The Paper's reporter Liao Yang intern Zhou Jingyi
"It's worth it!" Facing the "immortal combination" of Shi Yijie and Chen Sa, the audience Xiao Ni dragged his suitcase and flew from Beijing to Shanghai, listening to 20 Chinese art songs, still unfinished.
The immortal group, Qin Ge and Ming, this scene took place on the evening of January 14 at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center.
In the evening, tenor singer Shi Yijie joined hands with pianist Chen Sa to light up the night of Chinese art songs, using 20 picturesque art songs to spread out a series of Chinese ink paintings, allowing people to soak in the gentle moonlight like water.
The scene of the performance
The concert is deeply bundled with the "Chinese Art Songs" jointly released by the two in November last year, and in addition to the enduring classics, it also excavates a number of unknown and sung works, such as Lin Shengxi's "Autumn Night" and "Wangyun", Huang Yongxi's "Where are the Si people", Liu Xue'an's "Pursuit", Chen Tianhe's "Where Spring Returns", etc.
Chinese art songs are based on Chinese poetry, or ancient poetry, or contemporary poetry, "a poem is like an ink painting, we have to use music to express the artistic conception and color of this ink painting, in fact, it is very difficult." Shi Yijie described that the key to singing a good Chinese art song is "control", "just like walking a tightrope, I don't know when, you step on the air, it is ruined, and the mood of the whole song is destroyed." ”
After the night of Chinese art songs, on the evening of January 16, Xiao Ni also planned to cross the Huangpu River and move to the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall to listen to Shen Yang's singing of Schubert's "Winter Journey".
A tenor, a low baritone, a set of Chinese art songs, a set of Western vocal suites, each beautiful, beautiful and beautiful. Such high-quality concerts are frequently staged in Shanghai, and they also attract more and more enthusiastic audiences like Xiao Ni to spontaneously fly and take the high-speed train to Shanghai.
Before the performance, the surging news reporter chatted with two musicians, Shi Yijie and Chen Sa.
【Dialogue】
The Paper: Western opera is your housekeeping skill, and now that you have the opportunity to record and perform, why would you want to record an album of Chinese art songs and hold a special concert of Chinese art songs?
Shi Yijie: I had this idea ten years ago. Mr. Huang Zi, the giant of Chinese art songs, is a native of Chuansha County, Shanghai, and I was also born in Zhangjiang Town, Chuansha County, because of this complex, I have always wanted to record a version of Mr. Huang Zi's art song album. I looked for a lot of information, Mr. Huang Zi's songs are suitable for tenor singing, and together they may not make up a complete CD.
Although I wanted to record ten years ago, I have been pushed forward by life or work, and I have no time to stop and think about what I want to do, or what I should do, but I just blindly do the work in front of me, like a high-speed train, and have been moving forward inertia.
Until the epidemic of 2020 came, from late January to July, the performance was suspended and the singing actors lost the stage. It took me half a year to calm down, and I began to think about what I could do on the stage, checked the information at home, and wrote three sets of tracks that I wanted to record.
The first set is Tosty's art songs, originally intended to give a demonstration to children studying music, like a fan singing disc, because the students will definitely use it. The second set is to record the Italian "Three Masters of Bel Canto" - Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti art song collection, plus Verdi, Verdi also has a lot of good art songs. There is also a set of Chinese art songs.
When I checked the data, I found that there are many versions of the songs of these composers abroad, and the best singers in each country are singing these most classic songs. There are already a lot of recordings, and if I record them again, the significance is not particularly great.
So I chose a set, and I had to record Chinese art songs immediately, because there were really not many recordings, especially the tenor's CD version was very small, and I was determined by my choice. From August 31, 2020 to September 3, 2020, I recorded at the Xi'an Concert Hall and opened the first special concert of Chinese art songs on September 6.
When I choose songs, I think about teaching. After teaching for more than ten years, I have a feeling that when students choose songs, they feel as if there are no songs to sing and no songs to choose. Children may not have a particularly high habit of active exploration, they like to listen to their favorite singers, and what the singer sings, they learn. I sing some of the lesser Chinese art songs I hear, for that reason.
The disc I am recording now is called "Chinese Art Songs", and I may record "Chinese Art Songs (II)" and "Chinese Art Songs (III)" next.
