Following the "post-80s" Bian Zushan, on April 16, the stage of the 7th "Chinese Symphony Spring" of the National Centre for the Performing Arts welcomed a "post-90s", 91-year-old famous conductor Zheng Xiaoying. At this concert by the Xiamen Song and Dance Theater Symphony Orchestra, she single-handedly completed the second half, bringing the 5-movement "Tulou Echo".
Zheng Xiaoying conducted the Xiamen Song and Dance Theatre Symphony Orchestra and appeared in the 7th "Chinese Symphony Spring" of the National Centre for the Performing Arts. Niu Xiaobei /Photo
In the face of music, Zheng Xiaoying's passion and concentration always make people forget her age. At the beginning of this year, when performing in Shanghai, "91-year-old hardcore grandmother conducted a symphony in Shanghai" rushed to the top of the Shanghai city hot search list within a few days. Earlier, in the live broadcast of the "one square meter" reading booth program, talking about age, Dong Qing asked: "Does the 91-year-old still need to work?" Zheng Xiaoying spoke quickly: "What do you do if you don't work?" Work is my life. ”
Music is Zheng Xiaoying's life's work. She is the first female conductor of opera-symphony in China, the first Chinese conductor to board the podium of foreign opera houses, and has served as the chief conductor of the Central Opera House, the director of the conducting department of the Central Conservatory of Music, the music director of the "Philharmonic Girl" Chamber Orchestra of China's first volunteer orchestra, the artistic director of the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, and the current artistic director of Zheng Xiaoying Opera Art Center.
This time when I came to the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Zheng Xiaoying's words were a little sad to hear others, "The work of "Tulou Echoes", I am afraid that I will report to the audience in the capital for the last time, and now I am a bit dry. A trace of regret was fleeting, and she continued to talk with great vigour.
Composed by Liu Xiang and premiered in 2000, Tulou Echo won the Gold Medal for Instrumental Works at the first Golden Bell Awards for Chinese Music. Over the years, Zheng Xiaoying has taken it through 12 countries and performed more than 70 times, creating the highest record for the number of large-scale symphony performances in China, which is her "Tulou Global Dream".
Zheng Xiaoying always remembers that when "Tulou Echo" was premiered in 2000, in the gymnasium in Longyan, Fujian Province, thousands of Hakka representatives from all over the world listened quietly to the full song for 40 minutes, some meditating, some crying. "It's rare that a new symphony work has elicited an inner response from the audience." Zheng Xiaoying loves "Tulou Echoes", and Western composition techniques and Chinese musical language find a balance between each other. At that time, "the audibility of music" was a topic of discussion in all walks of life, "I think it is ridiculous, music is originally used to listen, can it still be called music when it is not listenable?" As a conductor, I have the responsibility to promote such a work of common appreciation. ”
Composer Liu Xiang used a classic Hakka mountain song in "Tulou Echo": "You have the heart to come to me, I have feelings, and I am not afraid of high mountains and deep waters." The mountain is high and there are people who open the road, and there are bridge builders in the depth of the water. In Taiwan, nostalgic audiences burst into tears; when they went abroad to Germany, foreign audiences followed suit in out-of-tune dialects. Zheng Xiaoying was both touched and a little proud, "In the past, we used to sing "Ode to Joy" in half-baked German, and now there is a small Chinese song that they can sing with us." ”
In Zheng Xiaoying's eyes, "the vitality of the symphony lies in making the audience get closer and closer, and good works do not need to be evaluated by judges." "However, in China, it is difficult to bring "Tulou Symphony" out of Fujian. Audiences preferred the kind of skit played at the Vienna New Year's Concert, and the tomes were prohibitive. "Promoting the symphony is a systematic project, not just a brilliant moment on stage." Zheng Xiaoying on the stage ran around to win the performance opportunity for "Tulou Echo", "We must add new elements on the basis of the audience's understanding, and gradually let everyone broaden their horizons." Zheng Xiaoying's heart, one end holding the audience, the other holding the composer, "the work must be performed, only then can it have vitality." ”
Zheng Xiaoying also called for more people to pay attention to the uneven development of symphony. The Xiamen Song and Dance Theater Symphony Orchestra, which followed her to the "Chinese Symphony Spring", is a grassroots local theater troupe, and funding is the most worrying real problem. In Zheng Xiaoying's view, the responsibility of local courtyard groups is to contribute to the improvement of citizens' musical literacy, which relies on a lot of daily training. "We want to give enough material support to artists in these places." In addition to first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, even Xiamen, which is known as the "Island of Music", the symphony did not start early. To further develop the symphony, "the vision should go down." ”