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On Nov. 14, renowned violinist Siqing Lü, the first Chinese musician to win the Paganini International Violin Competition, gave his Harvard recital debut in a fully-packed Paine Hall. The program, titled “Strings of Splendor,” also featured pianist Derek Wang, a Creative Enterprise Fellow at Juilliard and winner of the New York Liszt Competition.
The evening’s repertoire unfolded in two parts. The first half showcased two pillars of the Western musical canon: Antonín Dvořák’s “Sonatina in G Major for Violin and Piano” and César Franck’s “Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano.” After intermission, the tone shifted towards shorter works, including two famous pieces in the Chinese music tradition: “The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto” and “Sunshine on Tashkurgan.”
The concert was presented by Boston International Media Consulting with support from Hainan Airlines, Mass Cultural Council, Harvard University, the Harvard Chinese Students and Scholars Association, the United Chinese American Community Foundation and the New England Chinese American Alliance. Among the audience were distinguished guests including Isaí Jess Muñoz, president of National Opera Association and Chair of Vocal Arts at Boston Conservatory at Berkley, Shujun Huang, a music producer and songwriter, and Tao He, an erhu virtuoso. The pairing of Western canon classical music and Chinese repertoires created a night of recollection and resonance.
The evening’s programming reflected intentional curation taking cultural experience into consideration.
“This time, I mainly wanted to present a collision between Western classical music and Chinese classical music — a fusion of East and West,” Lü said in an interview with The Crimson. “Because there will be many Chinese music lovers in the audience, I wanted to let them experience this kind of fusion and the differences in Western music. Additionally, there will be foreign friends, and I also wanted to let them experience the charm of Chinese classical music.”
There was a sense that as the concert entered the second act, the concert hall became more lively, as the music became more familiar to the many Asian-American and Chinese audience members.
“The experience is different during the first half and the second half,” said Yihan Xie, a Chinese master’s student in Harvard’s Regional Studies East Asian Program. “For example, the first half is more serious for the songs and for the next half is more familiar for Chinese audiences like Liang Zhu (“The Butterfly Lovers”).”
“It gathered momentum and force as we got deeper into the concert,” Eugene Y. Wang, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art, said.
For many, the emotional centerpiece of the night was indeed “The Butterfly Lovers” violin concerto, or “Liang Zhu” in Chinese, a composition based on a tragic Eastern Jin period love story in which a couple who could not fulfill their love on earth transform into butterflies to be reunited after death. The work has long been synonymous with Lü’s artistic identity.
“When people mention Lü Siqing, their first impression is Liang Zhu. People always mention him as the best performer of Liang Zhu,” Xie said.
For pianist Derek Wang, performing Chinese repertoire carried personal meaning.
“It does mean more to me, because even though I was born in the States in this area, grew up here, but I know that this is music that I can feel how my parents react to it when I hear it, and especially tonight, it’s very meaningful to do that, because just the fact that we all share it in our heritage is very meaningful for me, and so that I can take part in it is very beautiful,” Wang said.
Lü’s performance has accompanied a generation of young Chinese violin learners, many of whom grew up listening to his music.
“I still remember that during my study of violin in my childhood, I watched Lü Siqing’s concert and his practice is like the example all the time,” Xie said.
For some, the performance stirred memory as much as aesthetic appreciation.
“It was just emotionally so powerful and resonated and brought back to all that memory, one growing up listening to it each time you gain a new feeling, a new sensation,” Eugene Wang said.
Lü spoke of the importance of finding points of fusion with Western classical music when bringing Chinese music to the international stage.
“This is very important, because dialogue on an equal platform is what matters most,” Lü said. “We need to be able to take our excellent ethnic musical materials and write very good pieces with them, while also presenting them within an internationally recognized musical system.”
Above all, the night brings out a collective euphoria, sharing a common experience, memory and feeling to the music.
“After all, music is experience. It is tied to a particular mode of experience. It is tied to a reservoir of memories. So you can't really attach yourself and say there’s this totally objective kind of repertoire of canonical music masterpieces,” Eugene Wang said.
The program concluded to thunderous applause and a standing ovation, to which Lü responded with four passionate encores.
What followed felt more like a celebration: Lü received a Massachusetts Governor’s citation recognizing his contributions to global cultural exchange, followed by the gift of a Harvard flag from Yolanda Dong Siyang, and then a surprise birthday celebration with cake.
As the hall dimmed, the audience members were asked to light the room with phone flashlights while singing “Happy Birthday.”
“[When] the host asked all of the audience to turn on the flashlight, I felt very confused because I had never seen it before in a classical concert. It’s kind of like the fan culture in East Asia, like everyone likes how to support your idol, I feel a little bit like that,” Xie said.
Lü’s performance brought back generational memories of many Asian-American and Chinese audience members who resonated with the music. The attempt to bring Chinese repertoire alongside with Western classical music was welcomed by many, bridging cultures and communities.
—Staff writer Dailan Xu can be reached at dailan.xu@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @Dailansusie.
