The China Victory Day of 3 September has made international headline news this week with the 80th anniversary celebration of the end of World War II. The Australian tour of Songs of Peace and Remembrance marks the occasion in Canberra, Melbourne and, finally, in Sydney.

Presented by Ausfeng and the Shenyang Conservatory of Music, the concert features some 20 performers from the conservatory in a diverse program of songs and instrumental music.

Tuesday night’s performance in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House is embraced wholeheartedly by a Chinese majority audience who visibly enjoy the highly polished performances of well-known music from their homeland. It is compèred in English and Mandarin by a pair of MCs and supported by an efficient stage crew who seamlessly handle the various stage changes involved. The largely patriotic nature of the programming is in line with the 80th anniversary dubbed by the media as “China’s biggest military parade“. 

Shenyang Conservatory is a very appropriate choice in light of its historic links to Luxun Academy of Arts, which was established in 1938 by Chinese Communist Party leaders including Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai.  

Most enjoyable is the traditional music ensemble, which appears at the start and towards the end of the concert in Red Sorghum and March of Brightness. Soloists Zhang Kewei (dizi) and Shen Jianhui (suona) are astoundingly virtuosic in their delivery of the much-loved Urging the Horses and Hundred Birds Paying Homage. The seven-piece traditional ensemble is extremely well rehearsed and adds much-needed balance to the Chinese art songs featuring quasi-pentatonic melodies cleverly arranged to fit above western functional harmony.

The nostalgia of the classic Ode to the Yellow River (1939), written during the Japanese occupation of China, is soulfully delivered by singer Tang Ningze and pianist Lan Fang. Liu Hang is remarkable in He Luting’s famous bass-baritone solo On the Jialing River. This piece, with its quasi-Schubertian harmonies, is one of many from 1930s-1940s China that emerged from the pressure for composers to replace romantic poetry with patriotic text. Also from this genre is Ode to the Shepherd Boy Erxiao performed by the brilliant tenor Li Chao.

Song of the Guerillas brings a different energy to the stage with Liu Hang, Li Chao, Tian Yu, Tang Ningze engaged in lively camaraderie. Although not listed in the printed program, another change of mood comes with the popular A Glass of Wine, taken from the Uyghur Folksong tradition of Xinjiang Province. This is followed by the popular song Quest, sung by Tian Yu, who is accompanied by Lan Fang (piano) as well as the audience clapping to the beat.

Beginning with a heavy diminished seventh chord on the piano, Soul of the Snowy Mountain (2006), representa a later style of composition that challenges the virtuosity of the performer. In a similar way to other programmatic titles, this magnificent erhu solo by Liu Wenjin musically depicts the Red Army’s victorious movements during the Long March.

A moment of true peace arrives with Wen Wen’s poignant oboe phrases accompanied by Wu Lili in What the World Gave Me (2025). Popularised by Canto/Mandopop star Faye Wong, the tender simplicity of the melody brings a certain stillness to the entire hall.

He Kejia (violin) and Zhang Hanlang (piano) are technically brilliant in their respective solos, as is Yang Yutong (accordion) in Playing My Beloved Pipa, which features in Zhao Ming’s epic film Railway Guerilla (1956). The arrangement shows clear Russian influences in both composition and performance style.

Finally, Hu Shen, in line with the title of the concert, brings the program to a gentle close in I Love You China. Due to the length of the program, certain pieces are omitted, and the encore consists only of one piece, My Motherland and I, to which the audience sings in full chorus. Quite a few trained voices in the bel canto style can even be heard.

Ausfeng has successfully produced a neatly packaged concert bringing many together to celebrate the conclusion of the Second World War. It is a fine display of the sociopolitical factors that have shaped the musical canvas of modern China and should be valued as a tribute to the ongoing musical exchange between China and Australia.