!

Another of our soloists is Zhang Henan, a professor at the Harbin Conservatory of Music. He was a violinist of the Royal Orchestra of Denmark. He's presenting "Dance of the Goblins," a really challenging piece.

CNS: What considerations go into the planning of a program like this? As an artistic director, are you considering the background of your audience?

RF: Actually, yes. We always consider which kind of cultural proposal we are giving and why, and what our goal is. You have to consider the needs of the person that you invite.

The same things happen when you invite someone to your home for dinner and you cook. You cannot just cook whatever you want. Maybe they have some allergies, maybe they are vegan, maybe they are vegetarian. So we tailor the program for a Shanghai audience, which is to say an international one. There's a lot of diversity in the pieces.

CNS: What were your 2024 highlights from around the city that you enjoyed musically?

RF: I think one of the most beautiful concerts I saw was the Hong Kong Philharmonic. It was a Northern European concert. And that was a really beautiful concert.

CNS: What messages or feelings do you hope the audience takes away from the concert as they welcome the new year?

RF: I wish the people that would come here would feel that they have had an experience. It means one hour and a half they will be with us. And then they will leave with a different soul, a different feeling, a different mood. This is why we do concerts. Each time we want to give an experience to the people.

And, of course, for New Year's, I want people to have hope for the future.

Hope for the future may come from a really happy mood, a positive mood. So what we want to do is kind of give them this little gift in some way because the intention is really to spread cheer and happiness.

CNS: Any New Year's resolutions? What are your hopes for 2025?

RF: For me personally, I wish the orchestra and the cultural life of Shanghai could be as diverse as they were this year. Because it was really diverse and we saw a lot of international culture.

So more of the same in 2025!

If you go:

Date: December 31, 7:45pm, 10:30pm (with New Year's Eve Countdown)

Address: 103 Nansuzhou Rd

南苏州路103号