新中国交响乐事业奠基人之一:李德伦

Li Delun, One of the Founders of the Symphony Cause of the New China

新中国交响乐事业奠基人之一,指挥家、原中央乐团指挥、中国国家交响乐团艺术顾问李德伦先生的一生将走革命道路和音乐道路紧密地联系在一起,从上海到延安,从延安到北京;从莫扎特到《沙家浜》,又从《沙家浜》到＂打开了新的命运之门＂,他一路走来,

As one of the founders of the symphony cause of the New Chi- na, Li Delun, formerly conductor of the Central Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Consultant of the China National Symphony Orchestra, led a legendary life with a unique artistic career which had brought him from Shanghai to Yan'an, then from Yan'an to Beijing, and like-wise from Mozart to ″Shajiabang″, then from ″Shajiabang″ to ″opening up a new gate of destiny″, a career that closely combined his music road with his revolutionary pursuits. This year marks the 10th an- niversary of Li Dulun's death, and also the 55th anniversary of the founding of the China National Symphony Orchestra, and on this special occasion, let us look back at the life and art of this great music master. Li Delun was born into a family of a high-ranking official. He participated in several anti-Japanese movements, such as the ″December 9th Movement″ in 1935, and joined the Communist Party of China in 1936. In 1940, he entered the Shanghai National Music School after passing the entrance examinations, studying cello with two Russian cellists I. Shevtzov and R. Duckson. After the founding of the new republic, he worked as conductor in the National Opera House (formerly called ″North China People's Art Troupe″, ″Beijing People's Art Theatre″ and later ″Central Experimental Opera House″), where he conducted the Chinese opera ″Chiye River″, and the premiere shows of such Chinese operas as ″Wang Gui and Li Xiangxiang″ and ″Attacking the Invaders″. In 1953, Li Delun was assigned by the government to study as a postgraduate student at the Conducting Department of the National Moscow Conservatory of Music in the former Soviet Union with world-renowned conductor Prof. N. Anosov. In January 1958, Li Delun conducted the Central Symphony Orchestra to play Tchaikovsky's ″Symphony No. 6″ at his first concert in Beijing Peo- ple's Theatre since his return from abroad, and within one month, he conducted the orchestra to perform the same piece in altogether 13 concerts, which became a great hit in the whole country. He was then no longer satisfied with being an interpreter of music, but rather, he started to utter his own voice in the field of Chinese symphony. There Li Delun was standing in a higher position to lead the Central Symphony Orchestra on the way to open up a new horizon of Chinese music. Li Delun was always in favour of Chinese composers. In 1958, he conducted a symphony orchestra to premiere Ma Sicong's or-chestral suite ″The Song of Mountains and Forests″. In 1975, he premiered with a symphony orchestra Wu Zuqiang's string ensemble piece ″The Moon Reflected on Erquan Spring″ and Wu Zuqiang, Liu Dehai and Wang Yanqiao's pipa concerto ″The Little Sisters on the Grassland″. In 1978, he presented the premiere concert of Chen Dexun's orchestral work ″Ode to the Snow″, in 1984 Huang Anlun's ″Symphony in C Major″, and in 1985 Wang Xilin's two symphonic po- ems ″Movement″ and ″Chant″ as well as Huang Anlun's ballet suite ″The Dream of Dunhuang″. Other symphonic works that he ever per- formed as a conductor were around twenty works by over ten com- posers such as He Luting, Qu Wei, Luo Zhongrong, Du Mingxin, Tian Feng, Wang Ming and Li Guangzu. On March 1, 1987, at his initiative, two grand concerts entitled ″Spring of Symphony″, which Li Delun organized and presented together with over 800 musicians from 11 symphony orchestras in Chi- na, took place at the Capital Gymnasium in Beijing. Several Chinese conductors, headed by Li Delun himself, conducted such Chinese and foreign symphonic pieces as Li Huanzhi's ″Spring Festival Overture″ and Tchaikovsky's ″1812 Overture″. This event became a historical milestone in the Chinese music circle. All these initiatives created by Li Delun helped once again to prevent Chinese symphonic art from being marginalized, and as a result, symphonic music was still playing a great social role as a mainstream art genre. On November 19, 1999 at the Closing Ceremony of the Second Beijing International Music Festival, the 82-year-old Li Delun in his wheelchair cooperated once again with the 79-year-old world-renowned violinist Issac Stern. This turned out to be the last chance for Li Delun to conduct with his baton in his life, and the concert itself became a farewell show for himself. One year later, this great conductor of the first generation in China, who was hailed as ″Godfather of Chinese Symphony″, passed away. Many years have passed after his death, and yet the image of this great musician is still vivid to the audience, and his conducting style, moderate and spontaneous, always open-minded in performing, appears no less charming even today. He is still enjoying love from the Chinese people and great respect from the music circles both at home and abroad because of his profound understandings of music, unique interpretations and great talents in conducting. His contributions to the establishment of the Chinese National Symphony Orchestra (formerly Central Symphony Orchestra), the development and pop-ularization of symphonic music in the nation, as well as Chinese-foreign symphonic music exchanges, have proved to be unprecedented.