China Tour Blog #7: The Canadians Have Arrived!
Countdown to the concert date! Alex was going like crazy at the rehearsals. The official interpreter, Ms. Liu, was interpreting like mad. It was really humourous to hear Alex give a quick instruction to the orchestra, and then hear Miss Liu take so long to explain what he had just said! So it took more than three as long to give instruction throughout the rehearsal time. What was she saying?!
Sometimes actions do speak louder than words. Our concertmaster, Stephen Sitarski, was cool, calm and collected as he led the two orchestras toward the finish line. If Alex was giving an explanation to the violins and they weren't delivering what he wanted, Stephen would just stand up and demonstrate. That's teamwork! No time to waste. Non-verbal communication at its best.
Our joint concert was the opening gala concert of the China-ASEAN Music Week. There was a great deal of anticipation surrounding it and true to Chinese fashion, the concert started with many official speeches from dignitaries. There were many references to cultural collaborations. Here was Esprit demonstrating that very ideal with this concert of combined orchestras (Canada/Guangxi) playing the music of the composers Dang Huu Phuc (Vietnam), Zhong JunCheng (China), Qin Wenchen (China), Widmann (Germany), Chen Yi (China/USA), Louie (Canada). The anticipation for our concert debut in Nanning was ramping up!
Backstage at the Guangxi concert hall there was a sense of quiet excitement. If you've not been backstage before an orchestra concert to experience the warming up ritual, musician ripple through snatches of the night's music amid the scales and phrases of recognizable classical music to get their fingers, embouchures, and instruments ready for the downbeat. It is impossible to go onstage 'cold'.
I caught the Guangxi Orchestra trumpet player, instrument in hand, standing beside Esprit's trumpet player, Mike Fedyshyn. There he stood, almost in awe, intently listening to Mike run through some exercises and musical fragments, trying to pick up tips on merely warming up! It was really charming.
Meanwhile, we had no idea what to expect. Given challenging circumstances, Alex had worked very hard to instruct the players in the details, intricacies, and demands of new orchestral music, but what would actually happen when they got out there to perform? Alex had drilled them heroically, but would they remember what they had rehearsed?
After the many speeches – the downbeat. As they say, magic happened! Each piece was performed better than at the dress rehearsal earlier in the day. All the composers were deliriously happy, the officials were ecstatic, and Alex was exhausted but relieved. Everybody was hugging everybody. After his world premiere, composer and event organizer Zhong JunCheng came onstage for his bow and embraced the conductor with tears in his eyes. Alex said he was actually crying. Mr.Zhong recognized a great performance and was deeply moved at his world premiere.
Brilliant German composer, Jorg Widmann was ecstatic at the performance of Con Brio. He was so excited that after the concert he talked non-stop with Alex! He said it was the first time his tempi were followed. He also said he knows full well how hard the piece is as it has had many performances. Alex got all the details. There were edges to the phrases. It was exciting. He recognized that Alex took risks and did they pay off! He particularly lauded the skills of Mark Duggan who played the ferociously difficult timpani part perfectly. Widmann knows he wrote that part on the edge of the possible and he was completely impressed with Mark's performance. The piece is a wild and crazy homage to Beethoven with Beethovenesque allusions scattered throughout in seemingly hodgepodge fashion. It is a brilliant work and very difficult work to get right, but Alex did it. He pulled it off, not with the known entity of his trained Esprit Orchestra, but with an orchestra of combined forces, one of them inexperienced in the difficulties and nuances of new music. He marshalled the musicians through this most difficult piece through the sheer force of his will.
Mark Duggan who played the ferociously difficult timpani part perfectly
Alex worked the orchestra so hard on Con Brio that he decided to program it on Esprit's upcoming 2015-2016 Season. He wanted to give our audience the thrill of hearing this breakneck speed piece on our thirty-third season played by Esprit. Lucky Torontonians who will get the opportunity to hear it in our luscious Koerner Hall! Watch for it in the Fall.
At the end of the concert, the capacity audience broke out in wild applause. The Canadians had arrived!
– Alexina Louie