Ching symphony wins high praise in Shanghai

The symphony Souvenir des Ming by celebrated Fil-Chinese composer Jeffrey Ching, met with glowing acclaim after it was performed by the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra on Nov. 17 under the baton of Russian Conductor Dmitri Jurowski. According to reliable reports, Shanghai critics praised the composition highly.

Philippine Ambassador Sonia Brady came all the way from Beijing to attend the prestigious concert; Consul General Jesus Yabes and Consul Aileen Mendiola honored Ching likewise with their presence.

A pre-concert press conference drew representatives from 11 Chinese newspapers and one from the English Shanghai Daily which subsequently came out with a front-page teaser on Ching and a full-blown feature on him and the conductor, accompanied by pictures, in an inside page.

Titled "Ming Music and Bach Mingle in ‘Souvenir des Ming’", the article has for subhead "Jeffrey Ching from the Philippines draws on the Ming Dynasty temple music and Bach for his creation. Ching says all Western music derives from Ming music."

The feature article which provides revealing information to musicians and musicologists, follows in full.

As a wedding gift to his soprano bride, Chinese-Filipino composer Jeffrey Ching wrote a symphony "Wedding Mass in E Major for Baritone, Chorus and Orchestra" performed on their wedding day.

And as a gift to Shanghai, this prolific composer of 240 musical works will premiere his latest creation, "Symphony No. 4, Souvenir des Ming" tomorrow night at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center. Russian conductor Dmitri Jurowski will conduct the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ching’s concert will begin with Schonberg’s "Notturno for Strings and Harp", followed by "Souvenir des Ming" and end with Beethoven’s "Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92".

"Many of my works use music material from ancient China and in this case I used temple music from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and inspiration from Bach’s music," says Ching, speaking of his Ming symphony.

Some ancient Chinese books, such as Si Quan Shu or The Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature, edited during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) contain many precious scores.

"The Ming Dynasty material is simple. But I have developed it into many very complicated variations and it lasts about 35 minutes," the composer adds. "It’s a piece of mathematics and history. The tuning system is the discovery of the Chinese people in the Ming Dynasty.

"Music of the Ming era is the base of all Western music. I’ve lived in the US and Europe since I was 16 but my heart has always been with Chinese culture."

Ching has also finished several pieces inspired by ancient scores of the Tang (618-907) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties.

Born to a business family in Manila, Ching chose career in music instead of inheriting the family business.

He could compose five-movement symphonies or even three-act operas at a very young age. Finally, he gained a double A.B. magna cum laude in both music and Sinology (Chinese music) at Harvard University. His musical achievements won him the title "One of the Top Ten Outstanding Young Filipinos" in 1998.

"We persuaded him to learn other things because a musical career is so difficult. He has studied law, literature and philosophy. But finally he returned to music," says Ching’s mother Enny Ching, who hired a piano teacher for her naughty five-year old son to calm him down.

Concerning the concert, conductor Jurowski says: "Schonberg’s romantic piece will be a good start to create an atmosphere for Ching’s ‘Souvenir des Ming’.

"I’ve seem the power of mathematics and natural violence in the piece. Violence is big power. In classical music, I’ve seen the power in Beethoven’s music. In modern music, I’ve seen the power in Ching’s music," says Jurowski.

"Writers can objectively express their thoughts that ordinary people are not bold enough to speak," says composer Ching. "I’m too shy to be a writer, so I hide behind music to tell my feelings with notes."

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>What follows comes from the program’s biographical notes on Ching, arguably the country’s most prodigious and protean composer, as also its most academically grounded.

Ching was already composing before he was ten and his opera buffa Rendezvous in Venice was premiered when he was 17. His later works gradually came to absorb a great variety of musical traditions. His third symphony Rituals, a government commissioned work to mark the centennial of RP independence in 1998, fuses Balinese gamelan, Chinese Ming, and Spanish Baroque elements into a continuous, 45-minute collage for three orchestras and male chanter. The hour-long Terra Kytaorum for ten brass and two percussionists, premiered by Berlin’s World Brass in 2001, creates a pseudo-historical liturgical service for the last Mongol emperor out of the diverse national traditions that could have been represented at his court – French, Tibetan, Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

Ching’s Fifth Symphony, Kunsitkammer, is an animated dialogue among the civilizations of Renaissance Italy, Ottoman Turkey and Qing China. It was commissioned by Berlin’s Chamber Orchestra at the behest of Michail Jurowski (father of Dmitri) who conducted its world premiere in Berlin in March 2006, and will repeat the work with the WDR Rundfunk-Orchester Koln at the prestigious Ruhrtriemnale in August 2008.

Ching holds degrees with honors in Music, Composition, Philosophy and Chinese History from Harvard, Cambridge and London Universities, and was lecturer in Music at London U. from 1987 to 1991.

In August 1990, he went to Beijing for his ballet La Gitana with the Central Ballet of China. In April 1993, he led the RP delegation on a well-received concert tour of his chamber music. In June 1997, he and a second RP delegation headed by the late National Artist Leonor Orosa Goquingco toured China in performances of his cantata Rizal based on Leonor’s play "Her Son, Jose Rizal".

In June 2003, Ching received the Rizal Award for Excellence (in the category of Art, Literature and Culture) from the Philippine President.