PART I
The Brew: events leading up to the Philadelphia Orchestra’s visit to China
14 Members of the Philadelphia Orchestra have recently concluded touring multiple cities in China, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the orchestra’s historical first visit to China in 1973.
Back then, China was shrouded by the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), a political movement launched by Mao Zedong to purge his opponents inside the party. Internationally, the rift between China and the Soviet Union deepened to the point of military conflict (Zhenbaodao Incident). The Vietnam War (1965-1975), with North Vietnam backed by China and the USSR and South Vietnam backed by the US, was dragging on and Richard Nixon was trying to find a way out. Squished in between two superpowers, Mao was considering an alternative.
But for us, common Chinese people, we knew very little about what was really happening around the world except that both the American imperialists and the Soviet Revisionists wanted to crush us. And we China should rely on no one but ourselves. In such isolation, not just Western musical works (including Russian music and ballet) were banned from public performance, traditional Chinese works were also considered corrupt. If musicians of Chinese music and opera suffered “merely” the loss of their traditional repertoire, musicians of Western music, like my parents and uncle faced the questioning of the legitimate existence of their instruments. As a way of survival, musicians with Western classical training attempted to compose or rearrange Chinese pieces with Western orchestration. One of them, Yin Chengzong, a Soviet-trained pianist and 2nd Prize Winner of the 1962 Tchaikovsky Competition, trucked a piano to the Tian’anmen Square and started improvising on any revolutionary tunes at bystanders’ requests. He played like this for three days and received roaring applause from the masses. This soon caught the attention of Jiang Qing – Mao’s wife, who had seized power during the early chaos of the Cultural Revolution and become the de facto leader of the country’s cultural line.
To develop her own brand of cultural productions in replacement of “the old and the foreign”, Jiang Qing presided over the creation of eight “Model Dramas” and made them the only party-approved programs for public performances. Yin Chengzong was made the chairman of a musical committee to adapt the “Yellow River Cantata” (an anti-aggression choral work composed during WWII by Xian Xinghai, a Paris Conservatory trained composer), to the “Yellow River” Piano Concerto. The Central Philharmonic Society was named one of the “Model Troupes” to perform this, and the Symphonic Revolutionary Peking Opera “Shajiabang” as its only official programs.
Around the same period as Richard Nixon’s ice-breaking visit to China in February 1972, China’s relations with the West warmed up quickly. Other countries, including Canada, France, Japan, West Germany, and the UK, established diplomatic relations with China. Premier Zhou Enlai, who presided over the diplomatic thaw, also advocated more active cultural exchange as a gesture of rapprochement towards the West. During the visit of Walter Scheer, then Foreign Minister of West Germany to negotiate establishing diplomatic relations, Premier Zhou even had his office call Li Delun, Principal Conductor of the Central Philharmonic Society to inquire if it was possible to perform Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” to honor the German guests. However, Mastro Li had to decline because all the musicians were so out of practice. Another reason Maestro Li had to decline was that, the Central Philharmonic Society was busy shooting the film versions of the “Yellow River” Piano Concerto and the Symphonic Peking Opera “Shajiabang”, part of a larger project by Madam Mao to put all the revolutionary productions into films and have them looped in cinemas all across the country.
However, Madam Mao started to see in the visits of Western cultural figures and organizations opportunities to build her personal brand on an international scale. In later 1972, after Richard Nixon’s visit, Madam Mao received American writer Roxanne Witke and gave a series of interviews, in which she shared her personal history, her career as an actress, and her views on China’s women, culture, and politics, all for Ms. Witke to write into her full English biography – Comrade Chiang Ch'ing (old Wade Giles spelling).
Once in 1972, Li Delun was summoned to brief Madam Mao about Western classical music. He expected harsh criticism, even condemnation of such “corrupt, bourgeois sentimentality”. Instead, Madam Mao listened attentively and hinted that it would be all right to perform some of the pieces, such as Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony. Though the musicians weren’t ready to pull up full public concerts yet, Maestro Li took this opportunity to request an OK to allow the musicians to at least practice the Western works.
At the Central Philharmonic, my father Sheng Mingliang was a violinist, and my uncle Sheng Mingyao, was the Principal Cello. They were among the founding members of the orchestra who had had classical music training with exiled Jewish musicians in the late 1940s. In 1951-1952, when the People's Republic of China had been newly founded, they were recruited into the China Youth Artists Group to tour Eastern Europe as cultural ambassadors of the New China. Now about 20 years later, with China trying again to find diplomatic breakthrough in the world, they became the host to welcome cultural ambassadors from Western countries.
The Philadelphia Orchestra was in fact not the first and only Western classical music group that visited China after Nixon’s visit. Earlier in March 1973, the London Philharmonic Orchestra led by Sir John Pritchard visited China, after their 10-concert residence at the Hong Kong Arts Festival. They performed two concerts each in Beijing and Shanghai, and another concert in Guangzhou. These five concerts were the first time that Western classical music was publicly performed in China since the start of the Cultural Revolution. The programs included British works such as Edward Elgar’s “In London City” and Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on Thomas Tasley Theme”, as well as standard European repertoire such as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8, and Brahm’s Violin Concerto performed by Polish-British violinist Ida Händel. They also played an encore, an excerpt from the ballet “Red Detachment of Women”, the first time a “Model Drama” was performed by an internationally acclaimed Western orchestra. According to the conductor, Sir John Pritchard, the London Philharmonic musicians performed the piece by sight reading on-stage!
