Presented by Adelaide Festival Centre and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
Reviewed Friday 21st September 2012
This superb concert was performed by two of the featured musicians in the forthcoming Adelaide Symphony Orchestra concert of the music of Tan Dun: Xiaoxia Zhao, playing the Guqin, and cellist, Li-Wei. Upon entering the Space Theatre the audience discovered the Guqin already set downstage centre, giving us a chance to admire the instrument, with its beautiful timbers, and long red tassels hanging from the tuning pegs. The Guqin has been around for over 3,000 years, and legend even suggests that it dates back 5,000 years, although this is unconfirmed. It is an instrument of great cultural and historical significance. It originally had five strings, although some have been found with up to ten, but it has standardised at seven strings. These were originally made of silk, until the Cultural Revolution when nylon wound strings on a steel core were introduced. The current trend in China, and amongst some players in other countries, is to revert to the use of silk strings.
The Guqin is played by plucking with the fingers of the right hand, and the notes are selected with the left hand. Like the cello, it has no frets, thus allowing the player to slide the left hand quickly to and fro to give a broad vibrato, or slide between any two notes. It can, of course, also be played by fingering notes with no vibrato, but its most important feature is that there are over 90 overtones possible, the positions for these being marked by thirteen dots along the instrument.
Professor Xiaoxia Zhao is a member of the faculty of the Central Conservatory of Music, where she formerly studied with the Guqin master, Professor Li Xiangting. She has travelled overseas giving concerts, has won many awards, and also played at the Beijing Olympic Games. The last time I was fortunate enough to hear a live performance on Guqin was many years ago when I chose to study Chinese Music as an elective subject as a part of my music studies at the Elder Conservatorium, so it was an especial treat for me to hear this rarely seen instrument again, particularly being played by somebody who has such enormous mastery of the instrument and understanding of the repertoire.
Xiaoxia Zhao’s entrance caused numerous people to draw breath, amazed by the stunning red dress, with the hem and the long triangular sleeves trailing on the ground, and the front detailed with a bright green trim. There were quite a few ladies in the audience overheard admiring it enviously, following the performance. With its reference to traditional styles it was a perfect choice. Her dress, and the beauty of the instrument, was not the end of the visual attraction. Watching her playing was mesmerising, her fingers skipping and dancing elegantly over the Guqin. This is a trait that can be seen in many traditional Asian music forms, the merging of visual and aural facets within a performance.
Xiaoxia Zhao played three pieces from the Mysterious Scores of Qin: Flowing Water, Three Variations of Plum Blossom, and Guan Ling Verse. The first is a tribute to the qin player Bo Ya, whose playing was said to be of such a high level that few understood it, and his friend Zhong Zi-qi, who was the only person who fully understood every nuance. The second relates the form of the plum blossom, with its five petals, to the ten sections and five codas in the structure of the piece. The last celebrates Nie Zheng, who killed the Emperor in revenge for his father, taking his own life immediately after.
These three works give Xiaoxia Zhao an opportunity to shows us the versatility and technical demands of the Guqin, as well as its ability, in the hands of a great musician, to express deep emotions, or to paint pictures in the mind. Her performance had the audience buzzing with conversation, and many complimentary comments during the interval.
Li-Wei provided a complete contrast with the pieces that he chose to play, bringing us unmistakably into the twentieth century with two works. The first was the Sonata for Solo Cello (1955) by George Crumb, followed by Yi1: Intercourse of Fire and Water, by Tan Dun, who was in the audience for this concert and seemed extremely happy with this performance of his composition.
The first piece was an early student work of American composer, and Pulitzer Prize winner, George Crumb. In the three contrasting movements he explores a vast range of playing techniques, drawing out both familiar and unfamiliar sounds from the instrument. It is, of course, an immensely technically challenging work for the performer, and Li-Wei rose to that challenge magnificently.
Li-Wei’s fluency on the cello is impressive. Crumb’s score not only explores a vast range of techniques, but switches between them quickly, and often. Li-Wei not only handles the complexity of the work, but finds and expresses the musicality in the work, lifting it well above being merely a display of technical excellence.
Tan Dun’s piece is also technically complex, but carries with it a considerably higher emotional content, as one would expect from a mature composer with a vast body of work behind him. It also draws on techniques used in playing the Guqin, made possible by the fact that, like the Guqin, there are no frets on a cello. Combining this, and the tonalities that Tan Dun employs in this piece, gives it a distinctive Chinese feel, but he also employs many western techniques and musical ideas that transform it to something that is distinctly his own.
Li-Wei’s performance of this work is outstanding, bringing out all of the contrasts, changes, progressions, and juxtapositions, while filling the performance with meaning. There is a fine balance in this piece that Li-Wei finds and maintains in an exceptionally informed performance, filled with subtlety and expression.
Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Arts Editor, Glam Adelaide.
Venue: Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre, King William Road, Adelaide
Season: One performance only
Duration: 1hr
