How it all started: By Lars Hannibal

The idea of combining Chinese and European music is very old.
As early as the 17th century the Jesuits were performing their music in the Forbidden City of Peking and were working with Chinese composers and musicians. The classical traditional music in China is even older. As far back as the 10th century the Chinese were writing down their music, more than 300 years before we did the same in Europe.

Personally, my serious interest in Chinese music took shape after taking part in the Shanghai International Arts Fair in 2004, when I heard a lot of fantastic Chinese musicians playing their classical music on traditional instruments. Coming as a classical musician to such a stream of beauty was overwhelming so it was natural for me to start thinking of the artistic possibilities in the dialogue between the Chinese and European classical traditions.

Working with music from other backgrounds you must always have a deep respect for the new field you are entering and for the skills the musicians have built up over a lifetime. My attitude has always been that you can never learn to play exactly like, for instance, a Chinese musician or a jazz musician, but you can gain so much inspiration from them.

For me the most interesting part is when you meet other musicians and you all play what you are best at with a completely open mind and then new musical landscapes will show up!
I was so lucky during one of my many visits to China since 2004 to be introduced to the young Xiao player Chen Yue. We decided to make a CD together where we played both popular and classical music from both traditions but in our own way. This really came out as a genuine musical dialogue and this has led to the idea of enlarging our duo into a quartet.

Why a Quartet?

Since 1992 I have been playing with my wife, recorder player Michala Petri, on guitar and lute.
The similar Chinese instruments are the Xiao/Dizi and the Pipa. Acoustically these instruments have the same match as the recorder and guitar/lute, so this is an obvious combination.

In a quartet like this we have the possibility to hear the clear sounds and music from both our traditions and to hear each played by “foreign” musicians. We also have all kinds of combination possibilities, quartet, trios, duos and solos. The programme will reflect these possibilities
and will also include new compositions made especially for us by Chinese and Danish composers.

Dialogue East Meets West Quartet Project

Briefly about the musicians:

Chen Yue
Chen Yue was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. She began her playing the traditional Chinese bamboo flute - dizi - as a child, receiving her earliest instruction from her father. By the age of 12 she was already a well-known local performer and was sent to study privately
with the master teacher, Zhao Songting. In 1993 she entered the Middle School of the China Conservatory of Music, where she was admitted as an undergraduate in 1996. The next year she was invited by China Central Television to participate in the national celebration of Hong
Kong’s retrocession to China. In 2000 Chen graduated from the China Conservatory of Music and was the first woman to receive a Master’s degree in traditional Chinese flute performance.
While at the China Conservatory, she studied with such modern flute masters as Zhang Weiliang and Jiang Guoji. Following graduation Chen began teaching flute at the China Conservatory.

In addition to her teaching, Chen Yue is much in-demand as a musician, performing several times on the Annual Spring Festival broadcast - arguably, the most watched television broadcast in the world. She was guest artist at the Special Olympics theme show of the Beijing Culture Festival in Moscow in 2001, a featured performer at the 2003 “Year of China” in France and was selected as one of the official musical representatives of China for the Beijing Week of the Chinese Culture Festival in Washington D.C. in 2005. That same year, Chen began her long-standing collaboration with pianist Richard Clayderman, touring with him all over the world. In May 2006, she joined the China National Symphony Orchestra on their US tour and in 2007 was one of the featured performers at one of the music industry’s largest international trade shows, the MIDEM exposition in Cannes, France. Later in 2007 she was invited to Denmark where she had the opportunity to meet the Danish Royal Family and performed a series of successful concerts with guitarist Lars Hannibal and Michala Petri as part of the “East Meets West” project.

Chen is currently a member of the Traditional Wind Instruments Institute of the China Musicians Association, China Traditional Wind and String Music Institute and is vice-secretary of Chinese Flute Majors’ Institute and has published several scholarly articles on the history of the Dizi. She has concertized throughout Asia, the Pacific Rim, Europe and America and has been a soloist with the China National Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the China Central Folk Orchestra, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo City Symphony Orchestra, the Macau Orchestra and the Greek National Symphony Orchestra. She has released many albums, popular both within China and internationally, including “Bamboo Love”, “Song without Lyrics”, “Color of Flute”, “Red ·Piano Impromptu”, “Spirits – East Meets West” with Lars Hannibal and Dialogue-East meets West with Michala Petri, released 2009!

