In a newly released video, Zlatomir performs the work with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and conductor Zhang Lu
In 2024, VC Artist Zlatomir Fung embarked on an East Asia tour, which concluded with his Shanghai debut performing the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra under Zhang Lu, following a recital at the Shanghai Symphony Hall.
The Shanghai Symphony has now released the video recording of Zlatomir’s performance at the Jaguar Shanghai Symphony Hall, which can be viewed below.
“It’s kind of an open secret among cellists that this piece is one of the most difficult in terms of the physical endurance needed just to make it through,” Zlatomir explained in a 2023 interview about the concerto.
“You can see at the very end of Rostropovich’s first video recording that he was so tired in his right hand, he had to sort of hold his bow with his fist rather than the normal bow hold,” he added. “So part of the preparation for me is to try to mitigate the degree to which fatigue impacts the ability to play at my best at the end.”
Highlights throughout Zlatomir’s 2024 tour included recitals at NCPA Beijing, and at the Hong Kong City Hall, which featured the Asian premiere of his own original work Fantasy on Jenůfa.
He also joined the closing concert of the Weiwuying International Music Festival at the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, and, at the invitation of Unsuk Chin, performed the Chin Cello Concerto with the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra and conductor Wen-pin Chien.
Zlatomir has since completed another Asia Tour, which began last October in Taiwan. He performed Bach’s complete Cello Suites over two concerts, first at the 2,070-seat National Concert Hall in Taipei, then at the Weiwuying Recital Hall in Kaohsiung.
Additionally, he travelled to South Korea for the Pohang Music Festival, where he gave six concerts, before returning to China to perform Elgar's Cello Concerto with the Guiyang Symphony Orchestra.