Yu Long is our most famous conductor, famous for lot of things: leader of Chinese classical scene, a good Brahms interpreter, and his most popular meme:
China’s classical music scene is growing — while young ppl flood into the concert hall to enjoy the music, we also want to show off our music taste by posting “repos” on Social Media (📕), sometimes a little bit overly mean and picky.
Yu Long and cellist Wang Jian on a recent interview with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra commented on this matter, which I found to be very insightful.
[Yu Long] On Red Note, ppl often try to hear where [the musician] did WRONG. But instead, if you try to hear where [the musician] did right, then it says that you’re a kind person. Only kind person becomes masters.
[Wang Jian] It’s not a matter of kindness. I think if you go to a concert, then you should just completely focusing on what went right, cause then you get something. If you go to a concert just to catch what’s wrong — first you don’t learn anything, second you don’t feel moved, third you make yourself unhappy. Then why bother wasting time on it?