WORLD PREMIERE TALES FROM THE FORBIDDEN CITY New Zealand String Quartet (New Zealand) Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra (China) Soloists Xiao Ma, Gao Ping Chimæra I & II Tabea Squire WHEN Sun 9 Mar Three Songs Of Yuan Qu Gao Wei-Jie WHERE Michael Fowler Centre Beat Jack Body DURATION 1hr 30mins (no interval) The Four Not-Alike Gao Ping Intermission Chimæra III & IV Tabea Squire Shi Bian Wu Hua Zou Hang Inner Phases Michael Norris (Music), David Downes (Video) A MESSAGE FROM THE FESTIVAL In 2014 the New Zealand Festival welcomes the world to Wellington. From the sublimely beautiful to the downright outrageous, this Festival thrives on the ideas, talent and heartfelt offerings of our artists. Our city comes alive at this special time and I invite you to explore the many experiences on offer. This concert represents a unique collaboration between musicians and composers from New Zealand and China. A warm welcome to the Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra and sincere thanks to all the artists involved in this the project who have produced for producing this musical dialogue between our two countries. SHELAGH MAGADZA Artistic Director, New Zealand Festival A MESSAGE FROM VICTORIA UNIVERSITY Victoria University of Wellington is proud to support Tales from the Forbidden City. This unique collaboration, featuring the New Zealand String Quartet and world-class musicians from China, promises to be a special occasion. Victoria s national leadership in education relationships with China, international standing in scholarship on contemporary China and excellence in the creative arts are defining characteristics of the University. We also play a key role in connecting New Zealand with the world, and in fostering a stronger appreciation of cultural and artistic diversity. The universal power of music to inspire, move and inform audiences makes musical performance the ideal vehicle for promoting higher levels of cultural understanding. Please make sure your mobile phone is turned off. Latecomers will only be seated during an appropriate break. The taking of photographs and use of any recording device at any Festival performance is strictly forbidden. Ticket holders consent to be filmed as part of the audience. The information contained in this programme is correct at the time of publication. The Festival reserves the right to alter, without any notice, any events, programmes and artists.
PROGRAMME NOTES CHIMÆRA I & II TABEA SQUIRE Viola & guzheng; violin & yangqin Chimæra is a term to describe a mythical creature made of parts taken from various animals. It also describes concepts perceived as wildly imaginative. This work is a set of four duets, each one featuring a different combination of Chinese and western instruments, portraying a kind of chimæra, melding sometimes disparate styles and instruments into a unified sound a new creature. The first, for viola and guzheng, showcases the contrast of styles. The second is for violin and yangqin, a searching, almost romantic movement, with tight exchange between the two instruments, as though they are journeying together. Tabea Squire Chimæra was commissioned with funding from Creative New Zealand. THREE SONGS OF YUAN QU GAO WEIJIE Song cycle for countertenor, string quartet and plucked Chinese instruments Chinese poetry of different eras have distinct characters: Tang poetry is noble, Song, elegant, while Yuan poems are earthy. Yuan Qu (Yuan poetry) is generally more direct, often playful and witty, and full of vivid and lively emotion. (The Yuan dynasty, 12271-1367 was established by the Mongolian Emperor Kuablai Khan.) From recent pleasurable readings Yuan Qu, I chose three poems as a set of popular songs with an ancient flavor. Though by different authors, the three poems, when read in succession, form a trilogy of a young lady s love story: the tender passions of first love, the heat of the inseparable attachment, and finally, the tearful heartbreak of lost love. Gao Wei-Jie BEAT JACK BODY String quartet and ensemble of Chinese instruments with recorded sound I have always been interested in the relationship between physical action and music, particularly as heard in work-chants. This composition uses as a backing track recordings of the percussive rhythms and vocalisations of Chinese workers (dă = to beat, strike, hit): two Jingpo women singing in canon as they pound rice, men hammering steel wedges to break up concrete, call and response from workmen on a building site, and the rhythmic strumming of the apparatus used by quilt makers as they tease the cotton stuffing. The recording of the two Jingpo minority women was made by my friend Zhang Xingrong, an ethnomusicologist from Kunming. The other three recordings I made myself in 1985, in Guiyang and in Chengdu. Jack Body THE FOUR NOT-ALIKE GAO PING Concerto for multi-function pianist and ensemble of Chinese instruments The Four Not-Alike (Si Bu Xiang in Chinese) is the vernacular name for Elaphurus Davidianus, a Chinese animal called Mi Lu, also known as David s Deer. Si Bu Xiang (meaning, literally The Four Not-alike ) refers to the fact that David s Deer looks, in part, like four other animals deer, cow, horse, and camel yet cannot be comfortably categorized with any one of these species. As an expression, Si Bu Xiang has a connotation of impurity, or hybridism, a derogatory term now widely used independent of its original reference to the animal. I was ignorant of the origin of Si Bu Xiang when I choose the title of this piece. However, I feel that it describes very well the composition, whose character is truly The Four Not-Alike, being neither European/ Western nor Chinese/Asian, neither
