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John de Clef Piñeiro

"From Beijing with Love." Huanzhi Li: Spring Festival Overture (1956) ~~ Zheng Lu: Pleasant News from Beijing ~~ Ah Bing/Wu Zuqiang: Moon Reflects on Erh-Chuan ~~ Zhou Long: Beijing Drum (1994) ~~ He Zhanhao & Chen Gang: The Butterfly Lovers (1958). Yunzhi Liu, violin; Min Xiao-Fen, pipa. Jindong Cai/ Cosmopolitan Symphony Orchestra. Town Hall, NY, NY. March 2, 2003.

In an unusual program (for New York) of mostly traditionally harmonic symphonic works from China, written (for the most part) during the 1950s, New York’s Cosmopolitan Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Jindong Cai, presented yet another exploration of China’s orchestral music repertoire. Supplemented this time by informative program notes, this year’s Town Hall concert showcased what was being composed just before, during and after the shattering decade of the so-called "Cultural Revolution" (1966-1976) in China. Representative of a work composed fully a decade before, Spring Festival Overture bursts with exuberant enthusiasm from the very first notes of this curtain-raiser by "one of the most influential Chinese composers in modern China." Ironically, the only work on the program that was written during the Cultural Revolution was entitled Pleasant News from Beijing and projected a comedic, circus-like energy that was heard for the first time only after the Cultural Revolution ended, as if to celebrate its demise.

According to conductor Cai, Moon Reflects on Erh-Chuan is "a very soulful piece" that was originally composed by a Taoist monk, named Ah-Bing the Blind (1893-1950), who was a well-known Chinese folk musician. As noted in the program, Erh-Chuan is "the site of one of the country’s loveliest natural springs" in southern China. The string version of the piece heard at this concert is reminiscent of Ralph Vaughan Williams at his most nostalgic and was arranged by professor Wu Zuqiang, who teaches composition at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Unfortunately, the unison was off in the high strings, which distracted from the otherwise meditative feel of the work.

By far the most arresting offering on the first half of the program, Zhou Long’s Beijing Dream, with Min Xiao-Fen as virtuoso soloist, stole the show for originality and sophistication of conception and orchestral sonorities. The whistling harmonics of the violins in the opening are perhaps the most tranquil moments of this otherwise highly dramatic and percussive creation. Alternating and weaving between traditional and contemporary instrumental textures, the work provides a varying landscape of settings for the pipa’s predominantly idiomatic utterances. The overall effect of this piece was enchantment itself.

The gorgeous and self-assured playing of violinist Yunzhi Liu, the concertmaster of the China National Symphony Orchestra, was an ideal match for the concluding famous violin concerto based on the popular Chinese legend of the love story of Liang Shan Bo and Zhu Ying Tai, commonly known as The Butterfly Lovers. Liu’s performance, with its erhu-like melodic inflections, touchingly conveyed the tragic sadness of the underlying story of impossible love, on which the beautiful Chinese film classic of the same name was based. Anyone interested in learning more about this very popular story can find more than one précis on the Internet.

Once again, the Cosmopolitan Symphony Orchestra, under maestro Cai, has successfully presented a culturally enriching experience that would gratify the appetite of anyone who is serious about world music.

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More Masters from China