United Kingdom Zou Ye, Symphony Kūkai (2023): Charles Mutter (chief/solo violin), Rebecca Hepplewhite (solo cello), The Choir of Central Conservatory of Music, London Chinese language Philharmonic Choir, Scherzo Ensemble, Orpheus Sinfonia / Derrick Morgan (conductor). Central Corridor Westminster, London, 17.8.2024. (CC)
Born within the Hunan Province of China in 1957, composer Ye Zou (as proven on the live performance programme, however rendered on Wikipedia and elsewhere as Zou Ye) was one of many first graduates from the Wuhan Conservatory of Music – then the Hubei Academy of Positive Arts. He grew to become the resident composer on the Kids’s Theare in Beijing in 1992 and his affiliation with drama extends to his numerous movie scores, together with Yin Li’s The Knot (2005) and the identical director’s Zhang Aspect De (2004), Huang Jianzhong’s 1991 movie The Spring Competition and a brand new rating for Wu Yonggang’s 1934 movie The Goddess. Zou additionally grew to become the Honorary resident Composer for the China Philharmonic Orchestra.
Here’s a main, 90-minute work by Zou Ye, Conductor Yu Lengthy and the China Philharmonic Orchestra premiered the piece on the Lanzhou Grand Theatre within the provincial capital of Gansu, working with the refrain of the Lanzhou Live performance Corridor. Quickly after, it was carried out in celebration of the forty fifth anniversary of the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship performed by Yu Lengthy in each Kyoto and Tokyo. The Kūkai Symphony addresses matters of Buddhism, the Buddhist monk Kūkai’s life in Japan, and his promotion of Buddhism there. The symphony is written in celebration of the 1250th anniversary of Kūkai’s delivery.
Born Saeki no Mao in 774 and posthumously known as ‘Kōbō Daishi’ (The Grand Grasp who propagated the Dharma), Kūkai was truly born in Japan however travelled to China to review Tangmi Buddhism (the Chinese language equal to Vajrayana Buddhism) in the course of the Tang Dynasty. He then based the Japanese equal, referred to as Shingon. He selected Mount Kōya as a holy web site, and it thee the place he died in 835, aged 60.
Kūkai was what in modern-day terminology we’d name a polyglot; maybe one of the best parallel for Westerners is Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard is understood in musical circles for her beautiful chants (suppose Hyperon’s magnificent A Feather on the Breath of God) however was many different issues, together with author and herbalist; Kūkai was not solely a spiritual chief, but additionally a poet, an artist, and a calligrapher.
So, quick ahead from 835 to 2024, and from Mount Kõya to Central Corridor Westminster the place a packed viewers sat expectantly for the European premiere of Symphony Kūkai. We had been all given what regarded like a programme however was truly labelled ‘Symphony Kukai Introduction Handbook’ (plus an envelope together with a bookmark and a few postcards).
The orchestra was the Orpheus Sinfonia (Sinfonia on this context was a bit of deceptive because the stage was packed); the Scherzo Ensemble is definitely a choir, knowledgeable platform for rising artists, and these had been joined by The Choir of Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM Choir) and the London Chinese language Philharmonic Choir (LCPC, based 2013). The choirs had been ready by ‘Chief Choral Conductor’ Chen Bing.
The symphony is each lovely and dramatic. It does want a wonderful conductor, although, not simply to marshal the massive forces but additionally to convey the breadth of the music: a protracted view is obligatory for achievement. Conductor Darragh Morgan has this view: he appeared to know the rating inside-out. There’s a notably filmic side to the rating (unsurprisingly, given Zou’s exercise in that style) and but Morgan managed to keep away from schmalz and pointless emotionalism always. The orchestral strings had been well-balanced (importantly, the violins didn’t lose tone excessive of their register).
There’s a pronounced full cease round 5 minutes into the primary motion: it appears as if the primary motion is brief, however the silence is meant as a structural articulator (it’s there additionally in Lengthy Yu’s efficiency of the symphony in Tokyo, obtainable on YouTube, which suggests that is particularly requested). At different instances, the chiming of a bell acted as an articulator (curiously, a truck Tibetan bowl is used as a chiming instrument, additionally). And if bell chimes invite within the thought of formality, so it was: most notably maybe within the meditation on Ākāśagarbha Bodhisattva (one of many eight nice bodhisattvas). In response, a plaintive cor anglais sings its mournful track (Olivia Fraser), garlanded by flute arabesques. The textual content is, as one may anticipate, filled with references to the fantastic thing about Nature, of Spring flowers in full bloom and the suchlike. However balancing that tissue-delicate magnificence is the energy of Buddhism enshrined sonically within the trumpet-encrusted hymn to Buddhist praxis that crowns the primary motion.
The second part, ‘Pursuing Research in Tang China and Sustaining the Dharma Heritage,’ is filled with unashamedly lengthy, lyrical traces. There may be one trumpet second that particularly within the London efficiency appeared to reference Janáček’s Sinfonietta. Extra importantly, there’s a fastidiously deliberate arrival right here on the phrase ‘Vairocana’, a strong idea interpreted in Chinese language Buddhism because the supreme Buddha-body, a vessel of final actuality; this after one other of Zou’s structural Luftpausen. Wordless refrain is used successfully right here, too, as one more strand of the general cloth.
There isn’t a lacking the usage of Chinese language melody on the opening of the third motion, ‘Spreading Esoteric Coaching in Japan and Turning the Dharma Wheel’. It actually may be very beautiful, however the place the music will get actually fascinating is in the usage of conventional (or traditional-based) melody as low-string destabiliser to impart a way of unease. Removed from this being a historically (from the Westen perspective) ‘choral’ symphony, the composer provides lengthy purely orchestral tracts, lengthy explorations of fabric that ultimately result in the choir’s phrases. On this third motion, we meet Kūkai’s grasp, Huiguo (746-805) and the teachings of the Tripitaka (Sanskrit for ‘Three Baskets’, and the earliest assortment of Buddhist scripture.
The sheer number of expression the composer calls upon is huge, from nearly comedic to really apocalyptic to the Peace Profound of the fourth panel, ’Dwelling in Vairocana Pure Land and Having Nice Compassion for All Dwelling Beings’. All facets had been nicely sculpted and characterised right here. If there was the occasional blip in ensemble (the fifth part, ’Broadly Spreading Esoteric Instructing and Benefitting Sentient Beings’) they had been few and much between. The ultimate part, ‘Abiding in Esoteric College and Carrying out the Mission of Buddha’, features a return of the bells and brass from earlier. The motion seems like a real end result of all that got here earlier than it in addition to one thing of a summation. The choral side is extra advanced right here, with a lot imitation (call-and-response, maybe) and counterpoint. There’s a pronounced Mahlerian factor to the nice choral climax of the work’s shut, all the way down to the excessive soprano’s elevation of pitch and crashing tutti arrival, plus the prolonged preparation for that elevating ending.
The refrain in London was notably highly effective, nearly overwhelming at instances, whereas the orchestra gave their all, sustaining focus nearly all through. This efficiency was sufficient to persuade this listener, a least, that Zou Ye’s symphony is a serious achievement.
Colin Clarke