Yan Jiang
Jiang Yan had her first performance at the age of 5, and studied under Professor Mr. Jinlong Fang and Ms. Yuhuan Ge. In order to build up sensitivity and dramaturgic feeling she also studied percussion more than 8 years. At the age of 20 Jiang Yan became a student at the Central Conservatory of music in Beijing and studied under pipa Master Mr. Guanghua Li.
After graduating 2003 she joined the Beijing Song and dance Troup as a chief pipa soloist, and performed massive all over China.
Jiang Yan have made many national recordings, and recorded for films (A letter from unknown woman and Bamboo shoot) and also released the album Pipa Images with composer Mr. Lin Hai which has been released throughout Asia. In 2006 Jiang Yan was the solo pipaplayer in the action musical Heartbeat that also toured extensively in the US.
Of Prizes and awards can be mentioned amongst others that Jiang Yan won the first prize at Tiantian Arts Competition and first prize at International Chamber Music Contest in 2002 held  in Japan, and also first prize at the Professional young performers competition in Shandong.

Michala Petri
Born in Copenhagen on the 7th of July 1958, Michala Petri began playing the recorder at the age of three and was first heard on Danish Radio when she was five. Her debut as concerto soloist took place at the Tivoli Concert Hall in 1969, the year in which she began her studies with Professor Ferdinand Conrad at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover. Since then she has toured extensively throughout Europe, North America, Israel, Australia and the Far East, performing with musicians such as Pinchas Zukerman, James Galway, Joshua Bell, Maurice André, Keith Jarrett, Gidon Kremer and Claudio Abbado and as soloist with many of the world’s major chamber and symphony orchestras.

Michala Petri has received the highest praise for her astonishing virtuosity in a repertoire ranging from the early baroque to contemporary works, many of them written especially for her.
For many years she has enjoyed working with guitarists including Göran Söllsher, Kazuhito Yamashita and Manuel Barrueco. In 1992 she formed a duo with Danish guitarist and lute player Lars Hannibal, with whom she tours all over the world.

Michala Petri was an exclusive recording artist for Philips from 1979 to 1987 and until 2005 for BMG/RCA Red Seal. In 1997 she received the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis for her exciting  collaboration with Vladimir Spivakov and the Moscow Virtuosi performing Vivaldi’s Flute Concertos. In 2002 she was awarded a second Deutscher Schallplattenpreis for her album Kreisler Inspirations with Lars Hannibal. Other recordings include Scandinavian popular music with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, works by Grieg and contemporary concertos written for her, both with the English Chamber Orchestra; two albums of Bach and Handel Sonatas with Keith Jarrett; and several albums of Baroque Concertos with the Academy of St. Martinin-the-Fields. Her recent recordings include the amazing 2005 recording of Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons", and Saint-Saêns' "Rondo Capriccioso" (EMI) with Thomas Dausgaard and Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the critically acclaimed Los Angeles Street Concerto: Michala Petri
plays Thomas Koppel (Dacapo).

Michala Petri and Lars Hannibal have launched their own label, OUR Recordings and have released Siesta, inspired by Latin American and Mediterranean music, Spirits, featuring Chen Yue on Xiao - the first release in the on-going East Meets West project; Movements, featuring
the recorded premieres of three of newly composed concertos (nominated for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards), and most recently Mozart’s Flute Quartets, where she is joined by Carolin Widmann, violin, Ula Ulijona, viola and Marta Sudraba, violoncello. In March 2009 Dialogue-East meets West with Chinese Xiao player Chen Yue, and in April 2009 Michala Petri`s 50 Years Birthday Concert with Kremerata Baltica was released.

In 1995 the Queen of Denmark honored Michala with The Order of the Knight of Dannebrog.

In 1997 she was nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize and in 1998 received the Wilhelm Hansen Music Prize as well as the H.C. Lumbye Prize for her achievement in bringing classical music to a wider audience. In 2000 Michala Petri received the highly prestigious Sonning Music Prize, previously awarded among others to Stravinsky, Bernstein, Britten, Shostakovich, Menuhin and Miles Davis.

