Stradivarius String Quartet Concert

Theatre Panorama 1
Originally uploaded by clarkalastair

A fortnight ago we went to a Mozart themed concert given by the very French Stradivarius String Quartet.

In general the evening was enjoyable with some very good and professional music, and not ridiculously priced either (100 kuai each, not the cheapest seats – 80 kuai, but not the most expensive – 280 kuai). The theater was beautiful, and the acoustics seemed fine.

There were a few drawbacks however. Because the event was arranged by the French Alliance of Dalian, the presenter (and the musicians) spoke in French. Being English, and having studied French at school I could probably understand every third or fourth word, enough for a gist, but not perfect. They had a translator who wasn’t very comfortable on stage, and thusly wasn’t particularly great at her job, stuttering, stumbling and not looking very happy. In general, in this sort of situation it’s difficult to know when to clap, cause the westerners are inclined to clap after the western (French) introduction, and the Chinese after the Chinese introduction, and neither know the correct points in the others monologue to clap.

The experience of the concert wasn’t perfect either, there was an expressed instruction of no flash photography. There was some foolish person very near the front, who was taking flash photos every 5 minutes through the concert and really annoying (justifiably) the lead violinist, who spent half the time staring intently, mouthing “No” towards the person. Though he/she (I’m inclined to say she – which is very sexist of me) didn’t get the message, he/she wasn’t the only one. This caused the lead violinist to get up at the end of one of the pieces and got the Chinese translator to make the announcement again.

Similarly a phone went off from someone in the upper seating, and the lead violinist stopped the piece they had just started and waited until the sound had stopped. The Chinese man rather annoyingly and rudely answered the phone and proceeded to speak for 30 seconds before hanging up, all of which we could clearly hear due to the acoustics of the theater. I’m happy with the dignity that the quartet showed dealing with the culture difference. Even though the locals should have followed the instructions, this sort of quiet listening isn’t in the local experience in the same way it is in the west. The vast majority of people listening were good, there was a few that showed themselves up.

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