East Meets West In An Unexpected Way

The flute is an instrument that adapts well to a far eastern sound world and this disk Whirling Dance by Sharon Bezaly explores contemporary and traditional Chinese repertoire with the Taipei Chinese Orchestra conducted by Chung Yiu-Kwong. The conductor's own pieces, the title track and a flute concerto, form the most contemporary works, the other pieces are either traditional or from earlier in the 20th century and have been arranged especially for this disk, in same cases transposing from the bamboo flute to Bezaly's modern instrument. The disk avoids any crossover or fusion trap with Bezaly merging seamlessly with the orchestra which is a Chinese orchestra in terms of instrumentation as well as just name, not a western symphony or chamber orchestra though it resembles the latter in size. There are portions of the disk that come close to the cliched western idea of Chinese music from their opera tradition or the times of Mao but several other occasions reminded me oddly of nothing more than the wide open spaces American sound of Copland. An unexpected way to find east meeting west and good to see the burgeoning Chinese classical music scene spreading beyond the mainland and also encompassing its own tradition.