Ma Sicong: Music for Violin and Piano, Vol. 2 (2010)
Hsiao-mei Ku (violin) & Ning Lu (piano)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 291 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 150 Mb | Artwork included
Genre: Classical | Label: Naxos | # 8.570605 | Time: 01:04:54
Hsiao-mei Ku (violin) & Ning Lu (piano)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 291 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 150 Mb | Artwork included
Genre: Classical | Label: Naxos | # 8.570605 | Time: 01:04:54
The Chinese composer and violinist Ma Sicong was born in Haifeng in Guangdong (Canton) province in 1912, and was among the relatively few Chinese musicians of his generation to study abroad. He settled in America in 1967. The music on this disc embraces contrasting moods, each imbued with Ma Sicong’s abiding love for his homeland and combining Chinese inspiration with Western musical techniques. Shortly after composing the Rondo No. 4 he wrote this heartbreaking entry in his diary: ‘When can I end my exile? Nobody knows.’
Chinese composer Ma Si-cong (with the accent on the "Si" especially pronounced, to avoid confusion with another violinist/composer better known for his political activities) was one of China's most gifted composers of classical music and revered as a teacher. The Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and '70s brought him into conflict with the aforementioned violinist and composer – Mao TseTung or ZeDong – and sent Ma packing to the U.S. at night on a freight ship. Ma died a fish out of water in the U.S. and was reviled in some quarters as a traitor and coward, though since his death there has been a concerted effort in China to reclaim his work, which is absolutely central to Chinese concert violin literature. Like its companion volume, this Naxos release, Ma Si-cong: Music for Violin and Piano 2, once again brings the talents of Chinese violinist Hsiao-mei Ku, once a student of Ma, to bear on his output, and if anything it is better than the first volume. The opening Spring Dance (1953) grabs one's attention right away through its lush harmonies and extremely virtuosic writing for the violin; Melody (1952) demonstrates Ma's familiarity with modern Western harmony and is striking for its occasional use of unprepared dissonances in the piano part. Pianist Ning Lu provides a superlative accompaniment, working with Ku's stirring ebb and flow to create an air of genuine excitement. Ma's artistic sensibility – including such admirable qualities as graciousness, sparkling rhythm, dynamic drive, and soulful melodicity – never changed despite his difficulties; his Violin Sonata No. 3 from his U.S. period of the 1980s is cut of the same cloth as his works from the 1940s and '50s. For some listeners the idea of a composer sidestepping the issue of forward development in his/her work over time might be a turnoff, but when you have such an original and well-defined sound as Ma demonstrates in piece after piece, who would want it to change? Violinists of all kinds will find much nourishment in Naxos' Ma Si-cong: Music for Violin and Piano 2, though most others should find it fulfilling, as well.Review by Uncle Dave Lewis, Allmusic.com
The first volume in this series nicely sets out questions of biography and musical orientation. Briefly, Ma Sicong studied in France—violin at the Nancy Conservatoire, and possibly in Paris as well, though no one seems sure. He returned later for composition lessons before returning to China, where he’d been born in 1912, to form a symphony orchestra. He became an administrator and in 1949 found himself in Hong Kong. He was invited back to China, to Beijing, and life as a performer and composer. He suffered mightily during the Cultural Revolution, escaping in 1967 to America, where he lived for another twenty years.
His music utilises Chinese folk song married to the formal Western techniques he’d already imbibed in France. The music is songful, pleasant, and at its best when it does what Robert Russell Bennett does in his music, which is to inject some charge into things, to vitalise indigenous or near folk melodies and transform them. At his least inspiring there is a same-ness and repetitious formula to some of the music which can prove less than engrossing heard in bulk. I concede that this may not be the same thing if one heard these gentle and concise pieces one at a time.
