This is the 2nd of an on-going series of programs that Chan, a native of Hong Kong who now teaches at Portland (OR) State University, is putting together, performing, and recording of representative works of Eastern and Western musical cultures.  I heard her play one live in Kenan Recital Hall (the hall used in the Zenph Re-Performance Rachmaninoff CD reviewed elsewhere in these pages) at Peace College in Raleigh, NC, a number of years ago, and reviewed it for CVNC.  Her 1st recording of a program similar but not identical to the one I heard is reviewed in our pages and in those of CVNC.

Being an aficionado of Asian music and instruments as well as of Western classical music, I find these programs interesting and compelling.  They pair and juxtapose the familiar with the unknown and offer to a certain degree the essences of both musical worlds.  This one seems to me a bit better thought out than the 1st, because certain features occur in some of the works from both traditions, thus creating some inter-relationships of sorts.  Many of them involve one form or another of repetitiveness, a repeated melody, a repeated rhythm, a repeated key.  Think of the “Raindrop” Prelude of Chopin (No. 15), for example.  The Satoh might have been better entitled “Incantation” in view of its form and haunting sonority.

Many of the works are transcriptions of one variety or another, either of works composed for other instruments, like the Bach pieces, or of traditional Asian melodies adapted for the modern piano (NY & Hamburg Steinway instruments are used).  These latter seek to transfer the sonorities of the Oriental instruments as well as the melodies.  The Lam is subtitled: “Gu-Chu: A transcription for Piano after the Fashion of Chin and Pipa”.   Some explore or exploit other sonorities of which the piano is capable as well.

The works are not played strictly in the order listed above: the Chopin Prelude No. 21 is played between Nos. 13 and 15 for no reason apparent to me, and the Bach Chaconne follows the Chopin selections rather than appearing with the other Bach pieces, its position again for me apparently escaping logic.  TheCD booklet contains notes about all of the works in program order, with biographical information for the Eastern-inspired works, and a bio of Chan, photos of whom appear on both front and back cover with the former on the inside of the tray card asw well.

The principal annoyance for me is that many are portions of larger works.  We have 6, or one fourth of Chopin’s 24 Preludes, although the number may have been chosen to match the number of movements in the Lam.  The Louie is a 3-movement piece: the 1st movement is on the 1st CD, the 2nd here; perhaps the 3rd (“Southern Sky”) will appear on the 3rd (?), but it is difficult to appreciate it as a whole when it is split up this way.  The work was, incidentally, commissioned by Jon Kimura Parker for the opening of the new Canadian Embassy in Tokyo in 1988.  Both Louie and Parker, now professor of piano at Rice University in Houston, TX, are Canadians.  Lam, a native of Macau, chose 6 of the original 10 sections of an ancient melody known as The Flutes and Drums at Sunset, or The Pipa of Shin-Yang, or Moonlight at Shin-Yang for his 1971 work; I wanted to hear the other 4, but in this case the omission is not Chan’s.

Because of her intimate acquaintance with and knowledge of both musical and cultural worlds, Chan is particularly well qualified to play this repertoire.  This shows gloriously in the sounds she produces with the instruments.  Her touch is precise, sensitive, and her playing is evocative, full of color.  She deserves thanks for bringing these less familiar, if not totally unknown Eastern or Eastern-inspired works to the public both in recital and recording, because they are, for my ears at least, absolutely lovely and enchanting, and I don’t believe that I am attracted to them purely because of their exoticism.

© 2009 Marvin J. Ward