Music Preview: The China Philharmonic

One of China's youngest yet most eminent orchestras, the China Philharmonic, is visiting Prague for a performance that combines both of the orchestra's interests: Western and Chinese classical music.

Founded in 2000 as a division of China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the China Philharmonic began getting the attention of critics and audiences immediately, with a first season that included the world premiere of Philip Glass' Cello Concerto No. 1. In 2009, Gramophone Magazine named the orchestra among "the most inspiring orchestras," putting it among other world-class orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The orchestra has toured throughout Europe and in North America and is now coming to Prague for the first time.

The China Philharmonic orchestra's founder and music director, Long Yu, is the pre-eminent conductor in China. Besides his work with the philharmonic orchestra, he also leads the Guangzhou Symphony, and the Shanghai Symphony and is also artistic director of the Beijing Festival. He is known for bridging the gap in China between traditional Chinese music and more modern Western music.

Yu grew up during China's Cultural Revolution, a period that saw the persecution of anyone and anything deemed capitalist, and a widespread ban on Western music. During this period, Yu's grandfather Ding Shande, one of China's finest modern composers, taught him to play the piano, helping him win admittance to a musical middle school associated with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

"I remember the Red Guards came and burned music in our garden," Yu told The New York Times in 2009.

Nonetheless, Yu persevered, becoming one of the most powerful players in the Chinese classical music scene, leading the China Philharmonic orchestra to the forefront of that scene, while bringing it to the attention of a worldwide audience, partly due to his energetic style of conducting.

The program for the orchestra's Prague concert features three very different pieces of music: the stately overture from Wagner's opera Tannhauser, Astor Piazzolla's Las Cuatro Estaciones Portenas and a piece from the Chinese opera Gui Fei Zui Jiu, or The Drunken Concubine.

Wagner premiered Tannhauser in Dresden in 1845, in the middle of his career. As a representative piece of Wagner's middle period, it contains many of the themes - love's redemption, the sacred versus the profane - that would obsess the conductor for the rest of his life.  

Piazzolla's piece consists of four tangos which were originally meant as discrete compositions though the composer often conducted them together. Also known as The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, this program music gives the impression of the changing of the seasons in the Argentine capital, with clear connections to Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.  

The Drunken Concubine is largely a one-woman show, telling the story of a concubine who has plans for a tryst with the emperor who never arrives. Seeking to drown her sorrow, the concubine drinks profusely, becoming drunk. Finally, her eunuchs must help her home. Written by Mei Lanfang in the early 20th century, the opera is known for its beautifully melancholic music, a portion of which the orchestra will play, in an arrangement by Zou Ye and featuring percussionist Yi Dong Wang as soloist.

In only 10 years - the blink of an eye in the life of an orchestra - Yu and the China Philharmonic have turned heads in China and throughout the world with their commitment both to perfecting their performances of Western classical music and to bringing the best in Chinese classical music to the Western world. Their performance in Prague will provide a vivid example of their tasks and show just how successful they have been.

Stephan Delbos can be reached at
sdelbos@praguepost.com