Spring Dance (1953) is certainly inspiriting and a light-hearted mountain song. The Rondo No.2 is lightly infused with Chinese elements; this is one of the works here that seems predicated strongly on a Western model that tends to limit the potential of folk material…but cannily set out, as one would expect of the executant-composer so well versed in such things. The quality of warmth is one that needs to be addressed; the 1952 Melody has an incontestable dose of it, and it’s one of his best features, something of a gift. The most recent opus is the Third Violin Sonata of 1984. This romantic, nostalgic and wholly tonal piece is cast in two movements and could have been written at any time in the last seventy years. Its finale has a bit in common with Spring Dance. Indeed dance underlies much of the music, from the vivacity of the earliest work, Dance of the Autumn Harvest, from 1944 (but not published until 1953) to some of the movements from the Gaoshan Suite. In terms of sonority this has some of the most quixotic writing, with wind-through-the-reed evocations, and an especially attractive penultimate movement that is the suite’s emotional heartland. But as the Rondo of 1983 shows, his style hadn’t changed very much in thirty years, though we do hear superimposed some blues-tinged elements as well. Finely played and recorded…Review by Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International
Hsiao-mei Ku (violin), Ning Lu (piano)
Recorded: 22-24 November 2007
Recording Venue: Libby Gardner Concert Hall,
School of Music, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, US
Tracklist:
01. Spring Dance (1953) (3:48)
02. Rondo No.2 (1950) (7:01)
03. Melody (1952) (4:50)
04. Dance of Autumn Harvest (1944) (5:21)
Violin Sonata No.3 (1984)
05. 1. Moderato (7:27)
06. 2. Allegro vivace (7:44)
Gaoshan Suite (1973)
07. 1. Sacrifice (3:40)
08. 2. Drinking (1:13)
09. 3. Reed (1:41)
10. 4. Battle Dance (1:11)
11. 5. Calling Back Spirits (3:09)
12. 6. Dance of Good Year (1:26)
13. Rondo No.3 (1983) (6:03)
14. Ballade (1952) (5:17)
15. Rondo No.4 (1983) (5:01)
Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011
EAC extraction logfile from 26. February 2013, 15:55
Hsiao-mei Ku, Ning Lu / Ma Sicong - Music for Violin and Piano - 2
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==== Log checksum E58355F151A582E40F1E9900D7DE52CF635BDEE7866C6C97BFFEDD03FD5C0824 ====
EAC extraction logfile from 26. February 2013, 15:55
Hsiao-mei Ku, Ning Lu / Ma Sicong - Music for Violin and Piano - 2
Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRRW GWA-4164B Adapter: 5 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 102
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 896 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -V -8 %source%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 3:48.03 | 0 | 17102
2 | 3:48.03 | 7:01.24 | 17103 | 48701
3 | 10:49.27 | 4:50.20 | 48702 | 70471
4 | 15:39.47 | 5:21.12 | 70472 | 94558
5 | 21:00.59 | 7:27.32 | 94559 | 128115
6 | 28:28.16 | 7:44.27 | 128116 | 162942
7 | 36:12.43 | 3:40.10 | 162943 | 179452
8 | 39:52.53 | 1:12.61 | 179453 | 184913
9 | 41:05.39 | 1:41.10 | 184914 | 192498
10 | 42:46.49 | 1:11.13 | 192499 | 197836
11 | 43:57.62 | 3:09.11 | 197837 | 212022
12 | 47:06.73 | 1:25.46 | 212023 | 218443
13 | 48:32.44 | 6:02.64 | 218444 | 245657
