The New York Times: An Oratorio About Shanghai’s Jews Opens in China at a Difficult Time
“Émigré,” a new oratorio about Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany for Shanghai in the late 1930s, begins with a song by two brothers, Josef and Otto, as their steamship approaches a Chinese harbor.
“Shanghai, beacon of light on a silent shore,” they sing. “Shanghai, answer these desperate cries.”
The emigration of thousands of Central European and Eastern European Jews to China in the late 1930s and early 1940s — and their survival of the Holocaust — is one of World War II’s most dramatic but little-known chapters.
In “Émigré,” a 90-minute oratorio that premiered this month in Shanghai and will come to the New York Philharmonic in February 2024, the stories of these refugees and their attempts to build new lives in war-torn China are front and center.
The New York Times
By Keith Bradsher and Javier C. Hernández
“Émigré,” a new oratorio about Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany for Shanghai in the late 1930s, begins with a song by two brothers, Josef and Otto, as their steamship approaches a Chinese harbor.
“Shanghai, beacon of light on a silent shore,” they sing. “Shanghai, answer these desperate cries.”
The emigration of thousands of Central European and Eastern European Jews to China in the late 1930s and early 1940s — and their survival of the Holocaust — is one of World War II’s most dramatic but little-known chapters.
In “Émigré,” a 90-minute oratorio that premiered this month in Shanghai and will come to the New York Philharmonic in February 2024, the stories of these refugees and their attempts to build new lives in war-torn China are front and center.
Read more here.
The New York Times: Review: A Chinese Concerto and a Romantic Classic Gaze Back
The New York Philharmonic, under Long Yu, played works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Qigang Chen and Rachmaninoff at the Rose Theater.
The New York Times
By Zachary Woolfe
The New York Philharmonic, under Long Yu, played works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Qigang Chen and Rachmaninoff at the Rose Theater.
The New York Philharmonic played Russian music on Thursday, for the third week in a row. It was yet another argument against President Vladimir V. Putin’s claims that his country’s culture is being canceled in the West.
That wasn’t the only political resonance of the orchestra’s concert on Thursday at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center. It is still all too uncommon for Chinese composers and artists — especially conductors — to be featured by American orchestras outside of Lunar New Year celebrations. But this program was led by Long Yu, experienced with the Philharmonic over the past decade, and included a substantial work by Qigang Chen.
Read more here.
Photo: Chris Lee
Limelight: Yo-Yo Ma and The Art of Living, Youth Music Culture Guangdong
Angus McPherson speaks with Yo-Yo Ma midway through the 2020 Youth Music Culture Guangdong in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, an event presented by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and organized jointly by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and Xinghai Concert Hall, bringing together young musicians from all around the world. Ma is the event’s Artistic Director and a major drawcard for the participants, who have come to the city on the Pearl River in southern China from across the country as well as from the USA, Japan, Italy and Hungary – and even one musician from Australia.
Limelight Magazine
Angus McPherson
We’re speaking midway through the 2020 Youth Music Culture Guangdong in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, an event presented by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and organized jointly by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and Xinghai Concert Hall, bringing together young musicians from all around the world. Ma is the event’s Artistic Director and a major drawcard for the participants, who have come to the city on the Pearl River in southern China from across the country as well as from the USA, Japan, Italy and Hungary – and even one musician from Australia.
Read the full article here.
The New York Times: Long Yu and Haochen Zhang with NY Phil in Concerts to See
The New York Times
David Allen
Our guide to the city’s best classical music and opera happening this weekend and in the week ahead.
NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC at David Geffen Hall (Jan. 28 and 30, 7:30 p.m.; Jan. 31, 11 a.m.). Ring in the Lunar New Year with the Philharmonic’s annual celebration on Tuesday, with Long Yu conducting a program that includes Gil Shaham as the soloist in Chen Gang and He Zhanhao’s “The Butterfly Lovers” and Haochen Zhang at the piano in Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”
To read more, click here.
Blogcritics: Pianist Haochen Zhang on NYC Lunar New Year Concert
Blogcritics
Jon Sobel
The New York Philharmonic will present a Lunar New Year concert at Lincoln Center on January 28, 2020. Conducted by Long Yu, the program will include pieces by Chinese and Chinese-American composers, but also music by South Korean composer Texu Kim – and by George Gershwin. In his debut with the New York Philharmonic, Chinese-American pianist Haochen Zhang will be the featured soloist on Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
Blogcritics
Jon Sobel
The New York Philharmonic will present a Lunar New Year concert at Lincoln Center on January 28, 2020. Conducted by Long Yu, the program will include pieces by Chinese and Chinese-American composers, but also music by South Korean composer Texu Kim – and by George Gershwin. In his debut with the New York Philharmonic, Chinese-American pianist Haochen Zhang will be the featured soloist on Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
Haochen spoke with us in advance of the Lunar New Year concert.
