Bright Sheng: The Phoenix (2009)

Shanghai-born, Michigan-based composer Bright Sheng has found unusually flexible ways of embodying distinctively Chinese experiences in his work. He uses Chinese musical materials only subtly in the four orchestral works heard here, but his origins are unmistakable even for the listener with little prior exposure to his music. The earliest music here is also the most serious (and the least oriented toward tonality): H'un (Lacerations): In memoriam 1966--1976, composed in 1988, honors the victims of the Cultural Revolution ... Read More

Shanghai-born, Michigan-based composer Bright Sheng has found unusually flexible ways of embodying distinctively Chinese experiences in his work. He uses Chinese musical materials only subtly in the four orchestral works heard here, but his origins are unmistakable even for the listener with little prior exposure to his music. The earliest music here is also the most serious (and the least oriented toward tonality): H'un (Lacerations): In memoriam 1966--1976, composed in 1988, honors the victims of the Cultural Revolution in China, whose worst effects Sheng escaped thanks to his participation in a government-sponsored music group in Qinghai province. His parents, however, suffered greatly, and the work has depths of gloom to rival those of Shostakovich during the later phases of his career, and perhaps something of the same sense of the persistence of the individual. The first two pieces on the album, evoking the perils of the Silk Road and the vigor of Tibetan folk culture, respectively, are brighter... Read Less