New Zealand Symphony Orchestra & Darrell Ang - Zhou Long / Chen Yi: Symphony, 'Humen 1839' (2015) [Hi-Res]

The unique selling point about this disc is that it contains the first recordings of a man considered China’s leading contemporary classical composer, Zhou Long. A Pulitzer Prize-winner, he has lived in America for many years, teaching and composing widely. His music has been performed by orchestras worldwide – The Immortal (not on this disc) was played by the BBC Symphony at the Royal Albert Hall in London and The Enlightened was commissioned and first performed by the Kansas City Symphony. Zhou employs Chinese idioms vividly, not least percussion, and blends them with Western harmonies to create a very personal sound world.

„Music from two of today’s most highly regarded Chinese composers scored for conventional western symphony orchestra written during the past twelve years. The disc begins not in China but in Japan, with drumming music Zhou Long composed for a modern Japanese Taiko ensemble, though such drumming music also had roots in Chinese music back to the sixth century. It makes for a punchy score for full orchestra where pounding rhythms underline the melodic superstructure that is essentially in a tonality world. The two famous composers came together in the symphony Humen 1839, a work composed to mark the public burning of 1000 tons of opium in Human, the hoard having been seized from British traders, an event that sparked the British-Chinese conflict known as the First Opium War. It’s four colourfully orchestrated movements are ‘pictures’ related to that period of Chinese history, and are laid out in conventional western symphonic tradition its central movements being a scherzo and slow movement, and it is this latter Adagio tragico—depicting the suffering of the people—that stands out as particularly fine when surrounded by the Hollywood influenced outer movements. Zhou Long’s ability to orchestrate and to mix tonality, atonality and traditional Chinese sounds, that creates The Enlightenment, a reflection of Chinese philosophy of Peace, Light and Love. Without sight of the scores I can only comment that the playing of the New Zealand Symphony, under the much sought after young conductor, Darrell Ang, carries conviction, impact and many beautifully played solos…“ (David Denton, David’s Review Corner)

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Darrell Ang, conductor