Scented Maiden

With his long silk robes, Buddha-bead bracelet and serene expression, Guo Gan wouldn’t look out of place in a Zhang Yimou movie. This accomplished erhu (two-stringed fiddle) player and composer has in fact provided music for several film soundtracks, as well as appearing with superstar pianist Lang Lang at Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center in New York. Guo Gan’s father, Guo Junming was a well-known erhu performer himself, and professor at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music in north-east China, where Guo Gan studied. On graduating from the conservatory, Guo moved on to postgraduate performance study in Paris, where he has worked with classical, jazz and avant-garde artists.

The erhu is traditionally played by street performers, often blind, as well as in Chinese ensembles. Over the last century though, it has become China’s equivalent of the violin – with a romantic, plaintive and sometimes virtuosic repertoire to match. Guo’s Scented Maiden ranges from traditional silk-and-bamboo pieces like ‘Man San Liu’ (Slow Three Six), through 20th century classics like Liu Tianhua’s ‘Autumn Moon over the Han Palace’, and two by Guo himself – ‘Scented Maiden’ and ‘Shanghai Taverns’. These are pretty, romantic pieces that would suit the big screen, but which hardly challenge listeners. He shows off more exciting expressive possibilities in the programmatic ‘Horse Race’ and ‘Bird Calls’. Guo favours an even vibrato, rich tone, slow tempos and lashings of reverb. Purists may prefer the more easy-going ebb and flow of older performers. But this is a polished, pleasurable CD.