On to China with the BBC Symphony Orchestra ...
Post categories: behind the scenes
|11:28 UK Time, Monday, 24 May 2010
BBC Symphony Orchestra sub-principal viola Phil Hall continues his vivid blog describing life on the orchestra's demanding Far East Tour. The picture below shows the Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre, the spectacular venue for one of the orchestra's tour dates.
As I board the bone-shaking green bus driven by a man who thinks his horn is an accelerator, I kick myself. I had forgotten about the Maglev. Some far-sighted colleagues have seized the opportunity and travelled at 430kmh, floating by magnetic levitation, from Shanghai airport to the city centre in 10 minutes. I am tottering along in an ancient, mephitic bus for way too long. Next time...
CNN tells me that the Icelandic ash cloud has struck again and that spells bad news for the extra percussionists and E-flat clarinet player who are meant to be flying out from the UK to join us in Beijing for Prokofiev 5. We may need to employ local musicians if they can't make it. CNN also tells me that Shanghai is known as the 'Paris of the East', the 'Pearl of the Orient'. It is a vast, vibrant city and our hotel is next to the Oriental Arts Centre where we'll be playing our concert.
As I walk past, touts try and sell me a ticket, excitedly barking: 'BBC, BBC!' I tell them I already have a seat. The hotel is called 'Park View' and as I look at the víew from my room, I muse on the irony, as all I can see is an electricity substation and lots of grey apartment blocks...
We venture out to the subway in the hot and humid night night air. I see glowing kites flying with LEDs on them and also trees dripping with lights and buildings flashing neon advertisements. How China has changed....We board the underground (40p fare, Boris Johnson take note) and at the first stop are immediately made aware of a cultural difference between China and the previous two countries we have visited. I am pushed and elbowed as people rush on and off the train: the interpersonal respect we enjoyed in Japan and Korea doesn't seem to exist here.
We eat in the French Concession district and notice a lot of colonial European-style buildings. The guide book has led us to a restaurant famed for its fish soup and braised bullfrogs. The dishes are actually delicious but all contain industrial amounts of red Szechuan chilli which later cause my bowels to mutiny. We wash it down with Tsing-Tao beer and as we leave we notice the glass cases full of the poor doomed creatures looking all too much like they know their destiny...
The next morning is spent shopping for presents and we visit the old part of this huge city. It's incredible to see how the traditional and modern co-exist: quiet, narrow alleyways full of bicycles, washing lines, kittens and street food contrast with the buzzing high rise and endless traffic of modern Shanghai. We haggle with the hawkers whose English is surprisingly good and lunch on tripe soup - a good hangover cure, so I'm told...
The concert hall is large and excellent; beforehand, a speech from the mayor of Shanghai is weirdly punctuated by bursts of Star Wars-type music. Our famous guest clarinet soloist, Sabine Meyer, catches me out in the Mozart concerto as she does an unscheduled encore. 'Bar 60,' conductor Jirí hisses hastily, but Sabine has already started playing and I'm momentarily thrown and start in the last movement... only she is playing the second...
After the concert there is a themed party back at the hotel. These have become a tradition on lengthy tours and provide some light relief. This time the theme was 'S' so there were spacemen, surfers, a schoolmaster, Simon Cowell and a surgeon to name but a few. Amongst the prizewinners were Sooty & Sweep and principal bass, Paul Marrion, bravely sporting just his swimming trunks! The viola section, as always in these things, distinguished itself.
We fly north to Beijing and at the check-in my suitcase is opened and the chef's knife I bought in Tokyo is inspected. Pity, as it was beautifully gift-wrapped. Fortunately I can still keep it. Leader Stephen Bryant is also stopped for possession of a razor. 'Who doesn't carry a razor?' I asked rhetorically. 'You, by the looks of things...' says the general manager, eyeing my stubble. We learn on landing that, through no fault of his own, Jirí has missed the flight and I wonder if this will impact on the rehearsal. It's a sweltering 37 degrees Celsius and we are relieved to meet our other colleagues required for Prokofiev 5. Thanks to the ash cloud they've had a 24hr journey from London but are in good spirits.
I notice that there is a gas mask in my wardrobe. That's a first.
It was always going to be a difficult day and as we settle down for the 5.30 rehearsal at Beijing's flagship National Centre for the Performing Arts, news comes in that Jirí is still stuck in traffic and won't make it in time, so we just touch a little of Tippett's Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli by ourselves and check that we have enough space and call it a day.
The concert went well and the audience particularly enjoyed the final Chinese encore, ´Beautiful Night´. We disappear into one and have a final extraordinary Chinese meal near Tiananmen Square before leaving for Taiwan tomorrow at 7am. What a country...
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