Wang Xilin - Symphony No. 5 (2009)

Recognition has been late in coming to China's "Angry Young, Old Man" of symphonic music, Wang Xilin (1936-). Or more accurately, POSITIVE recognition has been late in coming. Wang began his career as one of the most promising young graduates from the Shanghai Conservatory in the early '60s. He would make the tragic mistake of joining other artists and intellectuals only to be later rounded up and imprisoned as a result of Mao's political trap known as the "Hundred Flowers Campaign." Even following Wang's rehabilitation, Wang's music and ideas could create controversy as in 2000 when a concert of his music was cancelled as a result of some politically charged statements we made. Wang's Fifth Symphony (dedicated to the writer Lu Xun) is a bold and aggressive score. Composed for just 22 strings, Wang delivers a knock-out punch of densely scored canons, ostinati and timbral effects that will remind many of the best works of the new "Polish School" (i.e. Lutoslawski, and Penderecki).
From 1964 to 1978 during the Cultural Revolution, he suffered political persecution for 14 years, and was exiled to
Shanxi Province. He had never begun studying modern music of the 20th century until the end of Cultural Revolution, when he came back to Beijing at 40 years old. And from then on, he remarkably changed his musical language and aesthetics, becoming a Radical and a unique representative composer among his generation. A full account of Wang's life appears in Liao Yiwu's recently published "The Corpse Walker: Real-Life Stories, China from the Bottom Up."

Tracks:
Wang Xilin - Symphony No. 5
Total Time: 25:33