wholly art music nor folkloric. Indeed, the combination of piano and Chinese instruments produces a hybrid, a sort of bastard creation. Furthermore, the soloist plays the piano quite unlike a conventional pianist, as well as vocalising along the way; he reaches into the instrument touching this and hitting that, accompanying himself with shouts and whistling. It all seems rather inappropriate, impure! Si Bu Xiang feels like a fitting title. My researches into the origin of Si Bu Xiang revealed that David s Deer is an extremely rare animal. Facing near extinction, it now receives far more attention than any of the four animals it resembles, thus rescuing its reputation from its former unjustly despised status. As an old Chinese saying has it, Value is measured by rarity. So, my self-deprecating title suddenly takes on an unintended, almost opposite meaning. Isn t this self-boasting even more inappropriate! Gao Ping CHIMÆRA III & IV TABEA SQUIRE Cello & xiao; violin & pipa The third duet features scordatura cello and xiao, the cello playing mostly harmonics, reflecting the xiao s tone; being very different instruments, however, they do not imitate each other, but interact as though across distance. The fourth duet, for violin and pipa, is the most energetic and virtuosic. The instruments share much of the same material, and imitate each other s styles sometimes quite overtly, as though purely for fun. Tabea Squire SHI BIAN WU HUA (TEN CHANGES AND FIVE VARIABLES) ZOU HANG String quartet & ensemble of Chinese instruments Shi Bian Wu Hua or Ten Changes and Five Variables is a Chinese idiom referring to the ever-changeable nature of things. In this work the Ten Changes suggests the contrasting states of performing: independence and a mixture of solo and ensemble playing and the coloristic distance between the Chinese and Western instruments, reminiscent of the ancient concept of Yin and Yang. The Five Variables on the other hand has its origin in Five Elements of which all things comprise. Though the five-sectioned work is based on these ideas, it also breaks out of the confines of the abstract. The music is created with five typically traditional ways of music making: blowing, bowing, plucking, hitting, singing, with the aim of capturing some of the essence of Chinese culture from a unique angle and point of view. Zou Hang INNER PHASES MICHAEL NORRIS (MUSIC), DAVID DOWNES (VIDEO) String quartet, ensemble of Chinese instruments, and video projection As I understand it, the Five Phases (Wu Xing) in Chinese philosophy and cosmology, are a taxonomy of the cycles and processes of the natural world. Every phase follows, overcomes or generates another: spring follows winter, wood feeds fire, fire melts metal. The flow of energy from one phase to another can be expansive or destructive. In Inner Phases, this constant flow of energy is made tangible by the pulse-streams that form between the Western and Chinese instruments, often with a dynamic sliding in pitch that recall the contours of Chinese tonal speech. This piece is dedicated to the New Zealand String Quartet and the Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra, and also to Jack Body, who invited me to contribute to this project. Michael Norris The video for Inner Phases is an imagined visual interpretation of Michael Norris s composition. Conceptually grounded in the principles of the Wu Xing, it presents a broad expression of the natural world as reflection and revelation of cosmic order. David Downes
Michael Norris and David Downes s participation in this project was assisted by funding from Creative New Zealand, the preparation of the score of Inner Phases was supported by a Victoria University of Wellington grant, and the video of Inner Phases was commissioned with funding from Creative New Zealand. ABOUT THE TITLES Titles of the works were created for the camera by Beijing-based calligrapher Bateer, a leading exponent of cursive Chinese calligraphy. A Mongolian by birth, Bateer is a self-taught artist who is said to bring to his works the characteristics of a Mongolian warrior, surprising the enemy with sudden, bold, fearless strokes. His creations are highly prized by collectors. The video of Bateer at work was edited by David Downes. BIOGRAPHIES JACK BODY Jack Body studied music at Auckland University and in Cologne and Utrecht. He was a guest lecturer at the Akademi Musik Indonesia in Yogyakarta (1976-77), and from that time developed a wide-ranging interest in Asian musical traditions. Body has composed for most musical genres including ensemble, vocal, orchestral and electroacoustic music, as well as film, music-theatre and image/sound installations. His work has been performed by leading New