Performing in her native city of Beijing, Chinese composer and guzheng virtuoso Wu Fei played at the Stone Boat Café on Friday in support of Yuan, a collection of chamber compositions released on Tzadik in late November.
As always, I was behind schedule when I needed to be on time. So I found myself rushing through the gate of Ritan Park at about 9:30, thirty minutes after Wu’s performance had been due to start.
Rushing as fast as I could along the dark paths of the park, I heard a massive, high-pitched buzz of feedback from the distance. Not being an expert about her music, I wondered exactly what was happening, and if I was missing something fantastic.
To my relief, what I saw when I arrived was Wu warming up and trying to solve a feedback problem that had apparently delayed the start of her set.
Located in Ritan Park, the Stone Boat Café is near the center of Beijing. It is literally a stone boat. It’s perched on the edge of a little lake, with a lot of traditional Chinese buildings around it.
In the summertime, there are seats outside and inside, and a nice mix of blues and jazz usually comes from the speakers. In the winter, however, everyone crowds inside to keep warm, and the seating is very limited.
So I ended up with a seat at the back, with just enough people crowded in front of me that I couldn’t see Wu at all. All I could do was enjoy the music.
Overall, it was wonderful. I’ve fallen in love with the sound of the guzheng in my years here in China. The echoes and delayed extended notes that come from it are haunting and mesmerizing. A plucked string can seemingly resonate for minutes before finally dissipating.
Wu used this and our tight surroundings to her advantage, opening with a delicately beautiful and traditional-sounding song. This opening song was by far the highlight, as everyone seemed to be mesmerized by it. No one spoke a word, just soaking in the sounds and the atmosphere.
But it wasn’t all traditional. Wu used a pen to help her make some odd clangy sounds, used the patrons’ wine glasses to create an aura of high-pitched rubbing sounds that accompanied one of her pieces, used her own hands to bang away intensely during one of the pieces (she was out of breath at the end of that segment), and used some sort of metal object to create an almost slide-like feel to one segment.
I’m not sure how much was improvised and how much was prepared. One piece definitely was improv, as she decided to end it directly after the Stone Boat’s phone rang. “That was a nice way to end it,” she said. “In improv, it’s hard to make a good ending sometimes, but that was perfect.”
All in all, this evening was a pleasant surprise — a perfect venue, an interesting and sometimes haunting performance, and a beautiful night. If only the jerks behind me would have been a little quieter, it would have been perfect.
– Dan Fuller