Today we wanted to share this review of our recent release Spirit of Chimes featuring the music of Zhou Long:
ZHOU, Long: Spirit of Chimes / Secluded Orchid / Wu Kui / Taiping Drum / Partita (Cho-Liang Lin, Hai-ye Ni, Helen Huang)
DE 3397
013491339726
Edith Eisler
All Things Strings, February 2010
Zhou Long (b. 1953) began studying the piano early, but the Cultural Revolution interrupted his musical education. He resumed it first in his native Beijing and then in New York, where he attended Columbia University on a fellowship and turned to composition, including string works. Searching for ways to combine his Chinese heritage with modern American techniques, he became a pioneer in synthesizing the sounds, forms and esthetic of East and West.
The five works on this record—including “Secluded Orchid” and “Spirit of Chimes” for piano trio, “Wu Kui” for solo piano, and “Taiping Drum” and Partita for violin and piano—are based on Chinese songs and dances and the archaic eight-note scale (using F and F#).
Their delicacy is punctuated by buildups and crashing chords.
The performers are ideal champions of this music. Born in the East and trained in the West, the players bring to the music natural idiomatic identification and their virtuosity is equal to all its technical and tonal challenges.
In the trios, the Western instruments are skillfully used to suggest the sounds of the ancient Chinese qin, chime stones, bells, and bone flutes. The strings, often going into extreme registers, produce bowed and plucked harmonics, slides, widely spaced octaves; the piano contributes tinkles, growls, cascading arpeggios.
In the piano piece, a vigorous dance, both hands simultaneously play different syncopated rhythms.
The violin/piano pieces are very virtuosic. “Taiping Drum” is a dance with wide leaps, crashes, and octaves.
Partita, though rooted in Chinese folk-tunes, shows the strongest Western influence. Its four contrasting movements alternate lyrical melodies with brilliant runs and dance-like rhythms.
The finale recalls Prokofiev’s Sonata in D major.
Lin plays it with great bravura and a sweet, silvery tone. His splendid performance should inspire other violinists to add it to their repertoire.
Learn more about Zhou Long at the Living Composers Project website at composers21.com. —Edith Eisler
