ZHOU LONG / CHEN YI
Wild Grass
Here
is an hour of chamber music by two of the world’s greatest living Chinese
composers, Zhou Long and Chen Yi (both born in 1953), who happen to be husband
and wife. While contemporary musical techniques are employed, the essence of
being Chinese strongly permeates their music. The best known work here is
Chen’s Romance Of Hsiao And Ch’in,
where the violin and piano relive the combo of xiao (vertical flute) and guqin, with the distinct voice of ancient musical
theatre. The revolutionary Chinese writer Lu Xun (1881-1936) figures
prominently in this collection. Chen’s Monologue
for solo clarinet is a 5-minute long meditation on the fate of Ah Q, Lu’s most
famous literary anti-hero. Was he executed, or was it just our vivid
imagination?
Zhou’s
Wild Grass just includes the
introduction to Lu’s collection of prose poetry Yecao (1924-26), with Zhou as the reader-narrator accompanied by
solo clarinet. Zhou gets more air time with his Su (Tracing Back) for
flute and guqin, a work that achieved
cult status in China even before the advent of the internet.
His Pianogongs for piano and opera
gongs may be heard as the prototype of his Postures
for piano and orchestra, recently premiered by the SSO. The intoxicating world
of drumming dominates in Taiping Drum
and Taigu Rhythm, the latter a
vigorous work for clarinet, violin, cello and percussion that unites the dagu and taiko of Chinese and Japanese cultures. These performances by the
Beijing New Music Ensemble, formed by both locals and expats, are unlikely to
be surpassed.
GLAZUNOV Symphonies
& Concertos
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Russian National Orchestra
JOSE SEREBRIER
Warner Classics 2564
66467-4 (8 CDs)
****1/2
Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936) was arguably the
greatest Russian composer of symphonies between Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov.
That is scant consolation as his eight and a half symphonies (the ninth was
incomplete) are hardly ever heard in concert. He was a superb craftsman whose
symphonies are a joy to behold especially in performances as good as these. The
early symphonies from the early 1880s contain strong Russian folk influences,
and are reminiscent of Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov. The best are Nos.4, 5 and 6
where he finds his own voice, the same muse that distinguished his most popular
music – the Violin Concerto, ballets The Seasons and Raymonda, also included in this budget-priced box-set.
By the time of his sprawling Eighth Symphony (1906), some 40 minutes
long, he had withdrawn into the world of pedagogy (Shostakovich became his most
famous student). This masterpiece has Wagnerian overtones and looks forward to
the worlds of Elgar and early Stravinsky. All his concertos – for violin (with
Rachel Barton Pine), piano (Alexander Romanovsky), cello (Wen Sinn Yang) and
saxophone (Marc Chisson) – all highly engaging works also find a place here. The
magisterial Uruguay-born conductor Jose Serebrier makes the best cases possible
of each of these lesser-known works. The absence of programme notes (even the
downloadable file from Warner Classics is non-functional) is a sore point,
regrettable penny-pinching behaviour from a major label.
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