The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra's recording of "The Song of the Earth" has recently received global attention. This is the second album recorded after signing with DG (Deutsche Grammophon), released worldwide on July 9, and launched simultaneously on major music platforms. The album contains two CDs, namely Mahler's "Song of the Earth" inspired by Tang poems and Ye Xiaogang's "Song of the Earth" two symphonic vocal suites of the same name written in the same text.
The cover of "Song of the Earth" is the Huangshan Sea of Clouds
This is the only new record DG has recorded in mahler's anniversary year 2021, conducted by conductor Long Yu. The album cover is a majestic sea of clouds in Huangshan Mountain, which echoes the Tang poetry created by the magnificent sound of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. DG is the first time to use Chinese in the copy introduction of the album, writing seven Tang poems cited in Ye Xiaogang's works in square characters.
After the release of shangjiao's debut album "Doorway" in collaboration with DG, it attracted the attention of the world and was nominated for the INTERNATIONAL CLASSICAL MUSIC Awards, which is known as the "Oscar" of the classical music industry. This time, after the release of "Song of the Land", it quickly attracted the attention of many overseas media, and journalists and music critics wrote articles and comments, which echoed continuously.
An international cultural exchange under the epidemic
"Song of the Earth" was recorded in Shanghai last year, and the sound recordist came across the ocean
The recording of "Song of the Earth" can be described as a twist and turn. During the epidemic last year, tenor Brian Jade and mezzo-soprano Michel De Young crossed the barriers under the international epidemic haze, came to Shanghai from Europe and the United States, and appeared on the stage of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall through isolation. Also coming from afar were veteran recording engineers Christopher Alder and Philip Klaus. Along the way, they experienced difficulties such as visa extensions and ticket cancellations.
In an interview with Presto Music, Yu said: "The two works show the differences between the East and the West in the form of 'diptychs' about the most basic emotional concepts of human beings, love, happiness and death. We can think of this 'juxtaposition' as a dialogue between different cultures, which is especially important in the current global pandemic. Music is a very useful reference to help people understand how they differ from each other. This difference has nothing to do with right or wrong, but recognizing it can help us understand each other and communicate. ”
Andrew Clements, a reporter for the British newspaper The Guardian, published an article titled "Mahler and Ye Xiaogang's 'Song of the Earth' Musical Review - Symphonic Vocal Suite Returns to the Golden Age". In Andrew's view, the Tang Dynasty was the "golden age" of Chinese literature, and "Song of the Earth" takes people to look at the East in the poetry of Tang.
He commented: "Ye Xiaogang's work seems to present an expressive world, completely different from Mahler's color in "Song of the Earth"... The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra's performance was overall wonderful, and it was also a relatively fast version of the recording of "Song of the Earth". ”
An innovative case of Chinese culture going global
Yu found that many Western composers had a strong curiosity about the culture and aesthetics of the distant East, and tried to put oriental elements into their own music. Debussy and Puccini had tried, and Mahler had the will to do so. The third movement of Song of the Earth adopts the structure of an oriental melody, and the sense of space that the composer tries to create at the end also comes from his understanding of oriental freehand brushstrokes. ”
The global release of "Song of the Earth" is an innovative case of Chinese culture going global. The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra completed a dialogue between Eastern and Western cultures in a language that the whole world can understand. Marlena Mahler, president of the MAHLE Foundation and granddaughter of MAHLE, was also excited and thought that such a conversation would be of great significance.
Financial Times report on the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra's Song of the Earth
Richard Fairman, a music critic at the Financial Times, focused on the spatio-temporal contrast of two works with the same text, titled "Shanghai Symphony Orchestra: The Song of the Earth: The Encounter of Two Cultures". The text reads: "Two works can be seen as the encounter of two cultures. Stylistically, the two composers have a melting point. Ye Xiaogang's music is majestic, with a grand romanticism and an irresistible Chinese personality. ”
Music Web International, a well-known classical music website, also praised the record: "I was greatly shocked by the conductor and the performance of the orchestra, and Yu Yong boldly used contrasting and passionate speed and phrases. I wasn't familiar with the conductor and the band before I heard this album, but after listening to it, I'm very much looking forward to their future album release."
In addition, BBC Radio 3 host Andrew Mc Gregor recommended "Song of the Earth" to listeners in "Weekly Records", and classical music websites Classic Music, Gramophone, Classical Explorer and others recommended the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra to fans around the world.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Shi Chenlu Text Editor: Zhang Yi Photo Editor: Zhu Xuan
Source: Author: Wu Tong