[Photo provided to China Daily]

"This tour marks my first time conducting on the Chinese mainland. I am already very excited to encounter Chinese audiences in each city and share the wonderful music of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra," says Nelsons, who is also the music director-designate of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

The conductor notes, "Wagner and Strauss are two incredibly important and significant composers in my life, and so the way the program has been put together is very special to me."

This year is also the 190th anniversary of Beethoven's death.

"For me, Beethoven is everything－an intimate, almost fragile friend, sometimes angry, impolite, polemic, sometimes encouraging, sometimes grand, sometimes a fighter, and so much more," says Nelsons.