Read reviews, listen to the music, and purchase the CD ZHU, J.: Symphonic Fantasia / Symphony No. 4

Customer Service Toll Free 866.489.4152

Home Page

Back to the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra site

Narrow your search
with our Music Browser

Classical Music

        Ballet
        Chamber Music
        Choral
        Concertos
        Film Music
        Folk Legends
        Instrumental
        Musicals
        Opera / Operetta
        Orchestral
        Vocal

Recently Released

Upcoming Releases

Clearance

NaxosDirect Podcasts

Other Genres:

Audio Books

        Anthologies / Collections
        Arts
        Biographies
        Children's Classics
        Classic Fiction
        Great Epics and Tales
        History
        Junior Classic Fiction
        Junior History
        Literature
        Music Biographies
        Music Education
        Non-Fiction
        Philosophy
        Plays - Others
        Plays - Shakespeare
        Poetry
        Religion
        Samplers
        Sports
        Wine Guide

DVD

        Ballet DVD
        Classical Concert
        Classical Documentary
        Dance Documentary
        Opera DVD
        Pop/Rock Concert

Jazz

Jazz Contemporary
Jazz Icons

Naxos Label

        Naxos American Classics
        Naxos Best Of...
        Naxos Box Sets
        Naxos Cinema Classics
        Naxos Classics
        Naxos DVD
        Naxos DVD-Audio
        Naxos Instrumental
        Naxos International
        Naxos Jazz
        Naxos Limited Edition
        Naxos Milken Archives
        Naxos Night Music
        Naxos Opera
        Naxos Orchestral
        Naxos Samplers
        Naxos Special Release
        Naxos Wind Band Classics
        Naxos World

New Age

World

        Ballad
        Bhuddist
        Chinese Music
        Classical (World)
        Early Music (World)
        Folk
        Gamelan
        Gypsy
        Hindustani
        Jazz (World)
        Klezmer
        Sufi
        Vocal (World)
        World

Labels
Composers
Conductors
Ensembles
Orchestras
Choirs
Artists
Instruments
Producers

ZHU, J.: Symphonic Fantasia / Symphony No. 4

Home

World

Chinese Music

ZHU, J.: Symphonic Fantasia / Symphony No. 4

View large image

Total playing time: 01:00:36

$9.99 (CD)

In Stock - Usually ships within 24 hours.

Email this title to a friend

Add to del.icio.us del.icio.us Icon

digg this

StumbleUpon StumbleUpon Icon

Link to this CD Link to this page

Zhu Jianer Symphonic Fantasia: In Memory of Martyrs for Truth (1980) Sketches in the Mountains of Guizhou , Symphonic Suite (1982) Symphony No. 4...

Read more about this recording

Zhu Jianer

Symphonic Fantasia: In Memory of Martyrs for Truth (1980)

Sketches in the Mountains of Guizhou, Symphonic Suite (1982)

Symphony No. 4 "6.4.2 - 1" (1990)

A native of the Jing district of Anhui, Zhu Jianer was born in Tianjin and brought up in Shanghai, teaching himself music as a schoolboy. In 1940 he began to write songs, incidental music and music for wind instruments, turning in 1949 to the composition of film scores. In 1955 he went to the Soviet Union, where he was able to take an advanced course in composition at the Moscow Conservatory, completing his studies in 1960, when he returned to China, working successively at the Shanghai Film Studio and the Shanghai Opera, Since 1975 he has served as resident composer to the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, concurrently holding a position as a professor of composition at the Shanghai Conservatory.

Zhu has endeavoured in his work to combine organically Western techniques of composition with Chinese musical thinking, idioms and style, continuously developing and broadening the referential aspect of his music and forming an individual musical language, He occupies a leading position in music in China, with important works that include five symphonies, a symphonic cantata Heroic Poems, music for piano, chamber music, compositions for Chinese instruments and other music, His Symphonic Fantasia won a distinguished award in the AII-China Symphonic Composition Appraisal in 1981 and his Symphony No, 4 won the Grand Prize in the Queen Marie Jose Composition Competition in Switzerland in 1990, In 1991 he was awarded the prize for Outstanding Contribution to Art and Literature, the highest prize in the gift of the Shanghai municipal government.

Many of Zhu Jianer's works, in particular his symphonies, were first performed and won awards at the Shanghai Spring Music Festivals, They have also been performed in various countries, including the former Soviet Union, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Romania, the United States of America and the Philippines and have been well received in international musical circles.

Zhu Jianer's Symphonic Fantasia - In Memory of Martyrs for Truth

was completed in 1980 and is a profoundly philosophical composition. The theme of the introduction sounds like a striking question or exclamation, suggesting a mood of drama. The oboe announces a simple and meditative principal theme, later developed by the whole orchestra. Suddenly the brass offer the secondary theme, full of excitement and uneasiness. The ominous beats of the kettle-drums lead to the development section in which the conflict becomes sharper and sharper.

