Schubert’s divine works on the clarinet
Print Edition
WANG Tao’s major for graduation was classical clarinet, an instrument he had come to play since childhood. At the end of 2016, the 38-year-old finally had a pure classical album to his name.
Wang’s album is a collection of Schubert’s works. He collaborated with fortepiano master Michel Kiner at Salle de musique, La Chaux de Fonds in Switzerland, for the recording of the album. The yellow label of Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on the album was like a dream come true for the clarinet player.
“I always remember collecting CDs with the yellow label at vendors when I was young. It had never occurred to me that I would get one of those labels as a Chinese musician with very limited overseas experiences. It was such a great recognition,” says Wang, a native of Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
Franz Schubert is one of Wang’s favorite musicians even though the Austrian composer had hardly written anything for clarinet, except for a trio piece. Determined to produce a remarkable clarinet record instead of cliché pieces, Wang took up the challenge to adapt Schubert’s other works for the clarinet and fortepiano collaboration.
That included Schubert’s “Sonata in D major,” “An die Musik,” “Standchen,” “Ellens Gesang III,” “Auf dem Wasser zu singen” and “Sonata in A minor — ‘Arpeggione’.”
Yet the first rehearsal with Kiner was a sharp warning to Wang. When Wang started playing “Standchen,” which he thought he was good at, Kiner stopped him and criticized him being overemotional, which was a huge disrespect to the original piece.
To help Wang better understand Schubert’s works, Kiner took him to Annecy in France to witness the beautiful sunset.
“He told me that Schubert was sad in his works, but it was a sadness based on his appreciation for all things beautiful. He was sad about witnessing the beauty and inevitably losing them. It was with depth, and I had to control myself in expressing them,” says Wang.
Being an emotional man, Wang always believed that he was good at melodic pieces like those of Schubert. It gave him the confidence that often moved his audiences to tears. But Kiner’s word made him reflect on his style of playing for the first time.
To be more precise, Wang visited Schubert’s museum and tomb and studied materials on his works at the libraries.
“At his tomb, I felt like I was approaching somebody I had always wanted to know,” says Wang. “It was amazing.”
Though he has produced quite a number of successful cross-over albums, making a pure classic one has always been in Wang’s mind as it is his most familiar language — something that he has been practicing since the age of seven.
Just like many musicians in China, it was his father, Wang Maojun, who made the choice for him. Though he was a veteran football player, the father encouraged junior Wang to take up a career as a musician.
Wang Tao learned a number of instruments including the cello and the erhu (two-stringed bowed musical instrument), but it was not until he discovered the clarinet that he found the confidence to play his style of music.
“It was like destiny. My talent was repeatedly denied when I was playing other instruments, but even my teacher was astonished to see so much progress in my first year with the clarinet,” says Wang.
He successfully made it to the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and later became a faculty member after graduation. He is now an associate professor at the conservatory, yet he often regrets about his lack of experience in international competitions.
With a relatively late start-up, the wind music education in China was cut off from the Western world when he studied at the conservatory. He was only once sent by the Ministry of Culture for an international clarinet competition in Romania 1999.
And when he planned to compete in another competition in Munich in 2001, he could not even find the musical score of a piece anywhere in China. When a friend got him the score from Germany, it was just two days before the competition, and he didn’t have enough time to practice it.
Participating in international competitions is not only a way to shape the musician’s own future, but also a better way to popularize the instrument in China.
Wang admits there was a time when he was very eager to get recognition. He tried various means to performing in public, including participating in talent shows, writing novels, and even in TV series. But in the end, he realized that he only enjoyed good music and he could only excel in that.
He shifted all his focus back to music three years ago, but kept open all space for exploring music. He participated in quite a number of cross-over performances and released his original album “Day & Night.”
When he had a child in 2015, Wang tried even harder to build a good music atmosphere at home.
“I was thrilled to see my boy knocking on the piano, which I believe is a sign of music gift. But a friend told me it was just a child’s curiosity for sounds which most babies have,” says Wang.
He hopes that his child would inherit both his talent for music and his Olympic champion wife Liu Xuan’s talent for athletics.
“Figure skating could be a possible direction — a great combination of the two,” says Wang with a laugh.
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