Philadelphia Orchestra Tours China 40 Years After Historic Visit

Ng Han Guan/Associated Press From left, Christopher Deviney, Don S. Liuzzi and Angela Zator Nelson of the Philadelphia Orchestra performing at a school outside Beijing on Friday.

BEIJING â€" If ping-pong diplomacy is what paved the way for President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to Beijing in 1972 to re-establish the United States’ official relationship with China, then one could say it was the visit by the Philadelphia Orchestra the following year that truly cemented it. Personally chosen by President Nixon himself, the Philadelphia Orchestra was one of the first cultural delegations to be sent to China that followed Nixon’s visit. Their performance in 1973 in front of a packed audience at the Cultural Palace of Nationalities in the heart of Beijing was the first-ever given by an American orchestra in Communist-led China.

Now, forty years later, the Philadelphia Orchestra is commemorating the anniversary of its historic visit with a two-week, multi-city tour of China, consisting of multiple concerts, small pop-up performances at important cultural sites, master classes, lectures and community outreach visits. The tour concludes on Sunday night with a concert in Macau.

With a highly-anticipated summit between President Obama and President Xi Jinping scheduled to begin at Sunnylands, California on Saturday, the commemorative tour serves as a timely reminder of the deep cultural ties between the two countries.

“In the time that I’ve been in the orchestra it’s definitely grown into a very friendly atmosphere between the managements, the governments and the individual musicians,” said Davyd Booth, a violinist and one of the nine members traveling on the current tour who participated in the 1973 performance. “I don’t think that’s happened anywhere else in the world to the extent that it’s happened here.”

At the National Center for the Performing Arts, the sleek, egg-shaped theater located just west of Tiananmen Square, on Thursday evening, the audience in the nearly-sold out concert hall roared in approval for the performances of both the China National Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Li Xincao, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by conductor Donald Runnicles.

Before the performance, members of the Philadelphia Orchestra sat onstage alongside members of the China National Symphony Orchestra to play the Chinese and American national anthems.

“It was really touching, to see the Chinese symphony sharing a stage with the Philadelphia Orchestra forty years later,” said Craig Hamilton, vice president of global initiatives and government relations for the Philadelphia Orchestra. “We talk about cultural exchange as a two-way street and that was kind of the culmination of it.”

In light of the booming demand for all things classical music-related in China, such as instruments, music education, concert halls, orchestras, and conservatories, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that just forty years ago, the status of Western classical music in China was radically different. It was 1973 and China had just entered the final years of the Cultural Revolution, the decade of turmoil led by Mao Zedong during which music conservatories were closed and most traditional music, including Western classical music, was banned altogether.

The performance in Beijing by one of the world’s top orchestras, led by the legendary conductor Eugene Ormandy, was therefore no small event. Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong’s imperious wife, made sure that the concert - which featured her personal favorite, Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony (“Pastoral”), much to the displeasure of Mr. Ormandy - was broadcast across the country.

United Press International Eugene Ormandy, center, touring China in 1973.

For many Chinese, it was their first introduction to Western classical music and the sounds of an orchestra. Even today, the concert is remembered as having been a transformative experience for many Chinese music lovers, including Tan Dun, the Academy Award-winning composer, who heard the concert on a commune radio in a rural village.

Li Lu, the daughter of Li Delun, the former artistic director of the Central Philharmonic Society of China, on Thursday recalled how it was so difficult to get a ticket, people would go inside and pass the ticket underneath the door to their friends. By the beginning of the show, the auditorium was completely filled. “It was an unforgettable experience,” she said. “It opened up our eyes.”

The orchestra’s current visit is its fourth visit to China in five years, a reflection perhaps of China’s growing enthusiasm for Western classical music at a time when orchestras in the United States - including the Philadelphia Orchestra, which emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2012 - are struggling.

“Now China has become one of the great audiences in classical music,” said Mr. Booth, who has come back to China with the orchestra seven times since his first visit in 1973. “Some people even go so far as to say the audience in China as a whole is going to be the savior for classical music. I can see that happening.”

Sue-Lin Wong contributed reporting.