Two top orchestras, one common bond
Print Edition
THE Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra will join the Philadelphia Orchestra for a Chinese New Year Concert on January 29, the first time such a musical event has been staged in the City of Brotherly Love.
The concert in the Pennsylvania city’s Kimmel Performing Arts Center will also celebrate the 40th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-US ties.
Tickets to the event were free in order to attract the widest possible audience. All the 3,000 tickets were booked within 90 minutes.
The Year of the Pig starts on February 5 this year.
“It’s a wonderful way to celebrate the Chinese New Year, for we have such an incredible connection to China,” said Matias Tarnopolsky, president of the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was the first US orchestra to visit China in 1973, and it will be here again for its 12th visit in May.
Zhang Liang from the Shanghai Philharmonic will conduct the first half of the concert.
The program includes Li Huanzhi’s iconic “Spring Festival Overture,” Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Capriccio Espagnol” and Tchaikovsky’s “Capriccio Italien.”
Kensho Watanabe of the Philadelphia Orchestra will conduct the second half. It will feature the world premiere of a revised version of Gong Tianpeng’s 10th symphony “A Peking Fantasy,” a work co-commissioned by both orchestras.
Inspired by Peking Opera, the symphony seeks to translate the spiritual and emotional content of the art form into a musical language accessible to international audiences. It combines the music of Western orchestras and Peking Opera.
The work draws its material from Peking Opera staples “The Chancellor and the Adviser” (“Cao Cao and Yang Xiu”), “In Pursuit of the General” (“Xiao He Chasing Han Xin on a Night Ride”), “The Drunken Beauty” and “Farewell, My Concubine.”
The first version of the symphony was 90 minutes long and premiered last April at the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival. Based on advice from the Philadelphia and Shanghai orchestras, Gong condensed the piece to 40 minutes.
“I put as much of my thoughts as possible in the first version, then filtered them in the revision,” Gond said. “The best parts were all left in the second version. I feel good about the outcome.”
Nicholas Platt, a diplomat in the US Liaison Office in Beijing in 1973-74, who facilitated the Philadelphia Orchestra’s historic tour of China in 1973, remembers the visit.
“At first, Chinese audiences were very reserved because they hadn’t heard Western classical music for a long time,” he said. “But over time, they warmed up considerably. In Shanghai, the reaction was immediately welcoming, loud and enthusiastic. They really understood what the musicians were playing. When we were leaving, (conductor) Eugene Ormandy said that he didn’t want to go.”
Since then, the Philadelphia Orchestra has developed a strong partnership with the Shanghai Philharmonic.
“For us, it is not about market, but people,” said Ryan Fleur, managing director of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
“It’s about sharing great music-making and joy with people.”
He said contact with Chinese audiences in concert halls, teaching sessions and community settings in the past 45 years has been meaningful and touching.
“As we are approaching our 12th visit to China in May,” said Fleur. “We have seen the growth of many relationships and collaborations that we could never have imagined in 1973. We not only look forward to our next visit, but we can also imagine how our two orchestras will write the next chapter of our close relationship.”
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