It's rare for a record giant like Virgin Classic to publish a symphonic album by a living composer. But the honor fell upon Chen Qigang in January.
And it's even rarer that EMI and Virgin Classic agree to launch a CD in China, given the concern over pirated copies.
The album was released earlier this month, with the help of the China Starwin Record Co.
So, when sharing the background of the CD with students at the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing earlier this month, the Chinese-French composer started the conversation with the friendly suggestion: "It was difficult to persuade them to try and make a go of the Chinese market. So if you see your classmates or friends going to buy a pirated copy, you probably should tell them 'Chen is our friend, you'd better not do that.'"
The album, which has been among the top 10 as voted by Gramophone magazine, contains three live recordings of world premieres played by the Orchestra National de France, conducted by Charles Dutoit, Tang Muhai and Didier Benetti, with the incomparable talents of soloists such as Yo-Yo Ma.
All of the works made a huge splash at last year's Beijing Music Festival.
Commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation and Radio France, the work "Iris devoilee (Iris unveiled)" for grand orchestra strikes listeners with its three female voices including a Peking Opera singer and its three traditional Chinese instruments - the erhu, pipa and zheng.
As the name suggests, the work is based on the composer's view of the female world.
"All the stories revolve around the theme of man and woman," said Chen.
Consisting of nine parts - ingenious, chaste, libertine, sensitive, tender, jealous, melancholic, hysterical and voluptuous - the music pretty much flows seamlessly from one section to another.
Through the nine typical characters of a woman, Chen portrays the full scope of their emotions, vulnerability and temperament.
"On aurally meeting the nine faces of woman, listeners of both genders empathize, to the extent that women see aspects of themselves in the music," said senior editor Chen Zhiyin with music journal Music Weekly.
The work features Chinese lyrics sung or declaimed in Peking Opera style by Ma Shuai and vocals by classical sopranos Wu Bixia and Ke Luwa.
Ma and the traditional instruments lend the music its highly personal tone. And Chen's use of the traditional instruments never sounds out of place.
This predominantly slow, often dreamy score, however, has its more animated moments such as in libertine, in jealous and, of course, in hysterical.
Listeners who are unversed in Chinese culture and language will nonetheless be able to appreciate Chinese women in all their charm and vital sensuality.
Also included on the CD is the cello concerto "Reflet d'un temps disparu (Reflection of a Vanished Time)," a work expressing personal nostalgia.
The vanished time could be one's childhood, past love, or any other memory of yesterday, or of anyone leaving us, explained Chen.
This piece uses an ancient Chinese motive "Meihua Sannong (Three Variations of Plum Blossom)" to develop a long and gorgeous concerto. The old Chinese melody is slowly explored and mused upon in the dialogue between the cello and orchestra.
"When the ancient Chinese tune that the piece quotes throughout finally appears in its entirety, one can't but be amazed at how beautiful music can be," Beijing-based critic Jiang Shan said.
There are some difficult sections in the cello part which Yo-Yo Ma has treated perfectly through his superior technique. And those slow sections are extremely beautiful, not only the music itself, but also the expression of emotion.
The last piece "Wuxing (The Five Elements)" was among the five finalists in the 2001 Master Prize award granted by the BBC, EMI and the London Symphony Orchestra.
Composed between 1998-99, the work reflects a period of personal research into the different modes and techniques of musical expression, Chen said. Music here becomes an art of suggestion through a refinement of detail.
Chen made some special rules for himself to score the work such as to write five pieces of two minutes each.
It's a challenge for him to characterize musically each of the five elements - metal, wood, water, fire and earth - in such a short time as well as to present a tangible material in an abstract language.
And even more difficult is to establish relationships between the material, so each element generates the next one. Chen expresses his personal vision of the relationships between the five elements which, according to traditional Chinese concept, constitute the universe, offers a musical interpretation of what each element symbolizers for him and sets out a new order of presentation of the five elements.
The three works and the rest of Chen's music feature a perfect combination of Chinese and Western elements.
"Although there are many Chinese composers out there, Chen's way of combining musical elements of the West and the East is undoubtedly unique and purely genius," said Li Xi'an, former president of the China Conservatory of Music.
After graduating from the Central Conservatory of Music, Shanghai-born Chen landed in France in 1984 and became French master Oliveier Messiaen's last pupil from 1984 to 1988.
Ever since, Chen has strived for reconciliation of his Eastern heritage and his Western musical education without either bluntly imitating Messiaen or falling into the trap of fake Orientalism.
His music actually draws on both sides of his cultural background, and all his pieces attempt a synthesis of East and West in a musical way.
Chen has not only carried forward those special music languages in Messiaen's music, but also mixed them together with traditional Chinese folk music, which finally brings us the romance of contemporary music full of national consciousness of Eastern feelings.
"I never score a work for the sake of using traditional Chinese elements. They have been my language since I was very young and they are now flowing with my blood, although I have lived in Paris for most of my time now," said Chen.
According to Chen, his father once wanted him to become a Peking Opera actor and he began a five-year study of the art when he was six years old.
It was not until he landed in Paris that Chen realized how very Chinese he was in terms of his thinking and expression.
"The Western music could not change me from the bottom of my heart. Music is very personal, but I could not make my own music if only following the Western style," he said.
(China Daily August 26, 2003)