14 | 54:35.33 | 5:17.17 | 245658 | 269449
15 | 59:52.50 | 5:01.27 | 269450 | 292051
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename C:\temp\Ma Sicong - Music for Violin and Piano - 2\Ma Sicong - Music for Violin and Piano - 2.wav
Peak level 98.1 %
Extraction speed 2.5 X
Range quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 1775F4C5
Copy CRC 1775F4C5
Copy OK
No errors occurred
End of status report
==== Log checksum E58355F151A582E40F1E9900D7DE52CF635BDEE7866C6C97BFFEDD03FD5C0824 ====
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foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2018-07-09 02:50:57
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Hsiao-mei Ku, Ning Lu / Ma Sicong - Music for Violin and Piano - 2
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR12 -0.93 dB -19.99 dB 3:48 01-Spring Dance (1953)
DR14 -1.68 dB -19.97 dB 7:01 02-Rondo No.2 (1950)
DR12 -5.51 dB -22.41 dB 4:50 03-Melody (1952)
DR12 -1.12 dB -17.33 dB 5:21 04-Dance of Autumn Harvest (1944)
DR13 -2.18 dB -21.24 dB 7:27 05-Violin Sonata No.3 (1984) - 1. Moderato
DR14 -1.31 dB -18.94 dB 7:44 06-Violin Sonata No.3 (1984) - 2. Allegro vivace
DR13 -9.94 dB -26.83 dB 3:40 07-Gaoshan Suite (1973) - 1. Sacrifice
DR11 -1.87 dB -16.85 dB 1:13 08-Gaoshan Suite (1973) - 2. Drinking
DR11 -14.61 dB -33.90 dB 1:41 09-Gaoshan Suite (1973) - 3. Reed
DR11 -1.65 dB -14.70 dB 1:11 10-Gaoshan Suite (1973) - 4. Battle Dance
DR11 -12.67 dB -28.01 dB 3:09 11-Gaoshan Suite (1973) - 5. Calling Back Spirits
DR11 -1.75 dB -15.99 dB 1:26 12-Gaoshan Suite (1973) - 6. Dance of Good Year
DR13 -2.36 dB -20.76 dB 6:03 13-Rondo No.3 (1983)
DR12 -5.61 dB -23.82 dB 5:17 14-Ballade (1952)
DR13 -0.16 dB -18.53 dB 5:01 15-Rondo No.4 (1983)
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Number of tracks: 15
Official DR value: DR12
Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 623 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================
log date: 2018-07-09 02:50:57
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Hsiao-mei Ku, Ning Lu / Ma Sicong - Music for Violin and Piano - 2
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR12 -0.93 dB -19.99 dB 3:48 01-Spring Dance (1953)
DR14 -1.68 dB -19.97 dB 7:01 02-Rondo No.2 (1950)
DR12 -5.51 dB -22.41 dB 4:50 03-Melody (1952)
DR12 -1.12 dB -17.33 dB 5:21 04-Dance of Autumn Harvest (1944)
DR13 -2.18 dB -21.24 dB 7:27 05-Violin Sonata No.3 (1984) - 1. Moderato
DR14 -1.31 dB -18.94 dB 7:44 06-Violin Sonata No.3 (1984) - 2. Allegro vivace
DR13 -9.94 dB -26.83 dB 3:40 07-Gaoshan Suite (1973) - 1. Sacrifice
DR11 -1.87 dB -16.85 dB 1:13 08-Gaoshan Suite (1973) - 2. Drinking
DR11 -14.61 dB -33.90 dB 1:41 09-Gaoshan Suite (1973) - 3. Reed
DR11 -1.65 dB -14.70 dB 1:11 10-Gaoshan Suite (1973) - 4. Battle Dance
DR11 -12.67 dB -28.01 dB 3:09 11-Gaoshan Suite (1973) - 5. Calling Back Spirits
DR11 -1.75 dB -15.99 dB 1:26 12-Gaoshan Suite (1973) - 6. Dance of Good Year
DR13 -2.36 dB -20.76 dB 6:03 13-Rondo No.3 (1983)
DR12 -5.61 dB -23.82 dB 5:17 14-Ballade (1952)
DR13 -0.16 dB -18.53 dB 5:01 15-Rondo No.4 (1983)
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Number of tracks: 15
Official DR value: DR12
Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 623 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================