Publisher's Synopsis
In 1979 the Boston Symphony undertook a history-making concert tour to China. After the tumultuous Cultural Revolution, the BSO was the first American orchestra to set foot there after the normalization between the two countries, and their visit aroused great local and international interest and media coverage. After a hiatus of thirty-five years, in 2014 the BSO returned to China and Japan, and Elias had the great good fortune to have performed on both tours. His memories from '79 are vivid; from the spectacular banquets to which the musicians were daily feted, to the eerie quiet and darkness that descended upon Beijing-a city of nine million-every night, because of their inadequate power grid and because the jingle of bicycle bells outnumbered car engines a thousand to one. Having witnessed momentous changes in Chinese politics, economy, environment, and society from afar, Elias was intensely curious to see them for himself. And of course, there was the artistic mission of the tour! China has become a cultural powerhouse, rivaling Japan, building concert halls, founding orchestras, training musicians, and making instruments at a breakneck pace. How would they receive the Americans upon their return? Did the axiom of music being the international language hold true? Last but not least were the nuts and bolts of an international orchestra tour. How do you get a group of more than a hundred musicians (and their partners, and the administration, and the staff, and selected board members and sponsors) from Point A to Point B and all the way to Point Z, on time, well-fed, and well-housed, all the while carrying with them a precious cargo of millions of dollars' worth of irreplaceable instruments? Set out in broad diary form, each day of rehearsal, travel and performance offers up a clean palette for Elias to paint a multicolored, often humorous landscape of the musical, logistical, personal, and political aspects of a groundbreaking tour by one of the world's greatest orchestras. Elias knows everyone, so interviews and stories with and about musicians and various members of the organization, from its managing director to the orchestra's chauffeur, tell an eye-opening story of planning and human interaction. In every concert tour, amidst the artistic triumphs there also is inevitably great offstage human drama, because if one thing is certain it's that not everything will go as planned. An adventure indeed!
