音乐 Eastern Innovation in Classical Music

Yesterday we went to Guangzhou's Xinghai Concert Hall for the first time. I just thought that it could be nice to have a look inside the concert hall and see what the orchestra sounds like.

I have been to many classical music concerts in my life, even if I'm very far from being an expert. Listened to works from Bach to Scelsi, ancient to modern. After a while you think you have made the round, even contemporary music seems familiar. And yet, there is always something new to explore... They perfomed a work by composer Guo Wenjing (郭文景) called Chou Kong Shan (愁空山), which at least for me was incredibly new, with sound effects that I hadn't experienced before. The orchestra had the classical composition with all western instruments, including quite some percussion and the harp. The female solo player Tang Junqiao (唐俊乔) appeared on scene with 4 different chinese flutes called "zhu di". I don't really know what made the special effect, but the music really reflected chinese paintings of water motion and mountains in the mist, but none of the "harmonious" chinese music, that one is used to from meditation CDs. Waves and turbulences, special effects like all string players humming to the flute solo and the contrast of the pentatonic flutes with the Western instrunents. Western instruments meeting chinese ideas and expressions. A real reflection in meeting different cultures and the best innovation using Chinese means of expression that I have seen since we have been here! If you like music, it's maybe worth a search on the internet (I haven't done it so far). I looked up the three words of the title in the dictionnary: worry - empty space - mountain. Up to the unaware Swiss listener to imagine a meaning behind all this.

Also the second part of the concert was really interesting. They played Mahler's Symphony number 4 in chamber music version. Before starting to play, the director gave a short explanation about this transcription to the chamber music version (apparently not by Mahler). However, the way he explained it, how the great orchestration was reduced to it's fundamental structure and how it was difficult to maintain the original ideas and emotions of the composer, very much reminded me of a gallerist that I met last week, explaining the essence of Chinese calligraphy artworks to me. Structure and Meaning. Another way to innovate and replay Mahler?

Price of 30 min taxi from our house to the concert hall: 50 RMB