It may be a bit metaphysical to say this, but sometimes the conductor just standing in front of you is really enough to influence the player's playing style. For example, with Conductor Dutois, it's hard to hear a particularly thick and solid voice. And when Thieleman appeared, it was difficult for the band to play an ethereal and delicate **.In Qian Junping's view, the conductor is like a "decoder" with different styles, delivering to the performer a work created by the "programmer" (composer).
On the last day of February, the post-90s international conductor Qian Junping conducted the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra for the first time, and together with Zhou Ying, a rising violin star born in the 90s, performed Brahms's Violin Concerto in D major, Serenade No. 2 in A major, and Zhou Tian, a Chinese composer born in the 80s.
Qian Junping began to learn violin and viola at the age of 5, and was admitted to Shangyin High School and Curtis College in the United States with a viola major.
At the same time, he also showed good conducting potential at an early age, making his debut as a choir at the age of 10 and serving as an assistant conductor of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Shangyin High School.
After joining Curtis, his conducting skills quickly caught the attention of the dean, and he was admitted to the conducting department, and subsequently became the closing door of Otto Varner Müller, a master of conducting education.
At the end of the performance, Qian Junping put down the baton, picked up the viola "back to his old business", and collaborated with Zhou Ying on the "Loutai Meeting" excerpt of "Liang Zhu".
Brahms and the violinist Joachim were lifelong friends. While Brahms was still playing the piano in various taverns and restaurants, Joachim had already become a famous artist by "excavating" Beethoven's violin concertos.
The two later met and embarked on a joint tour, and Joachim also had a significant influence on Brahms's creative style. The Violin Concerto in D major, composed in 1878, was conducted by Brahms himself and performed by Joseph Joachim as soloist.
Brahms's violin concerto is probably one of the most famous violin concertos in the music world, and his ideas are more like that of a symphony, with a rich range of layers and parts. For Qian Junping, interpreting such a work is more challenging: "We have to do a good job of screening from many voices and analyze the **important, **unimportant, otherwise it will sound like a mess." ”
Brahms's "First Symphony" made the audience wait for 20 years, which is quite a bit of Li Bai's "scenery in front of me, Cui Hao's inscription poem is above". In order to achieve the goal of "writing a Beethoven-like symphony", he made many attempts on his creative path. Like Beethoven, Brahms's work is somewhat abstract, often using only three or two notes, or an interval or a chord, to expand an entire work.
The second Serenade in the early works of his symphonic composition, is smaller in scale, but what is special is that the strings completely leave the violin behind, allowing the wind to dominate the upper sonic contours of the work.
Woodwinds provide a warmer opening than violins, and the theme of the first movement sonata evokes a leisurely walk through the woods in the woodwinds. At the end of the presentation section, Brahms teases the audience a little, pretending to enter a repetitive but soon transitioning into a long, off-tune development.
In this movement, we can clearly see the complex rhythms and nimble harmonic explorations that he would later use, which ultimately led to the atonality of the twentieth century**.
Chinese composer Zhou Tian was born in Hangzhou in 1981 and graduated from the High School Attached to Shanghai ** University and Curtis ** College, and is also Qian Junping's senior. In 2018, he was nominated for the "Best Contemporary Classical Composer" award at the 60th Grammy Awards for "Concerto for Orchestra", becoming the first Chinese to receive this honor.
Suddenly is a new work of his, inspired by Dai dance, and the overall duration is about 6 minutes. The music is full of distinctive rhythms and colorful harmonies. **A brief moment of "slow dancing" during the soothing period seems to herald another night of revelry. This performance by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra is also the Chinese premiere of this work. "Suddenly" is a popular work, not popular at the level of beautiful melody, but can feel a kind of tension, such is a good work. ”
Qian Junping has cooperated with Zhou Tian very early on, directing his "Praise". Before every conduct, he used to ask Zhou Tian about the creative ideas of the repertoire, "His thinking is very clear, and he can always explain very well anything I don't understand." ”
Interpreting the works of Chinese composers, performers are always asked how to tell Chinese stories with **. After studying abroad since the age of 18 and seeing different cultures in China and the West, Qian Junping has his own understanding of this. "There are qualities of peace, tolerance, and development in Chinese culture, and the symphony as a means of media, like all artistic means. How we write it well has something to do with Chinese thought and way of thinking, and these things can be reflected in the **. ”