Composer Chen Qigang, whose work will feature on the first album, says: "It's easy to see the honor, but not the hard work and painstaking efforts behind the achievement. Thanks to Yu for choosing my work for the first DG album."

Congratulations also came from other composers and musicians.

Chinese composer Guo Wenjing says: "DG's contract is a big deal. The yellow label is a dream for musicians and orchestras."

Tu Song, a clarinetist and the Beijing Music Festival's program director, says: "Although people now mostly listen to digital music, most classic music is still recorded on albums."

"DG's contract with Yu and the SSO represents a recognition and encouragement for Chinese musicians and orchestras."

Yu's links with the SSO go back to 2009.

Besides, he founded the China Philharmonic Orchestra in 2000, and has been its music director since.

Yu is also the music director of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra that he joined in 2003.

And he has also devoted a lot of effort to the development of both orchestras.

Explaining why he decided to link the SSO with DG, he says that the SSO is the oldest orchestra in China, and possibly Asia, going back more than 150 years, and that in the last few decades, it has made a mark on the world classical music scene.