Joshua Bell, Tsung Yeh, Singapore Chinese Orchestra - Butterfly Lovers (2023)

Posted By: ArlegZ

Date: Sept. 9, 2023

It is not clear what took Sony Classical five years to issue these performances, recorded by violinist Joshua Bell and the Singapore Chinese Orchestra in 2018. Having had it in the can, it would have made ideal pandemic-era listening. However, better is certainly late than never, and the recording is a real find. It made classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2023. Most musical fusions have one tradition or the other at the core, but in this one, the trips between Western and Chinese are so numerous that one loses track. The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto was written in 1959 in good Communist fashion by multiple composers. It was for violin and Western orchestra, based on a tragic Chinese legend about two lovers who turn into butterflies after they achieve burial together; its seven movements are vividly programmatic in nature. The work was intended to introduce Chinese music to the West in a listener-friendly way. Several other Western violinists have played the work, but the treatment here is new; the concerto is arranged for a large Chinese orchestra, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, conducted by Tsung Yeh. Then again, this orchestra itself has Western components; the string section is undergirded by cellos and basses, and the percussion section also contains Western instruments. Above this hybrid apparatus soars Bell, who seems energized by the whole project and does a masterful job of sounding just slightly Chinese; he does not overdo the erhu-like slides that are a staple of earlier, less-sophisticated Chinese-Western fusions but just alters his intonation a bit. There are three Western encores played by this same ensemble; all have their virtues, but Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20, a fusion of a different kind, is a standout. The live sound from Singapore's Esplanade Hall is excellent – clean and unmarred by extraneous noise.
–James Manheim

Performer:
Joshua Bell, violin
Singapore Chinese Orchestra
Tsung Yeh, conductor

Tracklist:
Chen Gang & He Zhanhao
Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto
01. Adagio cantabile
02. Allegro
03. Adagio assai doloroso
04. Pesante - Più mosso - Duramente
05. Lagrimoso
06. Presto resoluto
07. Adagio cantabile
Camille Saint-Saëns
08. Introduction et rondo capriccioso in A minor, Op.28
Jules Massenet
09. 'Méditation' from Thaïs
Pablo de Sarasate
10. Zigeunerweisen, Op.20

EAC LOG

Exact Audio Copy V1.6 from 23. October 2020

EAC extraction logfile from 6. September 2023, 22:34

Joshua Bell, Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Tsung Yeh / Butterfly Lovers

Used drive : ASUS SDRW-08U7M-U Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
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Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

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Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
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Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
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Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Date=%year%" -T "Genre=%genre%" %source%

TOC of the extracted CD

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1 | 0:00.00 | 5:09.21 | 0 | 23195
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3 | 7:53.22 | 2:56.53 | 35497 | 48749
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9 | 36:56.71 | 5:16.69 | 166271 | 190039
10 | 42:13.65 | 9:05.00 | 190040 | 230914

Range status and errors

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Filename C:\temp\Butterfly Lovers - Joshua Bell, Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Tsung Yeh - 2023\Butterfly Lovers.wav

Peak level 90.5 %
Extraction speed 4.5 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 516F0B4D
Copy CRC 516F0B4D
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

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Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [A00AB937] (AR v2)
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All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

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Thanks to the original releaser

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