Quartet pluck at the heartstrings

Chinese songs arranged by violinist and composer Yi-Wen Jiang (front) are on the Shanghai Quartet's programme with works by Brahms and Shostakovich.

Prepare yourself for a performance dripping with emotion when the Shanghai Quartet take the Town Hall stage tonight, if the Buffalo News critic is to be believed.

And, if the group's Wellington performance last weekend is anything to go by, we are in for one of the concerts of the season.

The quartet notches up its 22nd anniversary this year, and violinist Yi-Wen Jiang is pleased to be returning to New Zealand after seven years, "away from the heat of New Jersey".

Dividing their time between the United States, where they are based at the University of Richmond, and China, where they work at Shanghai Conservatory and, from November, Beijing, Jiang enjoys teaching, although Chinese students can have their limitations.

"They are like machines that can do anything," explains Jiang, "They can play as fast, as in tune, as beautiful as anybody but they don't know how to make a beautiful phrase."

While he explains this as coming from a lack of a broader knowledge of Western culture, he does admit that "young students tend to be better players.

"Some seem to stop growing when they reach a certain age."

It is the new generation that benefits from China's lax enforcement of copyright laws, which is one of the country's greatest problems.

"When we were students we would spend more than $100 to get one copy of a Heifetz or Perlman recording," Jiang says. "Now, students can go to the black market, spend about $1 and get a complete copy of anything.

"It's amazing. There are DVDs of concerts from 20 years ago. Only now are we able to see them, and sometimes I wish I could go back in time because I could have learned much more."

Despite this moment of whimsy, these musicians do not live in the past. They enjoy and promote contemporary Chinese composers, such as Tan Dun, Chen Yi and Bright Sheng, and the group's CD of Sheng's quartets has just been released by BIS records.

"Sheng is one of the most gifted young composers today," enthuses Jiang. "I love his music, although it can be very difficult to play. It requires such stamina and strength.

"You look at a score and you see three pages of triple forte. I put on a new set of strings before the recording session and, after the first day, they were already dead.

"You look at your bow and only half the hair is left and still he's yelling at us, 'Louder, louder'."

Jiang is also a composer and tonight we will hear extracts from his Chinasong, 24 arrangements of Chinese songs, collected by a friend during the Cultural Revolution.

"His first reaction was, 'My God, what a discovery'. Early on, the decision was made not to use traditional Chinese instruments, such as erhu or pipa.

"I wanted to do something that anybody can play, completely Western in style but based on Chinese melodies.

"They are so beautiful and powerful. Last year in China we did the entire Beethoven cycle, but the encores of Chinasong erased the whole concert.

"Afterwards, people only wanted to talk about Chinasong while we were wanting to ask, 'What about our Beethoven'?"

With Brahms and Shostakovich also on tonight's programme, Jiang admits that Shostakovich's Third is "one of his greatest. It's got a lot of humour, big contrasts and a slow movement that is so profound."

Did he feel that the Russian composer's subtle dissidence struck a chord with him after his experiences in China?

"I can see the connection, but the difference is that Shostakovich really tried to make a point. He suffered and he wanted the world to know.

"Chinese music doesn't reflect that kind of feeling. Even with music written during the Cultural Revolution you don't have the hatred and suffering.

"Somehow, the composers managed to express themselves differently. They were always looking for something, longing for hope."

* The Shanghai Quartet is at Auckland Town Hall, tonight at 8pm