COMPOSERS: Various
LABELS: Altus
PERFORMER: The Chinese Virtuosi
CATALOGUE NO: ALU 0003
The challenge for THE CHINESE VIRTUOSI is to compile a sequence from barely related sources across far-flung regions. Based in Beijing, they choose with an eye to export as a means of maintaining the music’s vitality: fair enough, especially when done with such flair. Nearly all the contents are solos or duos.
They draw on traditional, classical and still-developing styles, only up to the Thirties here, and they show off the main instruments with particular emphasis on various zithers and winds. The unearthly whistle of the xun, its vibrato brilliantly controlled, is a highlight, and the bowed erhu provides another in a fulsomely lyrical overture to the album.