Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily

On the second evening, Aug 14, Rahbari will conduct the Teheran Symphony Orchestra as it plays Scheherazade by Rimski-Korsakov and Yu Long conducts the China Philharmonic playing the New World Symphony by Dvorak.

In preparation for the joint concert, Rahbari was in Beijing last week rehearsing with the China Philharmonic.

"It's a very nice orchestra," he says. "I hadn't been to Beijing before, but I am familiar with Chinese musicians and the way Chinese think. Over the past 40 years I've conducted a lot of orchestras with Chinese musicians.

"It took us just an hour and 40 minutes to finish rehearsals on the first day. This is a well disciplined orchestra. Good orchestras have similar qualities. When they get down to work, they're not Chinese or Iranian or German; they're all musicians. ...

"This is the beauty of the job. As a conductor, I say what to do. I don't say to an orchestra, 'Please play very beautifully' or 'Please play romantically'. It doesn't work that way. They don't know what 'romantic' is. I'll say, 'Make it shorter' or 'Make it longer.'"

Rahbari's positive feelings about the orchestra seem to have been reciprocal.

Zhao Yunpeng, the first cello, says: "He's charismatic and he's got very sharp ear. He seems to be able to pinpoint problems very quickly ... We knew little about him before but the rehearsals have been terrific."

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Chen Yuxi contributed to the story.