Musical class burnished in the heat of the moment

A tenor and a pianist hit the road with some classical favorites, Chen Nan reports.

As if giving a musical recital were not pressure enough, when the tenor Shi Yijie and the pianist Chen Sa prepared to perform in Changsha on Sept 12, a little drama was simmering away that threatened to turn the proceedings into an operatic minidrama.

It was hot in the capital of Hunan, and inside the Changsha Concert Hall the air conditioning had decided to go on strike. As everybody awaited Shi's grand entry, the hall was steaming and aflutter with program sheets that members of the audience had turned into fans.

"I planned to perform about 20 Chinese art songs but wasn't sure whether the audience was going to enjoy it till the end," says Shi, who is a winner of international vocal music competitions and performing at major international opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera of New York, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Teatro La Fenice in Venice.

"It wasn't just that they might not know the songs I was singing, but that it was really hot inside that hall. I was nervous."

Once Shi and Chen appeared, the fluttering stopped, and the pair's performance received a warm reception appropriate to the occasion. Some in the audience were music school teachers, who told Shi they were keen to learn about Chinese art songs so they could teach them to their students, something that added to Shi's elation after he and Chen managed to negotiate this technology-induced scare.

The concert in Changsha was the first stop of a nationwide tour by Shi and Chen that runs until April and takes place in cities including Xi'an, Shanghai and Chongqing.

The tour is in support of a new album, titled Zhongguo Yishu Gequ (Chinese Art Songs), which was released on Nov 19. It was the first collaboration of Shi and Chen. The album, featuring a total of 20 songs, roughly follows the chronological order as a clue to the composers, something Shi had long wanted to do.

After COVID-19 broke out early last year, he, like many singers worldwide, had to cancel his performances, which allowed him to devote a lot of time to the album.

"Chinese art songs have always been an essential part of Chinese music," he says. "Though I've been performing roles in Western operas, I have always had a deep love and affection for Chinese art songs."

The first composer who came to his mind as he was preparing his album was Huang Zi (1904-38), whose songs, including Mei Gui San Yuan (Three Wishes of a Rose) and Si Xiang Qu (Homesickness), were featured on the album.

Shi was born in Chuansha, Shanghai, as was Huang, which has naturally given him some affinity with the composer. Huang was trained at Oberlin College in Ohio and at Yale University and returned to China in 1929. He was one of the most important Chinese composers and a renowned music educator.

"When I did research on art songs Huang Zi composed I was impressed by the beauty of the lyrics as well as the melodies," says Shi, who later expanded the album's repertoire by researching more Chinese composers' art songs and recording them. These include: Qiu Ye (Autumn Night) and Wang Yun (Staring At The Clouds) by Lin Shengxi; Si Ren He Zai (Where Is She) by Huang Yongxi; and Hong Dou Ci (Song of the Red Bean) by Liu Xue'an.

Lin Shengxi was a student of Huang Zi, Shi says.

"He also developed his own music style. For example, Autumn Night was composed when Lin was living in Hong Kong in 1957. He portrayed a sense of tranquility with the song. Lin's other song Staring At The Clouds was composed in 1937 shortly after he moved to Hong Kong, in which he expressed his homesickness. When I learned about the stories behind each song I gained a new insight into each of them, and this helps me to sing them better."