Original title: Music Critic | In front of this viola, many violinists may be ashamed
Faced with such a performance, many violinists should be ashamed, this is not to attract attention. After listening to the recital of the viola player Median in the concert hall of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra on September 6, 2022, the performance gave me the most intuitive feeling.
Some time ago, Mediyan was the talk of the country when he was chosen as principal viola by the Berlin Philharmonic. Not only is he the first Chinese musician to enter the Berlin Philharmonic, but he has also become the principal in one step, and domestic music fans are naturally very concerned. In fact, Mediyan has previously become the principal viola of the Munich Philharmonic. The two orchestras are both top-level, but the Berlin Philharmonic is more famous and has some unique meanings.
During Mediyan’s “Munich period”, he had already come to Shanghai to give a recital. It was very difficult to return to China in the post-epidemic era. But when the performer finally took the stage at the Shanghai Grand Theater, I sighed that he was a contemporary performer who “must be heard”. At present, many people’s understanding of top band leaders is still quite insufficient. It seems that they are the principal, but they are still not soloists. In fact, a first-class band leader not only needs to have the skills of a soloist, but also needs to have a broad range of styles and profound cultivation.
Nowadays, the operation mode of the classical recording industry has also been changed by the fast-moving consumer culture, and many soloists who have come into the spotlight are not worthy of their name. But to be the leader of a first-class band, it is impossible to tolerate falsehoods, let alone top powerhouses like the Munich Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic. Now that the performance market has just picked up, it is the second time for Mediyang to hold a recital in Shanghai. Before that, he also played the concerto in the two opening performances of the new season. After listening to the recital, I once once more felt that this is not only a world-class musician, but also an irreplaceable musician. “Level” is relatively quantifiable, and a unique individual cannot be replicated.
Why is it that many violinists should be ashamed in front of Mediyan, the violinist? It is because of the sophistication and taste that Mediyan displays in his performances that break through the limitations of the instrument and reveal certain universals—aesthetics that apply to all string performances.
The violin is the most flexible instrument in the violin family. Both the cello and the viola matured as solo instruments later than the violin, especially the viola. “Playing as flexibly as a violin” is one of the technical goals of solo viola and cello. What Mediyan has done is a kind of transcendence: first of all, he gives full play to the performance of the viola, especially its unique and fascinating sound quality. The violinist’s beautiful stringed voice, many famous predecessors who have already entered the annals of history, can’t overshadow him. The singing lines thus outlined are the ideal combination of high skill and taste.
Although the viola has a beautiful timbre, it is easy to play a “sharp” sound, and it is more awkward to change the position than the violin and cello, and it is more difficult to control the pitch. This is the natural limitation of musical instruments, and in Mediyan’s hands, such limitations seem to “do not exist”. That unique sound, which blends warmth and a certain degree of muted sound, has been refined by him to the top contemporary sensual beauty. The timbre is so rich, and the sound quality is like a human voice; in a large concert hall, there is also a good transmission, and the texture will not be lost due to pushing up the force. The soft voice can also be transmitted far, which is not easy.
Although he did not choose dazzling repertoires as a whole, in some passages, watching Mediyan’s left hand galloping on the fretboard and hearing his ideal pitch and clarity of notes, he might only sigh that contemporary Among the violin soloists who are skilled in skills, there are very few who can have such a degree of skill completion. From this, we can appreciate the second level of transcendence presented by Mediyan in his performance: breaking through the limitations of musical instruments with hard skills is only the beginning, how to use skills with taste to bring musical performance to a higher level , is the core of his attention.
It is true that quantifiable skills such as intonation and clarity are still lacking in handling by “star” performers. But to really reach the peak, the complementary improvement of skills and taste is the only way. And this, we need to combine the repertoire of Mediyan’s recital, and briefly talk regarding the details of the performance.
The repertoire arrangement of his recital is very wonderful. The first half is a viola arrangement of Shostakovich’s “Gadfly” suite (arranged by V. Borisovsky, a total of three movements), with Brahms’ “Gadfly” suite. Viola Sonata No. 2; the second half with a modern piece, Garth Knox’s “A Man’s Quartet”, with a lesser romantic work, York Bowen’s Viola Sonata No. 1.
“One Man Quartet”
The traditional Russian lyric, with German-Austrian romantic classics, interesting new solo works, and old works that need to be rediscovered. Due to space limitations, I chose the most representative work to talk regarding, which is Lao Xiao’s piece.
In his first (Shanghai) recital, Mediyan played an arrangement of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Julia, which is still fresh in his memory. Comparing the old Xiao this time, we will have a deeper understanding of his performance, where is the advanced level? Both works, in their time, show a traditional style, especially when it comes to lyricism. The artistic characters of the two composers are completely different. Mediyan can grasp such deep differences, and then make detailed distinctions in performance.
In the first movement of “Gadfly”, the performer seems to want to make an independent division of the aesthetic qualities of each string, and then merge them into an outstanding whole. The richness of the bass strings fills the space of the concert hall, but there is no exaggerated “thickness”, and the high notes are thin and bright, but perfectly avoid the trap of “sharp” sound. Slim sound quality can also control large venues. In the second movement, Mediyang pushed the beauty of lyrical melody to a contemporary peak.
Moreover, this is probably not only the peak level of the viola, but in the overall string aesthetic system, the performance of such lyrical melody can also represent an aesthetic height today. Three things are important:
1. Outstandingly shaping the character of the sound. This movement has a lot of lyricism, a kind of depressive dark color, but it always entangles all aspects of the music. Mediyan first played a characteristic bel canto, the characteristics of which are completely set according to the work.
2. Unification of sound quality. This is what particularly makes me feel that many violinists should be ashamed. Nowadays, the “on-off” vibrato has become a disease of the times, so many people do not understand that avoiding this disease does not mean that it must be continuously kneaded, but kneading and non-kneading, various levels and speeds of vibrato. , there must be an overall aesthetic unity.
Expressing the repressed “chic” lyricism that accompanies this movement, Mediyang sometimes rubs the strings very richly and movingly, and sometimes does not rub them at all, enhancing the emotion of certain passages with sharper acoustic shapes. But these very different techniques can eventually be seamlessly integrated in tone and expression. The viola is more difficult to control than the violin, but some violin “stars”, not to mention taste, are also much less controllable than Mediyan. Faced with such a performance, they should be ashamed.
3. Structural performance and style distinction. To describe this movement with many long lines and complex situations, how the performer balances the lyricism and the stability of the structure is a test of self-cultivation. Mediyan freely pursues a certain golden ratio. When the density of emotional expression is almost impossible to add, the connection of the phrases is still so appropriate, and there is no exaggerated part of “sprinkling dog blood”. Of course, creating such a strong expression is inseparable from the extraordinary bowing skills of the performer.
And when he puts it all together, we see “style”. The general-style lyricism in the last recital was more of a sharp and sarcastic blend of rhythm, but this time Lao Xiao has introduced the beauty into a somber, complex and indescribable emotion. These two kinds of beauty have a distinct Russian temperament, which is completely different from the romance of Western Europe, but the differences between them are the most delicate things, and they cannot be made big when playing. This kind of style distinction is that from the trivial test of technique to the macroscopic examination of the work, Mediyan’s performance is impeccable.
Therefore, we will not be curious as to why this performer can express the mainstream lyricism of the German-Austrian Romantics so appropriately and tastefully in Brahms’ sonatas. And how he moved from the expression of “interesting” to the exploration of the artistic charm of performance in his interesting new contemporary works.Return to Sohu, see more
