Composer: Qigang Chen (陈其钢 Chén Qígāng) (August 28, 1951 - ) Violinist: Maxim Vengerov Orchestra: Shanghai Symphony Orchestra conducted by Long Yu 00:01 Despair 02:18 Solitary 04:51 Divinely alone 06:44 Thrilled by illusions 08:52 Melancholy relief 10:51 The beauty of suffering (12:45 cadenza) 15:24 Solitary beauty 18:08 Get caught up in the madness 22:02 Excruciating song 24:43 A glimmer of light Score available at www.boosey.com/cr/perusals/score?id=38461
I’m not entirely sure the title is appropriate, because there’s no suffering in this piece, to my ears. The whole piece is suffused with a melancholic, beautiful nostalgia.
For obvious reasons, this sounds very Chinese. But why? What about the pentatonic scales and harmonies in the piece make it sound so Chinese (compared to their use in Western music)? Is it the orchestration, the voicing, the rhythms, a combination of the three? I just can't figure it out. I definitely think the chord progressions play a big role in it.
One of my teacher in China once told me that when he was in uni, he had a counterpoint professor whose writing sounds very Chinese even when he writes counterpoint using the strict counterpoint rules as described in Western music theory. When he marks and makes modifications to his students‘ homework, everyones homework becomes very Chinese even though non of the student's homework even remotely resembles Chinese style originally. 😂 To my knowledge, many music conservatories in China encourage composition students to write modern music with Chinese elements. For example, you can use set theory or 12-tone technique, but you carefully pick your set or your 12-tone row such that you have more major second interval, and minor third interval and less minor second interval. Or when you write melody, you try to use M2 and m3 more often and try to avoid m2. But I'm not sure how to make a theoretical distinction between Chinese pentatonic and French impressionist pentatonic. Sometimes I write a piece of music, and I think it sounds pretty Chinese, and I show it to someone else, and they tell me, "hey, I like your use of impressionism". Maybe there is no strict line between the two. I think Debussy was influenced by Eastern music, and many modern Chinese composers are influenced by Debussy, so they kinda merge together. That's just my thoughts. I didn't go to a conservatory in China, so my Chinese theory knowledge is kinda limited. Maybe someone who actually studied composition in a conservatory in China can do a better job of answering this question.
@@boyisun i think it can be pure melodic contour. I don't know about chinese music but i know that Sibelius used some melodic contours often seen in finnish songs. And as the harmony was not finnish, finnish people still felt it was deeply finnish.
@@boyisun Debussy was more influenced by (and imitated) Slendro scales used in Gamelan. The "sound" of French Impressionism, as a whole, was probably more closely associated with Javanese music than Chinese. If you want to go deep into understanding the differences between pentatonic melodies used in different countries/cultures, you're going to have use Bartok/Kodaly's method of anaylzing folk music to discern the nuances. Then it'll be easier to write an "authentic" Chinese melody if you really wanted to.
@@DefamedRice Well, it was written by a Chinese composer in a Chinese/Western idiom, so I'd have to disagree with you there. It certainly doesn't sound like anything that Copland wrote/would've written.
@@nakanoyuko Apologies for the late reply, I'm a very busy University student! Messiaen was the teacher of Chen, and to me I can hear him all over, both in music and the philosophy behind it. Here is one of Messiaen's most well known works. ruclips.net/video/8PjyCpRKDrk/видео.html If you listen to the second movement, with how he weaves in melody with his tonal language, I hear it quite similarly within Chen's works. Within Messiaen's early works, such as his vocalise etude, ruclips.net/video/4UHXI-DiTPk/видео.html, I really hear Chen. To me, Chen is a more romantic, oriental Messiaen. When I mention philosophy, Messiaen told all of his students that music's worth comes from if the composer if authentic to his goal, and this comes across to the audience, and I always hear sincerity within Chen's work.
I disagree this sounds nothing close to Rautavaara, there are parts where the orchestration is faintly reminiscent of Rautavaara, but very rare and it’s not very obvious
@@elijahstewart3231 fancy meeting you here at this ungodly hour. You’re not gonna believe this but I was listening to this because I can’t fall back to sleep lmao.
I just noticed...at 2:49, does he have the second violins playing in alto clef? That's crazy. I've never seen that before. Perhaps it's only in the conductor's score, for readability purposes?
