China Tour Blog #6: Smaking Area and Musical Chop Suey!
There was an interesting proposal made by China-ASEAN Festival director, Zhong Juncheng: make a large, combined orchestra of Esprit with the musicians of the Guangxi Symphony to perform the music of visiting delegate composers as well as my piece O Magnum Mysterium: In Memoriam Glenn Gould. Interesting, but as I say about certain musical projects that have been requested of me, it is 'someone's idea of a good idea'. What I mean by that is it might be a good idea, but it is left up to you to make it work. Usually that is much harder than the person making the request knows! If you don't make it work, it is egg on your face, not his!
The Guangxi Orchestra had run through the pieces, but found two of them completely perplexing – mine (34 divisi strings – that's 34 separate string parts) and Jorg Widmann's Con Brio. Their conductor, Teng Long, asked for a meeting with Alex immediately after our welcoming banquet (the evening before our first combined orchestra rehearsal). As Mr. Long doesn't speak any English, I caught the two conductors drawing messages to each other: he drawing symbols which he had had trouble deciphering from my score, and Alex answering him right back with his own explanatory sketches! It was delightful to witness.
The next morning we made our way over to the rehearsal room of the Guangxi Symphony's concert hall and Alex set up the orchestras with our players as stand partners with their musicians in order to coach them during the rehearsals. Let's just say that they needed a lot of coaching and our musicians were incredibly patient and helpful. After all, everybody's reputations were at stake and our players were right in there ready to pitch in. Alex did a phenomenal job as Jorg's piece was exceptionally difficult with many lines of explanations (in German!) on each page for any given musical gesture! It was even demanding for Esprit musicians! There were sudden tempo shifts at every turn and dynamic changes (louds or softs) sometimes on consecutive notes! Really, really challenging. As usual, Alex paid a lot of attention to the composer's details, making it right – just as the composer had written. Esprit was used to his demands of them. To the Guangxi musicians, this was all new.
At the break, we wandered into the foyer of the rehearsal room and found this sign on the wall – Smaking Area! The humour was not lost on our players as everyone seemed to have taken this photo as a memory of those very difficult and challenging rehearsals!
On one of the breaks, violinist Anne Armstrong and I spoke with her stand partner, Vivian Wei. We found out a lot of information at that break. First, the orchestra is young. Second, they are paid a small 'retainer' or stipend when they are not concertizing in order to keep themselves available for orchestral services. On concert days they are paid more money. Third, their concerts are quite different from ours. On each concert they play about ten excerpts from different symphonies or concerti or other orchestral repertoire. A concert might consist of a movement from a Beethoven symphony, a movement from a Hummel piano concerto, a movement from a Tchaikovsky symphony, an overture by a Chinese composer, a movement from a Mozart violin concerto etc. – a kind of musical chop suey. The musicians were all sharing musical experiences with each other on the breaks and some of them became fast friends.
Percussionist Blair Mackay, ended up being taken around the alleys of Nanning on the back of his colleague's scooter. Why? Because Blair had not packed his sandals! The Chinese percussionist took him from one store to another trying to find some that fit! Apparently our Western feet are bigger than Chinese feet, so they had a hilarious time trying to find suitable sandals. In desperation Blair finally chose a pair that was a bit too small, but in the 35C heat and humidity he had to get out of his shoes and socks! The two percussionists ended up at the local percussionist's home. He had said that there was no opportunity to learn new drumming techniques and asked if Blair had some tips for him. So Blair gave him an hour lesson on rock drumming. You see, Blair had been the drummer for April Wine and had spent years on the road with them, so he has a lot of rock licks up his sleeve! The percussionist was over the moon with gratitude. Sandal shopping in exchange for a full on rock drumming lesson! A small price to pay for a lesson from a master!
Each successive day the combined forces inched forward to concert readiness. Alex put them through their paces with Miss Liu his trusty translator at his side. Evan, the young composer (our 'accidental' translator) was conscripted on the first day before Miss Liu received her assignment. It was exhausting work for Alex as it was a huge learning experience for their orchestra and the translation ate up considerable rehearsal time. With the help of Esprit's musicians and the force of Alex's will, the musicians of the Guangxi Symphony became familiar with the music as well as the demands of their Canadian conductor.
A steep learning curve, but this concert was not going to be musical chop suey!
– Alexina Louie