First among equals

Conductor Tan Lihua leads the Beijing Symphony Orchestra at a rehearsal in Beijing. Jiang Dong / China Daily

Under Tan's baton, Beijing Symphony Orchestra has developed to be one of the top five orchestras in China. Wang Zhide / for China Daily

It has been a big year so far for the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, which is currently touring Europe. Chen Jie finds out more from the capital.

Related: Conductor's love for music started with the erhu

It was a fall early morning and walking into the Imperial Ancestral Temple to the east of Forbidden City, Johann Strauss' Tales from the Vienna Woods floated out from the main hall.

Conductor Tan Lihua and his Beijing Symphony Orchestra were rehearsing for a gala concert scheduled for the evening.

"Technically, this is not different from any other rehearsals, but we enjoy the quiet and spiritual atmosphere here. It's relaxing and like a break from our busy schedule," Tan says during the lunch break.

Yes, the orchestra has been busy recently.

Under Tan's baton, Beijing Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra gave a joint concert at the Royal Festival Hall of London during the Olympic Games. Back in Beijing, they collaborated with conductor Christoph Eschenbach on Aug 31. The second day of the gala at Imperial Ancestral Temple, Tan conducted a regular season's concert at the Beijing Concert Hall, on Sept 8.

And now they are on Europe tour again, performing in Turkey and Germany.

Beijing Symphony Orchestra played at Turkey's Antalya Music Festival as the first symphonic orchestra from China on Sept 13.

Related: Encore to live

The second stop was Cologne where the orchestra collaborated with Chinese tenors Dai Yuqiang, Warren Mok and Wei Song, Bonn Opera and Deutz Choir Cologne to play German composer Heinz Walter Florin's Cologne Symphony.

On Wednesday, the orchestra will perform composer Guo Wenjing's The Rite of Mountains - Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra at Wolfsburg, and Thursday, they will wrap up the tour at the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic with another Guo's work Lotus, Prokofiev's Symphony No 1 Classical and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

"It is every orchestra's dream to play at Berlin Philharmonic's hall, but we are ready and confident," Tan says.

He says that when he first took the orchestra to German in 2001, they were nervous.

"We played in the composer's hometown, at the same hall where many maestros performed and their portraits were still hanging on the walls. The audiences were so attentive and they knew every note well. We were so humble and excited that we held our collective breath while performing," he recalls.