Schumann's music meets traditional Chinese Nanguan－2013臺北藝術節

Schumann's music meets traditional Chinese Nanguan
2010/08/22 17:06:15 Focus Taiwan News Channel

When a pianist playing Schumann's classical music shares a stage with a musician playing traditional Chinese Nanguan songs, what kind of new excitement will be generated?

This is an idea that Taiwanese stage director Wei Ying-chuan felt interested in, so she accepted the challenge of directing an upcoming concert featuring the two very different musical approaches.

"The concept originated with conductor Chien Wen-Pin, who is now working in Germany but will return to Taiwan to be the music director and play the piano at the concert, which will be an event rarely seen in recent years," Wei told CNA.

The concert, titled "Timeless Love -- Concert of Dichterliebe & Nanguan," will feature Chien on piano, as well as German tenor Tilman Lichdi and traditional Nanguan artist Wang Xin-xin, performing together for the first time.

Nanguan is a type of Chinese classical music that originated hundreds of years ago in the southern Chinese province of Fujian. It has a totally different performance style compared to the Western classical style and finding ways to combine the two harmoniously has become an interesting experiment for Chien.

When he began to organize a concert to commemorate German composer Robert Schumann's 200th birthday, he recalled the first time he heard Nanguan music, played by Wang. "When she started to play, it was like being transported to another time and place, " he said.

Chien, the resident conductor of Deutsche Oper am Rhien, therefore invited Wang and Lichdi to share the stage to present an unprecedented crossover of musical genres featuring Nanguan performances plus Schumann's famous "Dichterliebe" (The Poet's Love), which are based on 16 works of the 19th century romantic poet Heinrich Heine.

Compared to staging a traditional performance, this is obviously a new challenge for Wang.

"I was not familiar with Schumann's music at the beginning, but I discovered a similarity of tone with some of the Nanguan songs, " she said, adding that she composited different pieces from several Nanguan works that harmonized well with the Western pieces.

In this new experiment, Chien arranged the traditional performance in a different way. "Schumann's songs will be the main focus, and Nanguan will be another story sung and told by Wang, " Chien noted, adding that sometimes two singers will convey a sense of love by singing together, while on other occasions the piano music will cut in as the third member of a love triangle.

To the music director, "it's not only a crossover of genres, but actually a brand new creation," Chien said.

Chien has previously cooperated with the Taipei Chinese Orchestra and the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, and has also led the National Symphony Orchestra in performances that have shared the stage with many theatrical groups. Those experiences have enabled him to create more interesting multi-faceted concerts.

This time he has invited Wei to be his partner to provide more variety in the new work.

"I expect to create a concert where audiences not only can listen to beautiful music, but also can see it, " Wei said, adding that she has designed a stage with a piano and modern Italian furniture on one side, while on the other side is Wang, wearing old-style clothes and playing a traditional musical instrument, in order to provide a contrasting image.

"As the director of the show, I will create an atmosphere reminiscent of a piano bar in old Shanghai," Wei said.

"I will utilize an abstract method to express the concept of a love triangle throughout the concert, " she went on, adding that the show mainly consists of the concert itself, without too many dramatic elements.

After one rehearsal together, Wei described the musical portion as quite outstanding. "My part is to let audiences `see' a truly beautiful love story through the staging," she said.

The concert will be held at the Guangfu Auditorium of Taipei's Zhongshan Hall Sept. 3-5 as part of the Taipei Arts Festival.