What constitutes Shanghai and what does this mean for a Kunstradio programme about this city? Is it the sound of all the languages or the sound of the great variety of instruments which are played there? These are our questions today.



Shanghai is a giant construction site, Bruno Pisek found out during his two visits. Shanghai is repulsive and attractive at the same time, he says. As John, who comes from Malaysia, adds in today’s radio art piece SHANGHAI RADIO DIARY. A RADIO OPERA: “I don’t like Shanghai, but I love my life in Shanghai.“



The artist Bruno Pisek created an acoustic travel diary, which gives space to the voices of the people he met on his journey. People together with whom he created something: on the one hand, the performance of a short opera in Chinese and English, for soprano, baritone and mixed ensemble of Chinese and European instruments, and on the other hand, today’s radio art piece. The short opera you will hear in a modified form as part of this piece in about 40 minutes. It tells the beginning of a story of two foreign students in Shanghai. The world premiere of this short opera took place at the New Shanghai Symphony Hall.



But first you will hear the people with whom Pisek worked in Shanghai. Quite a few of them are studying at the Shanghai Conservatory. In July 2016 summer university courses for foreign students took place there as well.

Bruno Pisek himself does research on text interpretation and sound variety of the human voice. He is composer, author, sound engineer and performance artist and has created radio art pieces for ORF-Kunstradio since the end of the eighties. In 2013 rhe artist founded the speaking choir in Vienna. In SHANGHAI RADIO DIARY. A RADIO OPERA., all his artistic fields are interwoven.

“In this piece takes from the rehearsals and from the recording of the opera are combined. And takes from the Shanghai workshop. And takes from the conversations and recordings of instruments played by the musicians in Shanghai. As basis for my compositional work I took my field-recordings. I tried to write many of the sounds of the city as tones and intervals playable on Chinese and European instruments to shape a specific sound of Shanghai. And of course the variation of all the languages. That is why I always kept the original languages in the piece. This is real Shanghai to me.

I also wanted to turn around the perspective in this piece. It is not me talking about my impressions of the city, but it is the narrations of the ones who live in Shanghai. A modern radio diary.

I extended this basic attitude and asked for four short compositions from others as contribution for this piece. The piece became even more surprising through that. The musical pieces come from Ljuba Sytko, Astrid Nõlvak, Andrea Fränzel and Bobby Sommer.

For the German passages I recorded the written texts with sprechchor, the speaking choir, in Vienna. The languages of the conversations are Chinese and English.

The result: in and with both pieces a connection between the people that were involved was achieved. I hope this will be audible to individual radio listeners.”

Multilingualism and internationality are central in SHANGHAI RADIO DIARY and also in Shanghai, Pisek founded a temporary speaking choir.



In Chinese, the word for radio is: shouyinji = shou + yin + ji = to get + sounds + machine = a machine that gets sounds.

Translation: Daniela Beuren and Bruno Pisek

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Credits:

Die Erzählstimmen / the narrators:
Chan Hai Pan chinesisch, Lin Jindao (John) englisch, Pipa (chinesische Laute), Liao Yining (Wendy) englisch/chinesisch, Zhongruan (mondförmige Laute), Arvid Resare schwedisch/chinesisch/englisch, (Bratsche), Astrid Nõlvak estnisch/englisch, Kannel (estnische Zither), Rubén Garcia Benito spanisch/englisch, Wu Xiaodan chinesisch, Guqin (chinesische 7-saitige Zither), Le Thi Ngoc Ha (Tracy) vietnamesisch/chinesisch/englisch, Dan Bau (vietnamesisches Monochord), Yoshiki Tatara japanisch/chinesisch, Klarinette, Janey Liu chinesisch, Jianye Zongai (Shuai) japanisch/chinesisch , Ljubov Sytko (Ljuba) russisch/englisch, Tatiana Schemeleva (Tanja) russisch/englisch

Übersetzungen / translations:
Lin Jindao, Khor Wen Xi, Lim Teik Chuan, Hyesoo Park

Das Opern Ensemble / the opera ensemble:
Luo Yu, Sopran
Michael Feigl, Bariton
Erika Cardona, Dirigentin
Simon Debierre, Guqin
Lin Jindao, Pipa
Yoshiki Tatara, Klarinette
Chan Hai Pan, Xiao (Bambusflöte)
Peng Wang, Sheng (Mundorgel)
Zheng Yingzhe, Cello
Arvid Resare, Bratsche
Khor Wen Xi, Violine
Lim Teik Chuan, Erhu (Kniegeige)
Mayu Qing, chinesische Perkussion
Zhao Liqian, chinesische Perkussion

Zusätzliche Musik / additional music:
Astrid Nõlvak „Shanghai“, Andrea Fränzel „Allusion“, Ljubov Sytko „Shanghai“, Bobby Sommer „China in a Minute“

Zusätzliche Instrumente / additional instruments:
Andrea Fränzel Kontrabass
Julia Schreitl Klarinette, Bassklarinette
Sophie Goidinger Violine
Bobby Sommer Gesang, Saxophon
Daniel Müller Gitarre

der sprechchor, Wien / the speaking choir, Vienna:
Bobby Sommer, Daniel Müller, Daniela Schatz, Daniela Beuren, Elif Bilici, Genta Kristo, Kai Kugler, Karin Macke, Katharina Staininger, Klaus Hahn, Konstanze Rainer, Monika Steiner, Boshra Kasem, Kheder Aldebiat, Sepideh Shafiee, Reza Zavvari

Christoph Amann zusätzliche Studioaufnahmen Sprechchor und Saxophon/Gitarre

The Shanghai Workshop Choir / the speaking choir, Shanghai:
Júlia Fedoszov, Gergely Loch, Kayme Callaghan, Claire Cronin, Ana Cristina Cardona, Ona Barrett Perez, Roser Perez Zamora, Astrid Nõlvak, Gerda Marwood-Bollekamp, Fen Long, Francesco Serratore, Wu Xiaodan, Jonny Marwood, Tatiana Schemeleva, Ljubov Sitko, Enxhtur Tsendsuren, Dashdorj Tsetsegman, Rubén Garcia Benito, Xiaomei Duan, Erika Cardona, Lim Teik Chuan, Angelina Lee, Te Wan Chuan

Bruno Pisek: Komposition, Text, Übersetzungen, Chorleitung, Tonaufnahmen, Tonschnitt, Mischung

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