Lars Hannibal
Lars Hannibal studied guitar at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus and lute with Toyohiko Satoh in The Hague.

In 1980 he formed “Duo Concertante” with violinist Kim Sjøgren, leader of the Royal Orchestra in Copenhagen. Together they toured Europe and recorded 10 CDs for EMI.

In 1992 he started playing with his wife, recorder player Michala Petri. The duo has since then toured extensively in Europe, USA, Japan, Korea and China. They have performed at many prestigious festivals including Verbier , Rheingau, Shanghai and Schleswig-Holstein, as well as giving recitals at Wigmore Hall in London, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Many composers have written pieces for the duo.

Together they have released three CDs on RCA/BMG, their Kreisler Inspirations receiving the “Deutscher Schallplattenpreis” in 2002. Now recording on their own label OUR Recordings, their first recording was Siesta, with music by Astor Piazzolla, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Villa-Lobos, Amargós, Ibert and Ravel. Lars Hannibal has also released Romance, a solo album of popular guitar music and has received several Danish awards.

Lars Hannibal is also well known for his collaboration with musicians from other genres including composer and trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg, jazz bass player Niels-Henning Ørsted Petersen and jazz violinist Svend Asmussen.

In recent years he has worked extensively with Chinese musicians and created the concept Dialogue – East Meets West. He made his first recording in 2007, Spirits – East Meets West, with xiao player Chen Yue. Last year he formed an ensemble, Quartet – East Meets West, with Chen Yue, pipa player Yan Jiang and Michala Petri. New compositions by Chinese and European composers are played alongside Chinese and European classical music, creating a new and exciting world of sound. The quartet made its London debut in April 2009 at Cadogan Hall.

Lars Hannibal plays guitars by Ignatio Fleta, Greg Smallman and Robert Ruck. His preferred lute is made by English lutemaker Paul Thomson.

Dialogue East Meets West Quartet Project

Programme for concerts with Quartet-East meets West

Traditional Chinese: Moonlight over the Spring River (Chun Jiang Hua Yue Ye)
Pipa, Xiao, Recorder and Guitar (arr. L.Hannibal)
Heitor Villa- Lobos: Prelude no. 1 e-minor | Guitar solo
(1887-1959)
Chinese Traditional: Ambush From All Sides (Shi Mian Mai Fu) | Pipa solo

Gao Hong: Golden Season (Jin Se De Ji Jie) | Pipa and Guitar
(b.1964)
Chinese Traditional: Plums by the Ge River (Ge Xi Mei Ling) | Xiao and Guitar

(arr. L.Hannibal)

Astor Piazzolla: From Historie of the Tango | Recorder and Guitar
(1921-1992)
Yao Hu: Fusion (Rong) | Xiao and Recorder
(b.1983)
Benjamin de Murashkin: Cascades | Xiao and Recorder
(b.1981)
Chinese Traditional: Wine Revels (Jiu Kuang) | Pipa and Dizi

INTERVAL

Carl Scheindienst: Variations on an Austrian Folk tune | Recorder and Guitar
(around 1800)
Chinese Traditional: Orchid in Spring (You Lan Feng Chun) | Dizi solo

Zhang Weiliang: Wonderful Night (Liang Xiao) | Xiao, Pipa and Guitar (arr. L.Hannibal)
(b.1957)
Michala Petri: Variations on a Danish Folk tune “Mads Doss” | Recorder solo
(b.1958)
Chinese Traditional: Three Variations on Plum Blossom (Mei Hua San Long) | Pipa and Dizi

Mongolian Traditional:
Oyoodai (Mongolian female name) | Recorder, Xiao and Guitar
(arr. L.Hannibal)

Japanese: Autumn piece (You Jian Chui Yan) (Sato No Aki ) | Xiao, Recorder,
and Guitar. (arr. L.Hannibal)
Danish Traditional: In the Deep Calm Forest | Xiao, Recorder and Guitar (arr. L.Hannibal)

Jiang Xiaoping: Princess Wengcheng (Zhang Li Zhong) | Xiao, Pipa, Recorder and
(b.1954) Guitar.