The Central Philharmonic Society, as the only “Model Troupe” with Western instrumentation, became the natural choice to host the visiting Western orchestras. In an internal exchange program, the Central Philharmonic performed several Chinese pieces, including the “Yellow River” Piano Concerto, played by the B pianist Mr. Shi Shucheng, which won warm applause from the British guests. Eric Mason, PR Manager of the London Philharmonic commented in an article, that the “Yellow River” Concerto’s overall musical idiom is Western, but sounds pretty much like a film score. When addressing the British guests, Maestro Li Delun talked about China’s perspective on Western music, “About seven or eight years ago, we played a lot of European music. But that line was wrong … Now we believe, it wouldn’t be so meaningful if the Central Philharmonic played European music just like European musicians. This morning you performed Vaughan William’s work. Every nation should have its own music. We should build an orchestra that can represent our own national styles. Of course, we wouldn’t deny Western music completely. In certain circumstances, we will still perform it.”
Just one month after, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra visited Beijing, led by young Italian conductor Claudio Abbado. The four concerts included Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony, Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony, Schubert's “Unfinished” Symphony, and Brahm’s Symphony No. 2. as well as some Johann Strauss. However, the catchiest program was their collaboration with Yin Chengzong of the “Yellow River” Piano Concerto. Years later, Mr. Yin recalls, “Abbado only got the score in the morning and could conduct the entire piece from memory at the concert that evening, covering all the technical details. Remarkable!” With the orchestra almost sight-reading on stage, the concerto sounded even more brilliant. The colors of the strings, the precision of the brass and woodwinds, such “Sound of Vienna” impressed the Central Philharmonic musicians beyond words!
Hosting the Philadelphia Orchestra in September was no simple repeat of the London and Vienna Philharmonics affairs. Normalizing Sino-U.S. relations was at the very core of China’s strategy of warming up with the West to counter USSR pressure. Almost all of China’s political, diplomatic, and cultural apparatuses were mobilized to prepare for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s visit. Even though the actual concert dates were set in September, in early 1973, Premier Zhou Enlai already had the Chinese Liaison Office in the US send the score of the “Yellow River” Piano Concerto to Maestro Eugene Ormandy, who arranged American pianist Daniel Epstein to perform it at the Saratoga Springs Festivals with the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by his assistant conductor William Smith. This concert, with an audience of over seven thousand people, was in fact the premiere of the “Yellow River” Concerto in North America, and the first time a “Model Drama” was performed publicly in a Western country.
In preparing to host the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Central Philharmonic was taking directives from the Foreign Ministry and Premier Zhou Enlai’s office, instead of its usual superior, the Central Cultural Group, headed by Madam Mao, who, in this period, showed an ease of her hardline cultural policy, even an interest in Western classical music. She even asked Maestro Li Delun to get some recordings for her. In February 1973, around the anniversary of Richard Nixon’s visit, Henry Kissinger, the US National Security Advisor, visited China again to open the American liaison office in Beijing. With tacit consent from Madam Mao, the Central Philharmonic Orchestra performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, the “Pastoral”, in an internal concert to honor Kissinger and the American guests. The Orchestra had only performed this piece twice when it was first established in 1956, and was under the training of East German conductor Werner Gößling. After that, it had never performed it again. Maestro Li, in his biography years later, says that he was very “unsatisfied” with the performance. One of the orchestra members even called it “disastrous”. But Maestro Li took this opportunity to request again from Madam Mao to allow the Central Philharmonic musicians to practice on Western repertoire.
No one could explain exactly the reasons why Madam Mao started to change her stance. Other than her characteristic impulsiveness, some guessed that with Mao Zedong himself behind the initiative to warm up with the US, there was no way that Jiang Qing alone could turn the tide. She’d rather join in, at least not to let Premier Zhou call all the shots. She could even use this as a way to expand her international influence. Anyhow, the Philadelphia Orchestra’s China tour saw much more involvement, even direct demands from Madam Mao than the two Western orchestras that had visited earlier.
(To be continued...)
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* Photos sourced from the China National Symphony Orchestra’s Wechat channel
** Based on personal memories from my family members and friends who were part of the events described in this article.
*** The chronicle of events in this article is referenced from “Song of Phoenix – The Central Philharmonic 1956-1996” (in Chinese), by Hong Kong-based scholar ZHOU Guangzhen, published by SDX Joint Publishing Company, 2013
**** Direct quotes from certain persons involved have been retranslated back into English from Mr. Zhou’s book “Song of Phoenix”; quotes from Harold Schonberg are sourced from the New York Times Archive. The intention of using these quotes is to provide full historical context. This author does not own the rights to these original publications, nor does he have any intention, explicit or otherwise, to infringe on the rights of the original authors. This author has used these quotes in good faith of fair use.
***** This author adds web links to resources such as Wikipedia, as deemed necessary to help readers understand the backgrounds of specific historical events. The author does not endorse nor guarantee the accuracy of such sources of information.