Sino-American composer Ge Gan-ru writes in an immediately identifiable, intriguingly personal style. On the one hand, you find passages based on texture and timbre using various avant-garde playing techniques and sonority in the manner of say, George Crumb. This means of course that they aren't really that "avant" at all, having been around for the past four or five decades, but what matters is Ge's confident use of them. In contrast to these, he offers lovely, lyrical episodes based on simple, consonant harmonies in gently pulsating strings, often with beautiful solos for oboe or horn and punctuated by isolated interjections from the percussion section. Lastly, there is a vigorous rhythmic element, led by virtuoso fusillades from the generously endowed percussion battery (which may include Chinese and well as Western instruments).


This, then, is the basic mix, but it doesn't describe just how alternately exciting and ravishing this music is, nor does it suggest Ge's ability to organize his materials in such a way as to suggest a clear formal balance and evolving musical argument, qualities often missing from much contemporary music. It's also worth noting that the purely textural passages, also unlike much contemporary music, have an evocative beauty all their own, partly the result of imaginative use of harp and string sonorities, and that Ge's language is capable of a wide range of expression. The moods in Chinese Rhapsody, for example, run the gamut from nostalgic to ferocious, and even find room for touches of witty woodwind writing toward the work's center. The next piece on the disc, Wu (never mind what it means; it doesn't matter), takes this same idiom and reinterprets it in terms of a piano concerto, as a dialogue between soloist and orchestra, with the piano played both conventionally and with various timbre-altering devices in and on the strings.


Six Pentatonic Tunes reveals the composer's ability to relax and write excellent light music, full of warmth and humor, very much in the vein of Tveitt's Hardanger folk song settings or Skalkottas' Greek Dances. In other words, Ge treats his melodies with respect but also manages to create highly sophisticated and harmonically piquant settings that enhance their character without smothering it. This, by the way, is not an easy task, and it says something about his artistry that Ge manages the job so deftly. I am sure that he must also be quite satisfied with these very exciting performances. Absent a score, I wouldn't bet money on whether those snap pizzicatos roughly 8 minutes into Wu are quite together or not, but under José Serebrier's leadership the Royal Scottish National Orchestra responds with great brilliance and enthusiasm, and it goes without saying that contemporary music specialist Margaret Leng Tan, for whom the solo part of Wu was written, plays it as well as anyone possibly can.


State-of-the-art sonics, whether in stereo or SACD multichannel format, complete a compelling portrait of a vital, vibrant creative voice. I have to say that, speaking personally, I'm a bit fed up with composers (whether Oriental or Occidental) exploiting the East/West nationalist angle with such tiresome regularity. I suppose if the quality of the results were higher, it would be a different matter, but as it stands this trend bores me. More often than not it simply provides a smokescreen behind which we find idioms that are expressively limited, superficial, and predictable. I'm not naming names, but you should have no problem creating your own list. Ge Gan-ru, on the other hand, deserves your consideration. What certainly does not bore me is imaginative, well-written music of any stripe, and that is exactly what we have here. This guy's for real. [5/13/2005]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

This historic release couples George Crumb’s earliest work for piano, the Five Pieces for Piano (1962) with his most recent piano cycle, Metamorphoses (2017). Margaret Leng Tan has long been a champion of Crumb’s music, and he composed Metamorphoses (Book 1) for her. This recording is of the German premiere at the legendary Donaueschingen Festival in 2017. Crumb’s Metamorphoses is a natural descendent of his monumental Makrokosmos I & II piano cycle of the early 1970s. With a nod to Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, each movement of the Metamorphoses is inspired by a famous painting. And, like the Makrokosmos, it requires the pianist to be a virtuoso not only at the keyboard but playing inside the piano and vocalizing as well. Ms. Tan is regarded at the “Diva of the Toy Piano,” and Crumb has also incorporated the toy piano and toy percussion instruments into some movements. Crumb says: “I have always been most fortunate to have had outstanding pianists who were willing to tackle the formidable technical and musical innovations in my scores. And among the very finest of these is Margaret Leng Tan for whom I wrote Metamorphoses (Book l). Margaret’s technical prowess and superb artistic sensitivity is a combination that must warm the heart of any composer!” The album also includes the early Five Pieces for Piano. All the components of Crumb’s mature compositional language are already evident: a broad palette of coloristic effects along with an extraordinarily sensitive command of nuance, his unmistakable musical gestures, an inherent sense of drama coupled with a magical suspenseful atmosphere and a battery of interior piano effects demanding that the pianist be somewhat of a harpist and percussionist as well.

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REVIEW:

This CD start out with George Crumb’s most recent piano cycle, the Metamorphoses, but closes with his earliest, the 5 Pieces for Piano from 1962.

Though Nocturne may be the most impressionistic piece in the set, the music depicting Dali’s Persistence of Memory is the most abstract, the most like the George Crumb most listeners know from such works as Ancient Voices of Children.

