Beijing News (reporter Liu Zhen) On October 24, the 24th Beijing International Music Festival held a closing concert at poly theater. The famous composer and conductor Tan Dun conducted the China Philharmonic Orchestra, together with Erhu player Lu Yiwen, pipa player Han Yan, and guzheng player Su Chang, to play the final movement for the 24th Beijing International Music Rhythm that lasted 16 days in the form of dialogue between Stravinsky and Tan Dun's own works.
Conductor Tan Dun
2021 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the modernist music giant Stravinsky. At this year's Beijing International Music Festival, Stravinsky's weight is not heavy. On the evening of October 12, Stravinsky's opera "The Journey of the Prodigal Son" debuted on the stage of the Beijing International Music Festival and successfully completed its Chinese premiere; on the 18th, the young conductor Jin Yukuang joined hands with the neo-classical chamber orchestra composed of young players after 00 to perform Stravinsky's work "Four Preludes and Fugues in the Average Law" at the Sanlitun Red Pavilion.
At the closing concert, Tan Dun chose to present Stravinsky's early work "Fireworks" and his masterpiece "Firebird", which constitute the "parabola" of Stravinsky's personal creation, and also accurately reproduce the history of modernist music in its infancy. From "Fireworks" to "Firebird", the birth of new harmonies and the formation of new melodic styles are very distinct in the alternation of the two works. Tan Dun, who is both a composer and conductor, has considerable respect for Stravinsky and his works. Stravinsky's music inspired Tan Dun to think differently about the band, "I hope that my work can make the band different and make the band like a Chinese band." When directing Stravinsky's works, I realized that composers actually implicitly contained aesthetic standards that needed to be achieved by conductors in their works, and Stravinsky demanded that conductors have a very clear concept in aesthetics and in the positioning of modernism. ”
Live guzheng performance
In dialogue with Stravinsky, Tan Dun chose the Erhu Symphony Concerto "Fire Sacrifice" and the "Pipa and Guzheng Dual Concerto". Among them, "Fire Sacrifice" is a work commissioned by Tan Dun at the Beijing International Music Festival, who combines traditional Chinese sacrificial music with court music, integrates elements of Xiangxi puppet opera, constructs a stage sacrifice of contemporary music with five emotions, imagines the dialogue between man and nature, expresses reflection on war, and prays for peace for mankind. The choice of this work highlights Tan Dun's thinking about the present, "The Fire Sacrifice is to commemorate and commemorate the victims of the war, and the epidemic we have experienced is also a war, so as to give it to the heroes who died in this war and to remember the relatives who left us." ”
It is worth mentioning that in order to show the characteristics of ancient Chinese music at the concert site, Tan Dun deliberately let the woodwind part of the symphony orchestra and a trumpet player play on the second floor of the concert hall. Create a staggered distribution from high to low in the space, immersing the audience in true "surround sound".
A player who plays on the second floor
In order to create this work, Tan Dun went north to the Dunhuang Grottoes and south to Quanzhou, Fujian Province, in search of the predecessor of Erhu, Xi Qin, and finally let this ancient work gain a new life in music. Erhu player Lu Yiwen played erhu and Xiqin at the same time on the stage, and the gentle length of the erhu and the vicissitudes of the Xiqin alternated on the stage. The chemical reaction of ancient sounds and modern music thousands of years ago allows the emotional tension of the entire work to be fully released.
Erhu player Lu Yiwen
The "Pipa and Guzheng Double Concerto" is a work with its own "dialogue attribute", in which the traditional Chinese folk music cabbage and Bach's classic melody appear together in a single movement. In the whole work, Tan Dun frequently uses rhythmic melodies and uses rich changes in rhythm to compose musical melodies, which coincides with Stravinsky's creative ideas.
After a century, Tan Dun and Stravinsky, the tacit understanding between the two composers after a hundred years, vividly displayed in melody, rhythm and harmony, with the success of this concert, the 24th Beijing International Music Festival came to a successful conclusion.
Beijing News reporter Liu Zhen
Edited by Wu Longzhen Proofreader Wang Xin