There’s no mention of Gershwin on your website or, for that matter, your Wikipedia page. Have you performed Gershwin before? You’ve described your style as somewhat introverted, but Rhapsody is splashy music. Does this piece, with its jazziness, speak to you differently than that of other composers?
I have performed the Rhapsody only once before. It’s true that this piece is not in any way “introverted”; however, I don’t believe “splashiness” is the only way to interpret it, either. The organicity and spontaneity in its jazziness is, to me, the core of its beauty and charm, and therefore, as someone who is always fascinated by intricate nuances, this piece always speaks to me in a very instinctive way.
To read the complete interview, click here.
The Beijinger: Beijing Music Festival Returns Oct. 4-28
The Beijinger
Will Griffith
One of the world’s leading music festivals since 1998, the Beijing Music Festival returns this month with operas, symphony concerts, recitals, chamber concerts, and more. To read more about the festival of 22 shows, click here.
Washington Post: Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Debuts at Wolf Trap
With new sounds in the beginning of the concert to the tried and true of the Western canon, the Shanghai Symphony’s debut at Wolf Trap was a wonderful snapshot of its musical history and tradition.
Washington Post
Patrick D. McCoy
A balmy evening and an enthusiastic audience created the perfect setting Wednesday for the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra’s Wolf Trap debut. But there are things beyond the weather to consider for the orchestra’s appearance in the cultural backyard of our nation’s capital — repertoire among them. Conducted by Long Yu, the program began with “Wu Xing” by Chinese composer Qigang Chen. Based on the traditional pentatonic scale, the work took on an otherworldly quality. Divided into five short movements, the elements of metal, wood, water, fire and earth were reflected in the instruments…
With new sounds in the beginning of the concert to the tried and true of the Western canon, the Shanghai Symphony’s debut at Wolf Trap was a wonderful snapshot of its musical history and tradition.
Read more here.
Chicago Tribune: Shanghai Symphony Brings 140-Year Tradition to America
When the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra makes its Chicago-area debut Aug. 16 at the Ravinia Festival, no one will be prouder of the occasion than its music director, Long Yu.
Chicago Tribune
Howard Reich
When the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra makes its Chicago-area debut Aug. 16 at the Ravinia Festival, no one will be prouder of the occasion than its music director, Long Yu.
For to him, the Shanghai ensemble will be more than just a visitor from the other side of the world – it will be bringing with it a legacy stretching back to 1879, when it was established under a previous name.
“This is the first orchestra not only in China, but in the Far East,” says Yu, speaking by phone from Hong Kong.
“A lot of work was premiered in Asia by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. For example, Beethoven’s Ninth (Symphony), (Stravinsky’s) ‘Firebird’ – all those pieces premiered in Shanghai.”
In effect, adds Yu, this orchestra “introduced most of the classical music to China and to Asia.”
That in itself is significant, but all the more considering the dramatic growth of classical music in China and elsewhere in Asia. We may lament the shrinking and aging of the classical audience in the United States, with only the most celebrated soloists and ensembles able to fill large concert halls and festivals that routinely sold out in the mid-20th century. But in China and environs, the music seems to be on a perpetual rise.
Read more here.
Gramophone: Long Yu Cover
Keep an eye out for Maestro Long Yu on the cover of April’s issue of Gramophone! Also featured in the article is Shanghai Orchestra Academy, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and Youth Music Culture Guangdong.
Gramophone
Keep an eye out for Maestro Long Yu on the cover of April’s issue of Gramophone! Also featured in the article is Shanghai Orchestra Academy, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and Youth Music Culture Guangdong.
Preview the cover here. And read more about China holding “the key to the future of classical music” here.
The New York Times: Yo-Yo Ma and Wu Man with Long Yu Play With Cinematic Sweep
“A Happy Excursion” had a fitting companion in Tchaikovsky’s emotive “Pathétique” Symphony. The [New York] Philharmonic musicians can probably play this overprogrammed piece in their sleep; in the past, it has occasionally felt as if they were doing just that. But under Mr. Yu’s baton, they summoned surprising extremes, leavened occasionally with the brisk lightness of a Tchaikovsky ballet.
The New York Times
Joshua Barone
“A Happy Excursion” had a fitting companion in Tchaikovsky’s emotive “Pathétique” Symphony. The Philharmonic musicians can probably play this overprogrammed piece in their sleep; in the past, it has occasionally felt as if they were doing just that. But under Mr. Yu’s baton, they summoned surprising extremes, leavened occasionally with the brisk lightness of a Tchaikovsky ballet.
Like Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, which the Vienna Philharmonic was playing on Wednesday evening at Carnegie Hall, the “Pathétique” has an unusual form of four movements in slow-fast-fast-slow progression. Mr. Yu seemed to approach it as program music, finding a long arc in the work’s adagio bookends.
Read more of the review here.