Western Culture (2)

9/2/2006 - Tonight we went to a concert of music by Shostakovich played by the Shanghai Symphony at the Shanghai Concert Hall. We realized on the way to catch a cab that we hadn’t figured out how to say concert hall in Chinese, but luckily the address was printed on the tickets. It’s not that far from our apartment, a 11 yuan taxi ride (about $1.40), the first zone fare. We had gotten caught in the rain on our way back to the apartment from dinner, so we weren’t really up for another walk in the dark and wet.

I bought fairly cheap tickets, about $15 each, since I didn’t know what the hall or the orchestra would be like. The concert hall is small, and from the middle of the balcony we had a great view of the orchestra, except for the very back of the first violin section. There were lots of empty seats, so right before the concert started all the people in the back moved down, but we stayed put. I think it would have been too loud if we’d been closer to the stage; the hall is very live, and the music was loud to begin with, lots of brass and crashing of cymbals. The building dates from the 1930's. Apparently it was moved 63 meters in 2003 – they must have built a road through its former spot.

The orchestra is quite good, although I didn't think the violin soloist (the concertmaster, I presume) was up to snuff. They played Shostakovich's Festive Overture, music from The Gadfly (a Soviet film from 1955), and the Symphony no. 9. The Gadfly suite consisted of 12 parts, the first and last of which sounded very Soviet – you could imagine the troops massing and the battleship Potemkin lurching through the water. The program had lots of great wind parts and a gorgeous cello solo. There were a bucket-load of trombones and horns in the Gadfly suite, and the piccolo player was busy for most of the concert. Interestingly, while all the soloists stood up to take a bow at the end of the concert, the piccolo player didn't stand until the conductor returned to the stage during the ovation.

About half the strings were women, but the only woman in the wind section was the piccolo. There was one woman percussionist. Most of the women were wearing a uniform of sorts: a long, long-sleeved, round-necked, shapeless black dress. There were some rebels, particularly among the cellos and bass – different sleeve lengths and necklines and some jewelry. One of the violinists had black lace sleeves. The woman percussionist wore pants and a black shirt. The men wore the usual sort of symphony gear, white tie and black tux. The conductor, Chen Xieyang, is a long-hair - he's bald with a longish wavy fringe. He was appointed resident conductor of the Shanghai Ballet Orchestra in 1965; we theorize that for the first decade or so of his tenure the ballets were only revolutionary. Besides being chairman of the Shanghai Symphonic Music Lovers' Society, he is a member of both the China National Political Consultation Conference and the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the People's Political Conference. That's what I call versatile.

Julia insisted she was bored, but she didn’t complain during the flute and piccolo solos, although she denied that she enjoyed them – in fact, she denied that there were flute and piccolo solos. I'm not sure we're going to take her to any more concerts. She has expressed a desire to see The Lion King, which is playing here, but we'll only go if I'm allowed to whine "I'm bored!" every 10 minutes.