Reviews: CD

Tug at China's Heartstrings

Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi famously described pipa playing as "big pearls and small pearls falling on a jade plate". This CD album has that and much more.

This Channel of China release features both traditional and contemporary Chinese music orchestrated especially for plucked instruments. It was produced by Netherlands-based Channel Classics Records and played by the Central Music Academy Orchestra of Plucked Instruments under the baton of Chen Bing.

The ageless tune Ambush on All Sides (Shimian Maifu) creates such ominous atmosphere and sweeping action, with battle scenes played and recorded so vividly that one can almost visualize a sandal-and-swordplay epic movie. The other pipa pieces are more dainty as if lines of girls in ancient costumes move in surreptitiously small steps and make a kaleidoscope of formations.

Raymond Zhou

(China Daily 04/05/2007 page20)