Although Yolanda Kondonassis’ name sits prominently on the booklet cover, and her picture adorns the back case in this new album of music by Bright Sheng, she’s only featured in Never Far Away, a de facto concerto for harp and orchestra. The work is glittering and colorful, with imaginative harp writing that provides ample opportunity for Kondonassis to display her impressive skill. Like much of Sheng’s music, it’s harmonic rather than tuneful, with clever use of augmented–and sometimes fractured–pentatonic scales, all of which is most blatantly (and rather humorously) realized in the third movement, Doctored Pentatonics. The whole of the work, however, with its splashy percussion effects, buzzy high-woodwind writing, and glinting brass textures, evokes memories of Messiaen.
Shanghai Overture is an engaging, dynamic work replete with Chinese stylings–stilted, abrupt rhythms with much percussive tingling and crashing. Yet, it has a quasi-minimalist quality that brings to mind John Adams. Tibetan Love Song sounds like nothing of the sort (at least to Western ears), with its anger-ridden brass, woodwind, and percussion opening, while the harmonically angular Tibetan Love Swing’s persistent rhythmic pulse and syncopation does approximate dance, even if it doesn’t necessarily “swing”.
Finally, The Nightingale and The Rose, a short (22 minutes) ballet inspired by Oscar Wilde, is initially reminiscent of late Nielsen (think Clarinet Concerto), but it then goes on to explore a series of varying moods and dances all filtered through Sheng’s unique sonic-world. Jahja Ling leads the San Diego Symphony in persuasive performances that project the mood and feel of the music to a “T”, as does Telarc’s spacious, high-impact sound. For explorers of the unusual. [9/29/2009]