Dialogue East Meets West Quartet Project

Program notes:

Chinese Traditional: Moonlight over the Spring River Originally named “Xiao (Chinese flute) Drum at Sunset” or “Xunyang Pipa” or “Xunyang”, this piece was adapted for traditional orchestra around 1925. The atmosphere of the piece was inspired by the poem Moonlight over the Spring River written by poet Zhang Ruoxu from the Tang Dynasty.

Heitor Villa- Lobos: Prelude no. 1 in e-minor
Heitor Villa-Lobos, was a Brazilian composer born in Rio de Janeiro. Villa- Lobos is considered one of the most important composers for
the guitar in the last century. His works for guitar include a set of 5 preludes, 12 etudes and a guitar concerto. He studied in Paris, but went back to Brazil where he became a leader in musical education.

Chinese Traditional: Ambush From All Sides (Shi Mian Mai Fu)
This is a large-scaled piece for solo Pipa recalling an historical event and is also one of the Ten Chinese Ancient Pieces. It describes the war over the boundary between the Kingdoms of Chu and Han in 202 B.C.

Gao Hong: Golden Season (Jin Se De Ji Jie)
Program Notes for Golden Season, by the composer
This piece is the first I have ever written using Guitar. It has been a great challenge for me, but also a lot of fun. Many thanks to Lars Hannibal for trusting in my abilities and for giving me this wonderful opportunity.

As always, Chinese music tells a story or describes natural scenery.
In this piece I express the people’s feelings of happiness as they celebrate the harvest of the Golden Season (Autumn). In section “A”,
I use overtones to depict the beauty and peacefulness of the colorful leaves falling and the dew gently dropping. Sections B, C and D depict the happy singing, dancing and celebrating the harvest season.
Section E returns to the opening mood - expressing the beauty and peacefulness of the golden season.

Chinese Traditional: Plums by the Ge River (Ge Xi Mei Ling)
An ancient Chinese song composed by the poet Jiang Xian from the Song Dynasty.

Astor Piazzolla: Bordel 1900 (from Historie du Tango)
Bordel 1900 is the first movement from Astor Piazzolla`s Historie du Tango. The tango originated in Buenos Aires in 1882. It was first played on the guitar and the flute! Arrangements then came to include the piano, and later the bandeneon (an accordion like instrument).

This music is full of grace and sensuality. It paints a picture of the good natured chatter of the French, Italian and the Spanish women who populated these bordellos as they teased the policemen, thieves, sailors and others who came to see them. This is a spirited tango!

Yao Hu: Fusion (Rong)
Hu Yao entered the Central Conservatory’s Composition Department in 2002. In October 2006, he was recommended for admission to the Master’s degree program at the Central Conservatory on the basis of his superior achievement. He has travelled to the US, Russia, Italy, Macao, Hong Kong and other locations around the world for concerts and academic seminars. Hu Yao has received numerous awards for his compositions, including Best Instrumental Piece of the 1st National Composition Prize, Best Arranger of National Arts Academies Competition, Best Pianist of Huapu Prize
and Triple–A Student Certificate. He has also composed many largescale concert works, in addition to popularly acclaimed music for TV shows and documentaries. In April 2007, he was invited by the Beijing Olympic Organization to work as the youngest member of the team for the music for the Opening Ceremonies.

The character “Rong” means bending or to bend in Chinese. The music of “Rong” was conceived as a metaphor continuing encounter of Chinese and western cultures. The two instruments are used to characterize their native cultures – the Xiao, evoking the ancient mysteries of China while the recorder portrays the western world.
The dynamic interplay of the two instruments is off-set by episodes of harmonious cooperation, inviting the listener to experience the two instruments (voices/cultures) as beautiful, unique and distinct.

Benjamin de Murashkin: Cascades
Benjamin de Murashkin was born in Denmark, but grew up in Australia with his family, before returning to his country of birth. In Australia, de Murashkin majored in composition at the University of Melbourne. De Murashkin is currently studying at The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, Denmark.
His concert works include the orchestral piece Fra Skyer Mørke og Tunge af Regn, Findes Ly i Skovens Dybde (From Clouds Dark and Heavy with Rain, Refuge is Found in the Forest's Depths), and Gulhornene (The Gold Horns), for soprano and piano, written for Amanda Forbes, who gave the premiere of the piece together with the composer at Melba Hall, Melbourne, in 2004.

