I was first off. Once on terra firma, I was engulfed in a mash of people, questions, microphones, cameras, flash-bulbs. Rescued, I was whisked off for pictures with orchestra members, then to a waitng car and our minder, a solicitous English-speaking guide.
We were to be lodged in a guest house, a Korean Dacha. The orchestra, staff and journalists were billeted in a hotel.
The dacha accomodations are pleasant. Meals are served when appropriate. On the only available black-and-white TV channel, my son and I watched old films of "Our Great Leader" (the father of "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-Il) helping to harvest crops, receiving flowers from admirers, chatting with factory workers.
......
In self-defense, I gave the downbeat. We were off. The next 80 minutes we rehearsed and performed Wagner's Meistersinger Overture and Tchaikowsky's Overture/Fantasy, Romeo and Juliet. Astonishing was the high level of playing, of flexibility in following the conductor's beat, of phrasing. The musicians began to sway with the sounds they were making. We had become friends through music.
......
Beijing is unrecognaizable to those such as myself who remember the city as it was twenty years ago. This is my fourth trip here, the first being in the nineteen eighties with the Pittsburgh Symphony, only the second American symphony orchestra to be invited to China.
Now skyscrapers abound, broad avenues, Parisian-style, grace the city's center. There's a feeling of bustle and vitality. Gone are the swarming bicycles....in their place, neat functional cars flitting about. The pollution has been dramatically reduced.
Yesterday I revisted the Great Wall. It was sunny but cold. The Wall has not been moved (!)....
still stately, impressive, winding atop mountainous crags and spanning gorges.