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from: Deutsche Grammophon

 : Lang Lang:  Dragon Songs (Plus DVD)

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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028947765769
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
Number Of Discs: 2
Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon
Release Date: January 09, 2007
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
Sales Rank: 7626
MPN: 000823300




Disc 1:
  1. Yellow River Piano Concerto, based on the Yellow River Cantata by Xian Xinghai
  2. LÜ WENCHENG: Autumn Moon on a Calm Lake
  3. HE LUTING: The Cowherd's Flute
  4. TRADITIONAL: Dialogue in Song
  5. SUN YIQIANG: Dance of Spring
  6. DU MINGXIN: Straw Hat Dance
  7. DENG YUXIAN: Spring Wind
  8. ZHU JIANER: Happy Times
  9. TRADITIONAL: Spring flowers in the Moonlit Night on the River
  10. ZHAO JIPING: Dance from Qiuci, 5th movement from the "Silk Road" Suite
  11. WANG JIANMIN: At Night on the Lake Beneath the Maple Bridge
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Editorial Review:

Album Description:
Lang Lang has fascinated audiences all over the globe--now he takes them home to show them "his" China with Dragon Songs, a CD+DVD set with Chinese piano solo, chamber, and orchestral music. Discover the musical culture that forged one of the most acclaimed classical musicians of our day. The CD juxtaposes the Yellow River Concerto, a large-scale, highly virtuosic piano concerto with colorful sound scales, with miniature pieces for solo piano and with chamber pieces that combine the piano with traditional Chinese instruments. Most of the pieces merge tradional Chinese melodies and idioms with the Western classical music--the result is music of astonishing beauty and ease that will strongly appeal to a broad audience. The 130-minute DVD features a full-length documentary offering a fascinating and intimate look behind the scenes of Lang Lang's latest China tour. The DVD also includes a concert of the solo piano and chamber music pieces from the CD filmed during the Dragon Songs recording sessions in Beijing.

Amazon.com:
This is music of great diversity and charm. Lang Lang returns here to his native China for solo, chamber, and orchestral music. Those expecting great exoticisms will not find them here. We are all aware of how the East influenced the West in music – Debussy, Ravel, and other composers have picked up the harmonies and sonorities and made them familiar to us. But the music recorded here, all of it composed in the 20th century, is indebted to Western music, and indeed, there is hardly a jarring note to be found. The "exoticisms" are all comfortable. The "Yellow River" Piano Concerto, a work arranged by four composers in 1969 based on a 30-year-old choral cantata that was made up of socialist songs of praise, is a piece of pure late Romanticism and is reminiscent of Tchaikovsky and other late Romantics. One solo piano piece is 97 seconds of pure virtuosic joy ("Happy Times," by Zhu Jianer), and another ("Dance of Spring" by Sun Yiqiang) is a delicate, almost French Impressionist piece. The "Dance from Qiuci" by Zhao Jiping is a duet for piano and guanzi, a double-reed pipe, that will remind listeners of Klezmer music. Each track offers a new delight. Lang Lang's performances, alone and with orchestra and others, are brilliant. A must-have. --Robert Levine



Customer Reviews
Average Rating:  out of 5 stars

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - A Dialogue in Tradition
DRAGON SONGS is a spectacular endeavor and did I forget to say "what a value".

This is an absolutely wonderful DVD jam-packed with interviews and background information on all of these most beautiful Chinese works coupled with an accompanying CD. The DVD presents a documentary presenting the influences in Lang Lang's life and even paints a picture of his family portrait and the featured works are also shown being played in concert.

Lang Lang wanted to give tribute to ... Read More



Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Great job!
Regardless of what you think of Lang Lang, there can be no doubts that this artist is incredibly enthusiastic about his art. This enthusiasm is absolutely infectious. I've used this CD/DVD as part of a unit on Chinese music I teach to my middle school students. They were absolutely fascinated by this young pianist. It offered great information - it was not "dumbed down", but offered ideas they could understand. The documentary portion of the package helped inform them about what they heard on the CD. ... Read More



Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Album of Utter Finesse
Many claim Lang Lang to have dire interpretational problem.
What in fact is 'interpretational problem'? There is simply no standard answer, as the topic is pure subjectivity.
That said, for those (Chinese especially) who claim that Lang's "Yellow River Concerto" lacks in any thing at all, I would rebut by a direct answer - Lang's Yellow River is his OWN Yellow River; not the one in the 1970's, nor 1940's.
Lang Lang grew up under the direct influence of Chinese music - his father was ... Read More



Rating: 1 out of 5 stars - The Genocide Piano Concerto
If you are interested in the actual history of the Yellow River Concerto, check out the Wikipedia entry on this piece of music's sordid history. The concerto is the product of a People's Republic committee during the Mao regime (Mao's wife was in charge of the project). This is the same regime responsible for the deaths of millions of people during its reign.

The fact that Deutche Grammophon has released this work is particularly puzzling, since I doubt that they would record and release a ... Read More



Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Thoroughly enjoyable!
Recorded in Bejing in 2006, this combination CD/DVD from Deutsche Grammophon offers a comfortable mix of East and West in fourteen musical selections that run the gamut from major compositions in China such as the 1939 "Yellow River Concerto," running 20 minutes in four major parts and moods [This writer's favorite would be "Ode to the Yellow River" with its rich base and cello introduction and melodic, flowing low-to-mid range piano melody] to the simpler traditional sound of "Dialogue in Song" piano solo. ... Read More



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