Shanghai’s annual festival Music in the Summer Air (MISA) has evolved from a summer concert series to a wildly diverse event with something for everyone. This year's MISA celebrates the '60s, unites music and film, and presents the New York Philharmonic both in and out of doors. Here are the best shows to see at this year's MISA.
Jane Birkin & SSO Gainsbourg Symphonic Concert
Saturday July 9, 7.30pm, 100-300RMB, Shanghai Symphony Hall
Jane Birkin, the once waiflike chanteuse that defined the 1960s and turned shock value into a respectable career, anchors MISA’s salute to the ‘swinging sixties’, singing a programme of French classics written by Gallic louche singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, her former lover and eternal soulmate.
Dean and Britta: Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests
Wednesday July 13, 7.30pm, 100-300RMB, Shanghai Symphony Hall
Husband-wife team Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips have created a programme of ’60s-style folk-pop songs to accompany Andy Warhol’s screen tests. Commissioned by the Andy Warhol Museum and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, the project features 13 of the artist’s fourminute film portraits of recognisable personalities such as Dennis Hopper and Lou Reed.
Compagnie Inouie: The Dark Side of the Moon
Tuesday July 5, 7.30pm, 100-300RMB, Shanghai Symphony Hall
Compagnie Inouie’s artistic and musical director Thierry Balasse, is known as a genius of electronica, but the fun of this Pink Floyd show is the old-school sound effects – watch during ‘Money’ as musicians work an antique cash register and tear up bits of paper. An audio-visual treat.
Martin Grubinger & the Percussive Planet Ensemble Tribute to the ’60s
Monday July 11, 7.30pm, free, Shanghai Urban Music Lawn
The man who brought the percussion section from the back of the orchestra to centre stage presents a percussive salute to the ’60s, with new arrangements of Frank Sinatra and Joe Zawinul, songs by John Psathas, Mitt Jackson, and Pee Wee Ellis, plus a few works of his own.
Gil Shaham: Bach Six Solos with Original Films by David Michalek
Monday July 4, 7.30pm, 100-300RMB, Shanghai Symphony Hall
Premier violinist Gil Shaham presents his heartrending Bach interpretations with a moving photographic backdrop by filmmaker David Michalek.
Silent Film in Concert: Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights
Thursday July 7, 7.30pm, 100-300RMB, Shanghai Symphony Hall
Timothy Brock leads the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in accompanying Chaplin’s classic 1931 film about the tramp in the city.
The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic
Thursday July 14, 7.30pm, 100-300RMB, Shanghai Symphony Hall
The cello ensemble that set the standard, the dynamic dozen return for a Piazzolla-themed programme, with Faure, Giraud, Salgan, Carli and Francaix rounding things out.
MISA runs from Saturday 2 - Friday 15 July at Shanghai Symphony Hall and Shanghai Urban Music Lawn (as noted above). See more MISA events by clicking read more below.
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