云水间之思——刘湲作品音乐会随想

Random Thoughts on the Concert of Works by Liu Yuan

官方公告：2010年6月12日晚上，刘滠作品音乐会在杭州举行。初看节目单，封面写着“思入云水间”，我暗自思忖：怎么这么柔和不像刘滠？同行们也有同感。听了音乐会上半场，才明白过来。那里的音乐很温情，的确是云水间之思。

On June 12,2010,the Concert of Works by Liu Yuan was held in Hangzhou.The first work on the programme is'The Woman General Mu Guiying'for erhu and orchestra,original music by Jiang Xueshang,rearranged by Liu Yuan.My impression is that this piece is solid,complete and integrated, but different from his other representative works,less'magnificent'or'violent'to some extent. The second one is'Ode to Bamboo'for dizi(bamboo flute),guzheng and orchestra.This is one of his earliest works,composed in the 1980's.In the composer's words,'playing bamboo flute is like making an ode to bamboo.'The work has three distinctive features:the ancient and traditional bamboo flute in Chinese court music scale;guzheng,an instrument in between tradition and modernity,using artificial scales to play both traditional music and modern music;and the modern orchestra,using pan-tonality and microtonal music. The dizi player Jiang Guoji displayed both hardness and softness In his performance,with the music profound and melodious enough to best reflect the composer's intention in'eulogising bamboo',as if he were playing taichi.The guzheng player Xie Tao was also skillful on the artificial scales,well experienced in freely crossing the border between tradition and modernity. This is indeed an interesting work,which suits both the refined and the popular tastes.The moving sound of dizi is rich in melody,easily understandable to the general audience. The modern combination of guzheng and orchestra,together with the delicate instrumentation,produces a general effect of extreme charms. The third work is'Lyric Suites of Taiwan Ballads'for pipa and orchestra.This is a successful fusion of a variety of elements: the ancient and the modern,Taiwan and the Mainland, the West and China,music and literature,art and life,career and family,all of which have been represented throughout the work.The various subtitles of the work embody the interaction between literature and music.The music is so clean and fresh that,I am sure,the audience like the work very much,and Liu Yuan's daughter as well,the lovely little girl who went onto the stage to present flowers.The element of'Family'appeared at the moment when the audience understood this special relationship.More significantly,the pipa player Wang Yiyan,is actually Liu Yuan's wife! I have not seen her for over a year,and now in her stage makeup,she looked so much like an ancient beautiful lady from the Tang Dynasty, elegant and demure,playing the pipa always in a calm and unhurried way,and making each sound solid,resolute and precise,with no signs of exaggeration or pretension. In the second half of the concert there was only one work,i.e.the choral symphony'Echoes of Mountains and Rivers', a commissioned work in celebration of the completion of the Three Gorges Hydroelectric Power Project.When listening to the music,my mind was full of rich aesthetic appreciation experience,but afterwards there remained what Jacques Derrida called'disseminated'impressions in bits and pieces.The first piece immediately revealed Liu Yuan's boldness and great strength,with so much ensemble playing completed in one go. The second piece is more delicate with more layers.The chorus was sometimes independent,sometimes working as an instrumental part.The vibrato that woman singers made by using their hands to flap the mouths was unique while the male soloist produced sound from backstage,creating an interesting effect of space contrast and echo.