Constraints/Creativity - Cantonese Choral Works by Kai-Young Chan

Constraints/Creativity - Cantonese Choral Works by Kai-Young Chan

NV6687 (Navona Records, CD)

FIRST RELEASE (24 January 2025)
Tracks: 10
℗ 2025 Navona Records LLC
© 2025 Navona Records LLC
Main country of recording: Hong Kong
Reviewer: Keith Bramich
Review of Constraints/Creativity - Cantonese Choral Works by Kai-Young Chan published on 2 January 2025

Wing Sum Chung, soloist (track 1)
Sze Chung Joyce Chan, soloist (track 1)
Sanders Lau, soloist (track 3)
Rosella Tang, soloist (track 5)
Margaret Sang, soloist (track 5)
Kenny Lam, soloist (track 5)
Wilcox Leung, soloist (track 5)
Isaac Lam, piano (tracks 2, 4, 9 and 10)
Quinton Chu, piano (tracks 3 and 6-8)
Die Konzertisten
Felix Yeung, conductor

Kai-Young Chan:

1 Seeking, Searching (lyrics by Li Ch'ing-Chao)

2 Withering blossoms, fading scent (lyrics by Li Ch'ing-Chao)

3 Night at the Lantern Festival (lyrics by Hsin Ch'i-Chi)

4 Egrets around the Mountain (lyrics by Su Tung-Po)

5 Life is but a dream (lyrics by Su Tung-Po)

6 Beneath the moonlight (lyrics by Su Tung-Po)

7 Maybe you've grown weary of weeping (lyrics by Wen Yi-Tuo)

8 A ditch of despair (lyrics by Wen Yi-Tuo)

9 Love never fails

10 Psalm 23

Constraints/Creativity considers the humanistic thread connecting disparate cultures across time and space. This collection of ten original works from composer Kai-Young Chan sets ancient Chinese lyric poetry, contemporary literature, and religious texts to moving choral music. The journey begins with themes of longing and separation, vividly depicted in poems like Li Ch'ing-Chao's Seeking, Searching and Withering Blossoms, Fading Scent, which depict imagery of scattered petals and autumnal decay. The collection also explores the solace found in nature and the resilience of hope, as in Su Tung-Po’s Egrets around the Mountain and Beneath the Moonlight. Concluding with Psalm 23, the music finds strength in life's darkest moments.

Recorded 8-10 June 2024 at Lee Hysan Concert Hall, Hong Kong, China.

 

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