This is unashamedly
brushed-up folk-music, after the ‘travelogue’
manner of a Canteloube or Hasefeld.
We are in a different world from the
grit of Bartók or the sophistication
of Britten ... which is not to say that
the music is worthless or without appeal.
This is simple, colourful stuff and
could appeal strongly to those who have
travelled in the Far East – rose-tinted
spectacles firmly in place, maybe, but
attractive nonetheless.
The Butterfly Lovers
Concerto belongs to a genre of Chinese
concert music initiated principally
by Xian Xinghai’s stirring Yellow
River Cantata (later arranged as
a concerto) of 1939. This concerto is
programme music, and is based on a beautiful
Chinese legend of two ill-fated lovers
who, in death, become butterflies. It
is in a single long movement, with a
most evocative orchestral introduction,
reminiscent to my ears of Mussorgsky’s
Khovantschina Prelude. The solo
violin then enters, announcing one of
those ingenuous traditional pentatonic
melodies that abound in Chinese music,
which becomes the main theme of the
work. This is inevitably a highly episodic
piece, and captures the changing moods
of the bitter-sweet tale very well.
Takako Nishizaki is a sympathetic soloist,
and, if you can cope with the somewhat
cloying tone of the concerto, you will
find this to be charming and eventful
music, albeit not something you would
wish to listen to too often!
Peter Breiner’s work
is a rather different kettle of fish.
He is a talented Slovakian composer,
who has lived and worked for many years
in Canada. He has taken here a selection
of traditional melodies connected with
the Silk Road, that great trade
route that begins in Western China and
wends its way westward through Asia.
Keith Anderson’s liner notes say that
he has attempted a ‘synthesis of East
and West’, which perhaps makes these
pieces out to be more serious or even
pretentious than they in fact are. They
have the character of rather splendid
film music, and are orchestrated with
superb skill. The solo violin is again
featured, and I particularly enjoyed
the poetry of A Beloved Rose,
with its delicate tracery in the celesta,
and Lin Hua Hua, where the flute
is required to bend the notes like the
Chinese traditional flute, the di
(or Japanese shakuhachi). Lift
your veil is great fun; this energetic
folk-song is set so that it alternates
between the style of a Baroque Concerto
and something more contemporary – truly
global crossover this. The final number,
Tulufan, rather confusingly echoes
Falla’s Miller’s Dance, though
the musical result is entertaining enough.
The New Zealand Symphony
Orchestra is now a high-class body,
and James Judd draws some excellent
playing from them – no hint of condescension
here. This is an undemanding yet highly
enjoyable disc.
Gwyn Parry-Jones
Takako Nishizaki, violin