May 9, 2018

  • More Fascinating Music from Zhen Chen

     

    On and Between: New Music for Pipa and Western Ensembles
    Lin Ma, pipa.
    Liang Wang, oboe. Howard Wall, horn. Braxton Cook, soprano saxophone. Curtis Nowosad, drums.
    Cho-Liang Lin, Elmira Darvarova, Shenghua Hu, violins. Ao Peng, Milan Milisavljevic, violas. David Gerber, Yiduo Liu, cellos.
    Zhen Chen, piano.
    Navona Records 6146
    Total Time:  36:59
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Last year, composer and pianist Zhen Chen released his first album, Ergo, which explored unique combinations of Chinese Instruments with piano.  That album focused on music for pipa and erhu primarily.  In On and Between, Chen turns to various combinations of strings, winds, and pipa in ten brief tone pictures.  Among the artists featured here is a brief appearance by violinist Cho-Liang Lin.

    Perhaps with the gorgeous horn opening that quotes’s Dvorak’s “Coming Home” theme from his ninth symphony we get a hint at what is about to come in “Arrival”, it is further transformed in a more Asian-tinged feel in the concluding track "Harmony" which creates a larger arc to the music as well.  Here is from the very start a sort of modern blend of the ancient and the new.  Chen’s romantic nature shines through in this music.  The pipa adds its own unique flavor and a certain folkishness to the music as well.  The melodies tend to grow simply across these beautiful lyrical arcs.  Each instrument now adding its own unique voice to this blend that straddles the classical, folk, world, and even jazz worlds.  In short, as Chen states in his well-written program notes for the album, these reflect the “diverse cosmopolitan culture of New York City” and as such are each little windows into the different ongoing stories one could find in the midst of such a large city.  Whether is a sign of hope in the oboe line of “Good Morning, the City” or just joy of simple life pleasures and energy of the city (“Dancing in the Rain”).  Chen moves through these settings incorporating Chinese folk dance (“On the Roof”), a tango to make Piazzolla proud (“Lost in the Midtown”), a gorgeous waltz (“Encounter”), a touching “Lullaby”, blues (“Cocktails”), a jazz club complete with a sax solo (“Walk on the Fifth”), and much more.  The melodies are lent their unique Asian quality with the use of the pipa which functions here the way a guitar might in the texture.

    Each piece is like a woodblock print or colored scroll of Chinese art reflecting in its own modern ways a sense of place and status.  The variety of colors works well here as Chen employs string trios or duos along the way with a shift to traditional Western wind instruments enhancing the music still further.  The music tends to be still rooted in traditional Western harmony with the melodies featuring subtle Eastern inflections.  As noted in the review here of Ergo, Chen’s style closely parallels that of Tan Dun’s cinematic work and recalls the Silk Road Ensemble albums.  The album is as unique in its genre-bending music as one might suspect from last year’s release.  Both are well worth your time.