Chinese born Ge Gan-Ru
now lives in America. The three works
here are significant evidence of his
compositional powers and two of them
are particularly powerful in their organisational
mastery. That said, Chinese Rhapsody
is a post-facto title and we are advised
not to make too much of it. Ge has managed
to coalesce avant-garde standpoints
with more traditional material, the
East with the West, to greatly beneficial
effect.
The Rhapsody opens
like the wind, with a gush of string
sound but it subsequently embraces percussive
taps and evocative timbres. There is
something fluid about it that makes
the title apt, despite the disclaimer;
harp glissandi maybe hint at impressionism,
and the percussion section deliberately
evokes the sounds and sonorities of
Chinese instrumentation - if not explicitly
at least generically. There’s some puckish
wind writing here as well (amazingly
some even put me in mind of The Planets)
and moments that seem connected to Berg
– the Violin Concerto specifically.
Though his technique is capable of embracing
tough modernism Ge is equally willing
to position himself in the tradition
– note the fugato passage which presages
a return to brisk, pensive avant-garde
devices.
Wu for piano and orchestra
was written in 1986, originally for
chamber forces, and was revised for
orchestral performance five years later.
Heavily rhythmic and full of percussive
attacks the piano sounds very "timbral"
if I can put it that way; it sounds
entirely consonant with the devices
explored in Chinese Rhapsody
– harpsichord-like sonorities, sheer
white violin tone, with a fast finale
animated by incursive percussion and
rasping trombones. Quiet descends before
one final hectic helter-skelter piano
drive. Though Wu is a fine work in its
own right, and one that augments the
piano into Ge’s sound world, it shares
with the Chinese Rhapsody a strong sense
of colour and sonorous drama.
These in differing
ways are qualities that shine through
in the Six Pentatonic Tunes for orchestra.
With essentially Western orchestration
but with a Chinese accent these range
widely to include Debussyan-cum-Delian
(Brigg Fair) impressionism (though
as ever with Ge there’s always a touch
of grit along the way) as well as some
rhythmically engaging, wittily orchestrated
and terpsichorean writing. To add to
the two influences noted, if such they
are, we can also add a touch of Prokofiev
in the last of the six.
Superbly recorded and
sumptuously played this is a most engaging
showcase for Ge’s evocative music-making.
Far more than routine East-West hybrid
this music occupies another level of
compositional seriousness altogether
– and it’s full of interest in all sorts
of ways.
Jonathan Woolf
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/José
Serebrier 
