 |
| Zhou Fen Guo Xinyu |
On Friday evening, February
13, at Holy Trinity Anglican
Church in Launceston, Zhou Fen and Guo Xinyu presented a delightful concert of Chinese and
Western European music to celebrate our cultural diversity and the onset of the
Chinese new year (Year of the Goat).
Zhou Fen opened the concert with two solo pieces for pipa:
one from the early Tang Dynasty (7th c) and one from the 20th
c, drawing on traditional music. Her playing is lyrical, expressive and
powerful. Thoroughly enjoyable.
The pipa is a four-stringed Chinese instrument, sometimes
called the Chinese lute because it is plucked (with fingerpicks) and has
frets. The earliest mention of the pipa in Chinese texts
appeared in the late Han Dynasty around the 2nd century of the
Christian Era. It has a shallow pear-shaped body, a large peg box, and
frets ranging from 12 for the lowest string to 26 for the highest. The fret
structure facilitates various pitch-bending techniques, enhancing its
expressivity.
Zhou Fen was joined by Guo Xinyu for the next two pieces
which were based on traditional folk songs. Their arrangements paired the pipa
and Western violin in delightful dialogue. For this listener, the duets between
the two were the highlight of the concert, and the epitome of the East and West
theme.
Guo Xinyu then played from the Western classical violin
repertoire, solidly supported by Peter Schultz on electric piano. Her masterful
technique and deep, rich tone (especially on the tango, Por Una Cavesa by Gardel) truly served Monti’s Csardash and Kreisler’s Liebesleid well.
Masterful technique was equally evident in Zhou Fen’s pipa
performance. Her final number, Ambush
from Ten Sides, a traditional piece (what a tradition!) demonstrated a
remarkable range of sounds and effects, truly conveying a battle.
Greg Parkinson compered the program, providing us with brief
but enlightening information about the performers and each work (some of which
is blatantly copied in this review). Holy Trinity is an ideal venue for an
intimate, elegant concert such as this one, acoustically warm and clear. At the
scrumptious supper afterwards, some debated whether the pipa really needed
amplification. It is a soft and shallow-bodied instrument, so perhaps it did. I
suspect there are timbral subtleties we might not have heard otherwise. It
would be worth exploring ways to amplify it more subtly to blend with the
existing acoustic ambience of the space. I mention this, because I truly hope
Zhou Fen and Guo Xinyu will return for future performances, which any of you
gentle readers who were not at this one should now feel compelled to attend!
Karlin Love
No comments:
Post a Comment