The orchestral scene in China explodes

photo: David Høgsholt

In China, at least one symphony orchestra is founded a year. Should we fear the Chinese to take over orchestral business? 

Echoes of the exploding orchestral scene in China resound on Middle Fuxing Road in Shanghai. Even on a January Sunday, workers are polishing marble and carpentering delicate types of wood. Shanghai Symphony Hall has to be delivered in two months. The underground structures of a symphonic hall and a chamber music hall are "full-floating"; the acoustics, too, stem from a master brain.

As of September 2014, the musical handiwork here will be provided by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. This is China's oldest philharmonic society, dating back to 1879; some claim it is also China's best. But competition is on hand, since classical music in China is growing at high speed. Every year, at least one new symphony orchestra is founded. Concert halls and opera houses shoot up like mushrooms. Education, journalism, attendance figures: classical music in China is blooming.

At least, that is the image outlined by Rudolph Tang. This Shanghainese journalist, in his thirties, has been reporting on the booming classical music business in such journals as Musical America and Gramophone China. In Shanghai, he provides copy to three newspapers. Mr Tang has counted the number of professional orchestras in China. If he applies strict criteria – an orchestra fills a season of at least thirty weeks and has a chief conductor – he arrives at a total of 57. "And for historical reasons, I do not count Hong Kong."

Three of these orchestras are being conducted by Long Yu. Nicknamed the "Karajan of China", Mr Long (49) flashes back and forth between the top companies of his country: the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and the China Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing. Long Yu is also the celebrated director of major music festivals in Beijing and Shanghai. Thanks to him, such operas as L' Orfeo by Monteverdi and Wagner's Parsifal premièred in China.

During a rehearsal at the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Mr Long constantly balances on one leg, as if he were already on his way to the next job. During a break, a cigarette and a mobile phone are his comrades. "I am a doer", he confirms. As a chief conductor in China, Mr Long every once in a while has to do things that Western colleagues like Haitink or Rattle would politely decline. Take as an example the New Year's Concert of the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank. Deadpan, Mr Long leads his orchestra along the slippery rocks of the company song, The Sunshine of Finance. As manfully, he conducts the communist Ode to the Red Flag. When the program finally reaches Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, the soloist, Ray Chen, faces flashing phones and chatting people.

Symphonic culture in China comes a long way. When Italian maestro Mario Paci transformed the Shanghai Municipal Band into a Western-style orchestra, he had the scoop in 1919. In the melting pot at the Huang Pu River, he could recruit expatriate Western Europeans and Byelorussians who fled the Revolution. Later, the Jewish musicians arrived.

Initially, the Chinese took little interest in Beethoven and Brahms. But the Romantic orchestral style proved to be an ideal accompaniment to communist song. The idea of ​​collective action also strongly appealed. A backlash followed during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), when the Communist Party considered Western classical music to be decadent and anti-proletarian.

When, in the 1980s, China  opened up again to the world, Long Yu had a chance to study at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. "I wore long hair and enjoyed my freedom. But I returned to my country in the 1990s, to help shape the future of classical music." For that he receives high praise from music journalist Rudolph Tang. "Mr Long is a hugely successful musical entrepreneur", he says. "But he can only do so since he has high connections in our political capital, Beijing. "In Shanghai," Mr Long retorts, "I actually fall under the city government. And that does not affect my artistic choices at all. Indeed, we have just passed a reform that allows the management of my orchestra to work even more independently."

Guillaume Molko can confirm. This French musician studied the violin in New York and arrived at Shanghai through Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. Since last September, he has been serving as concertmaster of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. His task is to provide the string section with a warmer, more "European" sound. Mr Molko is aware of Western prejudice against Chinese orchestras. These would be obsessed by the core Romantic repertoire and not lose too much effort in niceties of tradition and style.

Mr Molko's experience: only the best Chinese orchestras master the full repertoire. A lighthearted Mozart in Shenzhen is a problem. The deeper you delve in the province, the scarcer good wind players become. "And the Chinese prefer to get round modern music." Moreover, conservatories deliver virtuosos who all want to be Lang Lang or Janine Jansen. This is the reason why Mr Molko's orchestra, with the Shanghai conservatory and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, has recently established an academy that aims to transform these soloists into team players.

"To me, this is an outdated discussion", says reporter Tang. "In China, the quality of orchestral musicians is no longer the problem. Chinese conductors are the stumbling block, since our government tends to keep Westerners away from crucial posts." Just one of the 57 Chinese orchestras has a non-Chinese chief, German-born Christian Ehwald in Shenzhen. And although Michel Plasson is principal conductor of the China National Symphony Orchestra in Beijing, this Frenchman works under Chinese supervision. "A pity", says Mr Tang. "With Plasson conducting you hear an entirely different orchestra. Flying in guest conductors will not close the gap with top-rank Western orchestras."

Yet, Mr Tang does not rule out a Chinese super maestro in the near future. He mentions the name of Lü Jia, who recently replaced the ailing Mariss Jansons with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, on tour in Beijing. He tips off Yu Lu, who successfully attended a public master class by Mr Jansons in Amsterdam. He praises Yang Yang, who since 2009 leads the newly-founded orchestra of the Hangzhou metropolis, near Shanghai. According to Mr Tang, we can forget about the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, since Long Yu increasingly leaves his work there to assistants. But Tianjin is worth the detour. This satellite city of Beijing has opened an opera house in 2012 and showed off the Chinese première of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex.

When Guillaume Molko, the French concertmaster, talks to his European and American friends, he invariably hears gloomy stories. "Western orchestras are cut back, some have even been abolished. In China, though, everyone is optimistic and cheerful." Should we fear Chinese orchestras to take over the business? Mr Molko pulls a face. "That is not their intention. Like us, the Chinese want to enjoy the good things in life. But it is evident that in twenty years from now the global orchestral landscape will have changed."

Four classical pioneers
A century ago, classical music in China was virtually non-existent. The recent explosion is partly due to the persistence of four pioneers.

Xiao Youmei (1884-1940)
Music pedagogue, studied in Tokyo, Leipzig and Berlin. Founder of the first conservatory in China (Shanghai, 1927). Recruited his staff among Europeans who had fled their continent.

He Lüting (1903-1999)
Composer, mainly of songs and film music. Director of the Shanghai conservatory. Did not flinch during the Cultural Revolution when, live on Chinese television, he was harshly questioned about his alleged betrayal of the proletariat.

Li Delun (1917-2001)
Conductor, studied in Moscow. Led the first symphony orchestra under the auspices of Mao's Communist Party in Yan'an. Featured in the documentary film From Mao to Mozart, in which American violinist Isaac Stern explores classical China in 1979.

Tan Shuzhen (1907-2002)
Violinist. The first Chinese musician ever to play in the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Stowed for fourteen months in a closet of the Shanghai conservatory during the Cultural Revolution. Movingly relates of this torture in the documentary film From Mao to Mozart.

This article has originally been published in Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, 14th January 2014