July 26 was a great day to unwind: no more concerts to prepare for, just a full day for the Philharmonia members to explore Shanghai, shop, and enjoy each other’s company before everyone departed for various parts of the world. The day began and ended with organized activities: a trip to Shanghai Museum in the morning, and a Farewell dinner at the hotel at night. (The dinner will have a separate blog).

The Shanghai Museum contains spectacular collections of art and artifacts from China's long history

Liz Muller, former Yale staff member now living in Nanjing, with her son Leo and Doctor James Perlotto at the Museum. Liz's husband, John Michael Muller, joined the orchestra for all four concerts in Korea and China.

The museum has a fine collection of porcelain

There is an entire area dedicated to fine bronzes like this one

The lobby of the Shanghai Grand Theater

The Philharmonia  left Beijing for Shanghai early in the morning of July 25. The schedule called for an early afternoon arrival, lunch, and then a touch-up rehearsal in the Grand National Theater at 4:30 before the 7:15 concert. But the plane left very late, and by 4:30 the orchestra was still on the buses from the airport to the hotel.

Change of plan: a quick shower at the hotel, sandwiches on the bus (how did our orchestra manager, Krista Johnson, get 100 sandwiches on such short notice?), backstage warm-up, and then the downbeat of the concert without playing a note together on stage.

This could have been the makings of a disaster, but the orchestra responded to the challenge with extraordinary professionalism. They played beautifully, making this one of the orchestra’s most spirited and musically satisfying concerts of the season.

Fortunately, the musical selections were the same as the Forbidden City Concert Hall program: Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, Saint-Saens Cello Concerto with Jian Wang, Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony, and the encore of a Chinese folk song arrangement by Derrick Wang.

And like the concert at the Forbidden City, the large audience responded enthusiastically to both orchestra and soloist, with Jian Wang playing two encores.

With no time to rehearse, orchestra members made the most of the time they had back stage to warm up

The orchestra takes a bow at the Shanghai Grand Theater. Although the performance space is primarily a theater, the fine orchestra shell makes the hall a great venue for orchestral music.

After the Saint-Saens Concerto, Shinik Hahm and Jian Wang accept warm applause.

The beautiful seating of the Shanghai Grand Theater

The Philharmonia, Central Conservatory Orchestra and Chorus, soloists Heather Buck and Mary Phillips, and Maestro Yongyan Hu perform Mahler's Second Symphony in Beijing's National Center for the Performing Arts

The historic concert featuring the collaboration between the Yale School of Music and Beijing’s Central Conservatory took place on the evening of Thursday, July 24, in the spectacular National Center for the Performing Arts. The concert was the largest event and the high point of the Musicathlon, which had begun two weeks before.

Earlier in the day, Maestro Hu rehearsed the orchestra in the Concert Hall of the National Center

At the concert: Yongyan Hu is flanked by the vocal soloists Mary Phillips, mezzo, and Heather Buck, soprano

The CCOM chorus

Percussion Prof Robert Van Sice greets the large audience in the Central Conservatory Recital Hall

On July 23, after rehearsals for the Mahler concert, two members of the Yale faculty, hornist William Purvis and percussionist Robert Van Sice, went to the recital hall of the Central Conservatory of Music to give master classes for students there. In addition, members of the Yale percussion group performed both individually and in ensemble.

All of these events were well-attended and there was plenty of time for coaching, with the teachers aided by very capable translators. What was most striking was that both Purvis and Van Sice emphasized the importance of musicality, expression, gesture, and communication, talking about technique only to the degree necessary to make these musical qualities come alive.

The CCOM students were clearly very skilled, but after a few minutes with these master teachers, their ability to make music took a leap forward.

These and many more photos here.

William Purvis works with a horn student on a Mozart Concerto

Purvis demonstrates how performers would have changed pitches in Mozart's time with a natural horn

Robert Van Sice listens to an energetic CCOM marimba player

CCOM students and other young audience members crowd around Van Sice and members of the Yale Perucssion Group, including Michael Zell, Lea DeRoi, Michael Compitello, and Ji Hye Jung