Sepia-tinged notes from the visit of '73

Time flies and old friends pass away.

The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to China in 1993, 1996, 2001, 2005, 2008 and 2010. Each time, there were less old members of that historic trip in 1973, as the first US orchestra to visit China. In 2008, nine returned, this time, just seven.

"My father told me a lot about the 1973 trip when we performed together in Beijing, in 1993," 57-year-old bassoon player Mark Gigliotti says outside the National Center for the Performing Arts. "He said it was very different. People wore blue or green and seldom saw foreigners in streets."