Western Music in China

Western Music in China

The final piece of my coverage of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's tour to China ran Sunday -- a much more general look at just why Western classical music has become so popular in China. Obviously, I don't answer the question; I am trying to bring up some possibilities and also simply to dialogue about what is a truly fascinating subject for all of us who love classical music. Thanks to the Carnegie Mellon School of Music for letting me accompany some of its faculty members (also PSOers) on some masterclasses in Shanghai (Bill Caballero, Mike Rusinek and Nancy Caballero, specifically).
In the center of photo are Bill Caballero and Xiao-Ming Han (in the blue shirt) and the students of the horn masterclass at Shanghai Conservatory that I wrote about.
If you want you can review the rest of my coverage of the PSO Asia 2009 tour here. For me it was a chance of a lifetime and a wonderful learning experience that has shrunk the world of music for me.

The PSO in the Pearl of the Orient
That would be Shanghai, although it wasn't always known by such an elegant and flattering name.
On the left is the Oriental Arts Center. It was designed by the same architect firm as the Beijing Egg -- Paul Andreu Architects -- and in fact looks a bit like the Egg opened up -- same glass panel material. In any case, both are stunning from the outside. The PSO played a concert in Shanghai Saturday night that might still have them talking:
Crowd in Shanghai didn't want PSO to stop the music
Actually, my lede originally was meant to reflect my immediate thought at this concert when the crowd wouldn't let the PSO off: the PSO got Shanghaied!
But we didn't want to bring up old stereotypes in print, so we altered it. Either way, it was fascinating to see such a robust reaction to a concert -- these music lovers (with far fewer Chinese tourists than in Beijing) -- knew they couldn't just come next week to see the PSO like we can in Pittsburgh, and they were determined to squeeze a little more out of them.
In addition to the fantastic architecture of the Oriental Arts Center, the hall was staffed by ushers in traditional dress. Clarinetist Thomas Thompson was kind enough to let me take a photo of him with one backstage. She was actually quite tall, and had to bend a bit for the shots, but what a gorgeous dress:
By the way, that last encore I wrote about of Brahms' "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 5" is so wonderfully crafted by Honeck, even if in that case he didn't have the percussion or trombones on stage (because they weren't needed for that program). He does such fantastic little phrasings that bring a piece alive artistically that I have heard 1,000 times before. It makes me a bit sad that the PSO already recently recorded the Brahms symphonies and Hungarian Dances with conductor Marek Janowski because that probably means Honeck's Brahms will have to be put off and probably won't be recorded. It is too bad because he clearly has amazing things to say with Brahms, like he has with most of the Viennese canon he has conducted so far.
The next day, I followed some PSO musicians, who also teach at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Music, for some master classes at Shanghai Conservatory. It's an experience I will write about later in a bigger piece on the phenomenon of classical music in China. Suffice it to say, the level of playing at the school here is high.
But these PSO'ers (and there were several others who did this in Beijing and Shanghai) deserve credit for taking time from their personal time-off in China to give free master classes to the students here. What an invaluable experience for the students, and let me tell you, they learned a lot!
Clarinetist Michael Rusinek gave five years-worth of training to a young clarinetist in his masterclass, and her expressive abilities grew with every comment. Horn player William Caballero had a larger class, organized by his longtime friend, Xiaoming Han, a horn professor at Shanghai Conservatory and an international player.
Caballero was "blown" away by the talent, but just the same he offered needed advice to the young musicians, sometimes as simple as moving the stands of three musicians playing a horn trio closer together and showing the lead horn player how to better start the piece.
Pitt, Duquense and CMU all have music students from China, but CMU actively takes recruiting trips here for students, and I can see why. These master classes might just bring a brilliant student to CMU's School of Music. But even if they don't, it is a wonderful gift of cultural exchange by these and other PSO musicians.
P.S. The Post-Gazette got this wonderful e-mail the day after the first Beijing concert at the Egg, and I thought I would pass it on:
Comments:
Saw the Pittsburgh Symphony in Beijing tonight. It was terrific....two encores. If it were up to the ticketholders we still would be there.You are lucky to have such a great orchestra in your city.
Sandy K.