Oct 31 2007
Virtuosity, made in China
Zhang Shengliang, a 10 years old will perform Shostakovich’s sizzling C minor Concerto at London’s Royal Festival Hall tomorrow. The world over notices that there are 15m people play the piano in China now, that Yundi Li won the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2000, at the age of 18, followed in fourth place by compatriot Sa Chen. 2003 in Beijing, I attended the closing performance of the CNSO at the Century Theatre (their temp home while renovation). Sadly to report, the 1,700-seat hall was half filled with an uninterested audience scattered around. Happy to note that the male vocalists were clean from makeup - oh ya, they wore makeup big time back then. The following is what Isaac Stern observed in 1979 when he toured China: “At each of the music conservatories I visited in Beijing, I heard players with an extraordinary level of talent. They could all play the notes with astonishing dexterity, but they didn’t understand the music. They wanted to play the fast, flashy, loud, difficult compositions, display their technical virtuosity. They hadn’t had sufficient time or instruction in basic musical values that were part of the old European tradition, and they also thought that technique alone would get them the best jobs.“ - the documentary From Mao to Mozart had won him an Oscar in 1981. Nowadays, the same problem seems persists: “The students’ grasp of musical theory is weak: many can’t tell the difference between a fugue and a sonata. And individuality is often elusive. .. But there’s nothing Daoist about the obsession with shallow displays of virtuosity or the rush to exceed Horowitz’s or Argerich’s tempi. Many Chinese approach the music as a technical obstacle course. ..” Here you go.