The conductor, Yulong. The violoncellist, Wang Jian. They will be the partner for Poland's performance. Photo: Qiqi.
      This year is the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birthday. As part of the global commemoration, a strong Chinese musical wind will be blown up in the composer’s home country, Poland.
   The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra has been invited to attend the annual Minnesota Beethoven Festival, which takes place on March 21 and 23 in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. They will perform works by two Chinese composers, “L’ Eloignement”(“Zou Xikou”) and “Song of the Earth,” created by Chen Qigang and Ye Xiaogang respectively.
    “It is the first time for us to attend a large classical musical event in Europe,” Chen Guangxian, Director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra told the Global Times.
      Minnesota Beethoven Festival was established by Ms. Penderecki, the wife of a Polish contemporary musician, Krzysztof Penderecki in 1997, on the 170th anniversary of Beethoven’s death. The theme for 2010 is “Beethoven, Music & Piano Master”.
     “China is a new rising market for classical music. Excellent Chinese composers have sprung up in recent years,” said Ms. Penderecki.
       Chinese classical music lovers have a strong affinity with the Austrian composer Mahler. His famous “Das Lied von der Erde” (Song of the Earth), is especially well received as it was one of the first large-scale compositions by a western symphonist that is seriously based on Chinese culture. Mahler used seven translated Tang-dynasty (A.D. 618-907) poems as texts for his piece.
       In 2005, 98 years after the initial performance of Mahler’s version, a Chinese musical composition using the same texts was completed by a Chinese composer, Ye Xiaogang.
      Ye adds much more Chinese flavor to his work than Mahler was able to create, through the use of a large section of Chinese percussion instruments. “They are actually different. Although Mahler uses Chinese Tang poetry, it still sounds like western classical music, while the Chinese "Song of the Earth" gives me a feeling of reciting Tang poems,” one of performers said.
      There is a Chinese proverb: when a man leaves home, he will acquire a new life. If he stays home, he will achieve nothing. The change of environment brings separation form his family, friends and his native land. The Northwestern peasant melody of “Zou Xikou” inspires this conflict of moods. Its simplicity also allows the composer to express his own sense of uprootedness when settling in a foreign country.
This work is the first Chen Qigang has composed using notation software. According to the composer, the software has provided him with a new creative tool, which has resulted in a more raw and wild sound than usual. Chen is well-known as the creator of “You & Me”, the theme song for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
      Yu Long, the musical director of Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. He will also be the conductor of this performance, and he will cooperate with the violoncellist, Wang Jian. Having many years’ experience of studying and performing European classical music, Yu said that it makes the whole group excited to perform music with traditional Chinese characteristics in a European country.
The orchestra’s director, Chen Guangxian, spoke of the necessity for Chinese classical musicians to study and perform abroad, “as it is helpful for finding balance between ethnic features and internationalization.”
 

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