Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra 2009 Asian Tour

Greetings from China! As of this writing the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has played two concerts here, and had some time to see sights in and around the Beijing area. Even after three days, however, jet lag is still a powerful force. With apologies for the naps which have delayed the posting of this blog, welcome to our trip!

After immigration and customs at the airport, the first introduction to Beijing was the amazing amount of rush hour traffic, significant in a city of 16 million.

The route into town took us past the 2008 Olympic village and the main venue, the "Bird's Nest." Flowers in the foreground are roses, planted for miles at the sides of the main road into town.

In 1987, during the PSO's first visit here, locomotion was almost exclusively by bicycle. Cars have become prevalent in the country's new economy and lifestyle, but there are still many cycles which make for a complicated and varied mix of traffic.

New sleek glass buildings tower over traditional structures with pagoda tiled roofs.

The locals say that the national bird is not the crane, as seen in this example, an incense burner in the Forbidden City...

...but this type of crane, on the outskirts of the capital. The city is divided into concentric rings, the epicenter being the Forbidden City, or as is now known, the Palace Museum. No building in the first ring is taller than those within the Palace. As the rings progress outward, structures may be progressively higher, which is why astonishingly tall apartment complexes are being put up almost as far out as the airport.

A good way to relax after the travel: have tea! The Chinese version of afternoon tea is brewed with far different equipment than its British counterpart, but the result is the same, a delicious and revitalizing beverage.

After the long flight from Pittsburgh, orchestra members had a day off. High on everyone’s list of things to see was the Palace Museum (Forbidden City). Here the north gate beckons. This entrance lets into the most private area of the royal compound.

The fantastic array of color still surviving on the Palace buildings is a mystery until close inspection, when the surfaces exposed to the weather prove to be meticulously formed glazed ceramic tiles.

Interior ceilings, shielded from the elements, are more often painted/gilded wood...

...and fantastic designs abound, most often decorated with the emperor’s dragon motif, and the motif of the empress, the phoenix.

Also iconic are the regal Foo dogs. Pairs of these guardians are found at the entrance to major buildings on the Palace grounds. Here the male sits, his right front paw on a globe...

...and the female Foo guardian rests her left front paw on the belly of a cub.

Every element of the vast grounds is decorated, from the central massive marble walkway reserved only for the Emperor himself, and the surrounding marble balconies and pillars...

...to the ends of the roof lines themselves. The fanciful figures which march down the corners of every roof in the compound were thought to ward off lightening, a big threat to the temples whose basic structure was wood. Preceded by a large dragon, the line of alert lions and griffons is headed by an Emperor astride a hen, quite a demeaning mount. Evidently one ruler was hanged from a similar roof corner by dissatisfied contemporaries. The omnipresent symbol of shame located at the scene of that emperor’s demise served to remind subsequent leaders of their duty to act responsibly.

Between the sightseeing came our first rehearsal at the beautiful new concert hall, nicknamed “The Egg”. Outside it is a huge oval dome completely surrounded by a water moat. Entrances to the building are all tunnels going under the moat. The concert hall in which the PSO played is lined with wonderful textures and natural colors. The second violins are seated to the right of the podium for this tour.

Cellists Anne Williams and Mischa Istomin chat before the rehearsal.

Violist Andrew Wickesberg smiles for our cameraman!

So does principal trumpet George Vosburgh!

Thoughtful concentration in the faces of violists Erin Laraby-Goldwasser...

...Joen Vasquez...

...and bassist Micah Howard.

Principal clarinet Michael Rusinek chats with a colleague as he prepares for rehearsal. In the background stage technician Jim Petri finishes setting up the stage. The floor of the stage has built in hydraulic risers, so extremely flexible adjustments were possible for the PSO’s onstage configuration.

A closeup of the workings of one of the PSO’s new valve trumpets. Instead of pistons which are pressed down, these instruments change pitch via valves which rotate. The instruments were made in Vienna by the firm of Schagerl, and are pitched in the key of C. Players describe the sound of these instruments as warm and round.

On the way back to the hotel after rehearsal we noticed what seemed to be the PSO logo on our bus’s sunshade! It turns out to be the logo of the glass/sunshade manufacturer, and indeed, on closer inspection we saw that the center element of our own logo was missing here.

Arriving at the hotel we also saw this sign. No trumpets allowed? No, just no honking, please!

Enter image description for imWhen the PSO appeared in Beijing in 1987 we performed the first concert in this small hall, now almost dwarfed by the construction around it.age (026Old Hall.jpg)

In great contrast is the new Beijing Concert Hall, rising mysteriously from the ground behind extensive landscaping. The new hall is just down the street from the old one. If one walks further down the street one comes to Tiananmen Square and the Old Imperial Palace, or Forbidden City.

There is a fascinating array of two-wheeled vehicles here. Since Beijing is so flat it is an ideal location for cycling. Here a road worker goes to his job.

Part of the orchestra undertook a trip to the Great Wall on the first day off here. Climbing the steep inclines gave us great admiration for the people who built and worked here as guardians of the empire. The very first set of steps was a doozie!

Like some prehistoric dragon lying along the ridges of the mountains, the Great Wall snakes along in fantastic curves and angles.

Hikers puffing up the unequal and sometimes daunting (half meter high!) steps are eventually rewarded with a downslope, followed by, yes, more stairs.

At even intervals watch towers were built along the wall. Signal fires enabled swift communication down the line, and the towers themselves provided a physical block to invaders who might run quickly along the top. Even here the aesthetic combines with practical. Fanciful griffons and dragons guard the corners of the roof, protecting it from lightening. Violist Erin Laraby-Goldwasser walks with a friend through the small plaza.

The interiors of the towers were spare, with small places for fires, but very little in the way of protection from the elements. Winters must have been bone chilling for the soldiers on guard here.

Violinists Jeremy and Kate Black pose in front of the Wall’s crenellations.

Personnel Manager Kelvin Hill waves from near the bottom of the last run of steps. Like the beginning of this portion of the wall, the stairs were incredibly steep. Going down took concentration as well, each step being a slightly different height.