Zealand musicians and orchestras, such as the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonia, the New Zealand String Quartet and the NZTrio, as well as international ensembles such as the Amsterdam Atlas Ensemble, the BBC Scottish Orchestra, the Sydney Song Company, and Kronos Quartet, for whom he has written four works. As manager of Wellington s Javanese gamelan, he has mentored the creation of new works for Javanese gamelan and other instruments. A recent cross-cultural collaboration, presented at the 2011 Auckland Festival, was a programme of new works for the NZTrio together with three traditional Cambodian musicians, and his orchestral song cycle with dancer, Songs and Dances of Desire, a tribute to the iconic Māori drag queen Carmen Rupe, was a produced at the 2013 Auckland Festival. Body lectured in the School of Music at Victoria University of Wellington from 1980 until his retirement from teaching in 2009. Jack Body s participation in this project was assisted by funding from Creative New Zealand. DAVID DOWNES David Downes is a composer/film maker/ performer who has pursued a diverse and individual creative career. His various music, sonic art, film and animation works have been performed, presented, screened and exhibited at many international music, film, and arts festivals, art galleries, concert halls and cultural events earning him several awards. Downes s compositions include theatre/ film scores, orchestral pieces, electro-acoustic pieces, and songwriting. He has been commissioned and toured by groups such as the New Zealand Chamber Orchestra, NZTrio, Stroma (NZ), Defying Gravity (Australia), BackBeat (UK) and Strike (NZ). Downes has also worked alongside a number of notable New Zealand musicians and composers including John Psathas, Mahinarangi Tocker, Zane Te Wiremu Jarvis and Jack Body. Since 1988 he has also made a considerable contribution to modern choreographic work in New Zealand with his contemporary dance scores, collaborating with choreographers such as Michael Parmenter, Lynne Pringle and Daniel Belton. An early fascination with video/film art has led to subsequent work in the areas of experimental video, long form narrative filmmaking, animation and computer generated imagery and has resulted in the production of several award-winning
films including the 2000 digital feature A Small Life and the 2004 animated short Generation. His experimental video work has also been exhibited in gallery installations around the world. Fascinated with the language of metaphor and believing firmly in the expressive strength of the medium hybrid, Downes often looks to other disciplines in the process of creating and realising ideas. His interest in technology and engineering has led to an ongoing design of new instruments, noise devices and experiments such as cross medium uses of motion capture data. For a year he also experimented with training a magpie for the specific purpose of performing an original composition. Downes was the 2012/2013 the Jack C Richards/Creative New Zealand Composer in Residence at the New Zealand School of Music. GAO PING Gao Ping is a composer-pianist, born in Chengdu, Sichuan province of China. He studied in the USA in the 1990s. As a pianist, Gao Ping s repertoire is extensive; he has performed to acclaim all over the world. In 2008, Gao premiered his Piano Concerto with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Mr. Kenneth Young. The Listener enthusiastically acclaimed the two-movement work as a major concerto. In demand as a composer, he has received commissions and performances from musicians around the world. Many prestigious venues have presented his work such as the Aspen Music Festival, Dresdener Musikfestspiele, Hibiki Hall Festival ( Japan), New Zealand International Arts Festival (Wellington), and the Beijing-Modern International Music Festival. Gao s two albums released on Naxos label were critically acclaimed. A German critic described his work as music which wants to be heard with ears of a child, full of wonder and amazement. deep and vulnerable. Gao is currently a Professor in Composition at the Conservatory of Music- Capital Normal University as well as a Guest Professor at the China Conservatory of Music. He previously taught at the Canterbury University in New Zealand. GAO WEI-JIE Gao Wei-Jie is ranked among China s most highly respected and widely performed senior composers. Born in Shanghai in 1938, he graduated from the Sichuan Conservatory of Music in 1960. He then taught at this conservatory and became the chairman of its composition department. Since 1989, Professor Gao has been teaching composition and music analysis at China Conservatory of Music in Beijing. He is a member of Chinese Musicians Association, and the President of Exploratory Union for Musical Composition. Gao s compositions include symphonic music, chamber music, ballets, incidental music for plays and many songs. He is also a musical theorist. Many of his articles and monographs (including Studying in Harmonic Dynamics, The Musical Form, On the Structure of Scale with a Catalogue of Its Classification and Guide to Great Works of 20th Century Music) have been published and had a significant impact on Chinese musical thinking. Gao has taught composition for 53 years and many of his former students have achieved great national and international success. MICHAEL NORRIS Michael Norris holds composition degrees from Victoria University of Wellington and City University, London. He has held the positions of Composer-in-Residence with the Southern Sinfonia and the Mozart Fellowship. In 2003, he won the Douglas Lilburn Prize, a nationwide competition for orchestral composers. Norris is also co-founder and co-director of Stroma
