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The Revival of China's Musical Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Tim Brook
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Extract

Between 28 January and 9 February 1978, the Toronto Symphony orchestra visited the People's Republic of China. This was the first time since the 1973 tour of the Philadelphia Orchestra that a western symphony orchestra had performed for concert hall audiences in Peking, Shanghai and Kwangchow, and for television audiences throughout China. The Canadian musicians gave China an impression of orchestral music abroad; they also took their own glimpse of the musical world in China. It was an unprecedented opportunity to see at first hand the state of China's musical culture since the repudiation of the “gang of four,” and in particular, to see the revitalization of China's national orchestra, the Central Philharmonic Society.

Type
Reports from China
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 77 , March 1979 , pp. 113 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1979

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References

1. For an account of the tour, see Brook, T., “Beethoven is back,” New China, Vol. 4, No. 3 (autumn, 1978)Google Scholar. The Toronto Symphony performed two programmes, which had received immediate approval by the Chinese a year prior to the tour. Programme A was made up of Berlioz's “Roman Carnival,” MacMillan's “Two Sketches Based on French Canadian Airs,” Mahler's “Des Knaben Wunderhorn” (sung by Maureen Forrester), and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4. Programme B included Brahms' “Variations on a Theme of Haydn,” Morel's “Boréal” (a modern Canadian work), Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 (played by Louis Lortie), and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

2. Kuang-ming Daily, 20 July 1978.

3. People's Daily, 20 January 1974.

4. Hung-ch'i (Red Flag), April 1974.

5. Salisbury, H., “Now it's China's cultural thaw,” New York Times Magazine, 4 12 1977Google Scholar.

6. Kuang-ming Daily, 1 August 1974.

7. Kuang-ming Daily, 1 February 1978.