Artist mixes music of China and Britain

The London Symphony Orchestra's Gareth Davies played the dizi (a traditional Chinese flute) to present the premiere of And Nights Bright Days at Beijing's Reignwood Theater during the symphony's China tour in March. The solo was later performed in Shanghai, Wuhan and Macao.

The piece borrows its name from William Shakespeare's Sonnet 43 and the storyline from Tang Xianzu's classic Chinese opera The Peony Pavilion, in which lovers meet in their dreams. Its composer, Raymond Yiu, was inspired by the allusions in the works of the literary masters, both of whom died in 1616.

"In And Nights Bright Days, this sense of dreaming is conveyed by the constant mutation of the initial idea, a prolonged, quiet melody with just a few notes, and its return after the fast, lively section in the middle, with modulations - it is a dream being remembered after one wakes up," Yiu told China Daily in an email.