With its inaugural concert tonight at the National Concert Hall, the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra (長榮交響樂團) is about to embark on the ambitious project of becoming Taiwan's first orchestra of an international standard. Lim Kek-tjiang (林克昌), 74, known as the "Karajan of Asia," and who throughout his peripatetic life has conducted some of the best orchestras in the world, has come out of semi-retirement to take on the daunting task of transforming the Everygreen Chamber Orchestra, itself only established in July 2001, into a force to be reckoned with in the international classical music scene.
Lim is a fifth generation Indonesian-Chinese who in a life that spans the 20th century Chinese diaspora -- leading the Jakarta Chamber Orchestra in the 1950s,leading the Beijing Central Broadcasting Orchestra in the 1960s, fleeing the China of the Cultural Revolution, being removed from his post as leader of the Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra by the British government for pro-China sympathies, being kept out of major conducting jobs in Taiwan -- it is the stuff that epics are made of. His return to Taiwan will give him the chance to create his own symphony orchestra.
In an interview at Evergreen's shipping offices in downtown Taipei yesterday, Lim expressed his pleasure and gratitude at the current turn of events. "It is the first time I can get exactly the sound I want," he said. "My fingering, my bowing -- this is the best experience for a conductor. As a guest conductor, you can only do so much."
"At the present time, Taiwan does not have a first class orchestra," Lim said, although declining to comment on the quality of the National Symphony Orchestra, currently Taiwan's premier orchestra, and one that he has served as conductor of during a nearly eight year stint in Taiwan teaching at the then National Institute of the Arts.
In Lim's eyes, Japan's NHK Symphony Orchestra is the only Asian orchestra of the first rank. Asked to explain how he defined "an orchestra of the first rank," Lee said: "Take for example the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra. Under Eugene Ormandy, they created the `Philadelphia sound.' I want to create the Evergreen sound."
Tasked with bringing his new orchestra into this exulted company, Lim admitted that he faced considerable hurdles. With long experience of music education in Taiwan, he said that it was here that most of the damage was done. "The problem is in education. Of course people do not like me for saying this. There is not enough emphasis on the basics, the foundation work. As in construction, if you want to build high, you must have deep foundations. If the foundations are not deep enough, then when you get to a certain point, you cannot get any better."
While there is some thought of creating a musical education establishment, according to Demie Chung (鍾德美), executive director of the Chang Yung-fa Foundation (張榮發基金會), under which the orchestra has been established, this is something for the future -- no more than an idea at the present time.
"People here are more interested in playing the beautiful pieces, and not practicing the basics. Then they go overseas. But here they are working for a Masters degree, so they are not taught the basics either. And when they come back to teach, they cannot pass the fundamentals onto their students," Lim said.
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