From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China (1981)

I’ll admit to being a bit confused as to the purpose of this documentary. It follows a select tour by Ukrainian-born American violinist Isaac Stern to communist China where he meets some of their prodigiously talented young folk who are adept at just about everything from playing musical instruments to table tennis to gymnastics. The one thing he seems to want to identify and correct is a certain rigidity with their playing styles, but that often leads to what appears to present a rather condescending approach to their skills. Hence my confusion. Is he there to impart his “Western” techniques on the Chinese or to see how they have embraced and adapted European classical music to their own style of music? We visit some Chinese opera and again, there is a degree of patronising going on which suggests an inferiority of East v West that didn’t sit so well with me. It touches, quite harrowingly in one interview, on the attitudes of the Maoist authorities when it came to eradicating the influences of Mozart et al and replacing them with domestic themes, but that again seems to ignore the facts that the musical traditions of this nation are easily as old as anything that was imported from the courts of Vienna or Berlin. Stern is very clearly a talented musician, but as a communicator and a teacher, well I found him lacking in understanding or respect for a heritage that dates back aeons and that’s musical styles he, himself, might struggle to master. It’s a bit long, but is still an interesting treatise on the weaponisation of music that showcases some sublime talent - epitomised by a young lad on the piano - amidst a politically manipulative environment.