Concert pays tribute to a brilliant composer

Aconcert featuring the works of Russia-born Jewish composer Aaron Avshalomov (1894-1964), commemorating his 130th birthday, took place on Sept 12 at the Shanghai Symphony Hall. Conducted by the composer's grandson, David Avshalomov, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra opened the evening with his best-known piece, Peiping Hutongs.

The audience was treated to a unique audio feast including familiar Peking Opera tunes, a bustle at a marketplace, and even a solemn funeral procession, giving them a vibe of life in Beijing's byways and broadways from dawn to dusk.

Peiping Hutongs is widely recognized as one of Aaron Avshalomov's most iconic works. Previously, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra took this piece in 2017 to Switzerland, playing at the Lucerne Festival, one of the leading international classical music festivals.

Aaron Avshalomov was born in Siberia, Russia, and came to China in 1918. He lived in Beijing for several years, and settled in Shanghai in 1929, where he kicked off a prolific music career before leaving for the United States to join his family in 1947.

He created a synthesis of Chinese musical elements and Western techniques of orchestra composition, including several operas based on Chinese folklore and historical figures, such as Kuan Yin, The Twilight Hour of Yan Kuei Fei, and The Great Wall.

Many of his important works were premiered in Shanghai, receiving widespread critical acclaim.

The Great Wall, for example, was sponsored by Soong Ching Ling, the wife of Sun Yat-sen, a pioneering Chinese revolutionary leader, and her younger sister Soong Mei-ling, and was highly praised and recommended by leading figures in the literary and art scene, such as Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang, playwright Xia Yan and director Fei Mu.

In 1935, Aaron Avshalomov was requested by renowned Chinese musician He Lyuting to orchestrate the theme song composer Nie Er produced for a movie about Chinese fighting against the Japanese aggression in 1935. This made him the first to orchestrate what would become the national anthem of the People's Republic of China — March of the Volunteers.

Aaron Avshalomov's son, Jacob, was born in Qingdao, Shandong province, in 1919, but spent most of his childhood in Shanghai. He returned to the US with his mother in December 1937. Jacob Avshalomov studied composition and became a composer in the US.

However, his most important work was with the Portland Youth Philharmonic, which he conducted for 44 years, teaching youngsters to play like professionals. The orchestra was "for a long time the best youth orchestra in the US, maybe in the world", David Avshalomov said about his late father, who died in 2013.

Jacob Avshalomov compiled the correspondence with his father while he was in China, and wrote a family biography, Avshalomovs' Winding Way: Composers out of China — A Chronicle, published in 2008.

Friends familiar with Jacob Avshalomov's career described him as a person "speaking Chinese with standard Beijing accent" and "a pillar of the city's cultural life". The city here refers to Portland, Oregon.

"This double autobiography assembles the letters of Aaron with a narrative by Jacob to tell in their own words how two very different people overcame daunting obstacles and brought great music to appreciative audiences in China and America," reads a review by George Alderson, who used to perform in the Portland Youth Philharmonic, on Amazon.

Through music, now the family linage with China has extended to David Avshalomov, an American classical composer and conductor. This is his second visit to China. The last time was in 1982, when he visited Beijing, Xi'an, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Shanghai.

David Avshalomov's interpretation on Sept 12 was praised by Tao Xin, professor of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, as "filled with longing and strong emotions". Tao also praised the second piece, Violin Concerto in D Major, featuring soloist Liu Ming, concertmaster of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. He wrote in his review the next day, saying "with her superb techniques and delicate musicality, Liu Ming and the orchestra presented the glory, joy and peacefulness of traditional Chinese culture".

Prior to the concert, David Avshalomov visited the former Pathe Villa, the old venue of Pathe Recordings in Shanghai, where his grandfather Aaron Avshalomov used to work, and where the first recording of March of the Volunteers was made.

To prepare the concert, David Avshalomov said he spent hundreds of hours to renew his memories by reading history books and listening to old soundtracks, in particular, the version recorded in 1937 in Shanghai which his grandfather might be on the recording site.

He also said he was moved by, and appreciated, the people who knew his grandfather and described him as a kind and generous person.