DU MINGXIN
TEN XINJIANG DANCES
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Takako Nishizaki (Violin)
Choo Hoey (Conductor)
Marco Polo 8.223903
Marco Polo 8.225814
THE SONG OF YANG GUAN
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Takako Nishizaki (Violin)
Choo Hoey (Conductor)
Hong Kong Records 8.240361
Marco Polo 8.225813
After the success of the Choo Hoey-led Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s recorded collaborations with Japanese violinist Takako Nishizaki in the Hung Hu Violin Concerto (1981) and Respighi Concerto Gregoriano (1983) albums, it was a matter of time more music came from this partnership. The Chinese and Asian Evergreens (1984) disc sold particularly well, thus albums of more Chinese music particularly old / ancient Chinese tunes became imperative.
The 1985 was a busy year for recording at Victoria Concert Hall. In the month of June came the Ten Xinjiang Dances by famous Chinese composer Du Mingxin (born 1928, still living), who was responsible for the Socialist Realist ballets Red Detachment of Women (1964, China’s most famous ballet) and The Mermaid.
Described as A Xinjiang Musical Tour (its title in Chinese), the suite for violin and orchestra comprised ten movements based on Kazakh, Uyghur, Tajik and Tartar folksongs, Central Asian ethnicities resident in China’s westernmost province. Just imagine these to be Oriental versions of Brahms’ Hungarian Dances or Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances, lushly orchestrated with virtuoso solo flourishes, and one cannot go far wrong. An all-round easy listen for some 46 minutes.
The month of October saw the recording of The Song of Yang Guan, the title being its opening track Yang Guan Sandie (陽關三疊), the famous guqin tune inspired by a Tang dynasty poem. Other familiar melodies include Listening to the Pines (聽松), Riding in the Open Grassland (奔驰在千里草原), The Shepherd Girl (牧羊姑娘) and River of Sorrow (江河水).
It would seem ungrateful to claim that these albums were merely vehicles for Nishizaki’s violin virtuosity. She plays all the melodies well and is every way idiomatic, unafraid to display her vibrato. She is very much her own and does not try to replace the erhu. SSO’s accompaniment is lively and alert, Choo Hoey being the most ardent advocate of Chinese orchestral music during the orchestra’s early years.
These recordings were originally issued on LP on Klaus Heymann’s Hong Kong Records label, and CD on Marco Polo. It is a matter of time these appear on Naxos, but digital downloads and online streaming are now possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment