Front-Row Seats

Front-Row Seats

Hello everyone!

(A big thank-you to VEFM and BD for helping me fix my blog-issues.).

We are leaving Shanghai early tomorrow morning.  I realize that I haven't yet posted about my reactions from the Beijing concert, and I believe that they are important to share.  Our performance in Shanghai is tonight at 7PM at the Conservatory of Music, followed by a "reception dinner."  

Our performance (and really, our entire time) in Beijing was another beautiful reminder about why I do this - why I am an artist, why I have chosen and have been chosen to be a collaborative pianist, why I travel, and why I enjoy playing with Ellen so much.    

I will first reflect on the experiences I had teaching the violists and pianists at the Beijing Conservatory of Music.  I found the students to be open, well-prepared, and eager to learn more.  Ellen and I tag-teamed the students on the day prior to our concert.  I taught in public, for the first time in my life, the E-major solo violin partita (but violists play it in A).  What makes this interesting is that I do not play any stringed instrument nearly at the level that any of these students do, and when I did study the violin, I had no business studying or playing any of the Bach unaccompanied works.

However, I do love them.  I listen to them when I need to be "alone with music."  And I have played Bach's keyboard music since I was a young girl.  I have coached vocalists on it, played rehearsals for cantatas and the major Passions, and have performed a good amount of the Preludes and Fugues, English Suites, Partitas, concerti, and all of the two-and-three part Inventions.  So, I guess that made me qualified to say something.  I think I helped, and Ellen was very positive about my input to that student in particular.  I also had more to say to the piano-viola duos.  

One moment during the class that was incredibly touching was Ellen's demonstration of the opening of the Bruch "Romance."  I teared up, immediately, upon hearing it, and her husband (next to me at the time) did as well.  She played it intimately and beautifully, as if she herself was writing it, and talking to someone.

The concert, last Saturday night (only 4 days ago!), was a wonderful experience as well.  In the front-row were Zheng and his mother, Ayuen (our hosts for the first week and our traveling companions to the Great Wall and to the Forbidden City).  In fact, I could see them very clearly from where I was sitting.  The audience was peppered with people video-taping the concert - with pretty high-powered video equipment, iPhones, iPads, other tablets, etc.  

Though the image that I will never forget is what happened during the first piece of our second half, Messaien's "Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus."  This is the first piece that Ellen and I ever played together (it's the cello movement of the "Quartet for the End of Time.").  Messaien has notated it in such a way as to eliminate the feelings of barlines, or really, time at all.  The piano part isn't technically demanding, but the bow-control issues and keeping the tempo slow enough make it challenging for any musician.  Because of my (relatively) easier part, I was able to take in the audience's reaction to the piece while we were playing it.  

There was a young Chinese man, maybe aged 14, in the front row.  He was sitting there, his eyes closed, and looked totally transported by this music.  Was he moved by the inexorable rhythmic quality?  Ellen's etherial vocalism?  Or the message of the piece itself?  I dare mention that it could have been the first time some of the audience had seen the word "Jesus" in print. 

I have noticed here that the pings and pangs of church-bells are noteably absent in China.  Compared to my "beaten paths" around Europe, the sounds of these cities are markedly different.  Noisier in some ways, and more silent in others.  

I dare say that Ellen and I made our mark on Beijing, but certainly this man in the front row.  My job as a sound-painter was able to insert pealing bells into new hearts and ears.  

The young man in the front row did greet us after the concert.  He pointed to the Messaien in the program with tears in his eyes.   He didn't say a word to us in his language, nor did we respond in ours.  We left the hall that night having decidedly done our jobs.

This picture is one I took during a visit to the "Temple of Heaven" in Beijing a few days ago.