April 28, 2017

  • Beautiful New Release of Piano & Chinese Instruments

     Ergo: New Music for Piano & Chinese Folk Instruments
    Jiaji Shen, pipa. Feifei Yang, erhu. Yixuan Pang, voice.
    Zhen Chen, piano.
    Navona Records 6089
    Total Time:  47:52
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Ergo features pianist and composer Zhen Chen in a collection of fascinating little pieces for piano and Chinese instruments.  The style is fairly romantic and reflective in nature with the intriguing colors of the pipa and erhu adding some rather fascinating colors to Chen’s original melodies here.  These ideas may have roots in Chinese folk music, but Chen transforms these so that one gets a real sense of the blend of Eastern and Western musics.  Harmonies tend to flow out of the Western tradition.  The melodic lines though may shift into more Asian inflections that are pointed by being played on the pipa, a string instrument that is sort of like a Chinese lute.  The erhu is a two-stringed bow instrument.  When the two are combined the music tends to feel more closely Eastern, but the piano sort of roots us in Western tonality.  It is only in the poetic songs where the connection to China becomes more pronounced with beautiful singing by Yixuan Pang.  Chen’s other companions, Jiaju Shen on the pipa, and Feifei Yang on the erhu, are equally excellent.

    There are ten brief pieces here.  Each features engaging melodic ideas with rich piano support.  The pieces are like brushstrokes illuminating a particular emotion or scene connected to poetry or the composer’s creative imagining.  One can perhaps see these pieces closer to Tan Dun’s cinematic style, but Chen’s music is a bit more intimate and simply stunning to hear.  The music grabs the listener and pulls them in to his sound world very naturally.  The melodies themselves are also quite gorgeous and they are performed with great emotional intensity.  One might think of this more as a reflective album for listening rather than say a pure “classical” one, but that is almost too simplistic because these pieces do encourage a blend of attentive listening even though it invites you to sit back and relax.  Most fascinating is the “Turpan Tango” which incorporates this South American rhythm with a melody that seems to transcend the continent.  “Dance Floor Banter” is a rather fascinating little waltz.  (As an aside, both these little pieces feel like they would be perfectly at home in Terry Gilliam film for some reason!)  The release includes a booklet with descriptions of Chen’s intent for each work which can provide an image for the listener if needed.  This may be one of Navona’s better crossover albums that is a real surprise hit.