Music

Extraordinary strings crossover party with “Paganini of the Erhu world” and top notch chamber musicians of Tokyo The Tokyo String Quintet of Japan’s concert with Chinese erhu virtuoso, Xu Ke, brings out the diversity in crossovers. A string quintet is usually formed of four string instruments and a nonstring instrument, but the Tokyo String Quintet of Japan goes against convention with the combination of first violin, second violin, viola, cello and double bass. The setting with five string instruments is already complicated enough, but the five artists are not satisfied with this. In the upcoming concert, erhu player Xu Ke will join them in exploring the question: what kind of varied and layered music will they make when they play six string instruments together?

Not only is their music varied, the songs performed by the sextet also underscore their diversity.

The concert’s unusual repertoire covers crossover genres that range from rock, pop, classical to folk, illustrating the lyrical and versatile sounds of erhu, and constructing a context for the interactions between the Eastern and Western instruments. The programme includes classics as well as rearrangements of traditional music. When we speak of erhu, we tend to associate the instrument with classics like Reflections of the Moon on Erquan Spring or Autumn Moon in the Han Palace, but Xu Ke clearly has a different understanding of the instrument of his own. The pieces especially arranged for erhu and chamber ensemble will lead the audience into an exotic, fantastical and mysterious realm. With no limits imposed, the musicians freely choose their repertoire and “perform old songs in new ways”, savouring the timeless beauty of the instruments and distinctive poetics both old and new in the changing melodies.

By performing songs that embody both Chinese and Western cultures, the six crossover musicians showcase the varied sounds of the string instruments, and the dialogue between Eastern and Western music. As Xu Ke said himself: who says you cannot produce the sounds of a four-stringed violin with a double-stringed erhu?

Erhu master Xu Ke graduated with distinction from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in 1982 and is heralded by the media as “another Heifetz” and the “Paganini of the erhu world”. Xu has developed unique and innovative bowing techniques, artificial harmonics in high positions and double-stopping, significantly enriching the huqin’s potential for new applications.

In 1993, Xu became the first Chinese huqin musician to sign an exclusive contract with international record company Bertelsmann Music Group, and released albums under RCA Records. He was also the music director of the NHK documentary “Resurrected Tower of the Sun” on Taro Okamoto. He has performed with several world-class orchestras as a soloist including the Philharmonisches Streichquintett Berlin, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic Octet. Xu was also a guest professor at the Central Conservatory of Music and is currently a guest professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Japan.

Members of the quintet include Akihiro Miura (First Violin/Concertmaster of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra), Mari Togami (Second Violin/Principal of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra), Atsuko Aoki (Viola Principal of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra), Tatsuki Watanabe (Cello Principal of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra) and Ippei Kitamura (Double Bass of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra).