Search - Manuel de Falla, Francesco Barsanti, Gabriel Faure :: Reverie: Music for Cello & Guitar

An almost Zen-like Album.

A. F. S. Mui | HK | 07/22/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD is probably the first ever of a guitar and cello recital.

This idea is the new inception of Jian Wang, the philosophical Chinese cellist, and yields wonderful results, as one can hear here. Wang initially thought that putting together the cello with the piano once more may be too confined for diverse musical tastes, and this led him to conceive a cell-guitar recording with Swedish guitarist Goran Söllscher. Söllscher employs a six-string and a eleven-string guitar respectively in this recordings.

Both Söllscher and Wang have chosen a diverse repertoire, with an international mixture of different composers. These short pieces, while not technically really demanding for top instrumentalists like Söllscher and Wang, nonetheless present a welcome mixture even for cross-over lovers. The pieces are melodic and serene, with a wealth of warmth and sweetness inasmuch as a duet between the human voice and the guitar.

There is an absolute sense of balance between the two instruments - some thing according to Wang Jian achieved after several months of practice with Söllscher in an attempt to strike the right instrumental balance in these pieces. The result is truly satisfying, with a much tuned-down cello in terms of colour that matches well the guitar's less full-bodied tone.

While all the pieces are dainty and affecting, there are some standouts that no listener would afford to miss out.

Liu's Pastoral affords a mixed tonal picture abounding in both eastern and western colours, a piece that he performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in those legendary days in Beijing in the early 1980's but certainly unlike the serene cello-guitar duet here. In Falla's opening piece the guitar sails off in great rhythmic lilt accompanied by the mellow singing of the cello. The Scilienne of Paradis is reputedly one of Jian Wang's own father as well as teacher Parisot's favourite piece, and Wang dedicates the piece to both of them. Barsanti's Logan Water and Sibelius' Etude are simply ethereal renditions, with an almost Zen-like and certainly lieder-like flavour that leave the listener in absolute craving for more. The piece Milonga is being transcribed from the accordion and piano, and one of the two pieces by Astor Piazzolla, a new repertoire for Jian Wang, and a composer that he comes to like best in recent times.

This is a great recording for serious classical music lovers and more casual listeners alike, a great additional CD for homely and relaxed listening, as well as for critical classic lovers."

Wonderful Collaboration

Abel | Hong Kong | 07/16/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The two soloists - a guitarist and a cellist - comes together in a surprisingly homogeneous collaboration of some really popular classics, with an approach that is both fresh and vitalising.

The transpositions of some repertoire of other instruments to the cello and guitar is novel, but work exceedingly well under Wang and Sollscher.

Both soloists are never bombastic, never showy, never loud, but both never cease to affect their listeners.

With a cup of afternoon tea, listening to this disc is sheer pleasure indeed.

The disc I bought comes with a bonus DVD of a documentary on Wang Jian.

I really marvel at the zeal and determination of his father in bringing up young Jian. It is a very touching account of Chinese parents in that era in China. Another thrilling success story other than Lang Lang's.

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