The Paper's reporter Liao Yang intern Chen Zhaoyu
"I originally thought the recording of 'Song of the Earth' worked well, and sitting in the Dolby Theater listening to it felt better. The sound is like coming from all directions, the colors are colorful, very advanced, very picture-like. Conductor Yu Long said.
On October 14th, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra signed a contract with DG and recorded "Song of the Earth" using Dolby Atmos technology, and held a sharing session at the Dolby Cinema (Hopson Hui Store) in Beijing, as if the music blowing in the ears and the immersive experience made the audience call "above".
It was also the first immersive classical music listening session held at a Dolby Theater in China. Currently, The Dolby Atmos format of Song of the Earth has been launched on Apple Music, and Christopher Alde, a multi-time Grammy Music Recording Award-winning album producer, mentioned the various types of devices that support this immersive audio experience, introducing: "In order to use Dolby Atmos technology, we have added additional microphones around the concert hall during the recording process, so that you can sit in the concert hall and listen to music coming from overhead and behind you. Currently, Dolby Atmos music can be enjoyed using headphones, home theater, or soundbars. ”
The sharing session is on-site
"Song of the Earth" contains two symphonic vocal suites of the same name by Mahler and Ye Xiaogang. The two composers took the seven Tang poems of Li Bai, Qian Qi, Meng Haoran and Wang Wei as texts, created a pair of "double paintings" with the same title, and created a wonderful dialogue between China and the West.
At the sharing session, two consecutive versions of the sixth movement of "Song of the Earth" were played - both of which were mixed with Meng Haoran's "Su Ye Shi Shan Fang Ding Da Bu Zhi" and Wang Wei's "Farewell", Mahler's version was sung by the American mezzo-soprano Michel DeYang, and Ye Xiaogang's version was sung by Chinese soprano Zhang Liping.
"I didn't expect that the sound technology has evolved to such an extent, and for a musician, I am very happy that the recording can be made like this." Ye Xiaogang, who had not entered the theater for more than ten years, sighed continuously.
"In Mahler's sixth movement, you can hear his inner entanglements, struggles, vagaries, that sense of the future, and the interpretation of the surrender is very precise, very original, and has the personal style of the conductor Yu Long, which is very different from all the Western versions I have heard."
In addition to the sixth movement, Ye Xiaogang also liked the first movement of Mahler that he had handed in, better than the "warm swallowing" versions he had heard, even Karajan's version, "I prefer the feeling of 'going forward', and Yu Long made Mahler's decadent, life-seeing feeling more intense." ”
About forty years ago, after conducting Mahler's Song of the Earth for the first time in Berlin, Germany, Yu Long had an idea to ask a heavyweight Chinese composer to write a version of the Song of the Earth. In 2005, this wish was realized by Ye Xiaogang.
At that time, Ye Xiaogang was more than forty years old, full of vigor and momentum, and the music he wrote was more radical, "Mahler saw more thoroughly, and I still had to rush forward." ”
In the sixth movement, Zhang Liping has a high-spirited, heroic laugh, "She fully shows the state of the poet standing on the top of the mountain and overlooking life." Foreigners have also sung this passage, and laughing is 'hahaha', which means nothing wrong. Ye Xiaogang admitted that this laugh is very difficult, and if there is no opera foundation, laughter cannot be like this.
Song of the Earth
"I have the foundation of Beijing opera, so I apply the plate eye in the opera to the singing, and if I listen carefully, I can feel the shadow of Qingyi and hear the singing voice of the flower face." Zhang Liping believes that the same is the essence of the country, using opera singing to interpret ancient Chinese poetry, the expression will be more complete and more accurate.
Because of the epidemic, when recording a record, the handover from the pre-preparation to the first note, twists and turns, experienced many tribulations. Two days before the recording, Zhang Liping also almost retreated, with a cold, a broken foot, a waist injury, and a severe "water retrograde".
"Such a big work, don't dare to record badly, the pressure is too great!" Zhang Liping even asked Yu Long if she had any alternative plans, until her old friend threatened to "break off diplomatic relations", and she dismissed her thoughts. "As soon as the voice of the Dolby Theater came out, all the grievances she had suffered were gone!" Yu Long teased.
Listening to her own singing voice at the Dolby Theater, Zhang Liping was nervous at first, and after listening, her hanging heart let go, "Thanks to the assistance of science and technology to music, it is so great!" Zhang Liping admits that she still has shortcomings, but this record is enough for her personally to become a milestone.
"Thanks to technology for putting wings on art and making art fly, but if there is no good content, it is also a wood without roots, and it is more important to do content." When conducting international delegations abroad, Yu Long, like many Chinese conductors, hoped to perform some highly representative Chinese works and bring out Chinese cultural concepts, but there were not many such works.
"Most of them are evening works. 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, philosophy, literature, aesthetics... There are too many places worth writing, can not be blinded, only do evening works, only fast food culture, should create more deep exchange of ideas, in order to truly achieve cultural understanding. Yu Long repeatedly stressed, "Our generation has the responsibility to let Chinese culture go out." ”
Ye Xiaogang also believes that Chinese culture goes out, works are very important, and music without borders is the best communication carrier, "such as a symphony and a novel, no matter how well the novel is written, it still needs to be translated, the music is different, the staves are used all over the world, born today, tomorrow can be performed." The exchange of music is the fastest, and Chinese music should also go out. ”
"For different nationalities and different cultures, we must have a goodwill, an tolerance, and an understanding." In Yu Long's view, the two editions of "Song of the Earth" in China and the West are oil paintings and the other is ink paintings, "I am particularly pleased to be able to complete the historic meeting of two great works during the epidemic." ”
Editor-in-Charge: Chen Shihuai
Proofreader: Liu Wei