Central Conservatory Beijing: Shen Wenyu, piano

November 18, 2008
I decided to also to a piano recital by a Chinese pianist and also visit another concert hall. His concert was held at the Central Conservatory Concert Hall, home of China’s greatest musicians. Many Chinese musicians who have made a career in the international music world have passed through this conservatory at one point or another. During the Cultural Revolution, many of its professors and students were persecuted. After the revolution ended, the conservatory has since been restored and is the most respected school for piano in the country. This is China’s Julliard.

The conservatory area is beautiful and I just couldn't imagine what it was like during the Cultural Revolution. I just pondered on the fact that all the Chinese pianists and composers I admire, have walked or played in this hall. I again did not bring my camera to the recital as I forget that I will be allowed to take pictures of the recital.

Shen is a fairly young pianist and technically brilliant. For such a young pianist, he displayed a depth and maturity to his playing. Thankfully there was none of the flashy displays made infamous by another excellent Chinese pianist. The selection of pieces for the afternoon consisted of transcriptions. He opened with Liszt’s transcription of Beethoven’s Symphony no. 5 which would be a crowd pleaser and followed it with his own transcription of the “Yellow River Piano Concerto”. It was difficult to judge his playing just from transcriptions. After the intermission, Shen played a duet with a young boy. If my memory serves me, it was a Schubert composition. The second half of the concert consisted of one or two original pieces. “Flight of the Bumble Bee” is always exciting to watch and he played two versions of this. Overall, this concert showed what a genius he is at the piano.

Shen’s teachers were there and so were the next generation of China's pianists between the ages of 5 and up. It was like a circus or a cinema. I was so thankful my seat was on the last row of the hall. I would not need to tolerate any noise behind me, except that it was a blustery day and it got fairly chilly at the back. They were walking in and out at anytime, eating, drinking, videoing the performance on tripods, clapping in between movements and the like. Even the conservatory piano majors sitting close to me were chatting away. I wonder whether I should be annoyed at all these. If I were to hold on strictly to current musicology findings, all these were the norm at concerts given by Mozart and Beethoven. Since then, concert convention has changed and we now have a class of audiophiles. I am just not sure where I stand on this issue.

With all the children and their parents who escorted them here, the concert seemed like it was geared towards the uninitiated but the playing was at such a high level. I am not sure whether they could fully understand what was going on and how remarkable those fingers were. I am sure it adds pressure to all the young children who are learning to play the piano but will never make it to this stage ever. I hope their parents know that out of the 20 million pianists in China there will only be a handful who will be successful in an international performing career.