Great piece, horrible performance. Vengerov may be a "great" soloist, but not only has he no idea how to perform Chinese music, it is evident he didn't bother to practise at all. This is not a hard piece, a concert soloist should be able to do better technically, not to mention musically. 拉的这个拉的比他的梁祝还难以直视。糟蹋的受不了。一丁丁点中国音乐的灵魂和声音都没有，技术还不过关。Vengerov该远离中国音乐，拉他的勃拉姆斯去吧。
确实，有些地方拉的有点急？少了水灵感。I also think the bowing was not very delicate, nor is the sound sweet when bouncing. The interpretation was very western. 怎么说呢，有的时候声音很虚，但有的时候弓也拉得太狠。听了很不舒服。
Composer: Qigang Chen (陈其钢 Chén Qígāng) (August 28, 1951 - )
Violinist: Maxim Vengerov
Orchestra: Shanghai Symphony Orchestra conducted by Long Yu
00:01 Despair
02:18 Solitary
04:51 Divinely alone
06:44 Thrilled by illusions
08:52 Melancholy relief
10:51 The beauty of suffering (12:45 cadenza)
15:24 Solitary beauty
18:08 Get caught up in the madness
22:02 Excruciating song
24:43 A glimmer of light
Score available at www.boosey.com/cr/perusals/score?id=38461
I was at the french création of this work. It's a amazing work, very touching. Mr Chen was here too
premiere? opening night?
@@AndreyRubtsovRU yes most probably
breathtakingly beautiful. this is the type of amazing music i hope to write one day.
I discover so much new music through your channel! Thank you!
Yes! Same here
Very beautiful music, and a great composer of our time ! Bravo !
I’m not entirely sure the title is appropriate, because there’s no suffering in this piece, to my ears. The whole piece is suffused with a melancholic, beautiful nostalgia.
It was written, partly, in response to the composer's son dying in a car accident.
The chordal resolution at 1:02 followed by the resolution at 1:09 absolutely wrecks me.
Absolutely, it is beautiful
@@victorrobin642 Of course not. Not when the music I'm listening to is a compositional masterpiece
Simplesmente lindo esse concerto !
What a joy to hear this...
gorgeous. give us more from him!
伟大的作曲家 有戏曲的影子
Beautiful, touching and melancholy
This is one of my favorite classical music composition that I ever heard of!
Wonderful!
人生如戏，命运弄人。I can't help to think of Rochberg in this piece. The string fly high above the staff desperately after the losses of their sons. 凄美
Beautiful music! 😳
Original. Inspired. Beautiful!
Breathtaking and heartbreaking
this piece is hot fire s2g
beautiful!
Beautiful, reminiscent of Ravel.
For obvious reasons, this sounds very Chinese. But why? What about the pentatonic scales and harmonies in the piece make it sound so Chinese (compared to their use in Western music)? Is it the orchestration, the voicing, the rhythms, a combination of the three? I just can't figure it out. I definitely think the chord progressions play a big role in it.
One of my teacher in China once told me that when he was in uni, he had a counterpoint professor whose writing sounds very Chinese even when he writes counterpoint using the strict counterpoint rules as described in Western music theory. When he marks and makes modifications to his students‘ homework, everyones homework becomes very Chinese even though non of the student's homework even remotely resembles Chinese style originally. 😂
To my knowledge, many music conservatories in China encourage composition students to write modern music with Chinese elements. For example, you can use set theory or 12-tone technique, but you carefully pick your set or your 12-tone row such that you have more major second interval, and minor third interval and less minor second interval. Or when you write melody, you try to use M2 and m3 more often and try to avoid m2.
But I'm not sure how to make a theoretical distinction between Chinese pentatonic and French impressionist pentatonic. Sometimes I write a piece of music, and I think it sounds pretty Chinese, and I show it to someone else, and they tell me, "hey, I like your use of impressionism". Maybe there is no strict line between the two. I think Debussy was influenced by Eastern music, and many modern Chinese composers are influenced by Debussy, so they kinda merge together.
That's just my thoughts. I didn't go to a conservatory in China, so my Chinese theory knowledge is kinda limited. Maybe someone who actually studied composition in a conservatory in China can do a better job of answering this question.
@@boyisun i think it can be pure melodic contour. I don't know about chinese music but i know that Sibelius used some melodic contours often seen in finnish songs. And as the harmony was not finnish, finnish people still felt it was deeply finnish.
