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From hutong to who's who
(China Daily)
Updated: 2004-02-26 11:36
After a 17-hour flight from New York, 68-year-old Seiji Ozawa looked very
tired when he arrived at Beijing International Airport at 6:45 pm last Sunday.
The swarming fans and press were prevented from troubling him.
Seiji Ozawa at a
rehearsal in Beijing with Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. [China
Daily] | The media were told that he was
cancelling his scheduled interviews with China Central Television and Beijing
Television and a reception hosted by the Austrian ambassador.
The dropped interviews suggest that the renowned conductor's eighth visit to
Beijing was squeezed into an overly packed schedule.
But this does not mean that his stop in Beijing is just for commercial
reasons. Ozawa, who was born in Shenyang, in Northeast China's Liaoning Province
and spent five years of his childhood years in Beijing, in fact, has a special
love for China.
On Monday morning, he paid a visit to his former courtyard home in No 69
Xinkai Hutong, where he lived from the ages of 2 to 6, and in 2002 he buried
part of the ashes of his deceased mother under a tree in the garden.
Born in 1935, Ozawa moved to the hutong home in 1936 with his parents and
spent five years there, until they returned to Japan in 1941.
After visiting his old hutong residence, Ozawa went to the home of renowned
composer Wu Zuqiang for a simple home-cooked lunch of traditional boiled
dumplings jiaozi with some old friends, including pianist Liu Shikun, conductors
Han Zhongjie and Huang Feili, pipa artist Liu Dehai and Wang Cizhao, president
of the China Central Conservatory of Music.
It was a happy and nostalgic meeting for these old friends, whose connections
go back a quarter of a century. They talked about the good old days and the
future of classical music in China.
"He is nostalgic about his childhood in Beijing and hopes Xinkai Hutong will
not be pulled down like some other old hutongs in Beijing," Wu Zuqiang told
China Daily later that day.
While Ozawa is nostalgic about his childhood in China, his Chinese friends
like to reminisce about their work together and his every visit to the country.
In December 1976, Ozawa returned to Beijing for the first time and stayed for
a week. One-and-a half years later in June 1978, he conducted what was then
China Central Symphony Orchestra (today's China National Symphony Orchestra) in
Beijing. In March 1979, he brought the Boston Symphony Orchestra, of which he
was artistic director from 1973 to 2002, to Beijing. It was the first
world-class orchestra from the United States to perform in China, arriving very
shortly after the two countries formally established diplomatic relations. After
that, Ozawa paid four more visits to China, during one of which he conducted the
local symphony orchestra in Shenyang.
Today, Ozawa is one of the most familiar world-renowned conductors among
Beijingers. His every arrival still attracts avid attention, even though he has
been here many times and local classic music enthusiasts have heard so many
famous conductors over the past 25 years.
'Easy-going person'
In the eyes of Chinese musicians who have worked with him, Ozawa is a very
easy-going person.
Pipa artist Liu Dehai says, "I feel natural and comfortable working with
him."
They first performed together in 1978 when Ozawa conducted the then Central
Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the pipa concerto "Heroine Sisters on the
Grasslands," with Liu as the soloist.
"I never expected that a foreigner would conduct a piece of Chinese music
without making a single mistake in the first rehearsal, but he didn't," Liu
said, adding that Ozawa had studied the score very carefully before that
rehearsal.
Liu also recalled that when he played the same concerto with the Boston
Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Ozawa in Boston, he made a mistake, but
Ozawa managed to cover it up.
"He never talks about it, but I will remember the mistake forever," Liu said.
Conductor Han Zhongjie has even more interesting stories about Ozawa. In
1978, when Ozawa came to conduct the Central Symphony Orchestra, Han was the
orchestra's principal conductor. So Han was given the job of looking after
Ozawa. Unexpectedly, the humble conductor politely declined a room in a hotel,
asking instead if he could share Han's apartment.
At that time, living conditions in China were very poor, even for the
conductor of a national orchestra. So Han had no idea how to look after such a
famous conductor. Ozawa said simply that he would live how Han lived and eat
what Han and the family ate. That evening, Han and his wife made jiaozi, the
most traditional local dish, for Ozawa.
Han also thinks highly of Ozawa's contribution to the development of China's
classical music.
"Ozawa initiated the opening up to the West of China's orchestral music
circles," Han said.
Before Ozawa's first visit to Beijing in 1976, none of China's symphony
orchestras had co-operated with established conductors from world-class
orchestras.
"He brought freshness to us. His conducting is so passionate and impressive
to both the orchestra members and audience that many music students have made
him their idol and imitate his conducting," Han said.
On the other hand, Wu says Ozawa is especially interested in Chinese
orchestral works based on Chinese folk tunes. According to Wu, Ozawa was very
much impressed by the Chinese symphony "Moon Reflected in the Second Spring,"
which was composed by Wu, based on a traditional Chinese folk melody of the same
title played on the erhu, a two-stringed bowed instrument, when he first heard
it played by the Central Symphony Orchestra in 1976. Wu said he even asked to
listen to the original erhu version.
"Although a foreign conductor, Ozawa vividly and accurately interprets
Chinese music," Wu said. "Of all the versions I have heard, his is the most
touching."
Ozawa not only invited Liu Dehai, Han Zhongjie and Liu Shikun to perform with
the Boston Symphony Orchestra, but also arranged for a number of Chinese
students to further their studies in the United States. Han Xiaoming, the
Chinese-German French horn player is one of the lucky ones who have risen in the
musical world with his help.
Han got to know Ozawa in 1978 when he conducted the China Central Symphony
Orchestra in a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No 9. The then 17-year-old
Han so impressed the conductor that he invited the young Chinese student to a
summer music festival in the United States and arranged for his further studies
there, even helping the young musician out financially.
Beyond this, what makes Han feel Ozawa's expectations of him and the
conductor's love for China is that he often asks Han, "When will you return to
your homeland?" Now that Han has finished his studies in the United States and
Germany, he now also enjoys a high reputation in Europe.
But responding to Ozawa's wish, Han now serves as the guest principal French
horn player for both the China Philharmonic Orchestra and the China National
Symphony Orchestra and also works as a professor at the China Central
Conservatory of Music.
Classical music
Ozawa's special love for China shows through in his concern for the
development of classical music here. Wu said that last year Ozawa sent his
assistant to Beijing to talk about plans for conducting the Vienna State Opera
performance in the yet-to-be-finished China National Grand Theatre, as he knows
that the theatre bordering on Tian'anmen Square will soon be completed.
Every time he has come to perform in Beijing, Ozawa has given master classes
at the Central Conservatory of Music. This time is no exception, although he is
terribly busy and tired from travelling and giving performances. Last Monday
afternoon, he conducted the students' orchestra of the conservatory in a
performance of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony.
During lunch with the Chinese musicians at Wu Zuqiang's home, he talked about
the number of young instrumentalists from China, Japan and South Korea who are
rising rapidly in the world, capturing various awards in international
competitions, and wondered if they might become some of the great musicians of
the 21st century.
Ozawa and these old Chinese musicians share the view that most of today's
"prodigies" have marvelous skills, but that this does not mean they express the
music well. In their view, because these young musicians lack life experience
and a comprehensive education in the arts, culture and history, their
understanding and interpretation of the music is sometimes shallow. They agreed
that once they understand the spirt of the music, maybe one will become the next
Ozawa.
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