Late Italian conductor's link to the Cultural Revolution
Claudio Abbado, who died this week, put on a landmark performance in Beijing in 1973
Of all the accolades showered on the late Italian conductor Claudio Abbado, the obituaries skipped over an important story in the history of classical music.
Few recalled that Abbado, who died on Monday at age 80, was in Beijing during the tumultuous days of the Cultural Revolution. Even fewer would note that he was on stage conducting The Yellow River Piano Concerto, then a "model" work endorsed by Mao Zedong's wife, Jiang Qing.
In April 1973, two months before he turned 40, Abbado landed in Beijing with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra to perform several concerts in the capital. The Cultural Revolution would not conclude for another three years, and Western classical music had been labelled decadent.
An exception was made for the Austrian group as the tour was a part of a cultural exchange following the establishing of diplomatic ties between the two countries in 1971.
They played beloved works by Mozart, Brahms, Schubert and Beethoven. Instead of attacking the music as "bourgeois", Xinhua lauded the performances as "exquisite and harmonious".
But the piece that caught the attention of the media was The Yellow River Piano Concerto composed in 1970.
"He got the full music score in the morning and conducted by memory at the concert in the evening. How amazing!" Yin Chengzong, a pianist and one of the concerto's composers, said.