Russian musician has concert for 130th anniversary of birth

By Zhang Kun in Shanghai | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2024-09-12 11:29

David Avshalomov talks about the works of his grandfather Aaron Avshalomov at the Pathe Villa, the old venue of Pathe Recordings in downtown Shanghai on Sept 9. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Shanghai Symphony Orchestra will hold a concert on Sept 12 commemorating the 130th anniversary of the birth of the musician Aaron Avshalomov, conducted by his grandson, David Avshalomov.

Aaron Avshalomov (1894-1964), a musician from Siberia, Russia, orchestrated the theme song for a movie of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Children of Troubled Times, at the request of the Chinese musician He Lyuting in 1935. Later the song March of the Volunteers became the interim national anthem for the newly founded People's Republic of China.

Aaron Avshalomov lived and worked in China from the 1920s to 1947, and served from 1945-46 as a guest conductor for the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra, the predecessor of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

During his stay in China and later years in the United States, he composed music where he combined elements of Chinese music with his Russian roots, applying Western symphony orchestra and some Chinese percussion instruments. Many of his compositions were premiered in Shanghai and were warmly welcomed by the local critics.

The concert on Thursday evening will open with the musician's most well-known work, the tone poem Peiping Hutongs, created in 1934. It was composed as a recollection of the sounds and images of ancient Beijing (named Peiping then). According to Jacob Avshalomov, the son of the composer, in the tone poem, "We are led through (Beijing's) byways and broadways, from dawn to dusk," when the audience would hear some popular Peking opera tunes, a bustle at a market place, and a solemn funeral procession.

An old photograph of the Avshalomov family. First from the left is Jacob Avshalomov, and fourth from the left is Aaron, holding David on his laps. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The second on the program will be Violin Concerto in D, created when he was director of the Municipal Council Library. In this piece, the relationship between the soloist and the orchestra is like "a talented child in a family, who would do everything they could to help her succeed," David said, during a visit to the old venue of Pathe Recordings in Shanghai, where his grandfather used to work, and the first recording of the March of the Volunteers was made.

The second half of the concert will feature Aaron's composition of Symphony No. 2 in E minor, a piece commissioned by Leonard Bernstein after he went to the US to join his family. The symphony not only requires a large orchestra with triple woodwinds, but also incorporates Chinese-style cymbals, cymbals, gongs, drums, and wood-blocks in the percussion band.