Xiaogang Ye - The Macau Bride; Four Poems of Lingnan (Jia Lü)

Information

Composer: Xiaogang Ye

• The Macau Bride – Ballet Suite, Op. 34
• Four Poems of Lingnan, Op. 62

Yijie Shi, tenor

Macau Youth Choir

Macau Orchestra

Jia Lü, conductor

Date: 2014

Label: Naxos

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Review

Xiaogang Ye set a new world record for a classical music audience when 3 billion people heard his piano concerto at the opening of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Like most of his compatriots, he works in the world of tonality, his ballet, The Macau Bride, showing influences as diverse as Hollywood and Prokofiev. Lasting for almost forty minutes, the orchestral suite is in ten sections, and calls for a large orchestra, mezzo-soprano and a choir. Colourful and highly engaging, it shows the composer’s mastery of orchestration…the Four Poems of Lingnan pictures the region in southern China and draws on ancient Chinese poems. Here Xiaogang Ye is purely inspired by European music, with just the occasional hint of a Chinese culture, the work scored for tenor and large orchestra. Stylistically it will readily relate to audiences around the world, and is here excellently sung by Shi Yijie…It is a very beautiful voice, and throughout the disc the Macau Orchestra is a fine ensemble under the direction of Lu Jia. The sound is punchy, transparent…

— David Denton

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Xiaogang Ye (born 23 September 1955) is a Chinese composer who was educated at the Central Conservatory of Music and the Eastman School of Music. His extensive oeuvre spans orchestral, chamber, stage and film music, often integrating Chinese cultural, philosophical and natural themes. Major works have been performed internationally, including The Song of the Earth and music premiered at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Ye has held prominent cultural and academic leadership roles in China and abroad, received numerous prestigious awards, and was the first Chinese composer signed by Schott Music.

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Jia Lü (born 1964 in Shanghai) is a Chinese-born Italian conductor. Trained in Shanghai, Beijing and Berlin, he launched his career after winning top prizes at the Antonio Pedeotti International Conducting Competition. Lü has conducted more than 2,000 performances and was the first Asian artistic director of a major Italian opera house, as well as the first Chinese conductor to lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Renowned for his interpretations of German Romanticism, French Impressionism and Italian opera, he currently serves as Artistic Director of Music at China's National Centre for the Performing Arts.

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