The first time she played for him, Japanese maestro Seiji Ozawa wept and the career of world-famous erhu player Jiang Jianhua was launched. Michelle Qiao talks with her about her love for the ancient Chinese instrument

The world might have been blessed with having another excellent Chinese violinist if the erhu (a two-string Chinese traditional instrument) had not meant so much to Jiang Jianhua 20 years ago.

"The first violin of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra asked me to study violin under him after he watched my playing of the erhu,'' recalled Jiang. "He was amazed at my speed of playing and he said he would cover all my costs.

But I refused because I could not leave the erhu. No instrument can replace the erhu -- it is closer to the human voice than the violin.''

Jiang began to make her name as a virtuoso of the erhu in 1978 when her playing so impressed famous Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa that he began to weep. She was playing in a concert given by students of China's Central Conservatory of Music and Jiang said she had decided to play two solo items: Reflection of the Moon on Lake Erquan by Chinese blind erhu maestro Hua Yanjun and the Japanese piece, Sakura.

"I concentrated so much that I almost had my eyes closed while playing,'' she says. "When I finished, I saw tears running down Seiji Ozawa's face and he was crying his heart out.

He said he had never before heard such sad music that could 'break' his heart.'' Ozawa later brought a Japanese television crew to China to make a documentary about her. He also encouraged Japanese composers to write music for the erhu for Jiang to play.

Then followed Jiang's performances with some of the world's leading orchestras, including the Boston Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony. "Ozawa appears to be a strange man,'' Jiang says. "He has long hair, wears all-white clothes plus a necklace. But that's all on the surface.

He is a truly great musician and I admire him.'' Jiang has since played many concertos that have been conducted by Ozawa. She played the Erhu Concerto by Kei Anjo under Ozawa's baton for the opening concert in the Suntory Hall with the New Japan Philharmonic in 1986.

For the Berlin Philharmonic's subscription concert three years later, famed conductor Herbert Von Karajan asked her to play The Shadow of the Wind composed by Kei Anjo and also conducted on that occasion by Ozawa.

Jiang started to learn to play the erhu at the age of 10 from her uncle who taught the instrument.

"Because of his influence, every child in my family was given the erhu as a toy,'' Jiang says. "I was so familiar with the instrument that I improved very quickly. I was a 'sportive' girl and this gave me the explosive force I needed to play at very fast speeds.''

She started performing overseas at the age of 13 and later was admitted to Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Erhu maestro Wang Yongde of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music says: "Erhu playing has two styles in China -- the straightforward and bold style of the north and the fine and smooth style of the south. Jiang was born in Shanghai and began learning here but she studied in Beijing afterwards.

So, her playing is an excellent mix of the two styles. She's very special.''

In her performance Jiang does not use a microphone because she wants the audience to hear only the pure and authentic sound of the ancient Chinese instrument. "The erhu is an instrument with its own history but traditions sometimes need to make room for innovations,'' says Jiang.

"We cannot always repeat the same music and should widen the horizon of erhu playing to win over a greater audience. "It's also very hard to play Western classical pieces on the erhu because the violin has four strings to the erhu's two which means a narrower range.

I will have to develop some new skills to make up for this. Sometimes I use qi (energy) to play which is like singing opera.'' Jiang is currently based in Japan where she performs in more than 100 concerts every year and where she had made many CDs.

She has also been teaching at the Takasaki Junior College for Fine Arts and Music as a guest professor for 15 years. Jiang says she still practices a lot, sometimes up to eight hours a day, a habit since childhood.

"I'm always careful to prepare for every concert because I think that for some old people in the audience, it might be their last concert and I want to play the best I can for them,'' she says. She recalls once receiving a letter from one Japanese fan who was dying from cancer. "She said she'd decided to suicide to end the torture and my concert was to be her last outing,'' Jiang says.

"But she wrote that my music was so encouraging that she had decided to drop the idea of ending her life -- at least for some months. I hadn't imagined that music could have so strong a power.'' Jiang says she believes firmly that true art can never be commercial.

"A true, pure heart is the only thing that an artist should have to touch the audience,'' she says. "Art has power and needs to be treasured. This is the mission and responsibility of a musician.''

(Shanghai Daily June 2, 2005)