Zheng and I made our recital debut as a married couple yesterday. We had been invited to perform Chinese music, in combination of both violin and viola with piano (unaccompanied would have been fine, but we found music with piano parts. Well, most of them).
I assigned Zheng the task of finding the music and researching its origin (region, composer, a possible program). He did this with might aplomb. I noticed that the audience was very receptive and attentive.
The third selection had only the solo part at the ready. My task - invent a part that was complimentary (and that didn’t sound like either hokey-Asian-pentatonic or something from the third grade). I was up to the task. I even inserted an homage to “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” before the fast section.
This music is meaningful and specific to time-and-place. Zheng's explanations were very inviting to the audience. The music was *not* difficult, in terms of technical demands (pianistically) or difficult to understand for a first-time listener who was more of an avocational purveyor of concerts.
What this taught me was ... we don't need to hit the audience over the head at *every* performance with cerebral, esoteric music. Light, tonal melodies and folk music very much has its place - even in 2015.
We will share more videos soon - enjoy this first one! You can find it by clicking on this link.
PHOTO: A photo from our rehearsal dinner!
VIDEO: The second selection on our program - the "Mongolian Shepherd Song."