New Music Ensemble. He has participated in composition courses featuring leading composers such as Peter Eötvös, Alvin Lucier, Christian Wolff and Kaija Saariaho. His chamber orchestra work Sgraffito was commissioned by the Sudwestdeutsche Rundfunk and premiered at the Donaueschinger Musiktage 2010 by the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, conducted by Peter Eötvös. Future composition projects include commissions for Ensemble Offspring (Australia), Ensemble Reconsil (Austria) and Prague Modern (Czech Republic). Norris teaches composition, sonic art and post-tonal music theory at the New Zealand School of Music. He has initiated a number of projects with European performers, as well as developing links within the Asia-Pacific region, and has served as secretary-general for the Asian Composers League. As a software developer, he is best known for his suite of Audio Units known as SoundMagic Spectral. These plug-ins have been used widely both in academia and the industry, including a number of feature film soundtracks. As a music theorist, Norris is interested in post-tonal chromatic theories, especially derivatives of pc-set theory (such as tone-clock theory), microtonality, Neo-Riemannian theory, and scalar constraints theory. He has written a number of articles relating these concepts of harmonic theory to works from New Zealand, especially those by Jenny McLeod, Jack Body and Douglas Lilburn. TABEA SQUIRE Tabea Squire was born in Scotland in 1989, and came to New Zealand when she was nine. Her successes as a composer include winning the NZCT Secondary Schools Chamber Music Composition Competition in 2006, prizes in the NZSM Composers Competition between 2006 and 2011, and being appointed Young Composer-in-Residence for the National Youth Orchestra in 2008. Her works have been performed by, among others, Duo Giocoso, the Wellington Chamber Orchestra, the Hawkes Bay Orchestra, and the SMP Ensemble, and she has been commissioned by the Recorders and Early Music Union, the Manuwatu Sinfonia and the New Zealand String Quartet. In 2012 she completed Honours in Performance Violin at the New Zealand School of Music, under Helene Pohl. XIAO MA Xiao Ma is China s first professional countertenor. He was discovered by renowned Chinese bass Gong Dong-Jian in 2006, and made his debut the following year with Shanghai Opera as Cherubino in Mozart s The Marriage of Figaro, which has become his signature role. Xiao s bel canto repertoire includes Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Vivaldi and Handel arias. Since his Shanghai debut Xiao has given numerous recitals and appearances in China as well as the US, Europe and other countries in Asia. He has he toured European cities under the auspices of the Chinese Ministry of Culture as soloist with the Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra, and in 2012 made his New Zealand debut. Xiao majored in piano and voice at the Sichuan Occupation Art College, then studied voice at Xihua University. While still studying he worked as a piano coach at Sichuan Occupation Art College, and upon graduation was offered a position as Assistant Professor in both piano and voice. In 2000 he was appointed Assistant Professor of Voice at Chengdu Normal University, and continued to accompany singers and dancers, winning numerous awards. At Chengdu Normal he edited a volume entitled Accompaniment Music for Dancing, which won the 2004 Teaching Material Award in Sichuan Normal University and was adopted as the official teaching material for dance majors in several college and universities in Sichuan. Since 2011 he has been Distinguished Professor at
Guizhou Normal University, International College of Music. ZOU HANG Zou Hang was born in Hunan, China. He learned Chinese traditional folk music at the early age from his father, Professor Zou Shuliang. He studied composition at the Central Conservatory of Music under Professor Ye Xiaogang, obtaining his Master Degree in 2001. He currently teaches at the Central Conservatory. Zou is one of the composers representing the New Generation whose works have been performed in the United States, Germany, France, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Mexico, Cuba, Ukraine, Belarus, Korea, New Zealand, Austria, Singapore, in countries in Southeast Asia as well as the Chinese regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao. He is deputy music director of Beijing Modern Festival, and was one of the composers for the 2008 Beijing Olympics Game Opening Ceremony. His honours include International Gaudeamus prize for composition; Best Music for dance drama music of the 5th National Water Lily