Cascades

The central idea behind Cascades was the use of running and flowing motion as a unifying principle. Through the use of shared thematic materials, de Murashkin approached the idea of “East Meets West” as more of a musical convergence than a study in contrasts, bringing together two instruments from two very different cultural landscapes in a single, harmonious expression.

Chinese Traditional: Wine Revels (Jiu Kuang).
Wine Revels is a Guqin piece composed by Ruan Ji, one of the Seven Bamboo Sages in from the Jin Dynasty. Ruan Ji released his pent-up anger by portraying the chaos of society. The piece contains profound meaning with reserved expression

Carl Scheindienst: Variations on an Austrian Folk Tune (Gestern
Abend war Vetter Mikkel da).
The Variations by the Austrian composer Carl Scheindienst are found on the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen. We know very little about this composer, but the piece was original composed for the Hungarian variant of the recorder, the Czakan, and guitar. The tune is very popular in many European countries, and there exists many different sets of variations.

Chinese Traditional: Orchid in Spring (You Lan Feng Chun).
Orchid in Spring is a solo for bamboo flute. The piece was inspired from an ancient original version and was transcribed and developed into a flute solo by Zhao Songting in 1957. The piece uses the traditional melody Yi Jiangnan, originally composed by Bai Juyi. San Wu Qi (Three – Five - Seven) refers to the number of Chinese characters used in the original poetic form of the song.

Zhang Weiliang: Wonderful Night (Liang Xiao).
Wonderful Night is a composition for the Erhu, and expresses the composer’s cheerful and relaxed feelings. It was written for performance at the founding of the Chinese Folk Music Committee during Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve in 1927. The story goes, that several students of composer Liu Tianhua gathered at his home. Already in a very good mood, he was inspired by the New Year’s Eve festivities to improvise this piece.

Michala Petri: Variations on a Danish Folk Tune “Mads Doss”.
Mads Doss was popular in the western part of Jutland, and the words are in a dialect that only a few people understand fully today outside the region. Mads Doss is the name of a happy man who liked to be independent, which you will hear portrated in this set of charming variations by Michala Petri!

Chinese Traditional: Three Variations on Plum Blossom 
(Mei Hua San Long).
Three Variations on Plum Blossom is one of the ten most famous pieces of ancient China. The piece is also known as Plum Blossom or Jade Concubine, and was originally conceived as a purely instrumental piece in praise of the plum flower. The Mysterious Book, edited by Zhu Quan from the Ming Dynasty, recorded that Plum Blossom was first composed as a flute piece by Huan Yi, dating from the East Jin Dynasty. Later, it was adapted into Guqin piece which compliments the nobility and purity of the proud, plum blossom.
Since the version of the Guqin called for the use of overtones, this later version came to be known as “Three Variations.”

Mongolian Traditional: Oyoodai.
Originally a Mongolian Folk Song. Oyoodai is the name of a Mongolian girl from a beautiful lovestory, and it also exists in a Japanese variant.

Japanese Traditional: Autumn Piece (You Jian Chui Yan)
(Sato No Aki).
The Japanese song Sato No Aki is known as Autumn Piece in its very popular Chinese version.


Danish Traditional: In the Deep Calm Forest.
In the Deep Calm Forest is one the most popular folk songs in Denmark, and it exists in many versions. The melody originated on a Danish Island called Langeland, and the words describe the silence in the woods where the birds are singing. Another text to this song was made by Hans Christian Andersen, who used the melody as inspiration for a love song.

Jiang Xiaoping: Princess Wengcheng (Zhang Li Zhong).
The composer Jiang Xiaoping is from Shanghai, and he is active in many different musical fields in addition to being a prolific composer.
He also teaches at Shanghai Conservatory. The inspiration for this composition comes from a very famous story from ancient China about the beautiful Tang Dynasty Princess Wengcheng and her travels across China to marry a prince from another land to secure peace between the two kingdoms!

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