The Paper: Compared with singing Western arias and Western art songs, what are the main points or difficulties in singing Chinese art songs?
Shi Yijie: Two words: control. Western opera has a whole story, opera aria is in the development of the plot of the story, the feelings reach a certain level and begin to vent, such as happy, joyful, sad, remorse, jealousy, there is such a line in the song, so it is relatively easy to express.
Chinese art songs, first of all, the lyrics come from ancient Chinese poems, or the most famous contemporary poems, which themselves express a complete story, not just a certain mood. A poem, like an ink painting, we have to use music to express the mood and color of this ink painting, which is actually very difficult.
So I said control, when singing does not need a high voice, sometimes the whole song is not high at all, or there is only one place, most of the places are gentle, tender. So singing Chinese art songs is like walking a tightrope, I don't know when, you step on the air, it is ruined, the whole song's artistic conception is destroyed.
The Paper: After the opening of the country, will you bring this set of concerts and Chinese art songs abroad to be performed and promoted?
Shi Yijie: After the epidemic has passed, I am particularly looking forward to bringing Chinese art songs, such as this concert, to other parts of Europe and Asia, and also to the United States, so that they can listen to China's Schubert, China's Schumann, and China's Brahms, so that they can feel the feeling of Chinese music ink painting.
The Paper: What does a good pianist mean to the interpretation of art songs?
Yijie Shi: Why did I insist on finding a pianist to complete the recording and perform the concert together? I studied abroad in Theodore for many years, and their art song performance habit is that the pianist and the vocal artist are ensemble relationships, not accompaniment relationships, chamber music collaborations. So I wonder if our art songs can also be expressed in such a form?
Vocal artists have their own expressions of lyrics and melodies, and pianists have their own ideas about the texture of music. Sometimes, the accompaniment simply follows the singer, lifts him up, or leads him on his way. When both musicians have a musical personality and have their own musical ideas, they can collide with a different spark.
The Paper: How did you think of finding pianist Chen Sa to cooperate at that time?
Shi Yijie: I have known Teacher Chen for ten years, but only in some platter concerts, such as the New Year's concert, I saw and said hello, there was no particularly deep exchange, no cooperation.
When I first started looking for Teacher Chen, I was particularly nervous. My first choice was Teacher Chen. Although there is WeChat for each other, I dare not say it directly. Finally, through a mutual friend matchmaking, the result is particularly good Teacher Chen, a hit, we do it together! It is a special honor to work with Mr. Chen.
The Paper: In the process of cooperation, have you ever had an argument, and who did you listen to in the end?
Shi Yijie: There is no dispute between us, which is particularly good. Although we are all more musically vocal, we listen to each other. We actually don't communicate much about how to deal with music. We listened to each other. Sometimes, Teacher Chen heard my changes and needs, and her hand directly followed me. Sometimes, I feel that Teacher Chen wants to make a musical performance, and I follow her music. We don't communicate much, but our ears listen to each other, and we finish the music together, like telepathy, very smooth.
Chen Sa: It was the first time I had ever touched a Chinese art song, from unfamiliar to attracted by its charm and beauty, ushering in one perfect degree of integration of joint cooperation after another, and the whole process was very surprising.
Teacher Shi and I are also very fortunate to know each other in the way we listen to and feel each other, far more than the discussion of language. I think this is based on the fact that we have a deep trust in each other, and tacit approval of aesthetic taste and style, so it is natural to cooperate. From the breath of the music sentences, I first need to be familiar with and respect Teacher Shi's singing habits and personal expression, at the same time, I also try to start from the lyrics and music of each song to establish a more macroscopic soil and artistic conception, so that Teacher Shi can more freely devote himself to singing. In different songs, we also have different levels and different proportions of integration and dialogue.
The Paper: After working together for so long, has your impression of each other changed?
Shi Yijie: The impression has not changed, and the friendship has been deepened. What kind of person is Teacher Chen Sa in my eyes now? It's a goddess! Ha ha.
Chen Sa: No! My gut feeling, usually from the beginning is eight or nine out of ten, haha. Of course, the tacit understanding of our cooperation and the degree of freedom on the spot are more comfortable.
Editor-in-charge: Cheng Yu
Proofreader: Zhang Liangliang