Xiaogang Ye - Winter; etc. (Gilbert Varga; José Serebrier)

Information

Composer: Xiaogang Ye

• (01) The Song of Sorrow and Gratification, Op. 67
• (05) December Chrysanthemum, Op. 52b
• (06) Winter I, Op. 28
• (07) The Brilliance of Western Liang, Op. 16
• (08) Starry Sky, Op. 56

Shenyang, bass-baritone (1-4)

Sharon Bezaly, flute (5)

Wei Lu, violin (7)

Noriko Ogawa, piano (8)

Royal Scottish National Chorus & Orchestra

Gilbert Varga, conductor (1-4, 7)

José Serebrier, conductor (5, 6, 8)

Date: 2021

Label: BIS
https://bis.se/conductors/serebrier-jose/xiaogang-ye-winter

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Review

BIS’s second album devoted to the music of Chinese composer Xiaogang Ye (b1955) includes two works from the early part of his career as well as three composed in the 21st century. Dating from 1983, The Brilliance of Western Liang, named after a fifth-century kingdom in north-west China, was composed as a graduation exercise during the composer’s time at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Drawing inspiration from ancient musical scores from the Tang Dynasty (618 907), Ye’s writing for violin and orchestra offers passages of remarkable lyrical beauty as well as fiercely dissonant climaxes worthy of Bartók. It makes a tremendous impression in this wonderfully ardent performance by soloist Wei Lu.

Winter, the first of three pieces by Ye with the same title, dates from 1988, shortly after his move to the US to study at the Eastman School of Music. Atmospherically scored with some memorable writing for bassoon, horn and marimba, it conveys a serious and often turbulent mood. Sparser in texture but similar in character, December Chrysanthemum was composed in 2006 in memory of the composer’s daughter, who died at the age of only 18 months. Winding its way throughout the work is a rhapsodic flute solo, virtuosically played here by Sharon Bezaly.

Composed in 2012, The Song of Sorrow and Gratification is a four-part song cycle set to texts by the Buddhist monk Li Shutong. The introspective and melancholic nature of the texts as well as the refinement of the scoring takes the listener to a place not far removed from that of Schoeck’s Elegie, although Ye’s music has a style recognisably his own. The recording benefits from a highly sympathetic performance by the work’s dedicatee, the bass-baritone Shenyang, sung in Mandarin.

Concluding the album is Starry Sky, composed for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. With a sweepingly romantic main theme, a multitude of percussion-capped orchestral climaxes and an ethereal close for children’s and women’s voices, it’s hardly a profound work but its sense of occasion is difficult to resist. Noriko Ogawa gives a suitably extrovert performance of the piano solo originally played by Lang Lang. Whether led by José Serebrier or Gilbert Varga, the orchestral playing in all five works is splendidly committed and the recording throughout is superb. An outstanding release.

-- Christian Hoskins, Gramophone

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Ye Xiaogang (叶小纲; born 1955 in Shanghai) is regarded as one of China’s leading contemporary composers. He studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in China and the Eastman School of Music. His teachers include Mingxin Du, Samuel Adler, Joseph Schwantner, Louis Andriessen and Alexander Goehr. Ye has composed a large number of works in a variety of genres, including symphonic, chamber, dance– drama and opera pieces, as well as film and TV music. His music can be found on EMI Classics, Wergo, Hugo, Naxos, BIS, Delos and Deutsche Grammophon, among others.

https://www.naxos.com/person/Xiaogang_Ye/22759.htm

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Gilbert Varga (born 1952, London) is a British-Hungarian conductor. He studied violin with his father, Tibor Varga, and conducting with Franco Ferrara, Sergiu Celibidache and Charles Bruck. Gilbert Varga was Chief Conductor of the Hofer Symphoniker (1980-85) and the Philharmonia Hungarica (1985-90), Permanent Guest Conductor of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra (1991-95), Principal Guest Conductor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra (1997-2000), and Principal Conductor of the Euskadi Symphony Orchestra (2001-08). He is currently Principal Conductor of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Varga

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José Serebrier (born 3 December 1938 in Montevideo) is a Uruguayan conductor and composer. He once studied with Aaron Copland and Pierre Monteux. As a conductor, Serebrier has had many conducting posts, and is one of the most recorded conductors of his generation. He has received 37 nominations for Grammy Awards and won 8 Grammies for his recordings. As a composer, Serebrier's first symphony, written at the age of 17, was premiered by Leopold Stokowski. His Third Symphony and his "Fantasia for strings" are amongst his most popular works. His style is energetic, colourful and melodic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_Serebrier

http://www.joseserebrier.com/

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