At the climax the theme of the introduction returns strongly, but unexpectedly the final cry is interrupted. To the accompaniment of drums the strings sing an elegy. As the music grows calmer, the harp leads to the primary theme from the solo violin, raising the mood to a level of sublimity from which the music turns into a passionate paean of the whole orchestra. In the coda the theme of the introduction can be faintly heard, symbolizing the watchfulness which will remain in the minds of the people. The Symphonic Fantasia was first performed at the Eighth Shanghai Spring Music Festival by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra under Huang Yijun and in 1981 was awarded the Excellent Composition Prize at the AII-China Symphonic Composition Appraisal.

Sketches in the Mountains of Guizhou, a symphonic suite, was completed in 1982 and first performed in May that year at the Tenth Shanghai Spring Music Festival under Cao Peng by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, winning the Performance Prize. It is a true record of the impression given the composer by a visit to the Guizhou mountain areas where the Miao and Dong people live and marks a turning-point in his style. The suite is in four movements. The first of these, A Festive Match of Lusheng, depicts a contest in which the lusheng, a reed-pipe wind instrument popular among the Miao, Yao and Dong peoples, is used by Dong village bands. As the instruments of the bands are tuned differently, the simultaneous playing of hundreds of instruments provides a reverberation that is poly tonal in its effect. In this movement the woodwind and brass represent the respective lusheng

bands, overlapping in key, melody and rhythm, with sounds that are rich and colourful and vigorous in mood.

The second movement, The Old Sian-Player, suggests the music of the sian, a kind of vertical flute popular among the Miao people. It has a mellow, quiet sound like a low chant. In this movement the woodwind is used to simulate the sound of the sian and to depict the old musician, intoxicated by his own music and his memories. This is followed by a third movement, Romance in a Moonlight Night, based on a pipa song, a kind of Dong folk-song accompanied by the Dong pipa, a four- or five-string plucked instrument. It is in a special yu mode which closes a melody with the note la, with the third and fourth notes of the mode often higher pitched than usual. The music is of peculiar serenity. The suite ends with Festival. The fifteenth day of the eighth month in the Chinese traditional lunar calendar is a Miao festival. On that day, the Miao people taste the newly harvested rice and sing and dance happily to celebrate the occasion. In the middle part of the movement, against the background of the lusheng

music in seven-four time, the orchestra plays a chiayang (flying song), a kind of Miao folk-song.

Zhu Jianer's Symphony No.4: "6.4.2 - 1", a chamber symphony for bamboo flute and 22 strings, was completed in May 1990 for the Queen Marie Jose International Composition Competition in which it won the sole Grand Prize. According to the rules of the competition, the orchestra consists of six first violins, six seconds, four violas, four cellos, two double basses and a solo wind instrument. The composer uses the Chinese bamboo flute as the solo instrument, with the soloist using in turn three flutes of different pitches, giving the symphony a very sharp and specific characteristic. With the four numbers 6, 4, 2 and 1, the proportion of string instruments in the orchestra, a twelve-tone series is devised, which is also used to control the rhythm. Various traditional Chinese instrumental techniques are used in the string writing, which also employs percussive effects, in the absence of percussion instruments.

The chamber symphony is an abstract work in a single movement, suggesting the Chinese Taoist principle of developing from nothing and back to nothing. By presenting different tone colours and even minute changes of colour on a single note, the richness and profundity of the boundless universe is revealed.

Disc 1

Symphonic Fantasias - In Memory of Martyrs for Truth

(more info)

Performed by: Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra
Composed by: Jianer Zhu
Conducted by: Peng Cao

Symphonic Fantasia - In Memory of Martyrs for Truth - 16:45

Sketches in the Mountains of Guizhou

(more info)

Performed by: Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra
Composed by: Jianer Zhu
Conducted by: Peng Cao

Movement 1 - A Festive Match of Lusheng - 6:19
Movement 2 - The Old Sian-Player - 5:23
Movement 3 - Romance in a Moonlight Night - 5:35
Movement 4 - Festival - 6:24

Symphony No. 4 "6.4.2 - 1"

(more info)

Performed by: Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra
Composed by: Jianer Zhu
Conducted by: Peng Cao
Xun-fa Yu, dizi

Symphony No. 4 "6.4.2 - 1" - 20:10

Reviews

Be the first to review this title

Flash 9 required. Click to download.

Composer(s):
Zhu, Jianer

Conductor(s):
Cao, Peng

Orchestra(s):
Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra

Artist(s):
Yu, Xun-fa

Label: Marco Polo
UPC: 730099394123
Item Number: 8223941
Release Date: Mar 24, 1995

ZHU, J.: Symphonic Fantasia / Symphony No. 4

Your name:
Your email:
Friend's Name:
Friend's Email:
Write a personalized message:

Your name:
Rating:
Title:
Review: