Over the New Year holiday, I was privileged to be part of a Community Orchestra that was invited to perform a series of New Years concerts in China. We were invited by the International Confucius Institute after the head of the Valparaiso University branch of the CI heard us perform. We were the first American Orchestra invited to do these concerts. The traditional New Year's concerts, a la Vienna style, have become a new tradition in China.
We performed seven concerts, mostly in the province of Zhejiang. We performed in Yuhuan, Ningbo, Zhoushan, Shaoxing, Jiaxing, and twice in Beijing. Our guest soloists were: Gregory Maytan, violin; Miho Sasaki, piano; Yan Shengmin, tenor; Jin-jin, soprano, and Kathleen and Peter Van De Graaf, soprano and baritone.
All of the recordings but one heard here were made in our concert at the Beijing Concert Hall. We were able to use their set up thanks to a combination of bureaucracy and greasing the right palms. Unfortunately, that was the night where the sickness that had plagued us most of the trip caught up with about 5 of us and 3 of the soloists. One of the spouses said is was a bit like Haydn's "Farewell" symphony. After every couple of tunes, one or two people would discreetly leave. But enough stories, on with the music.
The songs feature a photo diary of sorts, with a selection of pictures from the trip.
We opened the show with "Spring Festival Overture" by Li Huan-Zhi. Spring Festival is what the chinese call the New Year celebrations. Usually it's celebrated around the actual Chinese New Year, but more and more they are also celebrating the Western New Year with parties and concerts and holidays. During this time, all the buildings are decorated with red paper. Later on, you will see a picture of the woodwind section of our orchestra. I'm the only male player. Hint--I play the bassoon, if you all haven't figured that out from my handle.
One of the most poignant stories in China is the "Butterfly Lovers". This has been called the Chinese "Romeo and Juliet". It tells how a girl disguises herself as a boy in order to go to school. While there, she befriends a boy. They become best friends, and when she is revealed as a girl, they fall in love. Her father has arranged for her to marry another, and both are stricken. He eventually wastes away from a broken heart and is buried. While on the way to her forced wedding, the party can't move past his grave. In despair, she calls for the grave to open. It does, and she casts herself into it. From the grave arise two butterflies, which are their spirits, together and never separated. He Zhan-Hao wrote a very famous concerto which Chen Gang has arranged for violin. Gregory Maytan is a professor of violin at Valparaiso University. Due to program brevity, on our tour we only played the introduction and finale of the concerto, as the piece is 30 minutes long. However, on our pre tour performance in December, we played the entire piece. There was a delegation from the International Confucius Institute from Beijing in attendance, and they were moved to tears by the exquisite piece.
The next piece is the one that brings back the most memories. It is a traditional song called "A Pleasant Night" arranged by Liu Tian Hua. The song was originally written for erhu, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument like the violin. Listening to it, I recall freezing drafty concert halls, the sights and smells of China, and a night in Ningbo when we made magic with our music.
Our four vocal soloists did individual pieces as well as two combined numbers. This one is an arrangement of the famous "Song of the Yangtze River". This patriotic song is as well known in China as "My Country Tis of Thee" is known here. This recording was made at Beijing's North Power and Electric University. The students were absolutely wonderful and helpful. They were by far our best audience. Peter and Kathleen Van De Graaf received great applause for singing the lyrics in Chinese. And yes, Chicago people, this is WFMT and NPR's Peter Van De Graaf, the overnight classical music host.
The last two numbers we ended up using as a juxtaposition. This was music describing heroes of our two countries on television and screen. The first is that All-American hero and good guy Indiana Jones, as portrayed through John Williams' "Raiders March". This is the only tune that doesn't have a photo diary from our trip. I decided to use Indiana Jones images. So be ready for some gratuitous Harrison Ford.
The Chinese hero song is the theme song of a popular television show in China. It's part Magnificent Seven, part A-team, and part Crouching Tiger. It's a kung-fu/adventure show about a group of well, heroes who go around and have adventures and fight for good. I don't know the name of it, but the audience knew it well.