THE -A Chinese-American, rather. Born in Tianjin in 1972, Lei Liang resides in the United States since 1990. He was a brilliant student and he is covered with awards and distinctions, pretty badly recorded (a disc released by Naxos at the end of 2012 which includes his piece for strings Verge). If I understood, he taught at San Diego.
UD - How situate?
DU - I guess Huang RuoTo The Four Corners, it does not tell you anything? Say it's the younger generation (youth = post Mao wholesale) musicians who are both fascinated by the traditional culture of China (calligraphy, opera, landscape painting) and learned a trade by modern composer exiling, with people like Sir Harrison Birtwistle, in the case of Lei Liang. So they are mixed, and they do not forget their roots, if you will. But these are reclaimed roots, so to speak: when one is born during the Cultural Revolution, one must construct a past, because the universe where we come from is often in itself very poor in references to traditional heritage.
UD - What does a disk?
DU - No fewer than seven pieces, ranging from guitar solo (A journey into desire, 2009), the flute duet (Lake, 1999), and saxophone quartet (Yuan, 2008) to the entire room quite expanded.
UD - How far is it interesting?
OF - You have to push the garden gate and take your time to visit, make a ritual music sometimes, no hurry, now concentrated in the energy of the moment, as the gesture of the calligrapher. All is not equal, but for example, one of the most developed parts, Harp Concerto (2008) is lovely. It gradually emerges from the initial contemplation (marked "Slowly and intensely"), as if the light had spread to the forest sounds. The orchestration, delicate and original, that the harp is like multiplied by the other instruments that make it echo. Neither kitsch exoticism, and God knows if it actually or flatness, and God knows there. We sat in the room as in a landscape (it is inspired by the work of a painter born in Zhejiang Province, the famous landscapes such as the Lake of Hangzhou, Huang Binhong).
UD - Another piece that you like?
DU - Lake, and flute duo. A very Taoist room for what I know of Taoism (the world is made of energy currents).
UD - "Snowy", why this title?
DU - This is the last piece, which refers not to the little dog of a famous reporter sinophileLes Adventures of Tintin, Volume 5: The Blue Lotus, but the labyrinth that had built the emperor Yang Sui Dynasty, labyrinth leading, should know, secret rooms that were the place of his pleasures. We must therefore expect surprises. An excellent coda, anyway.
UD - Recommended?
DU - Even if one does still not met with Chou Wen-Chung Chou Wen-Chung: Echoes From The Gorge; Wen-Chung: String Quartets - Twilight Colors. Brentano Pittman.tous morning, say suggested, especially for Harp Concerto.
