Xiaoyong Chen: Imaginative Reflections Ensemble Les Amis Shanghai

• Xiaoyong Chen (1955): Wandering Illusions for Sheng, Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano (2016):
• 1I. From the Distance02:45
• 2II. Lightness01:20
• 3III. Vibrations in the Air02:07
• 4IV. Twinkling01:45
• 5V. Wood, Water and Metal04:22
• 6Vi. Bell and Songs04:28
• Diary V - Five Pieces for quarter tone Piano (2013):
• 7I. Farben in Bewegung01:52
• 8II. Filterung00:52
• 9III. Ohne Titel00:49
• 10IV. Reihungen03:36
• 11V. Zoom Out04:35
• Imaginative Reflections for Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano (2015):
• 12I. Crystallization01:53
• 13II. Lights02:37
• 14III. Waves04:43
• 15IV. Reflected Sculpture of Light03:18
• 16V. Sound of Light05:26
• 17Vi. Untitled Song01:57
• 18VII. Silentium04:02
• Evapora for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano (1996):
• 19I.04:56
• 20II.03:15
• 21III.06:08
• Total Runtime01:06:46

Info for Xiaoyong Chen: Imaginative Reflections

The sounds on this album seem to come from another world. They spread through space, then disappear, or rather: fade away, evaporate, crystallize, settle as a sediment. This music is about fading away, about reverberations, echoes. European instruments sound Asian, and Asian instruments are integrated into European art music. Xiaoyong Chen, who emigrated to Germany in 1985, once a student of composition with György Ligeti and now a professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, never ceases to explore issues of identity, of belonging, including the fundamental question: Is it actually possible to understand a foreign culture? “A great sound is inaudible, a great image is formless,” Laozi’s famous observation, is printed in Chinese characters on the cover of this recording (by the Ensemble Les Amis Shanghai under the direction of Jensen Horn-Sin Lam).

There is but one more thing to add: The great questions are eternal.

Jensen Horn-Sin Lam, artistic director, viola
Shuting Wu, violin
Yuan Zhang, cello
Cong Li, clarinet, piano solo (Diary V)
Xiangjun Yu, piano
Jing Yao, flute
Junjun Tian, violin
Jiannan Chen, sheng
Le Dai, clarinet

Ensemble Les Amis Shanghai
Ensemble Les Amis Shanghai (ELA), founded by the violist and pedagogue Professor Jensen Sin-Lam in 2009, is the only professional chamber music ensemble in Shanghai included in the Directory of Chinese Music for External Recommendation by the Ministry of Culture. Made up of young teachers from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and members of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the ensemble works for the promotion of chamber music, and its style of playing seeks a synthesis of clarity, exquisiteness and audacity. ELA has a broad repertoire of more than one hundred works spanning more than three hundred years, from the Baroque era to the 21st Century. In addition to works from the traditional canon, it specialises in excellent yet seldom performed pieces from different nations and styles, including many Chinese premières.

Booklet for Xiaoyong Chen: Imaginative Reflections