I went to my first classical (Western classical, to be precise) concert in China on Friday evening. The city had recently finished building the concert hall and the opening concert was in early October. I really wish I could have arrived in Shenzhen earlier and attended this one, although I’m sure the tickets must have been expensive and hard to get. It was a concert featuring Lang Lang playing the Rachmaninov second Piano Concerto, my favorite by Rachmaninov. The one I was fortunate enough to attend though was just as world class: a piano quartet recital led by the violinist Gidon Kremer (I have some of his recordings). It was an excellent concert, top-notch. They performed mostly modern works, the oldest being a movement from Mahler’s Piano Quartet in a minor. I think that was the first time that I saw part of a piece being performed (outside of a student concert).   Not sure why that choice was made, except maybe to lead into a Quartet by Alfred Schnittke based upon a sketch by Mahler.

(l-r) Shenzhen’s concert hall exterior (pretty snazzy), The auditorium, Concert headliners (Lang Lang is on the far right, Gidon Kremer is just to his left)

What I was mostly curious about was how western concerts were received in China, how the audience behaved, and so on.   As usual, there are plenty of attendants politely opening doors and showing you to your seat.   There’s a warning bell indicating that the concert is about to begin and attendants hold up illuminated placards for the audience to say reading (in both Chinese and English):   “No Photographs” and “Keep Quiet”.   I have to hand it to the audience.   They were sophisticated.   There was no out of turn applause.   In fact, it was dead silent between movements of a piece, except for a muffled cough here and there.   I never would have guessed that from China.   The program also didn’t print information about the individual movements so I was never 100% sure when a piece ended, but someone was always began clapping at the precise time.   They could have been strategically placed, I suppose.   This was at least a pleasant change from places like Denver, Colorado, which has a great orchestra, but a clueless audience who tend to clap between every movement.   The most embarrasing example of that I have was during a Mozart Piano Concerto where the performer, seeming to anticpate what was coming and without looking, thrust his arm with upward facing palm into the audience indicating, “Shut up, this is only the first movement!” He had to emphasize the thrust two or three times before the audience finally stopped clapping.   The audience in Shenzhen was the most proper I’d seen anywhere, including Europe and South America.   If anything, there was more of a mix of clothing styles.   Some people didn’t dress up, including me though I did my best.   Oh, and the final applause at the last piece, a rousing Piazzolla Tango for Violin and Piano, drew two encores from the performers.   There was no standing ovation.   If anyone deserved it, it was these guys, but after a standing ovation after every single performance I attended in Colorado, this was refreshing.