Naxos Celebrates Canadian Album Release at Americas Society

What do whistles, wine glasses, popsicle sticks, and mini-hair clips have in common? On October 1, music by Canadian composer Vivian Fung was featured by musicians from the Metropolis Ensemble including violinist Kristin Lee, pianist Conor Hanick, and conductor Andrew Cyr. The event was the celebration of the new all-Fung CD, a release in Naxos' new Canadian Classics series, modeled on Naxos American Classics, the highly acclaimed series featuring music by American composers. The evening also celebrated the label’s  twenty-fifth anniversary, a milestone for a classical music brand.

The evening began with randomly selected audience members playing bird whistles to reconstruct the beginning of Vivian Fung’s Piano Concerto Dreamscapes. Fung’s inspiration for the work came out of her trip to Bali with her colleague and friend violinist Kristin Lee. The composer remarked that the trip to Bali “still haunts my dreams where I felt I had become one with nature. The myriad encounters of Bali and the unknowable recesses of my own mind resolved into a tranquil state of balance.” Along with the spiritual influence from Indonesia, Fung borrowed portions of the gamelan gong kebyar-style Ujan Mas, a type of Indonesian dance for this piece. This genre is known for its syncopated rhythms, sudden tempo changes, and unusual scales. 

Fung and pianist Conor Hanick explored the second vignette of Dreamscapes which takes Koketan, one of Fung’s older piano pieces, and expands it. The duo took the audience on a tour of what it takes to “prepare a piano,” a process by which the artist modifies the sound of the instrument by placing objects, called preparations, between or on the strings. By altering the sound of the piano with popsicle sticks and mini-hair clips, Fung was able to mimic the distinct voice of the Balinese gamelan, a traditional musical ensemble from Indonesia which features a variety of metallophones and gongs. To conclude their discussion, the artists had one more interactive element up their sleeve: to simulate the ending of Dreamscapes by giving audience members specifically-tuned wine glasses to create the ethereal end to the piece.

In addition to audience participation, the packed house at Americas Society was treated to a performance by violinist Kristin Lee of the rhapsodic candenza in Fung’s violin concerto, along with the New York premiere of Fung’s Birdsong performed by both Lee and pianist Conor Hanick.

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Following the performance was a brief question and answer period which included responses from the musicians, recording engineer Tim Martyn, and Naxos executive Raymond Bisha. The panel sought to introduce and explain Naxos’s new label Canadian Classics, which releases 6 to 8 new CDs per year from Canadian composers. The label will cover major areas of classical music: orchestra, large ensemble, vocal, chamber, and solo instrumental music. Dreamscapes is the third release on this series.