Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 1993

CITATIONS once said of his performance of Schubert's 'Arpeggione' that he had stretched eac h musical strand to 'just the right tautness, drawing full excitement from its rhythmic impulse without bruising the lovely melodies.' Ma cannot bear to repeat himself. Referring to his own playing, Ma has said, ' Youhave to rediscover the music night after night, to create an organic whole, to realize an inner logic. The danger comes when you try to repeat last night's good performance. As soon as you try that, you're going to fall flat on your face.' Yo - Yo Ma is a cellist and musician of this generation. He implicitly understands the ethos of our time, that is, that an audience today wants to be moved, enthralled, challenged and surprised. He epitomizes the spirit of the age when he said he did not like to be bored, hence his performance should not and could not be boring. Ma wants to extend the cello repertoire. He has transcribed for the cello music which was written for other instruments. He wants to try new compositions. These include Gruber's Cello Concerto which is so full of pain, anguish and hurt that it sounds more like a gladiatorial contest than a piece of music. Yo -Yo M a premiered it at Tanglewood. The artist played like aman possessed, sweat streaming down his face and falling all over his cello, the strings of his bow breaking in several places and flying in all directions; unbowed, undaunted, he kept at it for a f u ll 25 minutes and emerged, at the end, triumphant. The composer went up to the stage, kisse d the cellist and proclaimed that that was how he had always envisaged the piece being played. I f that were the case, one suspects it would be a long time before any other cellist would want to attempt that concerto again. In only 37 years, Yo -Yo Ma, cellist extraordinaire, has played with the best orchestras of the world, has taught many master classes, has been universally acclaimed by fellow musicians and the severest music critics, has won six Grammy Awards, a rarity for classical musicians, and has receive d an honorary doctorate in music f r om his alma mater Harvard University. In Portrait of a Lady, T.S. Eliot wrote about attending a concert at which he heard 'the latest Pole transmit the Preludes'. The pianist in question, being Polish, might perhaps be expected to have an innate affinity with the composer Chopin. But such a cultural advantage is not available to an ethnic Chinese cellist who has to come to grips with the music of Bach and Schubert. A l l the more impressive, therefore, are Yo -Yo Ma's achievements. Mr. Chancellor, on this very special occasion, the thirtieth anniversary of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, it is my pleasure and honour to present Yo -Yo Ma, cellist, artist, innovationist, educationist, exhibitionist on the stage, contortionist with a magic bow, for the award of Doctor of Literature, honoris causa. 46th Congregation 11