Chinese musician Wu Wei plays sheng. For him, the four-thousand-year-old instrument encompasses more than just music. 'Sheng means hope and hope is life,' he tells during the dress rehearsal on the eve of the Saturday Matinee on 31 January where he performed with the RFO led by Edo de Waart.
Confucius
' "A human being has two ears and one mouth to listen twice as much as talk," claimed the Chinese philosopher Confucius, who already used sheng in his rituals and ceremonies 500 years before Christ. The ceremonies have long since been forgotten but his sayings remain current and sheng is played to this day,' Wu Wei, a sympathetic man with long black hair tied in a ponytail remains standing during the conversation. His hands affectionately hold the instrument, which resembles a bundle of bamboo reeds encased in a metal bowl. 'When I blow breath into this mouth organ, you hear music and I feel energy.'
He brings the sheng to his mouth. The soft sound, reminiscent of harmonica, seems to come from afar. Wu Wei's body enters a kind of rhythmic tai-chi movement.
'I connect the earth under my feet with the sky above my head. My breath goes in and out, in and out - playing I communicate through the sheng, I control the universe, energy flows through my body to the world and back. You or I are just a drop of water, nothing more. Only when we fall into an ocean, connecting with the whole, does the energy take us forward in great waves. Sometimes, if we can follow the energy and accept what is, we even get the power of a river or a waterfall. I feel a part, a conduit between past and present, time and abstraction, silence and sound and between man and nature.'
Teoton
The piece Teoton by the Finnish composer Jukka Tiensuu, was commissioned by the Saturday Matinee, among others. It was premiered in Seoul in 2015. The European premiere was heard in Amsterdam on 31 January. 'The Western world is trapped in dualism,' says Wu Wei. His eyes are on the sheng in his hands. 'Everything Europeans do is male or female, body versus mind, actions are quickly judged as good or bad. My Eastern traditions have no contradictions, nothing is worse or better. Tiensuu's piece touches on the holistic idea. His parts have funny names Fever, Adrift, Game and Bliss but he remains serious. Despite the titles, there are no stories, everything remains abstract. In the stack of appendices with descriptions of interpretation, which I received from the composer, one thought stood out: bringing together individual imagination with one's own feelings. As non-figuratively as possible.'
Wu Wei now throws his long tail back. 'In my interpretation, I follow every note and every cue until the improvisational cadences come. Here I connect what I know with what I feel: my energy with the nature of the bamboo reeds, the Chinese music with the Western listeners in the concert hall. By improvising, I give my thoughts impulses that are released through the sound and live on in the universe.'
Ambition
'I want to show that Eastern and Western cultures can enrich each other,' At these words, Wu Wei closes his eyes and waits a moment before speaking further. 'That is the philosophy of music itself - communicating, connecting and not sharing in a non-verbal way. Knowledge makes loved, which is why my life's goal is to make our, Chinese music traditions known in the world. It is a special language that everyone can follow, much more than a verbal language. I believe in music, which is stronger than words. Confucius already knew that listening gets you further than talking. Understanding each other, thinking about other cultures and a tolerant society start with good listening.'
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