Suzhou Shines — Marching Towards the Light

Yesterday evening’s Belt & Road International Music Festival event brought radiant enlightenment and entertainment to Shenzhen Concert Hall!

The program, “Marching Towards the Light,” presented by the Suzhou Chinese Orchestra under the brilliant direction of Pang Kapang, gave us Chinese musical perspectives of the Silk Road, a song from Suzhou’s own Kunqu Opera, an erhu piece based on Liu Tianhua’s song “Guang Ming Xing” –“Marching Towards the Light” (hence the program’s name), a vivid orchestral rendition of “Jasmine Flower,” a tone poem describing Macao, and a flashy percussive Dragon Dance.

The orchestra consists of a blend of traditional Chinese instruments as well as Western instruments, capable of emulating the sounds thought of as characteristic of Western orchestras. In addition to the huge number of erhu players, the 90-plus orchestra includes pipas, shengs, zhongruans, daruans, suonas, bangdis and xindis, a yangqin, violincelli, contrabasses, and of course a wide variety of percussion.

Maestro Pang Kapang's directing left nothing wanting. Most conductors who are that physically expressive tend to lose control of the beat and are consequently difficult to follow. With the advent of television in the 1950s, Leonard Bernstein was the first to use that medium to focus attention on a conductor’s acrobatics, paving the way for TV to serve as a showmanship platform for conductors. Unfortunately, Bernstein’s expressive antics made it rather difficult for the musicians to follow his beat. Mr. Pang’s style compared to other conductors who tend to be flashy did contribute greatly to the musical experience both for the performers and audience. Although he practically danced on the podium, every beat was perfectly clear and well defined. The subsequent sound of the orchestra is world-class, and can rank as an equal to any of the great major Western orchestras.

The opening orchestral work by King Jiang, “The Silk Road: a Chinese Symphony,” opened with a gentle yet very exotic theme, with a wonderful erhu solo performed by a fourth chair soloist, then quickly and suspensefully grew into a very dramatic and colorful outburst that was absolutely beautiful and powerful! Instruments were used in unique ways, such as the erhu sections among others playing them as drums.

As fantastic as the performance of Ms. King’s work was, I was a bit disappointed that there was no curtain call at the end. However, the audience easily made up for that plausible oversight at the concert’s end, described later…

This was followed by the Kunqu Opera song “Peony Pavilion Strolling in the Garden,” and featured Fang Wang in full Kunqu opera costume singing the song. It was a beautiful rendition of a beautiful and gentle song. My only criticism is that her voice was difficult to hear in spite of the quiet accompaniment; as I was sitting in front, I could hear her well enough to acknowledge that her singing was perfection, except for being out of balance with the orchestra.

Next was Xiaogang Ye’s version of “Marching Towards the Light” for erhu and orchestra. Performed by erhu virtuoso Changyao Zhu, the orchestral color vividly complemented his expressiveness and virtuosity. The final portion of this piece suggests that Ye’s music is influenced by Ravel. (Do note that I am a Westerner, and feel that much of the world is missing out on not being very familiar with some of the great Chinese music, including tonight’s works!)

Closing the first half was Wenjin Liu’s “Jasmine Flower: A Chinese Symphony.” Basically a theme with variations, the growing development to the closing of the music provided an uplifting gateway to the program’s intermission.

The second half began with Danhong Wang’s “Macao Capriccio: A Chinese Orchestral Suite,” a tone poem of five continuous sections that celebrates Macao’s 16th anniversary of its return to the motherland. I especially suspect she was greatly influenced by Western classical composers, as the first section, “The Light of Igreja da Sé,” immediately suggests Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture,” with solemn low and slow string chords even gradually progressing to the same V/VI chord Tchaikovsky uses! (Stravinsky is quoted as saying “Good composers borrow; great composers steal!” I think this steal can by itself verify that Dr. Danhong Wang is a great composer!) It seamlessly merges into part 2, “Portuguese Festival,” which incorporates a Portuguese feel set in a 5/4 rhythm that then switches to a 3/4 “Trio” section, then back to 5/4 and finally to a cut time 4/4 driving rhythm. It suddenly becomes part 3, “Fishing Song,” starting very lyrically then becoming quite dynamic in its expression. As it merges into part 4, “Yearning,” it again reflects Western influence, as it takes on the flavor, harmonies and orchestral color of the Largo movement of Dvořák’s “New World Symphony.” It doesn’t stay that way for long, as it quickly moves into the final section titled “Fireworks.” It begins with 6/8 music in the style of a British seafarer’s shanty song, then has flashbacks to the earlier 5/4 music before transforming into a 3/4 waltz. Then come the fireworks, to close the Capriccio with a bang!

A fascinating aside was an imperceptible incident at the beginning of the Capriccio: When Maestro Peng came to the podium, he quickly discovered that the music for the Capriccio was not there. He turned apparently with the intent of fetching the music, but then decided to do a Toscanini act and conduct from memory. He turned over the music that was on the stand so it wouldn’t distract him, then absolutely brilliantly conducted the very difficult Capriccio score from memory!

The final work, Dragon Dance: A Chinese Symphony” by Changjun Xu, is in form what we might refer to in Western music as a “drummer’s holiday,” although it was anything but a holiday for the percussion section! After a few orchestral chords, the percussion ensemble took over. For several moments the rhythm took on a non-tonal melodic character of its own, and after the initial flashes of virtuosity the orchestra gradually took over for a while, the percussion occasionally making comments along the way. Then came a section featuring the suonas and other wind instruments leading the melody with the rest of the orchestra providing a vigorous accompaniment. (Speaking of Western influence: this portion of the piece sounded suspiciously inspired by Stravinsky’s “Firebird”!) Then the percussion outdid itself. With a form reminiscent of a jazz ensemble, each percussionist had a moment to flamboyantly display outstanding skills. All would maintain a background rhythm, and one by one take turns to shine. After all had their opportunity of solo expression, the rest of the orchestra chimed in to close the concert to a standing ovation.

But wait—there’s more!

After four curtain calls came the first encore: Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 1.” The performance truly had the feel of a typical great Western orchestra, except for the middle section, which sounded more organ-like, and included a xylophone sound that seemed a bit out of place. Then a return to the main theme and an ending that was magnificent.

More curtain calls. Another encore: the exposition from Rossini’s “William Tell Overture.” This pretty much outshined the previous encore! In the middle section the distinctly different wind instrument sounds added a nice unique color to the sustained chords. When it finished, there were again curtain calls; too many curtain calls!

Maestro Pang did something I had never seen before: he took the hand of the first chair and started to escort her off stage. He then guided several other performers in the direction of the stage exits, and motioned for everyone else to the exits. The audience loved it, and applauded the performers as they left the stage.

Among the people I talked with after the performance was Andrew, the leader of tomorrow night’s Belt & Road music program. He and his students who are from the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, England are visiting Shenzhen for the first time and are very impressed with the city. He also said that while he was familiar with the erhu, this was his first exposure to a full Chinese orchestra, and it won’t be his last.

Considering the quality of performances thus far, I strongly suggest you attend tomorrow to hear what the combined forces of the RNCM and the Music Department of CUHK-Shenzhen have to offer!

I talked with Maestro Peng after the concert, but after he had signed many programs for fans. We conversed in English. We had a good laugh over the music faux pas of the Capriccio; I asked him about the final exit of the performers. He said he had never done that before, but they had a long concert, were tired, and have another concert tomorrow in Guangzhou.

If for some reason you can’t catch tomorrow’s performance and you happen to be in Guangzhou, take the opportunity to go to the Suzhou Chinese Orchestra’s Guangzhou concert; either way, you will not be disappointed!