Ge Gan-Ru: Chinese Rhapsody (2005)

Ge Gan-Ru is widely identified as the first Chinese composer to work in an avant-garde style, a Western conceit once completely prohibited in China, especially during China's Cultural Revolution, the era in which Ge grew up and served three years in an agricultural labor camp. Ge has lived in the United States since 1983; BIS' Super Audio CD Chinese Rhapsody is the first solo outing devoted to the work of Ge. Its program of three pieces includes one item from each decade in which he has worked, the piano concerto Wu (1986) ... Read More

Ge Gan-Ru is widely identified as the first Chinese composer to work in an avant-garde style, a Western conceit once completely prohibited in China, especially during China's Cultural Revolution, the era in which Ge grew up and served three years in an agricultural labor camp. Ge has lived in the United States since 1983; BIS' Super Audio CD Chinese Rhapsody is the first solo outing devoted to the work of Ge. Its program of three pieces includes one item from each decade in which he has worked, the piano concerto Wu (1986) for Margaret Leng Tan and two works for orchestra, Chinese Rhapsody (1992) and Six Pentatonic Tunes (2003). Of these, Chinese Rhapsody seems the most edgy and exploratory; some listeners may not find it so "rhapsodic" in a traditional sense, and Ge admits that the choice of title was rather arbitrary. Nevertheless, it is rhapsodic in feel -- huge, impressive washes of orchestral sound lead from one to the next, greatly aided by the terrific audio quality of BIS' recording and... Read Less