I recently heard an interesting thought about why there are so many Chinese on the piano scene, and why they are often associated with astonishing, virtuosic technique, but often lack emotional depth. The idea was that the Chinese language does not facilitate emotional intonation — this reflects on musical phrasing, artistic expressiveness. The tonal nature of Chinese, in which the pitch of vowels in four positions signifies different meanings of words, lacks what is found in the tradition of European languages — expression through intonation in speech as a reflection of human emotions. For the Chinese, expressing emotion through gestures, which in turn fit beautifully into the complex picture of national dance, Chinese theatre, is natural. But not in music. Moreover, for a Chinese person, copying what the best in the world do means much more than trying to create something own, individual. Indeed, we see this not only in music.
Denis Matsuev, when asked by a correspondent how China managed to create a real musical empire from virtually nothing, replied, “Because they present their culture as a national product. Today, if a boy is born in a family, he almost automatically enters a music school.”
The comment about weak intonation — weak compared to the very strong technique — applies to the average mass, but not to the top pianists, of course. But among these top performers, there are more Chinese than any other nationality. For instance, notable are Lang Lang, Yundi Li, Yuja Wang, Muye Wu, Haochen Zhang, and Ji Liu.
I’m thinking, maybe I should write about pianists and composers, as I sometimes write about artists. There’s a wealth of interesting stuff there, but musical videos don’t do so well on Facebook.
(The attached video features a 2.5-year-old)
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 