Musical tribute to the mainland

Maksim Mrvica is about to kick off a 34-city tour of China.[Photo by Zou Hong/China Daily]

To support of these releases, Mrvica will kick off a tour in China - his biggest one in the country - by visiting 34 cities, including Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Shenzhen.

"I've performed over 100 shows in China and I want to give something back to my fans here. The two songs are inspired by China, especially Chinese culture," the pianist says in Beijing. Mrvica first came to China in 2008 to record a piece, Olympic Dream, for the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Since then, the pianist has toured China every year and has built a large fan base.

In 2016, he has visited 26 Chinese cities, playing his signature pieces, including an energetic version of Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee.

As for the two new songs, the New Silk Road, was recorded in Budapest along with more than 60 musicians from the Budapest Symphony Orchestra.

For the six-minute song, the composer, Huljic, combined music elements from China, Russia, India and Central Europe, including the sounds of Chinese instruments - the erhu and bamboo flute.

Speaking about his work, Huljic says: "As composer, I collect music elements from all over the world. And I am very interested in Chinese music, especially ethnic music.

"This is my first time in China and before composing these two songs, I asked myself 'How can I describe China in a few words?' Then I chose the words like 'great', 'wisdom' and 'humanity'. I put these words into music."