New York Philharmonic, led by its music director and preeminent conductor Lorin Maazel, is staging at China's egg-shaped National Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday and Sunday evenings.

Tickets of the two concerts had been sold out about a month ago, the center's ticket office told Xinhua Sunday.

Chinese could be important defenders of classical music since they are increasingly embracing other cultures, Sunday's Beijing News quoted Maazel as saying.

"It could very well be that one of the most important defenders of classical music will be found in the country of China," said the 78-year-old conductor.

Chinese have shown their passion and very high sense of aesthetics, which makes the country an ideal spawning ground for burgeoning interest in classical music, he said.

Six Chinese faces are seen among the orchestra, including associate conductor Zhang Xuan and principal oboist Wang Liang.

Maazel, impressed by the concert hall, was quoted as saying the grand theatre is the most "breathtaking" he has even been.

The two concerts in Beijing are part of the orchestra's Asia tour. It has performed at Taipei, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

After Beijing concerts, the Philharmonic will leave for Pyongyang, capital of South Korea, as the first cultural exchange event to build mutual trust and understanding between South Korea and the United States.

Maazel refused to comment on South Korean tour at Saturday's press conference.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2008)