Michael Finnissy Chi Mei Ricercari Tour Part 2

Senior lecturer Tom Irvine updates us on the how the tour of Michael Finnissy’s new piece is going: 

Greetings from Hsinchu, Taiwan’s own ‘windy city’ and home of National Chiao Tung University, the hosts of the second of our three concerts. It’s been a real whirlwind. We left lovely laid-back Tainan this morning after the very successful premiere there last night, celebrated afterwards with a outdoor (!) reception with new friends and old. Everybody–musicians and engineers alike–was talking about the almost surreal chance to compare the Stradivarius cello to the Amati (see my previous post on how our cello-piano duo ended up with these two treasures of cello history). I’d say the majority (including the artists) prefer the Amati for its magnificent tone and awe-inspiring bass register, but a few of us (I won’t name names, but I am looking at you, Vice Chancellor and Dame Wendy Hall) are enamoured of the Strad’s endless subtlety.

Before we got in the train this morning we made a flying visit to the Chi Mei Foundation, to pay our respects and thank them personally for their unbelievable generosity. Before we went to the vault to see other treasures of their collection we visited the Foundation’s new museum, a vast and imposing palace of art and culture on the outskirts of the city, in its last phases of construction. When it is finished next year it will house the instrument collection, a wonderful new concert hall and an imposing collection of Western art–one of the biggest in Asia. We felt very lucky to get sneak preview–and to try on cool Chi Mei hard hats.

 

Then it was off to Hsinchu by Taiwan’s High Speed Rail for an important MOU-signing here NCTU (that’s a ‘memorandum of understanding’–a document sealing friendship between two universities) and then the second concert. Everyone was very happy about the performances, also those by Michael Finnissy of the Southampton piano pieces. In between I managed to fit in a meeting with colleagues from NCTU’s Graduate Institute of Music about deepening the collaboration between our two departments. All in all a very exciting day.

Tomorrow we’re in Taipei visiting the Taiwan National Science Council and the Ministry of Education before our VC signs an MOU with National Taiwan University, the hosts of our final concert. Phew, time to get some sleep!