‘Concert in the Clouds’: A Chinese tribute to Beethoven

A Mandarin poem rapped to a remixed R&B beat of Moonlight Sonata. A magician playing card tricks to the rhythm of Minuet in C Major. A Rubik’s Cube Guinness record holder playing the hardest level on the game Rhythm Master…to the electric guitar remix of the third movement of the Pathetique Sonata.

A variety of performers will be celebrating Beethoven’s 250th birthday on December 16 as part of an online event called Concert in the Clouds. It will be hosted by Bukaopu, an art salon in Beijing, with support from the Li Delun Music Foundation.

Kemin Zhang, founder of Bukaopu, described Beethoven as the inspiration for many Chinese kids to learn music.

“China is now one of the biggest and most popular places for classical music in the world,” he said. “I think that probably is because of Beethoven.”

Ever since a Chinese scholar, Lǐ Shūtóng 李叔同, exposed the Chinese public to Beethoven with an article in 1906, the German composer has had an extraordinary history in China. Li’s article, which focused on Beethoven’s lifelong affliction of financial and health problems and his tragic hearing loss, resonated with China in a time of national turmoil. According to Jindong Cai, conductor and author of Beethoven in China, Chinese people felt connected with Beethoven’s story — a lifetime of struggle and perseverance finally emerging in triumph.

“He’s inspired reform, rebellion, revolution, revival. He’s been woven into the social, political, and cultural fabric that is China today,” Sheila Melvin, co-author of the book and wife of Cai, said. “And when you study the history of Beethoven’s introduction and absorption into China, you’re really studying China for the past century and more.”

China first heard Beethoven’s music, the finale from Eroica Symphony, in 1911 in a performance by what’s now the Shanghai Symphony. Later, the second movement of Beethoven’s Eroica was performed at the funeral of Sun Yat-sen (孫中山 Sūn Zhōngshān) in 1925, and the Ninth Symphony, along with Friedrich Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” poem translated into Mandarin, was heard at the celebration of the PRC’s 10th anniversary in 1959.

During the Cultural Revolution, Beethoven fell out of favor and, along with other Western classical music, was considered bourgeois and bad. But his music was shared in secret. When the Communist Party allowed a Chinese group to perform for U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger when he visited Beijing in 1973, the group performed Beethoven, of course.

The classical music icon reemerged as a national heroic symbol in 1977, when the last two movements of his Fifth Symphony was broadcasted live on radio, signaling the end of the Cultural Revolution. Even during the 1989 protests, students blasted recordings of Ode to Joy in Tiananmen Square. Now, students in China study Beethoven’s story at school.

Kemin Zhang also has a unique relationship with Beethoven. His grandfather, renowned Chinese conductor Lǐ Délún 李德伦, conducted numerous concerts to promote classical music in China. From a young age, Zhang was exposed to Beethoven’s music. One of the first pieces of classical music he listened to was Egmont Overture, which remains his favorite Beethoven piece. He remembered being photographed for China Daily while conducting the piece to a cassette tape. “That was the highlight of my music career,” Zhang said, jokingly.

Inspired and nurtured by Basically Beethoven, a monthly classical music open mic started by Alex Pearson and Paul Eldon at the Bookworm in Beijing 20 years ago, Zhang founded Bukaopu in 2012. The music salon combined a variety of talent shows with musical performances and was the place where people from all walks of life went to de-stress and find camaraderie. With concert halls and performance spaces shut down due to COVID-19, Bukaopu moved online — and expanded into a global entity. This time, Zhang hopes to appeal to “the few people left on earth who do not like Beethoven yet” by combining modern, visual elements to classical Beethoven music.

To do so, Zhang tapped into his broad network. In addition to classical musicians from Poland, Vienna, the United States, and China, Zhang has also invited tap dancers, magicians, contact jugglers, a rapper, and a Tai chi master to give their creative interpretations of Beethoven. More than 100 Chinese children from different parts of the world will join together to sing a kid’s version of Ode to Joy.

Besides the performances, the concert also aims to illuminate Beethoven’s spirit. Zhang emphasized that Beethoven did not just serve the elite, but also conducted “music for humanity.” He compared Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to Michael Jackson’s “We Are the World,” which conveys what the world needs at the moment — everyone working together to make it a better place.

“If they had electric guitars and drum kits and keyboards, he’d be all over that,” Zhang said. “He had that rock ’n roll rebellious feel to him, which I think is why he’s so inspirational to everyone on the planet.”

The concert will be livestreamed on iQIYI on Wednesday, December 16 at 8 p.m. Beijing time (7 a.m. EST) in both Mandarin and English. An international edition will be streamed at 8 p.m. EST on Bukaopu’s Facebook page later that day.