Postcards (1997)

Sheng composed his four Postcards for Wolff and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra...They are glimpses of diverse landscapes translated first into music and then transcribed for the Western symphony orchestra, which filtered through Sheng's ear and his craftsmanlike hands, can sound like an authentic Chinese ensemble. "From the Mountains" and "From the Savage Land" made a strong contrast — the one slow and primarily melodic and coloristic in interest, the other fast and primarily rhythmic and coloristic. It made one eager to hear the whole set.

Sheng's Postcards quoted folk songs and folk music [with] accompanying imitation of the sound of folk instruments. [This] stood out as a major factor of the work. The concreteness of that sound left a strong impression. [The] composer makes use of the Western orchestra as [his] tool and yet there is the tenacious will to bring Western instruments closer to their folklore. The resulting music is more concrete than abstract...[perhaps] closer to a description of landscape. It creates an atmosphere in which we feel face to face with nature.

The Chinese-American composer Bright Sheng has become famous for mixing Asian and Western idioms, and he does it here with great success. Postcards has moments of violent depictions of the brutalities of China's Cultural Revolution, which Sheng experienced as a child. A brief theme stated at the beginning is re-worked again and again, the tension building to a clangorous climax. The other three movements, in what Sheng conceives as a set of postcards from China, are lighter and more gentle in tone. A simple folk tune is developed in the first movement, "From the Mountains." The tune begins to slide off-pitch with each re-statement, as if the tune were gradually spreading out in all directions, like water on a table. The second, "From the River Valley," based on a song from Southwest China, is fast and cheerful. It sounds like urban traffic. The title of the finale, "Wish You Were Here," suggests its tone: loneliness and nostalgia. Postcards is an evocative score and, like all his work, beautifully orchestrated. [Sheng] is someone to watch.

Without visual images, Bright Sheng painted a vivid travelogue in his Postcards, four miniatures using Chinese melodies woven in a tonal setting. Solidly led by Chen Xieyang, the players strove to emulate traditional Chinese timbres with their Western orchestral instruments.