Halloween 2021

This was our second Halloween in Taiwan, and just like last year, no one did anything Halloween related. In Hong Kong, there are enough expats that you can always find someone doing something. People love to dress up in the most outrageous costumes they can imagine, but most simply go as superheroes, pirates or zombies. More often than not, costumes are based on whichever movies/TV shows are the most popular that week. More importantly, Halloween provides another excuse to stay up late and drink entirely too much.

In Taiwan, you would never know it is Halloween. It is just like 端午節 in Ohio.

This year, we celebrated Halloween a little differently. On Saturday, we saw the National Symphony Orchestra at Weiwuying. On Sunday, Halloween, we saw the Taoyuan City Orchestra. The National Symphony Orchestra is based at the National Concert Hall, just next to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall in Taipei. The Taoyuan City Orchestra is, not surprisingly, based in Taoyuan. Both ensembles are currently on tour and hit Kaohsiung on the same weekend.

Saturday's National Symphony Orchestra performance featured Wu Ting Yuh, Li Chia Hao, Tseng Chih Hong, and Tsai Cun Chun on violin, Wu Yen Ten and Lu Chao Ying on viola, Huang Jih Sheng on cello, Tsai Hsin Chieh on bass, and Huang Yi Chun on piano. They performed Sergei Rachmaninoff's Trio élégiaque No 1 in Gm, Antonin Dvorak's Piano Trio No 4 in Em, Bedrich Smetana's String Quartet No 1 in Em, and Leos Janacek's Suite for Strings.

On Halloween, which no one seemed to know or care was Halloween, the Taoyuan City Orchestra was in Kaohsiung as part of their “Immortal Love” tour. They performed Ryan Zen's Sparkling Night Erhu Duet Concerto, Zheng Jih Min & Luo Wei Lun's Legend of the White Snake Dizi Concerto, and He Zhan Hao & Chen Gang Qu's The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, with Wei Jing Yi on violin, Liang Wen Ting on dizi, Peng Li Ting and Zhang Wei Yun on erhu, and Qu Chun Quan conducting.

These were noticeably dissimilar nights of music. Rachmaninoff, Dvorak, and Smetana are well established in European concert music and have all been dead for quite some time. Ryan Zen, Zheng Jih Min, Luo Wei Lun, He Zhan Hao, and Chen Gang Qu are contemporary and largely unknown outside of Taiwan. The National Symphony Orchestra is generally considered the premiere orchestra in Taiwan. The Taoyuan City Orchestra is considered a youth ensemble, with the best and brightest music students from around the country. If you asked members of the Taoyuan City Orchestra where they want to end up, most would probably name the National Symphony Orchestra.

I fully support student musicians, and love to see the next generation's up and comers before they hit the big time. Far too many of them are better musicians than I could ever hope to be. But Saturday was undeniably a better night of music. Huang Jih Sheng is the best cellist I have seen live since Yo Yo Ma. Or at least Henri Demarquette. Maybe Wang Yung Tzu. I have seen a few cellists lately.