Competition; Golden Bell prize of China Music (2001); Gold prize of the 9th Guangdong Art Festival; The Excellent Works award in the 6th Music Competition of Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. Zou Hang has also scored for TV and film, including the films Shaking Heaven and Earth, Banker, Team Spirit, Gyantse 1904, Warm Autumn, and Legends of the Seasons. In 2011 he was music director of Cui Jian s symphonic rock concert. FORBIDDEN CITY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Liu Shun Conductor and artistic director Yang Jing Pipa and orchestral leader Shen Cheng Erhu Zhang Zunlian Erhu Zhao Chenwei Sanxian Wei Wei Ruan Jiao Shanlin Percussion Yang Lin Zhang Luo Yuan Yangqin Wang Hua Xiao The Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra (FCCO) comprises leading soloists from China Conservatory, arguably China s most prestigious music school. It has participated in many national music events, and performed in a dozen countries under the auspices of the Oriental Express, a foreign exchange programme of the Chinese Ministry of Culture to promote internationally China s finest artists. The FCCO has been guests of prestigious festivals in Australia (Brisbane and Canberra), New Zealand (Wellington and Auckland), the George Enescu Festival in Romania, the Cervantes Festival in Mexico and the Chinese Festival of Arts in Singapore. The orchestra has published three CDs of traditional music and new compositions. The FCCO s unique position in today s world can be attributed not only to its unique style and exemplary musicianship, but also to the strong cultural consciousness of the musicians. While drawing upon the ancient legacy of Chinese music, the FCCO also emphasises contemporary musical values. The orchestra focuses on the research and renovation of Chinese music, as well as pursuing artistic experimentation, including developing international cultural exchanges. Their mission is to stimulate discussion about how to carry forward the Chinese musical traditions, to cultivate new talents in an innovative way, and to promote creative diversity in Chinese music.
NEW ZEALAND STRING QUARTET Helene Pohl Violin Douglas Beilman Violin Gillian Ansell Viola Rolf Gjelsten Cello Since 1987 the New Zealand String Quartet has been New Zealand s leading chamber ensemble, with a distinguished record of international touring success. Career highlights have included highly-praised debuts in London at the Wigmore Hall, in New York at the prestigious Frick Collection and in Washington s Library of Congress. In recent years the group has toured to Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom on a regular basis as well as performing in Mexico, Curacao, Korea, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and China. 2012 marked the New Zealand String Quartet s 25th anniversary with a New Zealand-wide tour of the complete Beethoven string quartets and a week-long residency of New Zealand arts and music at the Kings Place in London. The Quartet s extensive discography includes the complete Mendelssohn, Bartok and Berg string quartets, works by Ravel, Debussy, Beethoven, Dvorak and Wolf, as well as the premiere recording of the remarkable Zoltan Szekely quartet. Their latest release features the great Schubert String Quartet in G major, D 887 and their next project is a three-cd Brahms set for Naxos. The Quartet s affinity with new music and a strong sense of identity has seen performances and recordings of numerous New Zealand composers. Their collection of works by New Zealand composers, Notes from a Journey, won classical recording of the year at the 2011 New Zealand Music Awards. Their close geographical links to Pacific and Asian cultures is demonstrated in a recent Naxos release Asian Music for String Quartet. In addition the New Zealand String Quartet participates regularly in a number of international chamber music festivals, including a debut at the City of London Festival in 2011. Recent tours include appearances at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, the Festival of the Sound (Ontario), the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Crossbows Festival in Brisbane and the Canberra International Music Festival. Quartet members play a central role as artistic directors of the biennial Adam Chamber Music Festival in Nelson, New Zealand. The group s strong commitment to music education is demonstrated through their annual Adam Summer School programme for young musicians and their residency at Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music. In North America they have been artists/teachers-in-residence at the Banff Centre, Quartet Fest West, and The Quartet Program at Bucknell, Pennsylvania; and in Australia at the Queensland Conservatorium in Brisbane. nzsq.co.nz The New Zealand String Quartet s participation in this project was assisted by funding of the Asia New Zealand Foundation. PROJECT MANAGEMENT Producer (China) Liu Shun Artistic adviser Gao Wei-Jie Producer (New Zealand) Jack Body PROJECT SPONSORS China Conservatory of Music, Beijing Ministry of Culture, China Embassy of the People s Republic of China in New Zealand The Confucius Institute at Victoria University of Wellington