Entry for 8 Dec 2019:
So tonight we grabbed a quick dinner
and headed off for the Chinese Cultural Centre, where the concert hall
is. I was almost the only westerner at the concert. I had a blast.
The
SCO is a large orchestra, consisting of about 50 people, playing mostly
traditional Chinese folk instruments, with a sprinkling of cellos, bass
fiddles, and on this occasion a western concert harp, all organised
into sections very like a western symphony orchestra. For example,
instead of violins, there were three classes of 1- and 2-stringed
instruments: gaohus, zhonghus and erhus. There were Chinese flutes and
weird wind instruments. There are large and small lute-like instruments
and many others that I couldn’t make out but could only hear from time
to time in the music because they were in back rows.
The concert started with a rousing overture, Continuous Prosperity, which I thoroughly enjoyed. This was followed by a more serious piece called The Memory, from a dance score entitled The Desert Smoke.
This was an intense piece about grief, as the composer mourned for his
wife, consisting of a sad melody played on various Chinese 1- and
2-string violin-like instruments such as the erhu, punctuated by loud
outbursts of emotion pain.
After this, we
were treated to a series of brief orchestral songs of varying moods,
mostly based on Mongolian and Uighur folk music and featuring a young
Chinese tenor, Wang Zenan. The finale was a sublimely ridiculous
rendition of the orchestral chestnut O Sole Mio; I can only say
that you haven’t really lived until you’ve heard a full Chinese
orchestra and tenor ham their way through this piece!
After an intermission, we heard an amazing piece of 21st century Chinese music called Dream Interpretation; this
was really a 10-movement concerto or suite for Chinese orchestra and erhu. Each section a particular kind of dream. The
soloist, Xu Wenjing, appeared in a striking white dress, and attacked
her two stringed instrument which virtuosity through the series of
wildly distinct movements.
The final piece was a colourful celebration of Singapore’s Dragon Dance ceremony
and included an extended section in which eight percussionists banged
on a large array of different drums, cymbals and so on, in complex
polyrhythms and with great gusto. It felt like a rock concert, and was
really loud, to the extent that I found myself hoping that the players
were using hearing protection.
In all, I
found the whole experience exhilarating, intense and fun. I often
found myself laughing out loud at the sheer outrageous exuberance of it,
and hoping that no one around me would think that I was making fun of
their culture. The sight of 20 or 30 members of the orchestra
vigorously sawing away at 1 and 2-stringed instruments to produce such a
beautifully raucous and joyful racket carried me away into another
world of music and experience, a world both familiar (a large symphony
orchestra with a conductor and sections of instruments) and strange at
the same time, ful of shifting dissonances and sudden contrasts in
volume, tempo.
years ago. This might seem like a strange comparison, but on both cases the music was authentic, intense, soaring, heartfelt and deeply grounded in folk traditions, played by musicians who truly identify with the music, have great passion for it, and aren;t afraid to show it. This was the high point for the past two weeks I’ve spent in east Asia, and I’m very grateful to Eng Chuan for treating me to it.
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