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Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Xinghai Concert Hall, Guangzhou, China — review（357words）
By Ken Smith
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One would be hard pressed to find more conflicting musical sources than the piano and Peking opera: the instrument that essentially defined western tonality versus a tradition where tuning is hardly an overriding concern. But for several internationally minded Chinese composers, the challenge in reconciling the two has proved irresistible.
The latest, and perhaps most ambitious attempt came in the premiere of Tan Dun’s Farewell My Concubine, a symphonic poem for piano and Peking opera performer. The composer’s inspiration was the 120th anniversary (doubling the 60-year “life cycle” in Asian cultures) of the birth of Mei Lanfang, Peking opera’s most celebrated figure. The chief proponent was conductor Long Yu, China’s most active commissioner of new concert music, who led the premiere.
The piece’s success, though, came primarily in pairing pianist Yuja Wang with the Peking opera performer Xiao Di, a disciple of Mei Lanfang’s son Mei Baojiu. Wang’s athletic pianism, so effective in romantic repertory, proved equally apt in mimicking the clamour of Peking opera percussion and plucking piano strings like a Chinese zither.
Tan’s score remained notably free of exoticism, its westernisations freely referencing Cage, Cowell and Crumb while the Chinese front extended traditional Peking opera technique, leaving plenty of room in the orchestration for vocal ornaments. Dramatically, Wang became the Chu warlord Xiang Yu, Xiao Di his concubine, with the music reimagining the original tale in symphonic terms much as, say, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet reimagines Shakespeare.
Despite the piece’s sturdy structure, one could envision the two soloists being given more to do, and growing bolder in their interactions. Their encores, though — Xiao Di’s traditional Peking opera tune and Wang’s blistering version of Horowitz’s Carmen Variations — revealed how much they had each ventured from their respective traditions already.
Musically, Strauss’s EinHeldenleben made a strange fit. It also lacked the polish of Long Yu’s performances with his other orchestras, the Shanghai Symphony and the China Philharmonic. But the GSO made the piece’s inner workings arguably more vibrant, and, coming right after Concubine, it did make one hear Strauss’s sonic portrayals of the Hero and his companion in a rather different light.
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