China And The Philharmonic, In Harmony

SHANGHAI — In a chilly classroom at Shanghai Datong High School, the New York Philharmonic musician counted out, “One, two, one, two” in Taiwanese-accented Mandarin. A dozen student violinists sawed out a theme from Bizet’s “Carmen,” laughing nervously when asked if they would like to go a bit slower.

Overtures to North Korea; selling concerts like burgers; and other reports from Daniel J. Wakin in Shanghai.

The musician, the violinist Mei-Ching Huang, was one of five Philharmonic players coaching groups of pupils from the Datong orchestra on Wednesday before a student concert conducted by the Philharmonic’s music director, Lorin Maazel.

The Philharmonic was making its debut appearance in Shanghai, and it was far more than a simple in-and-out pair of concerts. A local television personality conducted an on-camera interview with Mr. Maazel. The orchestra took part in an education program with a number of schools. The visit made the papers. Audiences rewarded the orchestra with robust ovations.

It was the kind of reception not always given the Philharmonic at home, where it has to compete with the loud hum of major international orchestras regularly passing through New York.

“It astounds me that we’ve never been to this cultural capital before,” Zarin Mehta, the orchestra’s president, told a news conference of mostly Chinese journalists. “We’re thrilled to be here.”

The Shanghai sojourn, coming after visits to Taiwan and Hong Kong, was a final bit of calm on the orchestra’s Asian tour. The players were to travel on Saturday to Beijing, the staging ground for the ballyhooed journey to the hermetic, rigidly controlled nation of North Korea for a concert on Tuesday, a trip that was producing some anxiety among them.

The focus in Shanghai was on the concerts, on Wednesday and Thursday. The Philharmonic was one of only a few major international orchestras not to have played here, and the appearances were two years in the making, said Qian Shi Jin, the artistic director of the Shanghai Grand Theater. The orchestra came to China in 2002, but because of time constraints had to choose between Shanghai and Beijing, and the capital won out, Philharmonic officials said.

The English-language Shanghai Daily said the debut was “warmly anticipated,” even though the Philharmonic “has recently been hailed by New York magazine as ‘the most boring major orchestra in America.’ ” But the article went on to say that The New Yorker had found “signs of life” in it.

The first program, on Wednesday, was pure meat and potatoes: Beethoven’s “Coriolan” Overture, Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” Symphony.

The audience members were considerably younger than most of those at Avery Fisher Hall, the orchestra’s home. A man in his 20s wore a T-shirt, a young woman in a fur-collared coat holding his arm. Several people wore stylish leather jackets. Sober suits were the uniforms for a clutch of city and local Communist Party officials.

The modern Shanghai Grand Theater rises steeply in the back and has a deep stage, with an acoustic shell above. A buzzing, possibly from the air circulation system or from lights, lay over soft moments. Applause was modest for the pieces on the program, although ovations grew during three rousing encores, including the prelude from Act III of Wagner’s “Lohengrin,” a preview of the Pyongyang program in Korea.

Illuminated signs on screens attached to the sides of the hall flashed during the final notes of movements, asking the audience not to clap between them. The instructions were followed. But with no message at the end of the “Pathétique,” applause started well before the somber last chord had died away.

Earlier in the day Philharmonic musicians fanned out to five schools to coach students. Among them were Datong, a century-old high school considered one of the best in the city; a school serving the children of expatriates; and a vocational school. Shanghai conservatory students lent a hand.

In a separate project Philharmonic musicians guided students in composing their own works using traditional Chinese instruments and the Western ones played by the orchestra. One boy demonstrated a shen, an ancient mouth organ, to a fascinated Peter Kenote, a violist in the orchestra.

Such educational activities are increasingly becoming part of the agenda of orchestra tours. Last November the Berlin Philharmonic took up residence in New York for several weeks and worked extensively with public-school children.

At Datong the Philharmonic deployed three Chinese-speaking members.

Ms. Huang announced at the outset that she was Taiwanese, in case the students had trouble understanding her accent. She later said she felt no political overtones in coaching children from the mainland, given the sensitive relationship between the mainland and her country.

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