Silk and Bamboo in the Lady Chapel, Ely Cathedral
The Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral was a scene of sheer beauty at a recent concert of Chinese Classical Music presented by ADeC and China People Promotions.
Three highly competent performers played a variety of enthralling pieces on instruments founded on a musical tradition stretching back thousands of years.
Although the instruments had different timbres, these expert performers brought out the special attributes of each instrument and yet, at the same time, blending them exquisitely into a united ensemble.
Sun Zhou played a guzheng, a Chinese zither, plucking the strings that lay across and in front of her with the plectrum-covered fingers of her right hand, depressing and vibrating the strings with her left hand.
Her range of expression was amazing – at times sounding like a cascading harp at others, sounding single notes of a potent melody pausing effectively to create tangible musical tension.
Hu Bin's instrument was an erhu, a Chinese violin, which has only two strings played by a bow fixed between them. Using her fingers to shorten the strings and a variety of techniques, this instrument was made to sing with astoundingly strong emotional feeling.
Han Ying played a yangqin, a Chinese hammered dulcimer. The strings are given their notes from a number of bridges supporting them. The hammers were thin, light bamboo sticks with rubber tips. Han Ying created magical sounds with light harmonies, strong melodies and delicious trills and ripples that branched into amazing virtuosic episodes from time to time.
To a packed and thoroughly absorbed audience they played pieces with delightful titles such as "Happiness", "Horse Races" and "Bamboo Dance". They also included folk-like gems from contemporary composer Jiang Li who introduced the event.
Highlights for me were the most evocative pieces that captured the inner thoughts and feelings of Chinese people relating to the powerful beauty of their surroundings such as the anguished cries of a woman at a river grieving over the absence of her husband away at war and the fisherman returning from his labours at sunset. The sprightly competitive spirit of galloping horses was also a very attractive item.
More information about Chinese music is on www.chinesemusic.co.uk.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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