Back to the musical future

The last time Boston Symphony Orchestra played a concert in China was 35 years ago. It will be back in May. Jack Freifelder traces the journey.

A lot has sure changed since 1979. Tie-dye and bell-bottoms are largely a novelty now, but they were all the rage when the Boston Symphony Orchestra last played a concert in China 35 years ago. Even the iconic Zhongshan suits that dotted the streets in China several decades ago have taken a backseat to more contemporary fashion. But the BSO's Larry Wolf still remembers the fad's heyday well. "I was 31 on the first trip to China," Wolf says in an interview. "I tried to be a tourist and it was all extremely interesting. I remember the streets, a sea of bicycles and the blue Mao jackets that were just everywhere."

"Being an American I was just an object of a positive, childlike curiosity," adds Wolf, an assistant principal double bass player with the BSO. "People wondered if I stubbed my toe in New York whether I would feel the same pain they did with a stubbed toe in Beijing. The answer is, of course, yes."