Word: concertos
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...Chinese have not rejected all orchestral music. They still seem to admire the Yellow River Concerto, written by a committee of the Central Philharmonic Society of the People's Republic of China. (A recording by the Philadelphia Orchestra is available with Pines of Rome on RCA #ALL 1-0415.) To capitalist ears the piece sounds vaguely stirring and faintly romantic. A Washington Post critic suggested that "from the sound of it...the principal members of the committee were Franz Liszt and Sergei Rachmaninoff, with some help from Edvard Grieg...
When the Philadelphia Orchestra finished playing The Yellow River Concerto in Peking last September, Conductor Eugene Ormandy signaled for the composer to share the bows. Out came two men and two women. To a Westerner listening to the work, the four might just as well have been Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Cécile Chaminade and Joan Baez. Actually, they were a committee from the Central Philharmonic Society of the People's Republic of China, perhaps the country's foremost composer. The event was the highlight of the Philadelphia's tour of China, the first such by an American...
Composition by committee? Why not? Most of our Broadway musicals and pop records, to cite but two examples, are produced by committees or their equivalent. The Yellow River Concerto turns out to be delectable schmalz that rivals such an old classical "pops" favorite as the Warsaw Concerto...
Exactly how the committee collaborated on the concerto has not yet been divulged by Chinese authorities, who do not encourage individual artistic expression. It is known that Pianist Yin Cheng-chung wrote the solo music. Like some Western works for solo instrument and orchestra, Yellow River has a program: it starts by invoking the day-to-day life on the river, ends with Mao's call to arms, and the defense of the river as a symbol of the entire country. Sophisticated Western listeners would have no trouble picking Yellow River apart, but for all its naivete...
DUNSTER LIBRARY. Brandenburg Party. Open sight-reading of Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 and Symphony No. 30; and Bach: Concerto for Two Violins. Bring your music stand. Sunday, February...