The 5 Pieces for Piano already show Crumb as an individualist, even at this early stage making the pianist play the insides of the instrument. It is, however, much more abstract than the Metapmorphoses, which you would expect in a work less tied to visuals. Although a difficult piece, both in terms of the technique it demands of the player and the listening aspect, it is worth your effort to absorb and understand it.

This is clearly an outstanding album, particularly for the Metamorphoses.

– Art Music Lounge

In addition to being a renowned new music pianist, Margaret Leng Tan is a specialist at the toy piano. Her performances are dramatically captured here by Spanish director Anton Cabaleiro. Ms. Tan performs Cage's classic"Suite for Toy Piano," her arrangement.

A major discovery and first recording of an important Cage piece from 1944. In 1944, John Cage was invited to participate in "The Imagery of Chess" exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City. The artists included Calder, Noguchi, Motherwell, Breton, Duchamp, Ernst, Man Ray, Tanning and other leading surrealists. Cage contributed a painting entitled "Chess Pieces". It was purchased at the show and went into a private collection. For decades it was deemed lost and was (almost) forgotten by Cage afficionados and scholars.

Re-assembling the original artworks for "The Imagery of Chess Revisited" show (2005-06) at the Isamu Noguchi Museum in New York led to the tracking down of the Cage painting. Cage expert Margaret Leng Tan set about transcribing the music in the painting into a playable score which receives its premiere recording here.

Chess Pieces is from 1944, an emotional and creative year for Cage; besides echoes of Satie, Chess Pieces contains prophetic touches of minimalism and has features in common with his monumental piano piece, Four Walls, from the same year.

A renowned Cage interpreter, Ms. Tan worked closely with the composer from 1981 to 1992. Cage was particularly appreciative of her performances of his works for the prepared piano. This is Ms. Tan's long-awaited recording of Cage's prepared piano masterpiece, the Sonatas and Interludes of 1946-48.

Also included is the first recording of the only other musical score from "The Imagery of Chess" show, neo-classical composer Vittorio Rieti's Chess Serenade.

Also available as a surround sound DVD (MOD-DV158) with full performance videos of Chess Pieces and Chess Serenade, plus 2 documentaries: Mr. Cage's Prepared Piano (Ms. Tan takes an in-depth look at the prepared piano), and CAGE: Music/Art/Chess (a closeup look at Cage's and Rieti's pieces in the Noguchi Museum's "The Imagery of Chess Revisited" show).

ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTARY VIDEOS:
* Mr. Cage's Prepared Piano: an insightful look at the history of the prepared piano narrated and performed by Ms. Tan, who also demonstrates how to (and not to) prepare a piano, and describes the preparations in detail both visually and sonically. She prepares and performs excerpts from Bacchanale, Cage's first prepared piano work, and Sonatas & Interludes.
* Cage and the Art of Chess: a visit to "The Imagery of Chess Revisited" exhibit at the Isamu Noguchi Museum with curator Larry List and Ms. Tan. Together they describe Cage's relationship to the show and examine the "Chess Pieces" painting in detail - they also discuss Rieti and his Chess Serenade. Mr. List explores a separate feature on Cage's wife, Xenia Cage, and her Chess Table (Xenia was an artist and also had a piece in the show) and sheds additional background on her life and work.

24-bit surround sound DTS and Dolby Digital surround.
Dedicated 24-bit stereo mix.
English, French, German and Spanish subtitles.

NOTE: Sonatas & Interludes is not accompanied by video.

R E V I E W S

"The seventh volume of John Cage's piano works -- or Volume 34 of the Complete John Cage Edition, if you prefer -- features a transcendent performance of the Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (1948) meticulously rendered by avant-garde keyboardist extraordinaire, Margaret Leng Tan. Yet Volume 2 in this series features a 1994 recording of the same work, played by Philipp Vandre. For those aiming to collect the full series, this may be an annoyance, but others catching these CDs as they are released will surely appreciate having Tan's superb interpretation of the Sonatas and Interludes, with premiere recordings of Cage's long-lost Chess Pieces for piano (1944) and Vittorio Rieti's Chess Serenade (1944) as bonuses, rather than search for the older disc of the single work. But despite seeming redundant, this CD is clearly one to get: Tan is simply remarkable in the Sonatas and Interludes, giving a realization that is scrupulous in execution, deep in sonic dimensions, and luminous in color; and she offers what is actually a 'period performance,' since she plays a piano identical in its specifications to the small Steinway Cage originally prepared in the process of composition. The differences in sonorities between this album and others are immediately noticeable, especially in this recording's superior resonance and crystalline details; anyone who already knows this work will recognize that Tan's interpretation is truly Cagean in its poetic nuances and hypnotic power. So without disparaging other recordings for being less authoritative -- certainly, Tan holds a considerable advantage for having worked closely with Cage in his final years -- it is safe to say that fans of his most popular piano work will give this album full marks. Mode's sound quality is ideal, too, so this CD receives the highest recommendation. --- Blair Sanderson, allmusic.com, March 2006