 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: kdk
Date: 2016-11-21 07:55
There was an interesting article in today's Philadelphia Inquirer about the Philadelphia Orchestra's historic cultural exchange trip to China in 1973.
http://tinyurl.com/hjuqkoj
Maybe only interesting to me because it's my hometown orchestra but...
Karl
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Author: clarinetguy ★2017
Date: 2016-11-21 11:02
Karl, thanks for posting this. Very interesting article! I remember Nixon's historic visit to China very well.
There is a bit more to this story, and it's found in Harold Schonberg's Facing the Music (the article, "Will a Hundred Composers Bloom?" originally appeared in the September 23, 1973 New York Times). Schonberg, senior music critic for many years at the Times, accompanied the orchestra on their visit. He describes meeting Li Teh Lun, conductor of the Central Philharmonic Society of Peking (Beijing), and mentions a party given by members of the Beijing orchestra for their visitors. He then discusses the Chinese orchestra's rehearsal of . . . Beethoven's Fifth! At the rehearsal, Li was quite eager to demonstrate his conducting abilities. He was enthusiastic, but clearly not in Ormandy's league, conducting the opening notes as a triplet. After the first movement, he turned things over to Ormandy, and the results showed the difference between a good conductor and a great one.
I was fortunate to see Ormandy conduct on a couple occasions. The first time was at Tanglewood in the early 70s as a guest conductor of the Boston Symphony. The second time was in the late 70s when the Philadelphia Orchestra visited Michigan State University.
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