Here’s a professional, in-depth intepretation of the Liederabend performance of Changyong Liao, originally in Chinese, available here.
The program selected works from Italy, Germany-Austria, and China, each with distinct artistic themes. It included classic Italian art songs by Paolo Tosti such as “The Last Song,” “I Love You No More,” and “Melancholy,” totaling five pieces. The repertoire also featured twelve Chinese art songs, including “Three Wishes of the Rose,” “Spring Thoughts,” and “The River Flows Eastward,” as well as Gustav Mahler’s song cycle “Songs of a Wayfarer.”
Tosti and Mahler
As an Italian composer, Paolo Tosti’s compositions often embody the style of Italian folk music. The opening piece, “The Guitar of Abruzzi,” was written for his friend Caruso in the Abruzzi dialect, followed by four songs depicting various love destinies: romantic memories, eternal vows, and the sadness of unrequited love.
“Songs of a Wayfarer” is Austrian composer Gustav Mahler’s first art song cycle, premiered in 1896. The cycle comprises four songs, including “When My Sweetheart is Married,” “I Walked Past Fields at Dawn,” “I Have a Gleaming Dagger Hidden in My Breast,” and “My Sweetheart’s Blue Eyes.” These songs narrate the journey of a young man abandoned by his lover, wandering aimlessly seeking solace. More accurately, the cycle reflects Mahler’s autobiographical account of his troubled romance with the singer Johanna Richter during his tenure at the Kassel Theater.
“Songs of a Wayfarer” was a piece Liao “liked very much but didn’t quite have the courage to sing.” “It represents a failed love affair from his youth, and I try to feel his helplessness and loneliness. The first song describes him watching a lively wedding alone, enduring the heartbreak of lost love, and weeping quietly,” Liao explained.
Chinese Lieder selections
In addition to German-Austrian and Italian music, the performance also included a vast array of traditional Chinese songs like “Searching for Plum Blossoms in the Snow” and “Prelude to Water Melody: When Will the Moon Be Clear?” These songs, mostly derived from ancient poetry, portray various interpretations and emotions about nature and life, eliciting a profound emotional response from the audience.
Among the performed pieces, “Three Wishes of the Rose” left a significant impression on Liao. “I wish that the merciless storms that envy me do not batter me, I wish that the passionate tourists who love me do not pluck me, I wish that my beauty remains unfading, so I may preserve my bloom.” Ostensibly a woman’s prayer for eternal beauty, it is actually a plea through the voice of a rose, begging that the ruthless wars and hardships do not ravage my homeland.
rooted in classical poetry
In the 1920s, the composer Qing Zhu initiated the Chinese art song with “Aria of Nostalgia: The River Flows Eastward,” which became a staple in the vocal training of higher music education institutions in New China, leading and advancing the development of Chinese vocal arts. Over the years, Liao has also focused on exploring, organizing, and promoting Chinese art songs, performing them in Switzerland, Vienna, Germany, Finland, and other places, echoing the voice of China.
During performances at home and abroad, Liao enjoys singing the classic Sichuan folk song “When Will the Locust Flowers Bloom?” These dialect-infused songs, rich with Chinese characteristics, are favored by many foreign audiences. Once, during a tour in Norway, Liao found himself chased by enthusiastic fans, later discovering they particularly enjoyed his renditions of Chinese songs.
Beautiful! And the stories goes on…
making art lasting and more accessible
In June 2019, Liao performed in Germany. After attending Liao’s “Chinese Classical Poetry Art Song Concert,” Nick Pfefferkorn, the head of the German music publishing house Edition Peters, was deeply moved. Subsequently, both parties agreed to initiate the international publishing project “Three Wishes of the Rose: 16 Chinese Art Songs.”
Liao also specifically adapted the international phonetic notation for “Three Wishes of the Rose” according to the international pronunciation and reading demonstration standards set by Edition Peters, hoping that the notation would help singers worldwide to accurately render Chinese songs.
His long-time partner, Hartmut Höll, also remarked on the development of Chinese art songs over the years. Since 2018, he has collaborated with Liao, noting that through the international promotion of Chinese art songs, European audiences have deeply resonated with the stories told in the Chinese language, underscoring the true purpose of music.
After the Shanghai performance, on June 10, both musicians will travel to the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany, to conclude this “Tale of Two Cities” concert series.
Since 1986, Shanghai has been twinned with Hamburg. Liao said, “To better reflect exchange and mutual learning, I have selected a set of pieces that includes German-Austrian art songs, Chinese art songs, and Italian songs for performances in both Shanghai and Hamburg, hoping to bridge cultures and let the world experience the charm of Chinese art songs.”