Music from China – Erhu-Cello Duo (9/15/18)

Wang Guowei, erhu; Michael Katz, cello

Reflections (2018) – Wang Guowei
River Songs (2001) – I. The River Spirit; II. Da Shosho; III. To the Western Frontier – A Farewell Song – Yang Yong
Raindrops Falling on Palm Leaves (2018) – Arr. W. Guowei
Taiwan Song (2018) – Arr. W. Guowei
Songs from the Mountain (2018) – Arr. W. Guowei
Gobi Polyphony (2003) – Lei Liang
Taiping Drum (1983) – Zhou Long

Eh, what? Erhu? The erhu is a Chinese two-stringed instrument sometimes referred to as a stick fiddle. It dates back thousands of years, is long and skinny, with a small resonating sound box at its bottom, and is a bowed instrument, although it is also sometimes plucked, pizzicato style. It teamed very well with the cello on Saturday afternoon. Mr. Guowei played on three different erhus, though I’m not entirely sure what the differences were.

Reflections had elements of the folk music of China but it also reminded me a bit of southern country-style fiddling. It was interesting even though it meandered a bit. There were some very playful touches at the end.

The three movements of River Songs ended up more like two, since the second and third are played without a pause (the printed program even says so). The first two were a mix of avant-garde sounds mixed with folk-style tunes and phrases. The second was brisker than the first, and Mr. Guowei changed erhus in the middle, while the third was slightly mournful, perhaps highlighting the farewell. In general, the erhu and the cello were equal partners and matched each other in the style of playing—the erhu is just a little more exotic sounding.

OK, it’s slight-bone-to-pick time. The printed program had a brief description
of each piece. On Saturday, an Asian woman (the director of some program/
organization) came out before each piece and read the description—but she was soft spoken and did not use a microphone. It got very tedious very quickly, especially since I had already taken the time to read them before the concert began.

Raindrops was an arrangement of a Cantonese tune and reminded me of Irish or Scottish fiddling, but that’s pretty much the same the world over, right? The song, though, was a little easier to listen to than some of the others. After two interruptions (what sounded like a video interrupting someone’s web surfing—and a phone call, that a guy actually took!), the third time was the charm. Taiwan Song was gentle, almost hymn-like, and easily my favorite of the afternoon. Charming.

The rest of the program featured more of the same fiddling sounds, avant-garde sounds, folk song sounds, and some rather amusing representations of bird calls. But there was just too much sameness for me. I appreciated the techniques and talent. Not so much the music itself. I liked hearing the erhu, and it would be great to hear it again, in a program with a little more variety.

The very responsive audience brought the duo out for an encore that was more of the same. I high-tailed it out of there in case there was a second encore (there was not).

ConcertMeister