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"Yi Feng" (Lost Style) (1983) Shanghai Quartet/Kathryn Woodard, piano/Margaret Leng Tan, voice and self-accompanied toy orchestra/Frank Su Huang, cello New Albion NA134 A CD of unusual originality introducing China’s "first avant-garde composer" (b. 1954, Shanghai). Ge Gan-ru transforms the piano quintet in his Four Studies, with the piano's strings representing Peking Opera's gongs, cymbals, woodblocks and the string quartet music incorporating slow microtonal glissandi and snap pizzicati. It can be seen as a homage to age-old tradition from a twenty-first century Chinese perspective. Margaret Leng Tan, surrounded by her collection of toy pianos, appeared in London at the BMIC Cutting Edge series, and here she vocalizes while accompanying herself "Peking operatic style" in a Sung Dynasty poem, "Wrong, Wrong, Wrong!", singing, wailing, whispering, moaning and groaning her way 'through Ge's increasingly anguished landscape'. The title piece, Lost Style, is an astonishing exploration of Chinese musical elements with new playing techniques; amazing sounds, sure to be a high spot of any adventurous cellist's solo recital. A refreshingly different CD, highly recommended to listeners who seek new experiences from farther afield. Peter Grahame Woolf |
