Chien-Yin Chen: Purr

Chien Yin Chen (Composer), Paul Hostetter (Conductor), Chien Yin Chen (Performer), Christina Dahl (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Chien Yin Chen, Christina Dahl
• Conductor: Paul Hostetter
• Composer: Chien Yin Chen
• Audio CD (October 21, 2003)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Tzadik
• ASIN: B0000CABI0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #588,545 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This one really slipped through the cracks, January 6, 2008

By 

jive rhapsodist (NYC, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Chien-Yin Chen: Purr (Audio CD)

This is a disc, excellent in so many ways, that should really be better known. The performances are really top-notch. One can say that although many of the cliches of Post-Minimalist music find their way into this work, they are handled with a sensitivity FAR beyond that of MANY more famous composers. So what's the problem? The almost constant diatonicism and motoric - ness should have made this a trendy hit - if not on New Sounds, at least on Sequenza 21! But I also appreciate that Chen is one of the only composers of this genre whose music, with its chattering gestures and its pitch exchanges, seems to reflect an awareness that a composer like Stefan Wolpe ever existed. Maybe THAT'S the problem...In any case, at the very least, Wogen-Brandung-Wonne for three guitars is some kind of a classic, an acoustical rendering of some of the principles of sampling - at least that's how it sounds to me. Fuse Box, the last piece, is the weakest. Expertly composed, it tootles along without really getting anywhere in particular. But even there, Chen demonstrates a very special ear and sensibility. A Sleeper!