About this Artist

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Editorial Reviews

The concept here is to take Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde," his hour-long symphonic song cycle setting Hans Bethge's translations of Chinese poetry, and translate the texts back into the original Chinese. The spin is that the resulting work is performed here by all Chinese forces. How well either the concept or the performance succeeds depends on the listener. Those familiar with the work but not familiar with Chinese may find it at first disconcerting to hear the big consonants and long vowels of the German original replaced by the hard consonants and sharp vowels of the Chinese in Daniel Ng's translation. How long that sensation lasts and whether it is interesting, appealing, or even endurable is up to the listener. Both mezzo-soprano Ning Liang and tenor Warren Mok sing beautifully and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under Lan Shui play with evident professionalism and manifest dedication. Some listeners may find the orchestra's tone more forced and the colors more glaring than a European orchestra, but there is no denying that the performers are determined to do their best by the piece. Recorded in Singapore's Esplanade Concert Hall in 2005, the digital sound here is clear and bright, but also a bit hard in climaxes and often glaring in the upper frequencies. James Leonard, All Music Guide

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