@@boyisun Debussy was more influenced by (and imitated) Slendro scales used in Gamelan. The "sound" of French Impressionism, as a whole, was probably more closely associated with Javanese music than Chinese. If you want to go deep into understanding the differences between pentatonic melodies used in different countries/cultures, you're going to have use Bartok/Kodaly's method of anaylzing folk music to discern the nuances. Then it'll be easier to write an "authentic" Chinese melody if you really wanted to.
sounds more like a copland film score than chinese music
@@DefamedRice Well, it was written by a Chinese composer in a Chinese/Western idiom, so I'd have to disagree with you there. It certainly doesn't sound like anything that Copland wrote/would've written.
I wonder if this was a performance by Shanghai Symphony Orchestra instead of Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra.
Oh oops; it's the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.
a beauty
You can hear Messiaen all over this!
Could you give me a few examples of what you mean? I'm unfortunately quite the novice to both Messiaen and Chen's work.
@@nakanoyuko Apologies for the late reply, I'm a very busy University student! Messiaen was the teacher of Chen, and to me I can hear him all over, both in music and the philosophy behind it. Here is one of Messiaen's most well known works. ruclips.net/video/8PjyCpRKDrk/видео.html If you listen to the second movement, with how he weaves in melody with his tonal language, I hear it quite similarly within Chen's works. Within Messiaen's early works, such as his vocalise etude, ruclips.net/video/4UHXI-DiTPk/видео.html, I really hear Chen. To me, Chen is a more romantic, oriental Messiaen. When I mention philosophy, Messiaen told all of his students that music's worth comes from if the composer if authentic to his goal, and this comes across to the audience, and I always hear sincerity within Chen's work.
5:00 Zelda theme detected
Gorgeous music piece! But interrupted by the ads when it reaches the climax every single time wtf
Just get an ad blocker like everyone.
exquisitely haunting as always.
This makes me suffer, but it's joyful
Very remeniscent of Rautavaara. Amazing stuff!
I disagree this sounds nothing close to Rautavaara, there are parts where the orchestration is faintly reminiscent of Rautavaara, but very rare and it’s not very obvious
@@Scriabin_fan imma have to agree with the man of the same name
@@elijahstewart3231 fancy meeting you here at this ungodly hour. You’re not gonna believe this but I was listening to this because I can’t fall back to sleep lmao.
... to Yuli ... in loving memory ;)
I just noticed...at 2:49, does he have the second violins playing in alto clef? That's crazy. I've never seen that before. Perhaps it's only in the conductor's score, for readability purposes?
Well, based on the latest edition of the score it is just a typo. The clef has now been corrected.
Music: Gorgeous. Engraving: Bad.
- i'm sorry, can we try letter H once again? I was not convinced you were Thrilled by illusions.
Absolutely beautiful, except the rendering of the font is bad.
Yes!
2:38 Silent Night detected
Haha I was just arranging a choral piece that was based `silent night‘ so that section stood out for me and I was wondering if anyone had noticed.
gut
10:33
If you are filling the video with ads, at least put em after a proper cadence
Zshisko I have no control over the ads
Why is your profile picture spinning
magic
dont try fire. youll regret permanantly
1:43 5:50 6:24 21:55
C 3:24 t 15:53
I sampled the opening bars of this piece (solo violin) in a mashup/remix: ruclips.net/video/HhMg36H_6to/видео.html
Beautiful composition and interpretation but now your site is having too much publicity, I´m sorry, I´ll unsuscribed.
The fuck lol
I mean, advertisements, it´s so discasting to listen music in this way. Cmaj7, If you change it let me know it. Thanks.
@@Gustavo.Gregorio simple solution,download documents and change to mp3,no ads anymore
@@Gustavo.Gregorio cmaj7 can't control the ads
@@Gustavo.Gregorio CMaj7 doesn’t put in ads, the recording company does and he can’t control that.
Great piece, horrible performance. Vengerov may be a "great" soloist, but not only has he no idea how to perform Chinese music, it is evident he didn't bother to practise at all. This is not a hard piece, a concert soloist should be able to do better technically, not to mention musically.
拉的这个拉的比他的梁祝还难以直视。糟蹋的受不了。一丁丁点中国音乐的灵魂和声音都没有，技术还不过关。Vengerov该远离中国音乐，拉他的勃拉姆斯去吧。
确实，有些地方拉的有点急？少了水灵感。I also think the bowing was not very delicate, nor is the sound sweet when bouncing. The interpretation was very western. 怎么说呢，有的时候声音很虚，但有的时候弓也拉得太狠。听了很不舒服。
目前最好的版本了。马克西姆毕竟是大师级别的。